Monday, March 28, 2011

Daf Yomi in South Korea

I don't know what to make of this story, except to say that the world is a curious place.

11 comments:

Barry Meislin said...

This is only as it should be.

And it is about time.

Certainly, the connections between the great RaDaK (may his name be blessed) and Korea go back centuries, even if they should be better known.

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111880/jewish/Rabbi-David-Kimchi-RaDaK.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimchi

Daniel said...

Yaacov, how many reader do you have in Korea?

Yaacov said...

Daniel,

There used to be one, but he moved on. Anyway, he was an American living in South Korea, not South Korean himself.

David Boxenhorn said...

A Korean-speaking friend of mine looked into this story after I showed it to him. Evidently there is a modicum of truth in it, but not much more than that. It seems to have been a passing fad, that passed. It doesn't have deep roots in Korean culture.

Barry Meislin said...

קריאה

'Nuff said.

AKUS said...

Close to 50 million people live in South Korea, and everyone learns Gemara (Talmud) in school. "We tried to understand why the Jews are geniuses, and we came to the conclusion that it is because they study Talmud," said the Korean ambassador to Israel.
--

This "genius" is having a hard time understanding this ....!!!

Next they will all be required to read "The Finkler Question"

Barry Meislin said...

Um, "Portnoy's Complaint" I would have thought....

(Love of meat and "Korean mothers," etc.)

Anonymous said...

Silly me. And I thought our genius developed from all the infighting we do.

Nycerbarb

Barry said...

If true it certainly makes a difference from those pseudo rabbis in the States who don't seem to have learned anything

Benjamin of Tudela said...

I posted on my blog "mostly kosher" a debunking of this story based on a catholic forum post from 2005.
. EoZ has also published a debunking of this story.

http://mostlykosher.blogspot.com/2011/03/debunking-korean-talmud-story.html

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2011/03/more-on-korean-talmud-studies-not-quite.html

Barry Meislin said...

And yet, can it be denied that "Samsung" is Korean for שיר השירים (the Song of Songs aka the Song of Solomon)?