Reply To: For PF to Vicariously Rant Endlessly About the Over-Emphasis of Iyun through PAA

R’ Yaakov also said “It was impossible to catch any of the 300 rabbanim in Lithuania on any Gemara passage in Shas: one was more lamdan and one less, but not knowing a gemara…!”

R’ Shurin told R’ Yaakov that his Rebbi said that only the prodigies in Slabodka could maintain such a pace, and that if one had to make a choice between broad knowledge and lomduth, the latter took primacy. R’ Yaakov responded “? ???? ???? ? ???? ???? how can one say a ???? without knowing gemara?!”

R’ Mordechai Shain quoted from R’ Yaakov “We learned and we reviewed. We sought to know what the gemara was saying, not to find problems”

(Also from R’ Nathan Kamenetzky)