Forty Days on One Page

Rav Yaakov Orenstein, a talmid of the Maharil, related that after the Rav settled in Eretz Yisroel, he gathered a small circle of outstanding talmidim and learned Bava Basra with them. He spent forty days on one daf. He never went back over what he had said and never altered it, and in that time they explored the sugya from beginning to end. When the forty days were over, every talmid grasped the daf as far as his ability allowed. The Rav saw that they were satisfied, feeling that at last they had earned an understanding of the page and could leave it behind.

Gently, he told them that if they believed they now understood the daf completely, they were mistaken. They were like little children in cheder who have just learned the alef beis and are certain that nothing more remains to be learned. All that they had grasped was a drop in the ocean next to the depth of the Tannaim and Amoraim. Still, a person cannot remain on one page forever, because then he would never finish the whole Torah. Rav Yaakov concluded that whatever pride had begun to creep into the talmidim's hearts vanished at that moment.