...it changes who you are and comes to define you. This is the concept of penimius and da'as brought through a lot of Chabad and chassidic writings.

The Chabad library has the entire shulchan aruch harav digitized

I think it also depends on the type of learning. If you walk past a table, see an open book, and accidentally read a paragraph in isolation, are you required to stop all your other learning and make sure you remember that paragraph forever? I think obviously not. Sometimes the goal of learning is to remember it in depth, sometimes (bekius) it's more for exposure to the topic so you're familiar with it when you see it later. In that type of learning it might be counterproductive to try to remember every detail, since you have a plan to come back later and learn in more depth.

@Heshy I hear, and you're making a good point. But every yeshiva I've ever known (I've been in Chabad yeshivos too, a little) does not do this on any part of their learning. Learn, chazer!, learn, chazer!, chazer! - Okay, now it's time to start the new masechta, Sure you can chazer the previous masechta, you should!, but don't take too much of your time for it - we need to focus on the new masechta now.

@robev, a link please?

@MichoelR third link on Google search: chabadlibrary.org/books/adhaz/sh/index.htm

There are some places/chaburas that utilize a similar chazara regime. Possibly related: judaism.stackexchange.com/a/119981

@robev Thanks much!

@Fred Thank you, Fred. But see my comments there!

In הלכה ה he says that even worse than forgetting your learning is to stick with chazarah and avoid learning new things when you have the ability to do both. Maybe we're playing it safe.

@MichoelR there are several learning programmes that place a strong focus on chazora and the retention like Kinyan HaMasechta - kinyanhamasechta.com i.e. doing multiple sessions of chazora. Also see Time4Mishnah in which you learn four new mishnayos each day from Sunday through to Thursday, reviewing that week's 20 mishnayos on Friday, and going over previous masechtos on Shabbos.

@Dov , Fred I know these are programs that emphasize chazarah, and they are at least similar to what we have been discussing. Beautiful. I still don't see that they accept what the Shulchan Aruch Harav is pushing: a clear commitment that you are going to make sure you remember everything from the past, even if your seder going forward is drastically interrupted. - so that your pace is limited by your abilities to remember.

@shmosel that is a good point. We tread a narrow path. I think, though, that mostly we choose one side of the path.

@Dov, on mishnayos I definitely hear that what the Rebbe is suggesting is actually 100% do-able. I recently started a program where they do one mishnah a day. I have found that having learned a mishnah, I can chazer it in fifteen seconds, and a whole perek in a couple of minutes. We have done seven masechtos so far, in Taharos (!), 40-odd perakim, and I found I can - as long as I don't let myself forget what they're about - chazer all seven of them in a couple of weeks, without a true seder, basically during waiting times at davening. Mishnayos are designed for chazarah.

It's a very exciting idea to me: I could actually come to know mishnayos, at least some of them. Whereas the same program without the chazarah is, A mishnah a day, see them again in 11 years. A big difference.

There's also a spiritual upside. The Rebbe Rayatz encouraged people to memorize mishanyos and review them when they're out and about in order to purify the air and bring Moshiach.

@shmosel I hasten to note that I didn't claim I was memorizing. Beautiful, but all I have been trying to do is, know what the mishnah is saying when I read it. Simple translation, אוקימתא, any straight explanation needed to make sense of it. Some mishnayos are just readable, some need a "post-it note" attached to make them readable.

how would you define doing this in practice? Review is extremely important and of course is the ideal. Does that mean everyone reviews everything in the ideal way? Well, not everyone does but everyone should strive to.

By me, the key idea is that you are not allowed to continue to learn further until you have safeguarded everything you learned till now. It's a balance; the Alter Rebbe is saying (to me) that everything I have ever seen chooses that balance wrong.

@MichoelR Good question. In your 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence you cite chapter 5 from Hilchot Talmud Torah. There is no such chapter. It should read, “Chapter 2, Sief 8”.

@YaacovDeane You are right. I meant "chelek 5"?

Also, the answer to your concern expressed in this question is actually answered in Sief 6 of the same chapter. We are supposed to know our true state and standing (to be a בעל חשבון) and not to assume we are more than we actually are. This is in keeping with the general principle that many tried to follow the path of the Rashbi and failed (that their learning was their occupation). They learn beyond their capacity and are impoverished. G-d doesn’t place a burden upon you that you cannot handle.

@MichoelR It’s chelek 8, not 5.

@YaacovDeane Hmm, can't win.

@YaacovDeane I don't think that addresses my exact concern. The Rebbe is giving a very specific psak here, which choice to make in a particular situation. Stop now and review, don't continue to the next topic. That's a choice, and he's poskining on what is the right choice. It isn't a question of spiritual level, it's a question of what's the right thing to do. I think I see [every yeshiva in the world AFAIK] making a different choice, and I'd like to know how to explain that.

@YaacovDeane In what I could find: hebrewbooks.org/25076, it's chelek 5.

@MichoelR In my opinion, as I have learned this subject, your understanding is incorrect. See Bartinura to Avot 3:16:12 quoting Avodah Zarah 3a. A good rule of thumb is, if your understanding finds the vast majority of the Jewish world (and even more so, the observant, G-d fearing Jewish world) culpable (חייב), that is a strong clue that you have misunderstood something. And that is, in general the path of all Gedolei Yisroel. Only blessings my friend.

@MichoelR Even in your quotation in Hebrew, “ח וגם מי שיודע בעצמו שהוא שכחן גדול כו׳”, that opening letter is the letter Chet, which is gematria 8. It isn’t an abbreviation for חמש.

That's the halacha. The ה is for the whole section of Yoreh Deah. See the title page I posted.

@YaacovDeane Well, that was my question, wasn't it? What is the right understanding? I'm fine with being wrong, but I'd like to understand how.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.