A recollection of Rav Mendel Zacks, the son-in-law of the Chofetz Chaim:
I was then a semicha student and the procedure was that two or three students would spend an hour or so talking with him in learning. There was a difficult Rashi, with a famous Brisker analysis. Rav Mendel started to discuss the Sugya with me and I was ready with the Torah. I started to raise the difficulty in the Rashi – and he said “nein lez der rashi – read the rashi”- I quickly read and again he said “lez der Rashi” before I could impress him with the Torah. When the same give and take occurred a third time I realized I was in trouble and I reread the Rashi very slowly putting a comma in a different place. He smiled and said “Nu Vas sagt Rav Velvel” – and I sheepishly replied “yetz darf men nicht Rav Velvel.” He was a Melamed par excellence, he knew all the yeshivishe Torah but first and foremost he was a “pashtan.” He was meticulous with the text.
LESSON: Read and understand the text first.
Then you can start analyzing....
