Shteig comes from the German steigen, meaning to climb or ascend. But the Yiddish meaning takes on a life of its own. To shteig is not merely to study or learn – but to grow, to rise, to be transformed by the act of study itself. What starts as a word for physical ascent becomes a term for spiritual elevation.
My day job is teaching contract law, while I am learning Bava Batra at night. Often, the substance of these two periods of study can be remarkably similar. Yet the experience of engaging with them is fundamentally different. It’s the difference between “learning” and “shteiging.”
My goal in the law school classroom is academic and pre-professional. Students should master the material with an eye towards applying it as lawyers. But something else happens in front of a daf Gemara. It is not merely about acquiring knowledge or even putting it into practice, but about way of connecting to G-d and His people through the chain of tradition from Sinai to the present. That is not something that law school does or aspires to. But that is what it means to shteig – not just to learn, but to ascend.