Talk about a generation gap! I’m old enough to be their zaidy, yet we learn side by side. Let me explain how, at 61, I cast my lot with 16 year olds. No, the age inversion is not a dyslexic reading of the application. Rather, at my age, I am beyond taking myself too seriously – but I do take learning Torah seriously. I had heard about a retired physician who attended a yeshiva high school in town, and decided that I, too, could swallow my pride to study with those a quarter my age. It’s like owning up to being dumb, but, as the Chinese say, “One can ask a dumb question and be embarrassed for five minutes, or not ask the question and live in ignorance for the rest of one’s life.” Or, more aptly, “Lo habayshan lomed – The one who is bashful doesn’t learn.” (Pirkei Avos 2:6)
I contacted several high schools asking if I could learn Torah and received a positive response from one, Yeshivas Toras Chaim. Its faculty was open-minded enough to realize that age is not a barrier, that an old fogy with a desire to learn Torah is a good receptacle for learning the Taryag mitzvos (613 commandments). One of my life’s biggest gambles has paid off well.
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Every Yeshiva is unique, but Yeshivas Toras Chaim is unusual in its range of activities – from burning the ner of Torah learning to boating, barbeques, ball playing, bowling, and learning through real life experiences. It has a spectrum of students, who span unusual ages, and Rebbeim who are master locksmiths of chinuch (education), opening the minds and hearts of these future balabatim (heads of a family).
The Yeshiva limudei kodesh staff currently comprises Rabbi Ayson Englander and Rabbi Chanina Szendro. Rabbi Englander is a seasoned educator who has traveled to yeshivas nationwide teaching longtime students to successfully read the Gemara “inside” for the first time, despite their years of not “getting it.” Rabbi Szendro has been a masmid (diligent Torah scholar) and gifted educator since his teenage years. Rabbi Englander can keep “rebels without a cause” spellbound with his stories that make Torah come alive. And Rabbi Szendro can inspire students who would rather be playing ball with his choice words.
What is it like rubbing shoulders with early adolescents for seven hours daily? It requires patience and a sense of humor. It is like Fire meeting Water, Youth meeting Adulthood. And, with their high energy and exuberance, the teenagers keep you young.
In truth, I can only speak first-hand about the ninth grade. We are learning two masechtas, Megilla bekiyus (generally) and Baba Kamma be’iyun (relatively deeply). In each case, Rabbi Englander works hard to explain the structure of the Gemara’s logic with all its steps. A sugya (topic) is shown to be a logical gem rather than a turbid swirl of unfamiliar terms that mysteriously result in a conclusion understood only by those with years of learning and a few who are naturally insightful.
Rabbi Englander has discovered that students are often expected to understand a sugya without first understanding what the Gemara is, historically and stylistically. He begins by putting the Gemara in historical context, telling what the Oral Torah is and who composed it. He reveals rules-of-thumb about identifying who is a Tanna and who is an Amora, what is a mishna and what is a beraisa, and why you care which is which. He answers how Rabbis in the Gemara can argue despite living hundreds of years apart, what constitutes a “proof” of validity of a halachic concept, and why the Gemara is written in an “encoded” yet conversational format, among other tidbits that are baffling to the newcomer. He then moves on quickly, giving students under-the-belt experience in reading a sugya “inside” and orally tests each student individually.
Given the agreement in teaching philosophy between Rabbi Szendro and Rabbi Englander, a similar Gemara-learning experience is given by Rabbi Szendro, who teaches the higher level Torah studies.
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Rabbi Englander’s stories are phenomenal, as are Rabbi Szendro’s. Rabbi Szendro gives drashas following morning davening and on erev Shabbos and erev Yom Tov. He has a special talent for relating the week’s parsha to the students’ lives, drawing parallels that bear directly on the choices a teenager faces. Rabbi Englander regales his audience with stories gained from life and from having learned with Rabbi Ruderman, zt”l. Rabbi Englander’s sense of humor and wide experience have made him into a veritable magid (Torah storyteller). Often, when learning becomes too intense for the students, I hear the refrain, “Please tell a story!”
A sample story is about Rabbi Ruderman giving a long lecture on a complicated sugya of the Gemara with his printed Gemara in front of him, which he apparently consulted by squinting through thick eyeglasses. At the end of class, a student said, “With all due respect, the Rebbe had the Gemara upside down all the time!” It was said of Rabbi Ruderman that he knew the Gemara so well that he could predict what word, on any page, was pierced by a needle randomly inserted through the volume, regardless of the volume.
In addition to Gemara, we are learning Chumash (the weekly parsha), the book of Yehoshua, and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Clearly, just as Moshe passed on Torah to Yehoshua, the Rebbeim are passing on what they learned at Ner Israel and “The Mir” in Jerusalem. They are in the process of making vintage wine of young grapes (or, in my case, raisin schnapps). The boys in my class are also educated in secular studies, with an emphasis on computer programming, biology, American government, math, and English.
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The mission of Yeshivas Toras Chaim is to prepare each boy to be a potential leader of a Torah-centered family/ This may be analogous to the community college in public education, which meets certain students’ needs by affording them a practical, basic education. In the yeshiva world, Toras Chaim fills that niche at the high school level. Those who are motivated can further their growth in higher level yeshivas, while any graduate has a useful start in life, with an education that qualifies him to meet the demands of a Torah-focused family and working life.
In Vezos Habracha (Devarim 3:18), the Torah cites how Zevulun and Yissachar entered a partnership wherein Zevulun would support Yissachar’s living needs, while he sat and learned Torah. Rashi says that this is why Zevulun is mentioned before Yissachar, despite Yissachar’s being the eldest. Zevulun deserved higher mention because he supported his brother’s learning. Yeshivas Toras Chaim prepares its graduates to proudly follow either path: to be like Zevulun or Yissachar.
Chinuch also consists of supervising youthful middos (character traits), composure, and the halachas of bein adam lechaveiro (treatment of your peers). The Rebbeim scrutinize menschlichkeit, dress, and etiquette. There are contests for scholarship and davening. Students are grouped in fours and are judged and rewarded by their group’s performance; this teaches responsibility for each other.
Peer pressure is factor throughout life, but especially in high school. The choice between emulating your Rebbe or a brazen friend can cause confusion. As Rav Mordechai Schuchatowitz, a member of the Yeshiva’s Vaad Hachinuch, said, men separate themselves from animals in the ability to rise above themselves and choose good behavior. High schoolers are mariners learning to steer their boat, either toward open water or toward a pal’s chutzpadik channel.
Traditionally, Rabbis would dip Hebrew letters in honey for those learning to read. At Toras Chaim, rewards for diligent davening, good grades, above average attendance, and best behavior consist of trips to Dougie’s, Goldberg’s Bagels, or Accents for a fun meal; a jaunt to Royal Farms for “slurpies”; and an occasional day off from Yeshiva.
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Yeshivas Toras Chaim is tended to by several of Baltimore’s Torah lights, including Jay Taffel, a business analyst at Towson University, who as a teenager worked to pay tuition to put himself through Atlanta’s Yeshiva High School and yeshivos in California and Eretz Yisrael, and who is the long-time gabbai and magid shiur at Tiferes Yisroel congregation; Jonathan Libber, a lawyer and Torah activist, who is also the tireless leader of citizen’s interests in the energy and environmental fields. The Vaad Hachinuch comprises Rabbi Shaya Taub, Bridder Rebbe and Rabbi of Arugas HaBosem of Bridda, and Rav Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Dayan and Rav of Agudah Greenspring. The budding yeshiva high school is located within the Yesodei HaTorah facility, due to the generosity of Rabbi Tzvi Goode.
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So, what is it like to be back in high school? It is grueling – but ever so worth it! In my youth, I studied “great ideas” in secular college. My graduate education in engineering then revealed that any problem, even one that may seem mundane, can become profound if studied deeply. When compared to the sublime unity of Torah ideas, however, what I studied was short-sighted. Yeshivas Toras Chaim puts the “fun” back into profundity while still maintaining rigor and respect.
Rashi, in parshas Chayei Sarah (Bereshit 25:17), writes that the information about Yishmael’s lifespan being 137 years enables us to know the “years of Yaakov’s life.” By doing the calculations, we learn there are 14 unexplained years between the time he left his parent’s home and his arrival at Lavan’s home. Chazal say that Yaakov spent these years at the Yeshiva of Shem and Evair. Rabbi Shmuel Shapiro noted that if only these 14 years were what was concluded from knowing Yishmael’s lifespan, why did Rashi use phrase “years of Yaakov’s life”? He proposes that Rashi is saying that the true years of a person’s life are those spent studying Torah and performing mitzvos.
I am thankful for this opportunity to attend Yeshivas Toras Chaim.
Note from the Toras Chaim Donor Lunch committee:“Reb Chaim,” along with Rabbi Sander Goldberg, is being honored at the Yeshiva’s Donor Lunch on May 11 at the Royal Restaurant. Please look for the ad in this issue!
