Student Quotes by Topic

The Thrill of Learning

Chaim Weiss: "This year we made a siyum. I’ve been learning for 20 years and I’ve never made a siyum. It’s a tremendous thing to actually make a siyum, to finish a mesechta (tractate)."

Yedidya Anflick: "They don’t spoon feed you. You have to work it out yourself."

Dr. Menachem Miller: "What don’t I enjoy?" "It feels like a Beis Medrash. It brings me back to a time when I was learning full time, applying myself in a Torah atmosphere, everyone around me speaking in the sugya (a specific topical section of Gemora) with an intensity of really wanting to learn and understand."

"This program lets me not just tread water, but really grow in my learning. My learning is so much stronger now."

"We’ve covered so much now, we can ask ‘what about that Gemora on daf eyin daled?’ We’re able to tie in the Gemora as whole piece. We’re starting to see the whole pattern of the puzzle and who all the pieces work together. I’m getting more of a macroscopic view of the Gemora. I never really appreciated it on that level. I get such Geshmak in the learning!"

Jeff Katz: "I feel good when I go there. Its a good feeling to know that I‘m working here to serve Hashem. It gives me a feeling of satisfaction. After those two hours I say, ‘Hey, I really did something tonight.’"

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Dedication and Commitment

Stuart Bernstein: "Yesodei HaTorah contributes greatly [in my commitment to learning] because it forces me to go to shiur. When you have a shiur where your rebbe (instructor) is counting on you to be there, you rush to get there. It’s a seder kavuah (a fixed time for learning). No matter where I am, (for example, if I have a family event in Philadelphia) I know that I have to leave by a certain time so I can get home in order to get to shiur (class)."

Ross Abrams: "I get a sense of satisfaction that I have this commitment, this anchor in the week. No matter what the hurley-burley is, it takes something pretty exceptional to make me miss the shiur. It helps me prioritize my values."

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Student Goals

Ari Blum: "Yesodei HaTorah is helping me get on that road to where I want to be, so that I can learn independently, so that I can learn from the source as opposed to depending on someone else."

Yedidya Anflick: "I missed my yeshiva experience. . . . YHT is enabling me to continue my yeshiva experience, to be linked in Torah and the Mesora (the tradition)."

Jeff Katz: "I had been learning with more advanced chevrusas, but they were doing most of the work. When Yesodei HaTorah came around, here was a chance to develop my own skills so that I would not have to rely on the others, and I could even help someone else."

Ross Abrams: "There was a barrier towards my progress in Yiddishkeit (Judaism) since I couldn’t really learn Gemora. I also felt that it was an inconsistency between what my kids were doing and what I was not able to do that needed some correction. I thought that as the head of this family I should be involved in this important process, otherwise I was potentially at risk for sending a mixed signal."

"I like that by attending the shiur I learn skills and knowledge and my ability to learn Gemora independently gets ever closer. . . . I looked at a page of Gemora when I started and all a I saw was squiggles. Now I can open a gemora (and first of all I don’t feel intimidated because I know what everything on the page is) and with a little help I can make a leining. I feel like a mentch now."

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"The Chevrusa Experience"

Dr. Menachem Miller: "Our chevrusa is not competitive. Its like were a team trying to understand what the Gemora is saying. That is paramount."

Stuart Bernstein: "I have a chevrusa with someone in the next shiur up, and that’s very good because he has a greater understanding of the Gemora, and he can help me through."

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Mentoring

"Its uplifting to know that there are people out there who care enough . . . to take out two nights a week to teach us. . . . I talked with Rabbi Englander [for advice] for 45 minutes last week from 9:30 at night until around 10:15. I felt he was talking to me as a friend. It’s not just, ‘here‘s the lecture and go home now.’ He really stops everything and gives you whatever you need."

Ari Blum: "I appreciate that Rabbi Topas really knows what he’s talking about. . . . He’s someone who works; he’s in the world. There’s a sense of reality, that he’s there with you."

Yedidya Anflick: "My wife worked for R. Goode for one year. R.Goode has been a baal eitza (master advisor) for us in many ways, guiding us in seeing the chashivus (importance) of Torah learning and the necessity of bringing Torah within our house. We’re very much indebted to R. Goode for that gift that he’s given to our household."

Jeff Katz: "Rabbi Barer is tuned in to the level of learning that we’re on; he’s tuned in to the issues that we might have. He respects the level we have achieved so far and does not assume that we know certain things. To push us to grow, he’ll challenge us with things that may be just slightly beyond our current level."

"I’ve gotten fairly close to Rabbi Barer. I can speak to him for etzas (advice) about other things [not just the learning]; we shmooz sometimes. It’s nice to get to know the rebbeim not only from the learning perspective; they’re also available to us for personal advice, or to bounce something off of. It’s important to have such mentors."

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Families

Stuart Bernstein: "My wife B"H (thank G-d) is very supportive, she wants me to get out and learn. Its very important that the kids see me get out and learn. When I leave now, they give me a brocha that I learn well. As they get older this will be a natural part of their lives."

Yedidya Anflick: "Being a father, being a working person, trying to be mekadesh Shem Shemayim (to sanctify the name of Heaven), you need as much fuel as you can get. Yesodei HaTorah is definitely one of my gas stations of Ruchnius (spiritual) fuel."

Dr. Menachem Miller: "[The love for Torah] rubs off on my entire family. I come home excited about learning. I do a lot of learning with my kids. I’m so excited about getting them into learning."

Jeff Katz: "YHT helps me to build confidence around my household. If my wife asks me a question, often I’ve learned something like that before, or I can look it up myself. I can look in various sources and read it myself. My learning at Yesodei HaTorah infuses the proper Jewish atmosphere in the home; the kids see me going out to learn; they see me reviewing at home. I now take my son to father-son Beis Medrash after Shabbos. I would not be able to do this were it not for Yesodei HaTorah."

Ross Abrams: "I think everyone in the family is pleased by the fact that not only do I want them to be knowledgeable people who are actively engaged in learning, but that I set that example in my own life. I think that it gets back to the issue of consistency. In our household, we work very hard to eliminate inconsistency. . . . I lead by example."

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Social Life

Stuart Bernstein: "You see someone else who’s involved with Yesodei HaTorah and you feel like ‘ah there’s a landsman’. He’s a member of the club. We have a special thing in common."

Dr. Menachem Miller: "I can see Rabbi Goode or someone in the shiur and we can talk in the Gemora! For me where I’m coming from, a Baal Tshuva (a Jew who becomes observant as an adult), to be able to do this, its very exciting!"

Stuart Bernstein: "There are plenty of opportunities for baalei tshuva (Jews who become observant) to get involved in beginner programs designed to get you off to Israel [and help Jews to learn about Torah and observance]; but what about when you come back from Israel, and you’re married and you have a few kids? You can find every excuse in the book to stay home and not go out. The beginnings of your path toward Torah life are easy. Its all new and fresh. What about when it starts becoming old and stale? How do you relight the fire and keep the fire going? Yesodei HaTorah."

Chaim Weiss: "I’ve made good friends from the chevrusa-style learning. Families got to know each other, kids play together, spend Shabbos together."

"Many people who grow up in a Yeshiva remain affiliated with that Yeshiva throughout life (as dedicated alumni learners). Yesodei HaTorah is like that for those of us who learn there. It’s a place people can connect to."

Ross Abrams: "I feel empowered as an Orthodox Jew to grow and learn, and I also feel embraced rather than isolated: If you didn’t grow up in the Yeshiva World, its as if there’s a barrier, a fence too high, too big, too wide, too thick to get over it. Yesodei HaTorah has removed that fence."

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