WebYeshiva News

Please click this link to read an excerpt from a message to the students at the University of Illinois that I wrote. It was read at a memorial service that was held at the campus Hillel on Shira’s shloshim.

This Sunday, the night of the 17th of Shvat (January 31st), I will be giving a shiur to commemorate the first Yahrtzeit of Shira Pransky z”l. The shiur will follow the traditional practice of learning Mishnayot from throughout shas with each mishna beginning with a letter from the name of the departed soul. I will be presenting the mishnayot that I find most interesting or appropriate from the selection of possibilities. Register for the shiur here.

Rabbi Avraham Chira, a teacher for more than 15 years in Jerusalem and in Bat Ayin, Israel, is giving a live, online class in WebYeshiva’s current Spring Semester, entitled, “The Kabbalah of the Individual & God: A Course in Divine Providence. ” Here, Rabbi Chira himself gives insight into some of the ideas to be studied in the class:

The class takes place on Thursdays at 10 pm Israel time/8 pm London time/3 pm Eastern time/12 pm Pacific time. To register now, click here.

Students and friends of Rabbi Jay Miller, z”l , former faculty member of WebYeshiva, will gather for a Memorial Evening on Tuesday, November 24 at 7:30pm at Yeshivat Eretz HaTzvi, 32 Yossi ben Yoezer St., Katamonim neighborhood, Jerusalem.

Shira Pransky Memorial Video

It is with tremendous sadness and not a small amount of regret that I mourn the passing of Rabbi Jay Miller. There are many of us from the golden age of Brovenders who will always bear his exacting brand of Torah study. He was a man unique in his talents and his flaws, but I always felt the two were inextricably tied, and as often is the case, without the other, the one would not exist either.

In the ’70’s when learning Gemara was all but closed to Ba’alei Teshuva, Rabbi Miller developed a method of learning that could achieve in a year what most day schools could not achieve in twenty, or fifty for that matter. The daily first year Mishnah class had a quality of perpetual high drama. Studying Mishnah and Gemara could only be characterized as a gladiator sport where he was always the last man standing. There would be no such thing as a slow day in Miller’s shiur.

Excited, irritated, mystically enveloped in a veil of tobacco smoke, he took Mishnas we thought we understood, and then after rendering them inscrutable, he helped us relearn them correctly. He admonished us, shrieking, “Don’t think, just do what I do!” Many of us, I’d like to believe the best of us, loved him for it.

The fierce discipline, passion and commitment belied a softer side that would emerge only when he deemed necessary. I remember when we were helping pack up his books prior to his moving from Yerushalayim to New York. At one point, he opened a can of olives to share with us. He then saturated the olives in olive oil because Chazal said that olives cause one to forget, while olive oil helps one to remember. (Horayot 13b) He explained that these are the simple ways we keep the Talmud present in our lives and actions.

I remember thinking that it doesn’t matter whether olives and olive oil contain these properties in fact, but for him it was a simple act of affection and fealty to bring what our Sages had said into the world, reminding us that remembering Torah is important and forgetting any apart of it may even be a sin. Such was his devotion, to and his compulsion for learning.

If everything we contribute emanates from the skills we are given, then Rabbi Miller singularly, selflessly and passionately was the one who taught me, and countless others, everything.

Did you know that all WebYeshiva classes are recorded, archived, and available online to registered students at any time?

If you miss a class and want to catch up, or if you’d like to review your previous lesson to reinforce the ideas you’ve learned, you can view past shiurim using the WebYeshiva archives. To access the archives, go to your shiur page, locate the date and title of the class you want to listen to, in the left hand column of the “Class Resources and Information” section, and click on the “WebEx” icon located just below the title.

In order to view the shiur, you will first need to download the Network Player. A link to download it is located directly below the title “Class Resources and Information” on your class page.

Personal Development and Jewish Thought in the Torah

This course, taught by WebYeshiva faculty member, Rabbi Ron-Ami Meyers, explores key themes in Avodat Hashem (serving God), through the prism of the Parsha - as expounded upon in the Talmud, Midrash and Medieval commentaries on the Chumash. Adapted from the sources of Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzhal, from his five volume commentary on the Chumash.

About Rabbi Meyers

Rabbi Ron-Ami Meyers had his first taste of Torah learning under Rabbi Brovender at Yeshivat Hamivtar in 1983. His Torah study continued at Yeshiva University and at Kollelim in Eretz Yisrael. After years as a high school rebbe, in 2001, Rabbi Meyers joined Darche Noam Institutions in Jerusalem. Since then, he has combined his exuberance for Jewish learning and unique sense of humor with Torah software tools to generate captivating classes in Talmud, Jewish Law and ethics.

WebYeshiva’s Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Brovender, will be traveling in North America in the coming weeks, meeting with students and educators, and demonstrating the technology of WebYeshiva’s live, fully-interactive shiurim. He will be serving as scholar-in-residence Congregation Kehilat Jeshurun in Manhattan on the first day of Shavuot, at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue on the second day of Shavuot, and at Congregation Adat Yeshurun in La Jolla, CA for Shabbat, June 5-6.

In addition, Rabbi Brovender will be giving shiurim and demonstrations of WebYeshiva in Teaneck, NJ on Tuesday evening, May 26, in Los Angeles on June 4th, and at the Westwood Kehilla in Los Angeles on June 7th (contact us for more information about West Coast events).

Rabbi Brovender’s WebYeshiva classes will be taking place according to their usual schedule while he is away, with some slight variations. Please stay tuned for more information on Rabbi Brovender’s class schedule in the coming weeks.

Update: If you are looking for the live Yahrtzeit shiur to be given by Rabbi Pransky at 9 PM Israel time on 17 Shevat/ January 31st, click here.