1000 Amudim of Gemara?

YOSS 6^th Grade reaches Herculean goal!

Can a class of twenty-four sixth-graders review over 1,000 amudim of gemara over six  Shabbosim?

Rabbi Gershon Greenberg, sixth-grade rebbe at YOSS wasn’t sure. In fact, he didn’t think that the boys could do it.

But the challenge was born at a Shabbos kiddush, where he met a rebbi from a Sephardic yeshiva. Rabbi Greenberg asked him to share something interesting that he does with his class. The rebbe described the “Torascha B’phinu” program, which incentives young boys to review what they learned many times. He listened and decided to adopt a similar program for his class at YOSS.

They started by learning a “retzufos seder” – non-stop learning. As a class, the boys reached 20 minutes of non-stop chazarah! Rabbi Greenberg was so impressed that he called the menahel, Rabbi Davidowitz, in the middle of the learning, to see what was happening. Rabbi Davidowitz too, was truly impressed!

Now that the boys proved that they could review their gemarah – and enjoy every (non-stop) minute, they moved on to step two – the Shabbos chazarah program. Over Shabbos, every talmid committed to dedicating at least twenty minutes to reviewing several amudim of gemarah. After the first Shabbos, the class reviewed “only” “101” amudim. Rabbi Greenberg was worried. Would they be able to hit 1000? It didn’t look good.

However, the talmidim came through, and after six Shabbasos the class reviewed a cumulative whopping 1,091 amudim of gemarah! What an accomplishment! The singing and dancing in back yeshiva when they reached beyond their goal was extremely special!

To recognize and give chizuk for their incredible accomplishments, our Rabbi Greenberg took his class to Brooklyn to visit Harav Binyomin Cohen shlit”a, Rav of Khal Talmidei Hayeshivos in Flatbush, and Rosh Kollel in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin. The visit was inspirational and invigorating. He shared with the boys how the true path to Torah growth is only through hard work, and of course – chazarah! He told them that the deeper one delves into Torah, the closer he becomes to Hashem.

He also showed the boys how the number system in the Torah begins with the letter “Aleph” (which equals 1) and ends with “Eleph” (1,000) which is really the letter “Aleph”. This teaches us that when you reach a goal, you must start again!

Chazarah, Chazarah, and more Chazarah!

The entire YOSS hanhallah, along with their rebbe, Rabbi Greenberg, are looking forward to reaching even higher goals in the near future!