We are living through unprecedented times. While most of us imagined that by the time summer vacation 2020 was finally here, corona would be a thing of the past and life would be back to normal, the truth is unfortunately not that way at all. At this point in time, corona does not seem to be going anywhere, seemingly intent on becoming part of our lives. And yet, life does go on and bachurim need to learn Torah no matter what—even during bein hazmanim and even during a period when nothing is normal. Many bachurim were feeling as if they had lost their bearings—as if they hadn’t really learned in what felt like forever—and were wondering whether they would ever be able to recover everything they lost during this complicated time in our lives. Yet unbeknownst to them, a group of people had not forgotten about them—on the contrary—and were about to launch a program that would help everyone get back on track and ready for the upcoming Elul zman.
The Dirshu team, under the leadership of Rav Dovid Hofstedter, came up with a special challenge for the bachurim of klal Yisrael. It couldn’t be a regular program because it wasn’t a regular time of year. The program needed a host of specific ingredients to make it work, and the team invested an incredible amount of time and energy working out every single part of the program so it would appeal to the young and vibrant demographic they were aiming at.
With the backing of numerous gedolei Yisrael, Dirshu spread the word that they were establishing the “B’zechus HaTorah” program. Booklets filled with material they were learning would be distributed all over Eretz Yisrael and at numerous additional locations throughout the globe, and of course tests would be administered for accountability. Keeping the fact that it was bein hazmanim in mind, Dirshu chose especially enjoyable material for the boys to learn: Perek Keitzad Mevarchim, and the fifth and sixth perakim of Pirkei Avos. And so it began.
Nobody knew how the bachurim were going to react. Like I said, these aren’t normal times, and quite a few bachurim have experienced a few particularly challenging months. Many of them felt as if they were drowning in the sea of technology surrounding them—unable to climb out of the pit to regain their former levels of hasmada and ruchniyus. More than that, a lot of people who might have normally been expected to take part in such a program weren’t even home—having been put in isolation in the special corona hotels that had been set up by the Israeli government. Being a “guest” at one of those hotels meant that they were effectively out of commission and hard to reach. These were real challenges and they had to be dealt with under time constraints and deadlines. So the B’zechus HaTorah program was instituted and the swift response that came their way showed conclusively and beyond a shadow of a doubt that thousands and thousands of bachurim had been waiting for just this kind of thing to help them. It was as if Dirshu had pulled up to a huge group of boys hiking in the middle of the desert and offered them cases and cases of freezing cold water to drink.
With many thousands of yeshiva bachurim taking part in the B’zechus HaTorah program, the results have been phenomenal by any measure. Requests came pouring in from many different areas requesting booklets, and while in most cases it was easy to fulfill the request—for example, when it came to all the boys participating in yeshiva Bein Hazmanim programs—the question was what to do for the families stranded in the corona hotels.
And then, in a beautiful display of cooperation, Dirshu was able to contact the army representatives in charge of running security for the hotels, and after explaining that they needed to come to the hotels to bring booklets for the boys staying there, the army graciously agreed to meet the Dirshu representatives and to bring the booklets from them to every bachur who wanted to take part. This meant that the soldiers were given a first-hand look at how the bachurim were spending their time—even on “vacation” and even in isolation—while the families were able to express their hakaras hatov to the soldiers for going out of their way for them and helping them learn Torah—under adverse circumstances. It was a tremendous Kiddush Hashem any way you looked at it.
Of course I wanted to hear a firsthand report about how the whole thing worked, and for that I turned to the very distinguished Rav Rafael Meir, a close confidante of the gedolei Yisrael, who actually joined his bachurim as they took part in the program. “How was the learning?” “The truth is,” he replied, “the program changed everything for my boys this bein hazmanim.” “How so?” “It sort of wrapped the entire vacation in a blanket of learning and helped the boys remember that a person needs to set aside times to learn even during bein hazmanim. But it wasn’t just that. I found myself getting excited about the type of material that Dirshu chose to focus on—it wasn’t material they would normally learn—and it was really geshmak and, yes, even lomdish, and I went to take the test with them.” “How did that go for you?” “Well, I actually asked about it and was told that the tests were multiple choice, so I thought, ‘How difficult can they be,’ but then I took the test and they were nice and challenging—which meant that any bochur who got a good mark must have really put in the time.”
On the 29th of Av, between the hours of 10:30 and 1:00, thousands of young men gathered together to take the tests for which they had invested so much effort, learning diligently even when they didn’t want to, and even when they were by themselves and away from their friends. They took the tests around the globe, in Monsey, Boro Park, Lakewood, Europe and in Argentina and Venezuela in South America. In addition, tests were given at over a hundred locations around Eretz Yisrael. From Ofakim in the south, to Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak in the center of the country and all the way to Tzfat in the north, an incredible amount of bnei Torah gathered for the crowning moment: the moment when they would be able to prove to themselves that they were unstoppable and able to beat any challenge.
Ashrecha, ashrecha, talmidei chachamim!!!
