How do we improve Torah learning in Jewish day schools and make it more personal for the students? This is a question that Torah educators have been asking for a very long time, and one that the Lifnai Vlifnim program is attempting to answer.
Founded by Rav Dov Singer and his son Rav Yishai Singer at the Makor Chaim Institute in Gush Etzion in Israel, the Lifnai Vlifinim Educators Training Program aims to introduce a new way of teaching Torah that emphasizes the student’s personal connections, both to the Torah and in other aspects of their lives. Last week, Rav Yishai, together with the program’s North American Director Rabbi Yehuda Chanales, hosted a seminar at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck to train Judaic studies teachers from around the country in this approach.
The Lifnai Vlifnim Educators Training Program is funded by UnitEd, an Israeli initiative managed by Herzog Academic College designed to strengthen Jewish education worldwide, and the Mayberg Foundation’s Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, which works to radically improve Judaic studies in day schools. Mayberg Foundation representative Rachel Abrahams said that the foundation feels that it is important to make learning more personal to students, and is “pleased to have been involved in bringing the program to scale.”
The training sessions were led by both Rav Yishai and Rabbi Chanales and were largely focused on giving teachers an opportunity to experience the parts of the program that they will ultimately guide their students through. “Training is about learning tools by experiencing them,” said Rabbi Chanales, adding that the personal level the program aims to reach makes experiencing it the only way to properly understand how powerful it can be.
In schools, this program is mostly implemented through a weekly Lev Hashavua class period in which a different student shares a struggle they are going through at each session. This piece of the program is called parnasut (support), and when the presenting student is finished speaking, their classmates have the opportunity to respond, not with advice, but rather with support and understanding.
During the parnasut sessions in the seminar, one teacher shared a personal struggle and afterward, Rav Yishai led the group through a series of tools the teachers could use in their own classrooms. Each tool is designed to prompt supportive and understanding responses from listeners without allowing them to offer any advice. By working with these tools during the training, teachers not only learned how to use them with their students, but also saw firsthand how powerful they can be.
The goal of Lev Hashavua, and Lifnai Vlifnim as a whole, is to help students connect to one another on a deeper level, as well as to create a Torah learning environment where students feel comfortable speaking on a deeper level. Each group of students is led through this program by one of their Judaic studies teachers, allowing for deeper student-teacher relationships, which greatly enhances the Torah learning that takes place in other classes as well.
During this past school year, eight North American Jewish day schools and high schools piloted the Lev Hashavua program, including Ma’ayanot, where Rabbi Chanales teaches Gemara; SAR; and Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, among others. Next year, five more plan to implement the program, including Naaleh High School for Girls. The seminar also included pairing teachers who were new to the program with a teacher who had run the program with their students in past years. Rabbi Chanales then encouraged those who are new to the program to ask any questions about the program to gain a better understanding of what it actually looks like in the schools and with the students.
“There’s something incredible about having a space in a Torah environment that’s not about taking notes or preparing for tests,” Rabbi Chanales said, reflecting on his experience as a Lev Hashavua teacher with his 12th-grade Gemara students. Other Lev Hashavua teachers commented on how amazing it was to see their students connect with one another through the program, and another explained how incredible it was to watch the Torah learning in the class transform into something truly powerful.
Shira Adler is a Jewish Link summer intern and a rising junior at Stern College. She lives in Teaneck.
