The ninth-grade shiur of Rabbi Netanel Danto spent the morning in Monsey on Wednesday with Rabbi Dovid Newman, the innovative founder of the popular V’haarev Na learning program. For several years talmidim in Rabbi Danto’s shiur have been privileged to participate in the wildly successful program which has produced incredible results for hundreds if not thousands of high school aged students. The program encourages meticulous attention to the details of the Gemara relying on precise notation made on the page itself, allowing for intensive independent chazara.

Several times throughout the year Rabbi Danto’s shiur will engage in, what is known as, a retzifus seder, a marathon session of chazara of a significant portion of the Gemara. While these sedarim are generally conducted at MTA, once a year Rabbi Danto and his talmidim make the trip to Monsey to engage in an over two hour long seder of chazara and then have the opportunity to hear words of chizzuk and encouragement from Rabbi Newman.

Rabbi Newman shared that Rabbi Danto’s shiur is the only ninth-grade shiur that participates in the V’haarev Na program which is generally for 12th-graders. He then extended an invitation to the annual V’haarev Na Simchas HaTorah, an incredible siyum and celebration held at The Atrium Ballroom in Monsey, which brings together all of the talmidim who participate in the program from around the country.

Rabbi Newman always has some amazing gifts which are raffled off to the excited talmidim. Shua Kopstick (‘26) left the morning with a custom V’haarev Na basketball and, more importantly, he left with an amazing sense of accomplishment earned through commitment to serious growth in Torah learning.