Rabbi Daniel Fridman is a well-recognized lecturer and teacher in only his first year working at Torah Academy of Bergen County. Rabbi Fridman, in addition to his role as head coordinator of the work study program, teaches Chumash and Gemara on many levels.

He is known for his well-attended weekly lecture series on the Megillah of Ruth. The series is delivered to women in the local community in preparation for the holiday of Shavuot.

In addition to his duties at TABC, Rabbi Fridman teaches classes twice a week at Lamdeinu in Teaneck, a learning program for adults. Rabbi Fridman says, “Adult learning is in a golden age …. People are coming from all over [the community] to learn Torah.”

Rabbi Fridman learned in Yeshivat Gush Etzion in Israel, where he learned under Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein z”l. He received his BA from Columbia College as well as rabbinical ordination from Yeshiva University.

Rabbi Fridman credits his parents, both physicians, for instilling within him a great work ethic and for teaching him that “a profession [is] not merely a way of making a living, but a way of making a contribution to society, and to the Jewish people.”

He also credits the works of the Rav, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, for shaping his worldwide view, as well as Rav Lichtenstein and Rabbi Yosef Adler (current Rosh HaYeshiva of TABC)—students of the Rav—for mentoring him philosophically and spiritually.

As a teacher, Rabbi Fridman holds the principle of respect paramount. Rabbi Fridman explained, “Rabbi Elazar teaches that one has to equate one’s students honor with one’s own.”

Rabbi Fridman prefers to teach the traditional “Brisk” style of learning, a popular method of local yeshivot. He says that [the style] not only focuses on one’s analytical capacity, but one’s creative capacity.

Most importantly, however, he finds parallel between the systems of cognitive processes to that of morals and values. In his mind the Torah is not only a book of laws, but a way of life; we must associate morals and values within the Torah to our personal lives.

Describing his main goal as a teacher, he said, “I would like for teachers and students alike, to finish every period (of class) with a broader, deeper level of Torah knowledge, and more refined personality, from when the period began.”

Rabbi Fridman emits a true love and passion for the Torah and for his students.

Dovid Mirsky is a Jewish Link work study intern at TABC, where he is a 2017 graduate.

By Dovid Mirsky