You wake up on Shabbos morning and see your cholent is burning; you have your whole family coming for lunch. Your 4-year-old accidentally spills hot milk into your husband’s meat dinner. You arrive late to davening and the shaliach tzibur has just said Barechu.
What do you do?
These situations and many others arise in Jewish households all the time. Many of us have a traditional Jewish education; however, when running a home and raising a family, our yeshiva education does not always help us solve daily questions and issues.
Which is where Rav Elyada Goldvicht’s SCP (Smichat Chaver Program) comes in. Rav Elyada designed SCP to fill this void in our knowledge and train us how to apply our learning to practical questions.
The SCP program, which started four years ago at the Orthodox Union (OU) Israel Center in Yerushalayim and continues to be sponsored by the OU, has mushroomed and now takes place in over 120 locations around the world, taught in multiple languages, with over 2,500 weekly participants—from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Hong Kong and Germany to Brazil, Chile, South Africa, Belgium and Gibraltar
Goldvicht says, “There are so many stories that show how SCP has made an impact on families around the world. One participant told his rav in LA that he’s seen his kid’s grades go up 20% this semester because they see his father learning every Friday night after the Shabbos meal. Another mentioned how his child knows the intricacies of amirah l’nochri just from the comics that he brings to the Shabbos table every week.”
Goldvicht says, “Our gala siyum last October was really special. The week after our siyum in Yerushalayim in Shalva, we had one in Young Israel of Woodmere. The atmosphere was electric and the fact that wives and children came demonstrated what SCP is all about.”
Keeping the momentum of SCP over COVID has not been easy. Goldvicht says, “In an ideal, healthy world SCP is anti-Zoom, because the magic of SCP happens with a thriving chabura. During the Omicron wave the chaburas gave a Zoom option for those who couldn’t make it in person, but we hope to go back to the pre-Zoom days.”
Shlomo Lewin, who attends Rav Goldvicht’s weekly SCP shiur in Yerushalayim, reflects, “For my bar mitzvah I got two sets of Mishna Berura—which I never cracked open. Since I joined SCP they’re the most worn-out set of sefarim on my bookshelf.”
“SCP cracked the code on making halacha accessible like the Daf Yomi and enjoyable at the same time with like-minded professionals who want Judaism to be the centerpiece of their home.”
The SCP program has also been making waves in the New York tri-state area.
Rabbi Chaim Marcus from New Jersey says, “We have SCP in our shul, Congregation Israel of Springfield. During COVID we held the shiur over Zoom. That wasn’t ideal, as part of the uniqueness and power of SCP is the interactive nature of shiur between a broad section of the community and learning, which was hard to replicate online.”
Marcus believes that the true beauty of SCP is after the shiur when you see the impact it has on the home: “I email all the participants answers to the questions we discussed before the shiur, notes from the shiur, and comics based upon the Q&As.”
“I’ve had so much incredible feedback from wives and children of participants of how SCP has changed their Shabbos tables and inspired serious learning by the whole family!”
Yossi Pinsker from Hillside, New Jersey, attends Rabbi Marcus’ weekly SCP shiur. Yossi is married with four teenage children.
Yossi says, “SCP provides the opportunity to attend a serious, regular halacha shiur. What means the most to me and my wife is that SCP has made it easy to take topics we are learning and discuss them with our families. It is really unbelievable how the topics we learn in shiur come up time and time again in our daily lives.”
“The tests at the end of each zman were a new experience for me. The weeks of chazara I put at the end of each zman to prepare for the bechina is what really make SCP unique. Not only am I kovea itim when I attend a shiur and learn Torah, but I have reviewed and (hopefully) retained the material. The siyumim at the end of the zman have been a really nice bonus.”
“Besides hearing from some of the great gedolim of our generation, we have the opportunity to celebrate with hundreds of other people who have taken the time and effort to be part of SCP,” Yossi concludes.
Rick Covin, who also learns SCP with Rabbi Marcus, says: “I really enjoy SCP because of its emphasis on practical halacha for weekdays and Shabbos, which I find both fascinating and useful. Rabbi Marcus is an exceptional teacher who ensures that every shiur is engaging and completely comprehensible even to participants like me, who never had the opportunity to attend a Jewish day school. Through SCP we gain so many new insights into topics that affect our daily lives.”
Rabbi Jonah Steinmetz from Congregation Beth Abraham in Bergenfield, New Jersey, gives his SCP shiur in the social hall in the basement on Wednesday nights at 8:30 p.m.
Steinmetz says that SCP affords an opportunity for thorough, intensive learning of interesting and applicable halacha in a way that has never been so approachable for the working community member. The consistency and commitment of the participants is what makes the program and its members so uniquely inspiring.
During COVID they moved to Zoom for quite some time. That was an incredible bracha—but also something we hope never to return to. We were able to keep the consistency, but it took away part of what makes the program so amazing: the camaraderie. Over the years we have built a kinship that permeates the shiur.
“We share mutual jokes, we attend each other’s simchas, we have become connected in a true, deep way through talmud Torah. That’s the ideal form of a relationship and it’s happening weekly in SCP shiurim all over the world!”
Avi Burack attends Steinmetz’s SCP shiur.
“SCP is an amazing learning program easily accessible to anyone who wants additional learning during their week. We cover broad and in-depth relevant halacha l’maaseh, which can be directly incorporated into our daily lives and Shabbos table conversations.”
“Rav Steinmetz has a unique ability to quickly meet every attendee, learn their names (instantly) and even reach out to them directly between shiurim. He is a tremendous talmid chacham who gives a clear and concise shiur with a few jokes sprinkled in.”
I was honored to be in the first SCP shiur at the OU Israel Center. Since then, SCP is impacting communities and families all over the globe. We wish Rav Elyada Goldvicht and his rabbanic colleagues continued success making halacha accessible to Jewish families around the world.
By Benjy Singer
