Jerusalem—“Ignorance of the law excuses no man: Not that all men know the law, but because ‘tis an excuse every man will plead, and no man can tell how to refute him.” This quote, from English jurist (law expert) John Selden, rings true for secular law and also for religious law. Since the beginning of our religion, the Jewish people have been a people of the book. We follow rules that have been established for generations, yet few of us know all of the intricate details of Halakha (law). Enter WebYeshiva.org’s Halakha Mastery Program, an innovative program that helps anyone with motivation and a few free hours each week, to master a variety of modern issues over the course of the three-year program. JLBC sat down with Rabbi Chaim Brovender, a pioneer in the field contemporary methods of teaching Judaic Studies and a founder of WebYeshiva.org, to learn more.

Rabbi Brovender, born in Brooklyn, came to Israel in 1965 and, he says, will never leave. A few years after making aliyah, Rabbi Brovender founded Yeshivat Hamivtar, one of the first Israeli yeshivot where American students could spend their gap year. A decade later, he also founded what is now called Midreshet Lindenbaum (formerly known as Brovender’s) as a program for women to study Talmud, a first of its kind in Israel. After heading both of these programs for decades, Rabbi Brovender moved on to start another school, WebYeshiva, the first online interactive yeshiva.

In addition to shiurim by Rabbi Brovender, WebYeshiva hosts lectures from renowned Jewish personalities, including famous musician Rabbi Shlomo Katz, and director of the Jerusalem Business Ethics Center, Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir among others. From the start, WebYeshiva has aimed to make learning Torah available to any Jew with a neshama and an Internet connection. Rabbi Brovender noted: “We’ve seen amazing progress in this project. Using the Internet as a tool for sharing Torah helps us get past time and space constraints to include everyone.”

WebYeshiva’s latest offering, the Halakha Mastery Program, aims to take this mission to the next level by providing students with the opportunity to master most contemporary Halakhic issues over the three-year course. “Ever since our beginning, one of the primary concerns of the Jewish people has been how we act. While many dabble in theology, most Jews are more concerned with how to live, and this is the essence of Modern Jewish culture. Therefore, it’s important for us to keep up with Halakha, to know what questions to ask and how to answer them, to know what’s going on. Our program hopes to help students become capable of answering these questions. It takes a lot of effort to stay on top of contemporary issues, but the program is designed to help those who have a background in Halakha to deepen their understanding and focus on contemporary issues.”

Rabbi Brovender is Rosh Yeshiva (Dean) of the program, and he, along with Rabbi Dovid Fink, a an educator, scholar, medical expert and student of Rabbi Brovender, and Rabbi Yehoshua Geller, a former teacher at Yeshivat Hamivtar and Machon Lev-Jerusalem College of Technology’s English Speakers’ Program, will be giving classes and providing guidance to students on the program.

In the few weeks since the program was announced, there has been a solid response, with registrations already received from “hundreds of students from all around the world, including Hawaii, Europe, Alaska, United States, and Israel, to name a few places,” added Rabbi Brovender.

In addition to the three-year program, which is open to men and women, Rabbi Brovender has said that he will also be offering the option of a fourth year Smicha (Rabbinic Ordination) track. This supplementary year, available to male students at the teachers’ discretion, gives many of the students the opportunity to take their newly-expanded knowledge of Contemporary Halakha to the people via the pulpit.

“Every field in academics has its experts; we’re here to help make Halakha experts. Halakha experts need to know about the issues and how to respond to pertinent contemporary questions that could arise in our modern-day lives,” concluded Rabbi Brovender.

For more information and to register for WebYeshiva.org’s Halakha Mastery & Smicha Program, visit http://mastery.webyeshiva.org/.

By Tzvi Silver