Ner Israel Rabbinical College

He was in the town of Wayu.

So because of that, this young man ended up going, he made it to Ner Yisroel in the end.

But he had a whole different trajectory.

He ended up going to Ner Yisroel, I forget where he went to, he went to the Mir and went to Lakewood, that's Smicha from Shner.

So he said his whole, his whole, whoever he is, he couldn't become a tablocha either way.

But his father, he wanted to go to Wayu.

His father was very upset when he brought him to Ner Yisroel.

His father said, I have to give my kids a certain bandwidth to be able to make their own decisions.

And, um, I hope to be marbitz Torah from whoever I've learned from, and, uh, yeah.

I, just before you get to the details, Zach, I, I note that in your book you're described as somebody who learns in Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, and not that you learn there, but you currently learn there.

Could you explain that to us a bit?

Oh, sure.

Uh, Baruch Hashem.

So I, um, I took a year off after, uh, my PhD and studied in, um, studied in Ner Yisroel.

And when I came back, it was the beginning of COVID, and so, uh, you know, I did go back a few months early.

So I thought, is there anywhere I might be able to, maybe able to learn? And it turns out Ner Yisroel was actually possible to, to learn at, which was a, a big zechus to be able to, to learn remotely there in, in one of the rabbonim's shiur.

Now the Gemara discusses what we call the famous Agaditas, the, the Vilna Gaon, I believe, has a bir on this, as Rabbonim Feldman SHLYT, the Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisroel, has a whole book based on this, the Juggler and the King.

It's called the Agadita of the Saba Debei Atuna.

So this is basically a vikuach between Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Chanania and the Caesar.

Let's say we're moving along to the Eglah Arufah.

So all the Ner Israel people who learn Sita, some of they know about the Eglah Arufah.

All those that were with us from Masechtah Sita, they for sure know it.

So you might have a chance from back in your old days.

Thousands, thousands of students.

It's like, it's not Ner Yisroel.

So, so-

And the list goes on

Every yeshiva has English, even the Satmar [laughs] have, uh, secular studies.

Uh, so, uh, the equivalent would be today having like a, a college program like, uh, Ner Yisroel, and I've made the claim many times that Ner Yisroel is much more a continuation of the traditional Lithuanian approach, uh, than a place like Lakewood, uh, because, uh, at least how, how Lithuania had become by let's say, uh, 1930.

He mentions about Rav Gifters learned in Ritz for, uh, more than six months, but he left at a young age, and he thinks also that he was only in the high school division.

So thank you for all of that Nachum Shmarjahu.

And I said already, it's not just Rav Soloveitchik's view to take a non-mechitza, uh, shul to try to get it, uh, have a mechitza.

I mentioned, uh, someone was, uh, skeptical, but here it is.

Uh, Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, hardly a, a liberal, comes from Ner Yisroel.

In his book, Tales Out of Shul, he, um, he writes on page 27 and 28 and on about, uh, when he was in shul, uh, when he took this shul, it did not have a mechitza, but it had separate seating.