VOL. XIV, Issue 66926 Tammuz 5771

JULY 28, 2011Parashas Massei

Exploring New Frontiers in Teaching Torah

Torah Live

2 Hamodia Magazine July 28, 2011

Rabbi Dan Roth in theJudean Desert filmingTorah Live’s, “Sukkos:

The Ultimate Shelter.”Feature begins

on page 8.

18

21

Torah

Halachah

Chinuch

Inner Dimensions

A World That Was

Torah and Technology

Yerushalayim Through the Generations

Medical Drama: Flight to Sight

The Hidden Twins — A True Story

To Call YOU Father: When Taking Can Be

Serialized Story: Changing Faces

Serialized Novel: Windows to Devotion

Humor

The Creative Kitchen

You Were Saying

Science Corner

Your World

From Inside a Hat

Tall Tales

You Go First!

Eye Spy

The Hunt for the Yashfeh

Our Gedolim

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contents

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Hamodia for You

12

WHAT DO THE NAMES HAR SHAFER, Miskah and Rimon Paretz havein common? Though they resonate as vaguely familiar, most people willprobably be unable to identify them. Their commonality lies in the factthat they are among the forty-two locations, or stations, listed in thetravels of Klal Yisrael in the midbar, as recorded in Parashas Masei.

When we recite the names of these places in our nation’s desertodyssey, we do so with a special upbeat melody. I have often wonderedwhy. I have also wondered why the names of these places hold any impor-tance for us at all.

Now, I believe, I may have figured it out. As I write these lines, I excit-edly anticipate my third trip to Poland and to Prague during the week andShabbos of Parashas Masei. In fact, when readers see this piece, I will,b’ezras Hashem, actually be there. In contemplating my “pilgrimage” tokivrei tzaddikim and to the grim reminders of the satanic bid to decimateYahadus Europa during World War II, I think I may have stumbled uponthe answer which lies in a critical statement of the Sfas Emes (Be-haalosecha, 5644).

Regarding Kivros Hataavah and all of Bnei Yisrael’s journeys in the mid-bar, the Sfas Emes writes, “And certainly the places through which BneiYisrael passed in the wilderness were very perilous places … and if thatgeneration had not rectified them, the flaw would have lasted for genera-tions.” Each station, each place they visited, represented a specific spiri-tual challenge to the Jewish people. More importantly, it also signifiedtheir ability to overcome the challenge, to elevate the environment inwhich they had been placed, and to leave a glorious legacy of devotion tothe Creator. Hence our preoccupation with the places and hence theuplifting music with which we chant their names. These are veritable tes-taments to the glory of Jewish spiritual accomplishment.

The saga of our forebears in the midbar may have lasted only forty cal-endar years, but that period is to be viewed as a time concentrate, a micro-cosm of the millennia-long journey of their descendants throughout theworld. “Vayis’u … vayachanu, they traveled and they camped,” again andagain. From Bavel to Yemen; from North Africa to Spain; from France toGermany; from Poland to Lithuania; from Russia to America and EretzYisrael. Each stop along the trek and it may have been a long stop, onethousand years, for instance, in the case of Poland was fraught withdanger but also rich with achievement, teeming with horrific trials butalso with magnificent accomplishment.

Therefore, I look to Iraq, but in my mind’s eye I see the great academiesof Sura and Pumbedisa. I look to Paris and I can see Rashi studying withhis rebbi, Rabbeinu Yechiel. I look to the umschlagplatz in Warsaw and I seethousands upon thousands of chassidim en route to Ger, Aleksander, andRadomsk for Yom Tov. I look at a New Jersey expressway and I see Lake-wood, where Torah is alive and pulsating. We look at each of the myriadstations where our people have paused for respite and we behold theadditional tiles that they set into the mosaic of Jewish history at each sta-tion.

We may find it difficult to feel our hearts swell with pride when we readabout Har Shafer, Miskah and Rimon Paretz. So when we visit these andother places each year in krias haTorah, we drum up a bit of emotion. Wedramatize the masa’os in order to connect to them.

In a somewhat similar fashion, we might visit such “stations” as Vilnaand Mezhibuzh, Lizhensk and Kovno, Vienna and Karistier; and thoughwe shed tears when we ponder what was taken from us, our hearts cansurely swell with pride when we focus on the gadlus, the enormous stature,of our people, the limud haTorah that continued unabated, our steadfastadherence to Hashem and His mitzvos, our unbroken chain of mesirus ne-fesh from the victims of Beitar through the Crusades and all the way tothe concentration camps.

May Hashem grant that the odyssey be brought to its conclusionspeedily in our days v’nizkeh v’nichyeh!�

This week’s guest columnist, Rabbi Shmuel Y. Klein, is the director of publications and com-munications for Torah Umesorah.

Please continue to recite Tehillim for a refuah sheleimah for Chaim Aharon ben Leah.

Strangers in a Foreign Land

OUR TURN16

25

B Y R A B B I S H M U E L YA A KOV K L E I NGuest Appearance

THE AVERAGE American teenager is plugged into some form of media or another for as manyas ten hours a day. On top of that, many kids

and teens today aren’t interested in learning somethingunless they see an immediate benefit to their lives even if the teacher presents it in a lively fashion.Today’s teachers therefore have the double challenge ofpresenting material in an exciting and engaging man-ner and showing its personal relevance to students.

Unfortunately, this problem affects Torah educatorsas well. In a world of fast-moving visual images, howdo we get students to stop and take note of their her-itage, to help them become passionate about Torah? Isit possible to harness technology to make Torah mean-ingful and relevant to the masses without compromis-ing its depth or beauty?

“Thirty Is for Strength”Rabbi Dan Roth, founder and director of Torah Live,

a dynamic multimedia Torah organization, realizedthat many people today need to be taught Torah intheir language. He learned how to speak to this gener-ation the hard way.

Rabbi Roth’s very first day of teaching did not go atall as planned. Originally from London, he had beenlearning in kollel for many years in some of Israel’sfinest yeshivos, including Mir Yerushalayim and thekollel of Rabbi Tzvi Kushelevsky, one of the greatYerushalmi Roshei Yeshivah, when he started thinkingabout getting involved in teaching.

He decided to learn a night seder in Pirkei Avos to pre-pare material for lectures. He loved it so much that hebegan devoting more and more time to it, and soon re-alized that he had the makings of a sefer on his hands.To write a book, however, would require more than afew hours a day. The idea of leaving full-time Gemaralearning to study Pirkei Avos in depth didn’t seem right.He sought Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky’s advice.

“Age twenty is for pursuing; age thirty is forstrength,” explained Rabbi Orlofsky, quoting fromPirkei Avos (5:25). “Martial-arts experts are able to breakslabs of wood and concrete with their bare hands be-cause they know how to focus all their energy into onepoint. Your twenties are meant for exploring variouslife goals and options to learn what you like and whatyou’re good at. By the time you reach thirty, however,you are expected to know enough about your strengthsand character to be able to strip away everything elseand focus all your energies and abilities into yourunique talent. That’s what strength means.”

Rabbi Roth had just turned thirty. Inspired by Rabbi Orlofsky’s words, he spent the next

three years of his life writing a book about everyday les-sons gleaned from the teachings of Pirkei Avos. In theprocess of writing the book, he realized he had a talentfor making Torah concepts relevant and down-to-earth.The book was aptly entitled Relevance — Pirkei Avos forthe Twenty-First Century (Feldheim). After he finished thebook, he got his first teaching job in a program for at-risk teens at Ohr Somayach in Yerushalayim.

He was hoping his students would relate to PirkeiAvos, but he was in for a shock. The class was a totalnightmare. The students completely ignored him; somewere texting each other, others even walked out of theroom.

“It was enough to make anyone say goodbye to a ca-reer in teaching,” he recalls. Instead of quitting, how-ever, he decided to try to get to the root of the problem.

The SolutionWhen he thought about it, he realized that the issue

wasn’t the kids or the material it was the entire gen-eration.

“Today people are used to absorbing information ina whole new way,” he explained. “Modern media haschanged the way many people learn. For them, wehave to translate the eternal truths of our Torah intotoday’s language. I had to get with the program.”

He decided to pick a topic he knew the students

would be excited about … and making money seemedlike a good place to start.

He set to work researching the mitzvah of maaser, set-ting aside a tenth of one’s income for charity theTorah’s recipe for financial success and thoughtabout dynamic ways to present it. Rabbi Roth had

8 Hamodia Magazine July 28, 2011

F E AT U R E

Bringing the Torah to Life

Rabbi Dan Roth teacheshis morning halachahclass at Aderes HaTorah.

Presenting Torah Live'smezuzah DVD.

been very interested in computers ever since his par-ents had bought him the first home computer to comeon the market back in the early 1980s. After highschool he was even accepted into a computer scienceprogram but chose to go to yeshivah instead.

After that, his computer skills had lain dormant

while he focused on learning. Now he finally had anoutlet for them. After teaching himself a few new pro-grams, he got to work putting his maaser material to-gether in a technologically savvy package.

The result was a dynamic multimedia Torah pres-entation called “How to Make the Big Bucks.” It was a

smashing success. Students who had previously beenunable to sit through a class were suddenly on the edgeof their seats. Because they were hearing their own“language,” their curiosity was piqued, and they wereinspired to learn more about the Torah outlook on life.

That’s how Torah Live was born.

Torah and TechnologyWith its team of talented graphic designers and pro-

grammers, Torah Live has since produced close to adozen interactive, state-of-the-art multimedia presen-tations on a variety of Torah topics, from the intricaciesof halachah to the beauty of hashkafah. Everything iscreated under the close supervision of Rabbi YitzchakBerkovits, a posek in Yerushalayim and Rosh Kollel ofthe Jerusalem Kollel, a distinguished English-speakingkollel devoted to kiruv training.

The programs created by Torah Live are on such di-verse topics as how to achieve happiness, conqueringanger, the laws of mezuzah, yichud, and Sukkos. Usingcutting-edge special effects, humor and passion, TorahLive engages audiences of all ages and religious back-grounds. As opposed to using stand-alone video con-tent, Torah Live is unique in that it provides educatorswith multimedia tools that can enhance their lectures.

As Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald, the founder of the Na-tional Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) and the Asso-ciation of Jewish Outreach Programs (AJOP), oncepointed out, “No one decided to become more religiousthrough technology alone. Success comes from com-bining technology with personal contact.” By giving aspeaker the advantage of technology, Torah Live in-tertwines the power and clarity of video with live in-teraction.

To date, Rabbi Roth has presented over one hundredsuch lectures in fifty cities around the world to peopleand organizations across the spectrum of Orthodoxy

schools, yeshivos, corporate workplaces, youthgroups and kiruv organizations in an interactive, en-tertaining and lively way that captures listeners’ at-tention and drives the lessons home. The project hasgained steam in the Jewish world, with diverse organ-izations from a Modern Orthodox school in Sydney,Australia, to Yeshivas Mir in Yerushalayim signingup for presentations. Rabbi Roth has spoken at twoTorah Umesorah conventions, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman’sshul in Flatbush, Dayan Ehrentreu’s conference in Mu-nich, and even Her Majesty’s Treasury in Westminster,London.

Torah Live presentations appeal to such a wide va-riety of audiences because once the main template hasbeen created, each presentation can be fine-tuned tomeet the unique needs of a particular audience,whether it consists of secular adults, at-risk teens, sem-inary and yeshivah students, or working men.

“The versatility of Torah Live is evidence of theTorah’s eternal message,” Rabbi Roth said. “We onlyneed to find the right way to present it to each distinctaudience, in the right language.”

Talking the TalkAlthough the proper use of technology and setting

limits to it is a sensitive subject in the frum world today,the issue is less about the technology itself and moreabout how it’s being used.

“The purpose of all of creation is in order for Klal Yis-rael to learn Hashem’s Torah,” Torah Live’s president,Rabbi Yitzchak Berkovits, said. “Hashem created tech-nology and gave us the talent to use it for the sake ofgetting Klal Yisrael motivated to learn and understand.”

In a similar vein, commenting on the latestmezuzah presentation, Rabbi Yisroel Reisman said,

9Hamodia Magazine 26 Tammuz 5771

BY GAVRIEL HORAN

In many ways the challenges facing educators inthis generation are greater than ever before. In

the past, teachers had to deal with disciplineand class participation. Today the battle

being waged to keep students’ attention isunparalleled. In many circles, teachers have

to compete with the nonstop action andexcitement of iPods, cell phones and

computers — in and out of the classroom.

A shidduchno one ever imagined

Torahand Technology

Rabbi Roth presents a Torah Live lecture at Yeshivah Shaarei Torah in Brooklyn.

continued on page 10

“The Ribbono shel Olam has given our generation theknowledge and ability to create vivid images and pro-ductions which stimulate the mind and impress uponthe memory. It is important that this be used for purepurposes, to further Torah knowledge and mitzvah ob-servance.”

Originally for English-speaking audiences, TorahLive’s material has also been translated into Hebrew.Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Yudkovski, Torah Live’s Hebrewrepresentative, recently delivered a lecture in Rishon Let-zion to a mixed crowd of Mizrachi, chareidi, and secularIsraelis. Participants commented that Torah Live hadsucceeded in bridging the secular-religious divide. Oneof the nonreligious women said afterward that she onlywished it had contained more Torah sources!

Renowned mechanech Rabbi Noach Orlowek said inthe name of his rebbi, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, zt”l,that the Torah was given in seventy languages “becauseeach student should be taught in the language that heunderstands best. Today, for many people, one of theforemost languages is the ability to show Torah in a waythat is alive before the students’ eyes. Torah Live can becalled ‘yayin yashan b’kankan chadash,’ old wine in a newvessel. The medium may be new, but it is full of the old,full of Torah, showing people the beauty and simplicityof even the most complex halachos.”

In the words of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, zt”l,the goal is to show that “authentic Judaism … does notbelong to an antiquated past but to a living, pulsatingpresent.”

A Meaningful Experience“One of the special qualities of a multimedia shiur is

that it addresses all different types of learners,” TorahLive’s creative director, Josh Goldberg, said. “There arepeople who learn by seeing, people who learn by hear-ing, and people who learn by interacting. … We don’twant to entertain through Torah, we want people tochange their lives.”

A recent study showed that 64 percent of people willwatch until the end of a thirty-minute infomercial (anextended visual advertisement), while only 20 percentwill read until the end of an article. “People are nolonger looking for meaning. They are looking for mean-ingful experiences,” senior Gateways lecturer RabbiYonason Shippel said.

Rabbi Shippel, Torah Live’s New York representative,has been licensed to present Torah Live material atGateways seminars, which engage Jews in dynamic in-troductions to Judaism, for both frum and secular au-diences. “People are blown away by thesepresentations, and it has had a profound impact onthem,” he said.

Rabbi Dovid Tugendhaft, a rebbi at London’s Has-monean High School and a SEED kiruv lecturer, haspresented Torah Live lectures to hundreds of people.“People are always surprised by the level of profes-sionalism,” he said. “Unfortunately, the reality is thatJewish organizations are often run on very tight budg-ets and don’t have the ability to produce material

Rabbi Roth gives the mezuzah presentation at Mir Yerushalayim.

“Many people don’t realize that the

Torah has an opinion on all

the issues that the world is

struggling with today.”

TORAH AND TECHNOLOGYcontinued from page 9

10 Hamodia Magazine July 28, 2011

11Hamodia Magazine 26 Tammuz 5771

using cutting-edge technology. This, however, is so-phisticated, fun, fast-moving and highly professional.Torah Live is a revolutionary way of teaching Torah it’s a big kiddush Hashem.”

Cashing InAfter attending the lecture on maaser, many partic-

ipants reported tithing their money for the very firsttime. Shortly after watching the presentation, one busi-nessman was about to close a big deal, and he prom-ised Hashem that if the deal went through he wouldgive $200,000 to tzedakah.

“I realized the incredible power of multimedia tospeak to people,” Rabbi Roth said. “Here was a regularguy, not a philanthropist by any means, ready to givephilanthropic sums for the first time in his life aftersimply watching an hourlong presentation. Whowould ever think that people would be so happy aboutgiving away money?

“What started as a teaching disaster with a groupof teenage boys ended up beginning a new era in edu-cation. It’s a revolutionary way to get people excitedabout Torah.”

Seeing the impact the presentations were having,Torah Live has now begun licensing its materials toschools and kiruv organizations around the world, giv-ing them the training and tools to run the presenta-tions themselves. So far Torah Live programs havebeen purchased by organizations in the United States,England, South Africa and Israel. Materials are nowalso available on DVD for home or group viewing.

“The slippery slope of people leaving the fold bethey teenagers or adults begins when mitzvos arepracticed by rote,” Rabbi Roth said. “We’re trying toget people excited about Torah, showing them thatthere’s nothing as deep or as sweet as our heritage.This is my life’s calling. It drives me day and night. Ifeel a responsibility to help as many Yidden as possibleget clarity about Hashem’s Torah. My biggest dream isto increase kevod Shamayim in the world.”

In his pocket Rabbi Roth carries a quote from RavEliyahu Dessler, zt”l, that helps him stay focused andinspired: “My own work has taught me that nothing isimpossible with siyatta diShmaya. And when one actswith mesirus nefesh to advance the learning of Torah,Hashem helps in a miraculous fashion.” In the currentworld situation, writes Rabbi Dessler, spreading Torahis not just the most important task, it is the only one.

“Hashem gave each of us natural talents and abili-ties that we have to use in avodas Hashem,” Rabbi Rothcontinued. “A few years ago when I was in kollel, fi-nancial and family pressure for me to get a job was

mounting, but I couldn’t figure out what I was going todo with my life. I literally couldn’t sleep at night, won-dering what my next step would be. I never had anyidea that I would end up doing anything like what I’mdoing today. Hashem guided my every step.”

There are many new topics on Torah Live’s horizonfor the coming year; overcoming jealousy, the laws ofkashrus, and brachos are just a few of them.

“We can do any topic there’s no limit to how farwe can go,” Rabbi Roth said. “To many people, Torah

is perceived as outdated and out of touch with theirlives. They don’t realize that the Torah has an opinionon all the issues that the world is struggling with today

not only an opinion but a deeper perspective, onethat’s higher, subtler, and more profound. The Torahis as relevant today as ever. Let’s take the entire Torahand translate it into today’s language so everyone canhave access to our rich heritage.”

Rabbi Roth can be reached through the Hamodia of-fice.�

Multimedia presentation on brachos

A mezuzah presentation at the Raanana Community Kollel.Rabbi Yisroel Reisman (L) with Rabbi Roth.