Semicha Program at YTD in Tzfas to Offer Upgraded Experience

A model semicha program designed to bring students more practical training, well-rounded study and in-depth halacha will be launched in Elul at Yeshiva Temimei Darech in Tsfat under the direction of international posek, Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein.

A model semicha program designed to bring students more practical training, well-rounded study and in-depth halacha will be launched in Elul at Yeshiva Temimei Darech in Tsfat under the direction of international posek, Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein, founder of a well-known home study semicha program and author of popular semicha aid seforim.

The program is to be built on the foundation of an existing semicha program that has successfully taught the fundamentals of rabbinic ordination to waves of bochurim at the largely baalei teshuva yeshiva since its establishment in 2009.

Goldstein will oversee the program and direct it with the aid of the current program director, Rabbi Shmuel Kopel. Against the backdrop of the yeshiva’s trademark warm and immersive atmosphere, he will add practical new features to the curriculum, including “shimush” (apprenticeship style) and “psak” (halachic ruling) training amid twice-weekly shiuirim focused on real-world halachic application and analyzation of contemporary case studies.

Overall, more halacha topics will be covered than in a typical semicha program and at greater depth through comprehensive source-based study and liberal use of Goldstein’s own array of some 80 halacha titles in English, including his semicha aids. Full use of his website, www.shulchanaruchharav.com a monolith among halachic databases and premiere full-spectrum Jewish learning resource, is also expected.

“The fact that people can come and learn in person with an international posek and author of semicha books and workbooks that have become the standard among thousands in the field will make this a very special offering,” said Rabbi Shalom Pasternak, founder and Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva. “We think it will truly be one of the best semicha programs out there.”

Among Goldstein’s qualifying distinctions is Rosh Kollel of the Merkos Suite 302’s Kollel Aliba D’Hilchasa, a virtual kollel and beis midrash dedicated to training shluchim and rabbanim in advanced halacha. A resident of Tsfat with his wife and 12 children, he already holds an adjunct staff position at the yeshiva and teaches at a variety of other Tsfat learning institutions, including Tsfat’s venerated Tzemach Tzedek Beit Knesset.

Another key component of the yeshiva’s new semicha program will be the importation of 6-10 handpicked bochurim who will be shluchim to the semicha program, learning toward semicha themselves and anchoring the program “as a group of built-in temimim, bringing fire to the yeshiva and the city at large,” Pasternak said.

He characterized the overall goal of the new program as being aligned with the Rebbe’s call for Tsfat upon sending the original shliach to the city in 1973, Rabbi Aryeh Leib Kaplan, A”H, and waves of bochurim and shluchim after him at first to sit and learn.

“The Rebbe said the shlichus to Tsfat was unique as compared to all other places,” he said. “He didn’t have them going out only to do peulahs (Jewish enrichment activities). “He wanted them, through learning, in the Rebbe’s exact words: ’To return the crown to its former glory.’”

The reference is to the city’s historic 16th century status as a premier hub of intensive Torah study, Kabbalah and spiritual vitality that declined in the following centuries.

“By dispatching dedicated bochurim and newly married couples to Tsfat,” he said, “the Rebbe’s goal was to infuse the city’s historic synagogues and study halls with vibrant round-the-clock Torah learning, precisely what has been going on in this city since 1973 and that we plan to further and enhance with our program to make the Torah great and glorious.”

The program is slated to begin on the 3rd of Elul in the yeshiva’s well-adorned campus, a former 5-star boutique hotel, in the heart of Tsfat.

For more information about the program and to apply, go to: ytdyeshiva.org/smicha.

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