Learning for My Son OBM

By Mendy Hecht – Hamodia

The Browds in 3B, downstairs from us, were good neighbors, a great young couple, and thrilled first-time parents. Baby Menachem Mendle was one month old when, at about 6:15 a.m., someone noticed something about him as he lay in the crib.

A Hatzolah team was almost instantly on the scene. They did what they could. It was too late. SIDS. The Browds had just celebrated Menachem Mendle’s pidyon haben — and now this.

During shivah, family friend Rabbi Peretz Rivkin asked Levi what he’d do. Levi had an idea to create an organization to encourage Torah learning. “What do you think?” he asked.

Rabbi Rivkin responded by quoting the Shach al HaTorah on Parashas Ki Sisa: A firstborn son symbolizes Torah study.

A charity box had been sitting humbly on a table in that shivah house, silently soliciting funds to create shiurim l’iluy nishmas Menachem Mendle ben Levi Yitzchok. It was only natural, then. From Menachem Mendle’s death came Yagdil Torah’s birth.

The Crown-Heights-based shiur-organizing, Torah-promoting organization that is Yagdil Torah actually began six months before the tragedy that drove a young father to create a legacy for his lost son.

Every Tuesday night in apartments throughout 1441 S. John’s Place, Levi had been organizing shiurim on Gemara and Shulchan Aruch for the chevrah. Besides getting working yungeleit together for limud Torah, Levi’s shiurim functioned as camaraderie-building rallies.

The shiurim continued apace from the winter of 2006 through the summer of 2007, with Levi posting reminder notices on 1441’s glass lobby doors. Then tragedy struck. The shiurim continued after shivah. But now, virtually the entire building showed up to learn — and to send Levi a silent message of support. This continued into Elul and up to May of 2008, when the Browds moved to a new apartment after being blessed with Schneur Zalman Aharon, their second son. (They since have had little Shmuel, too.)

Levi thought of replicating the success of 1441 S. John’s—finding yungeleit in Crown Heights apartment buildings willing to give shiurim to their neighbors. Immediately after Yom Kippur, a small poster appeared in the local kollel offering to pay yungeleit to give shiurim in their apartment buildings.

Soon after that Levi ran into Zalman Baras at 770 and mentioned his idea. Browd asked for Baras’s help. A young scholar himself, Baras was happy to oblige. “Yagdil Torah” thus came into existence on the Thursday after Sukkos 5767 with its very first official program, a blatt shiur on Gemara Makkos with Rabbi Zalman Baras, offered to the chevrah residing at 770 Empire Boulevard.“W e called it ‘Yagdil Torah’ because that’s exactly what it is,” explains Levi.

By Kislev of that year, eight Yagdil Torah shiurim were under way in buildings across Crown Heights. The second, led by Levi himself, was held in 1441 S. John’s.

Two and a half years into its existence, Yagdil Torah has become one of Crown Heights’ most active communal organizations. Levi Browd commands an army of shiur instructors, publishes kovtzim and other scholarly journals, organizes communal lectures on timely subjects such as Birkas HaChamah, and arranges a weekly Beis Medrash program.

A typical Yagdil Torah shiur is the one given by Rabbi Michoel Lerner, a Crown Heights kollel yungerman. While Rabbi Lerner has known Levi Browd for a number of years, he only got involved with Yagdil Torah a year ago. Serving working baalei batim who live nearby and daven at 672 Lefferts, his shiur draws 10 regulars ranging in age from newly married to men in their 50s.

“I like being mechazek limud haTorah,” says Lerner of his shiur leadership.“… Someone who learns every day — his whole day is different.”
According to Rabbi Lerner, among the quality shiurim offered will soon be a monthslong series on subjects such as muktzah, ribbis or basar v’chalav, allowing participants to master less-accessed topics.

Levi explains that Yagdil Torah’s newest thrust is its chavrusa-pairing program, which allow balei batim to find likeminded partners to study Torah subjects of mutual interest. Yagdil Torah is now also distributing pamphlets via local volunteers in ten North American cities.

“Fundraising was difficult… and still is,” admits Levi. “It can be quite disheartening. But I sort of got used to it.”

He also says, “Some shiurim stopped because they weren’t properly planned for long-term feasibility.W e learned how to start things that will succeed and continue and make people want more.”

The Beis Medrash Program

Launched 12 Teves 5769, the night beis medrash program convenes regularly to afford working baalei batim the opportunity to engage in quality Torah learning in the evenings.

By day this is Crown Heights’ central kollel but, come 8:30 every Monday night, it becomes Yagdil Torah’s turf. Among the many tables of baalei batim learning, Levi rowd stands at a table at which sit four men, each old enough to be his father.One of them, Mr. Meir Horowitz, gesticulates animatedly as he points into a sefer he holds upright. Browd, who has been smiling throughout, says, “I think pshat is…” and then launches into a spirited explanation of the difficulty at hand.

Yagdil Torah Today
Levi Browd now spends his days running Yagdil Torah full time.T he organization’s cluttered little office contains two desks and overflowing shelves, and is staffed by two part-time secretaries and Levi himself. Since Shavuos of 5768, Yagdil Torah has been emphasizing publications and programs, and offering the sporadic phoneshiur.

The organization’s annual expenses are approximately $80,000 (printing, salaries, distribution expenses, etc.), most of which is donated piecemeal in small donations “from many different people.” Last year, roughly 600 such individuals contributed to Yagdil Torah out of a greater base of 800 supporters since its inception.

Community support for Yagdil Torah’s activities has been “overwhelming,” reports Levi, “from virtually all community leaders and all community rabbanim. People are always wishing me that we grow more and more.”

But with every new idea in the frum community, however positive, there also comes resistance. “People always tell us which subject to arrange shiurim on,” quips Levi: “‘Gemara!’ ‘Halachah!’ ‘Chassidus!’ I hear everyone out.”

Some questioned the policy of paying shiur-givers. “The rabbanim have supported davka paying and it has been demonstrated that those who were paid went on and on, and it went responsibly. It’ s one of the reasons I feel we were successful … We pay most of our maggidei shiurim, though some insist on not getting paid.”

As part of Yagdil Torah’s rise to the inter-community stage, Levi decided to join forces last year with Boro Park’s Irgun Shiurei Torah for their annual “Shovavim Weeks” shiur series. “I felt people would be excited about it if it were part of a worldwide effort,” he explains.

Levi doesn’t feel he’s created anything entirely new, but rather that he has harnessed and channeled a pre-existing power that was just waiting to be tapped into.

Levi cites Yagdil Torah’s extensive and meticulously accurate index of all Crown Heights Torah shiurim, Yagdil Torah and otherwise.
But Levi and Batsheva have even greater dreams—to establish a brand-new, highly accessible (“That means, ‘Open virtually at all times and convenient,’ ” Levi says) beis medrash. The beis medrash is “in the process of fruition,” says Levi.

Levi reiterates that Yagdil Torah is defined by two things: “One, we are an organization like no other, and two, the history.”

In a quiet, windswept field, a stone noticeably smaller than its neighbors stands at eternal attention. Little Menachem Mendle had his mother’s eyes and his father’s smile.He still has his parents’ undying love.“I do think about him,” Levi says.“It’ s definitely very comforting that we’re doing something for our son.”

Thanks to a father’s drive, the Torah that Menachem Mendle Browd would have learned over a lifetime still nourishes his soul.

COLlive related Articles:

+ Tznius of Concern to Men
+ Mixing Sushi With Learning
+ Packed House Reviews Laws
+ Anash Kollel Starts in CH
+ Yagdil Torah Launches Kollel
+ Bogomilsky, Kaplan Talk Halacha
+ Got Kollel?