The Chanukah issue of the COLlive Magazine, published this past month, once again included the “8 Nights, 8 Lights” feature. This time it profiled 8 maggidei shiurim dedicated to teaching Torah, Halacha and Chassidus in Crown Heights. The project was done in conjunction with the Irgun Torah organization.

Chanukah #2:

Rabbi Sholom Dovid Geisinsky

Since 1990, I have been teaching Mesivta high school. Presently, I give a shiur twice a week in 770 to the students of the kvutza and serve as their meishiv during the first niglah period in 770.

I also teach shiurim on Gemara and semicha four times a week for Rabbi Yosef Meizlish’s yeshiva in New Mexico via Zoom. Periodically, I teach in the girls seminary and have taught in Machon Chana. Additionally, I teach Chassidus to the mechina division in Oholei Torah, plus a weekly Minchas Chinuch shiur to the boys of that division. Each week, I give a Gemara shiur to baal habatim at Ohel Nosson, and a Shabbos morning shiur on Torah Ohr and Likutei Torah at Anshei Ma’aseh.

The Rebbe’s explanations have a depth that enlightens our life, and although I focus on niglah, I love teaching Chassidus and have a mission for the Rebbe’s teachings in niglah and Chassidus to be just as dear, and even more dear to talmidim as meforshim like the Sha’agas Aryeh, Ketzos Hachoshen, and R’ Akiva Eiger.

Nothing is more dear and precious to me than learning and teaching Torah. My mother would always hold a book in her free time and my father had an exceptional love for Torah and was always learning. I remember how my father would always fell asleep learning a Gemara until my mother would say, “Moishele, gey leig zich.”

When I know that I’m part of building a future generation of men and women who are the Rebbe’s Chassidim – together with all my colleagues, teachers, and principals, it’s a continuous highlight. This generation of students is very powerful. They are a strong and beautiful generation. They did not see the Rebbe physically, yet they are very knowledgeable and chassidish, and you know that the Rebbe is proud of them.

My message is that when we learn Torah it’s very important to learn inside a sefer. The term is “ein-veinig.” At Har Sinai, the Yidden saw the sounds. What did they see? One explanation is that they saw the letters of the Torah. Through seeing the letters, the Yidden were able to connect to the Torah more intrinsically.

Today, we have a choice of hundreds of lecturers for any shiur online. But we also need to read the letters that Hashem gave us at Matan Torah. If someone learns only through PowerPoints, he wasn’t given the tools to learn on his or her own.

Oysios machkimos – the holy letters make us wise. When you learn from inside a sefer, and can read the words fluently and with expression, it shows that you understand what you are learning. But when you only hear something, you use just one part of the brain. This is why we must connect to the letters.

Furthermore, the mitzva of Talmud Torah states that a father must teach his child the entire Torah. Today, the melamed teaches the child how to learn, and once the child is older, he should be self-sufficient to be able to finish learning the rest of the Torah independently. The child can only learn independently once yeshiva is over if he has learned to look inside and understand a sefer.

Chanukah was a war on spirit against the Jew- l’hashkicham torashecha. The Greeks didn’t mind if Jews learned Torah, but they wanted us to forget that it was Hashem’s Torah. When you know it’s Hashem’s Torah, and you connect to Hashem, it builds a love for the Torah and you will want to learn more. When we learn Torah, we connect with noisen haTorah – Giver of Torah – Hashem gives us the Torah in the present moment. The giving occurs all the time.