Monday, August 11, 2008
The New Way To Teach Torah
Yesterday, Rabbi David Aaron, Rabbi David Fohrman and I taught Torah online. Nothing new about that. To be sure there are hundreds of online shiurim and MP3 downloads available to anyone in the world with internet acsess.
What was different about this program was the interactivity. As I spoke questions and comments came pouring in in real time. It was a conversation without borders and without any geographical limitations. There were glitches, but as those glitches appeared I told myself that I have to become more comfortable with the features and controls of the software; the technical end has to be polished up a bit; and the program itself needs some improvements. (It would be much easier if the participant questions would come up in a font someone over the age of 20 can read.)
I believe we are ushering in a new era of Torah learning. We are creating an environment, not only where people can hear words of Torah and even see their teachers, but where everyone can join the conversation of Torah and make their contribution.
Thanks to my friends Rabbi Refael Butler, Ricky Magder and Afikim for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Let’s do it again!
YH
Rabbi Haber has been a leading force in Jewish Outreach for the past 25 years. A founding trustee of AJOP, the Association of Jewish Outreach Professionals, he was the founder and director of the Torah Center of Buffalo from 1980-1990 while serving as a community rabbi in Buffalo. From Buffalo he and his family traveled to Melbourne, Australia where as a project of Kollel Bais HaTalmud he founded the Australian Institute of Torah, a national outreach and adult education program. He directed that program from 1990-1995, at which time he was sought out as National Director of Jewish Education for the Orthodox Union in the United States where he created the Internationally acclaimed and highly successful "Pardes Project."
