For over 50 years Rabbi Brovender has taught thousands of students from all around the world. This week we introduce you to Jeffrey Graber, a retired technology specialist and resident of Kemp Mill, Maryland where he notes, “there are several alumni of Rabbi Brovender’s many schools.”
How did you meet Rabbi Brovender?
I met Rabbi Brovender at the start of the second year of his original audacious undertaking when the students were not day school graduates on their gap year. We were a bunch of men who had not been exposed to traditional learning but sensed there was something valuable there. Rabbi Brovender along with Rabbi Jay Miller, gave us the golden opportunity to explore Torah learning and discover that there was something there and give us a new life!
What do you find most important or striking about the “Brovender Method” -his unique way of teaching?
In those early years, the method was to show us that learning Torah was something that “modern” urban people could appreciate and find enriching. Learning Torah was not archaic, not simplistic, but complex, intellectually challenging material fit for the sophisticated student.
When it comes to Torah learning, what were you most drawn to after learning with Rabbi Brovender?
Respect, Derech Eretz, Ahavat Yisrael, and Simchah.
What lesson or specific Torah that you learned from Rabbi Brovender, do you keep coming back to or carry with you wherever you go?
This may sound strange but … One night over 50 years ago (I don’t remember what night) Rabbi Brovender gave a drashah on a Psalm (I don’t remember which one). It was brilliant, powerful, moving, inspiring, transcendent….just the most amazingly beautiful drashah. I don’t remember the message but I have never forgotten the feeling. And perhaps, this is what Judaism really is all about.
I’d like to add, I have had a rewarding career in the “computer field”. I had the good fortune to be an early pioneer of the World Wide Web which made the Internet popular.
When we visited our daughter in Israel during her “gap year” in the late 1990s, we took some time and visit Rabbi Brovender.
How amazed I was when Rabbi Brovender started quizzing me about all this new technology, how it worked and how it could be applied. Surprised as I was at his interest, I did my best to explain. A few years later, to my great delight, there was Rabbi Brovender announcing WebYeshiva! Truly a testament to his genius and foresight.
——————
To share your personal story about learning with Rabbi Brovender please contact us