An Inside Look at Unfathomable Gadlus // Rav Zelig Leib Braverman

True to one of the famous maxims of Chazal (Bava Metzia 85a) that “the Torah returns to its lodging”—which is why we see Torah scholarship ingrained in certain families—there are few families that are so rich with Torah scholarship as that of the great Torah master Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Still, Rav Zelig Leib Braverman, who is married to Rav Chaim’s second to youngest child, is a standout even in that extraordinary family. Having annotated many tractates of Talmud Yerushalmi based on his father-in-law’s comments, Rav Braverman founded a yeshivah for bachurim who previously attended yeshivos with a secular studies curriculum. Although Rav Braverman does not self-identify as a kiruv professional or someone who engages in outreach, for all intents and purposes that is clearly one of his life missions. What follows is a conversation I was privileged to have with him that also offers a rare glimpse into the Kanievsky household. Listen in.

I’ve heard very nice things about you.

About me? I thought we were going to be talking about my shver.

But I also wanted to talk about your yeshivah, which I understand is rather atypical.

Ah. Baruch Hashem, we are doing great things. The Ribbono Shel Olam was mezakeh us. We’re starting our third year. The yeshivah is in Lod. That’s where I was able to find a good place. It’s not far from Bnei Brak, where I live, but it’s also good that it’s outside Bnei Brak, where there are fewer distractions.

But that means that it’s close to the city of Lod.

Yes, but there’s nothing to do there. We believe that Torah is what puts people on the right path, and one doesn’t need anything more than that. That’s why we don’t have a mashgiach. We convey to the bachurim the concept that Torah is the greatest thing, and that through Torah they can connect to the Ribbono Shel Olam. The oilam sits and learns and doesn’t look for other things to do. Right now, we have 80 bachurim who are sitting and learning, even throughout this pandemic. We renovated a building to serve as a dormitory and also added a dining room.

This is a yeshivah that isn’t geared for average chareidi bachurim.

It’s a yeshivah for bachurim who learned in yeshivot tichoniyot. In America there have always been such yeshivos, but in Eretz Yisrael they almost didn’t exist until recently. Lately, though, the velt has become more modern, and the modern people send their children to yeshivot tichoniyot, where they learn secular studies. When they graduate they come to us, and we show them that all of the secular studies they learned was a waste of four years dealing with narishkeiten. I point this out whenever we learn a topic that has a connection to limmudei chol. For example, when we learned Maseches Sukkah, I showed them that they could have learned mathematical computations straight from there. These are bachurim who need to be infused with a lot of Torah.

Do the bachurim come to you because you’re into some type of kiruv kerovim?

No. Some of them come out of the recognition that they have to sit and learn, but most of them come because that’s the usual seder: after you graduate from a yeshivah tichonit you go to a regular yeshivah. They don’t come because they want to become big geonim, which is why the task at hand is that much greater: to instill in them a real desire for Torah that lasts a lifetime. Baruch Hashem, we are seeing peiros. The bachurim are truly horeving in learning. Even during COVID the bachurim came to the beis midrash, and the shteiging was so great that I don’t remember it being like that for the past two years. When you truly believe that Torah is what protects people and you can relate that properly, then it does indeed help.

The post An Inside Look at Unfathomable Gadlus // Rav Zelig Leib Braverman appeared first on Ami Magazine.