Young Chabadnik’s teach-in offers taste of yeshiva life

Shimon Drexler has read the code of Jewish law backward and forward -- but it was only recently that the Palo Alto accountant had the opportunity to pore over the text with a talmudic scholar.

"When you read on your own, you learn just so much," said Drexler. "But when you read with a rabbi, he can explain the history behind it, what it really means, how it really works and what the reasons are behind it."

Drexler had his chance to deconstruct the codes at "Yeshiva Night," a program conceived and organized by Avrohom Levin, a 20-year-old rabbinical student and recent talmudic seminary graduate. Held eight Wednesday evenings this summer at Palo Alto's Chabad House, the program offered the opportunity to discuss anything under the Jewish sun with Levin or a handful of other rabbinical students.

Levin says 15 to 20 or more curious students attended each of the eight sessions.

"I [aimed] this at anyone, to come and learn more about something they're interested in, no matter what their background is," said Levin, who is the son of Rabbi Yosef Levin, director of Chabad of the Greater South Bay.

"I was talking with somebody who asked me about the idea of trusting in God, and the idea that God makes bad situations become better. Others talked about Jewish law, history, Chassidic philosophy, Talmud. Each person talked about whatever they wanted."

Levin and the other scholars -- eight Montreal yeshiva students who were counselors at Camp Gan Israel in Sunnyvale -- are barely in their 20s, if not younger. But the rabbi-to-be says their age was not a handicap in teaching students who were considerably older.

"Despite my age, there is information that I've studied and learned, that I'm offering to those who didn't. A young scientist could teach a lot to an older person who doesn't know much about science. In this case, we're dealing with Jewish subjects," said Levin. "If somebody knows alef [the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet], even though someone else may know much more, he should teach him alef."

Drexler said the sessions offered a glimpse of the yeshiva life he had never before experienced.

"It's a rare opportunity to be able to sit down with a rabbinical student and learn. For those who've never been to yeshiva, it's a small taste of what a yeshiva is like," he said. "You sit in a room with different tables and discussions at each table are focusing on a different emphasis; ideas are flowing. To be able to be in a room with all kinds of learning going on about all different subjects is very rewarding, very exciting."

Yosef Levin said feedback about the program has been outstanding, adding that an anonymous donor gave him a $500 gift to "get something really nice for the kids." Each of the students received a glossy coffee-table book about weddings performed by late Lubavatcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Avrohom Levin left the Bay Area Monday for a month's study in Toronto. Following that, he has been selected to be a Chabad shaliach (emissary) to Brunoy, near Paris. His father plans on rekindling the Yeshiva Night program on a monthly basis after the High Holy Days.

While the younger Levin will definitely follow his father's footsteps into the rabbinate, he points out that, within the world of Chabad, many doctors and lawyers are also rabbis, and he isn't yet certain that the life of a congregational rabbi is for him.

Levin is certain, however, that the opportunity to set up a program like Yeshiva Night in his hometown is a special one.

"It's great to be home; it feels great to help out my father. Growing up as a kid, I always felt that I had the ability to help out this community," he said. "It feels great doing this in my community, the community I know and grew up in."