The Jewish Education Experience Podcast
The Jewish Education Experience Podcast by Yasminah with the goal to uncover gems of wisdom with Jewish educators from around the world. The podcast features interviews with Jewish educators outlining their stories, tips of the trade, advice, support, and insights. We hope this podcast will assist educators at every stage of their journey - those who are just beginning and those who have dedicated their lives to this vital profession that is Jewish Education.
The Jewish Education Experience Podcast
116: Developing Independent Thinkers with Rabbi Yehuda Winder
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Rabbi Yehuda Winder, previously a Rebbi at the Bais Medrash Chofetz Chaim in Israel, returned to America and found himself presented with an opportunity at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe: a position as a first-grade Rebbi. He learned that the curriculum being used was one in which students memorized phrases and repeated what their Rebbe said. He believed that there must be a different way, one that focused on fostering skills and comprehension regarding the origins of words, and this is how Lshon Hatorah was born. Rabbi Winder’s method invovled students learning the “shoresh” or root of a word separately and then understand how prefixes and suffixes could modify its meaning. Each of the words came directly from the Torah which provided students with a solid foundation of language skills. Gradually, students progressed with learning Hebrew more easily through each grade level. Rabbi Winder’s method has become standard in many Jewish schools. The primary objective of the Lshon Hatorah series is to empower students with the proficiency needed to translate Hebrew text with precision and ease.
Gems:
Give students the ability to learn by themselves.
Develop independent learners.
Help students figure out what the words in Hebrew mean.
The basic skills children learn will carry them throughout their lives.
Encourage students to figure things out by giving them the tools they’ll need and as a result, they’ll want to learn more.
Teach as much as you can through song.
Wellnesse Natural Personal Care Products
Wellnesse was founded by a mom who wanted healthier options for families. Check out my unique link!
Tikvah
Tikvah focuses on Classical Jewish Education.
Parenting On Purpose
This course will help you better understand your child and build a deeper connection.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Sponsor Message And Welcome
SPEAKER_00Welcome to the Jewish Education Experience Podcast with your host, Yasmina, who will be uncovering gems of wisdom with Jewish educators from around the world.
SPEAKER_02This episode is brought to you by Tikpa. There's a growing movement reimagining Jewish education, one grounded in a simple but powerful idea that real thinking starts with real breathing. A movement that believes teachers should be teachers, not therapists. And that every Jewish student deserves to understand how Judaism has shaped the human story. Tikva, a leading organization in this space, has partnered with the University of Dallas to offer a master's degree that reflects that vision. An MA in humanities with a concentration in Jewish classical education. This isn't just a program for classroom teachers. It's designed for educators, yes, but also for parents, school leaders, and anyone who wants to engage deeply with Western civilization and culture through a Jewish lens. If you're looking to strengthen both your teaching and your own learning, this is a program worth exploring. Applications for the upcoming year are now open. To learn more, visit Jewish ClassicalEducation.org. Again, Jewish Classicaleducation.org. And thanks to TikF for supporting our show. To our audience, thank you so much. We really appreciate your support. And we appreciate you sharing our podcast with others also. Please also consider supporting our podcast by joining our Patreon community, www.patreon.com forward slash Jewish Education Experience Podcast. And to all of you Jewish educators and students of Jewish education around the world, Rizhu Vimzu. May you be strengthened and encouraged in your holy endeavors. You could probably hear my baby humming as I was recording this introduction here. So I apologize in advance for the humming underneath the recording. In this episode, I interview Rabbi Yehuda Winder, previously a Rebbe at the base Midrash Chafitz Khalim in Israel. He returned to America and found himself presented with an opportunity at Yeshiva Tefaris Moshe, a position as a first grade Rebbe. He learned that the curriculum being used was one in which students memorized phrases and repeated what their Rebbe said. He believed that there must be a different way, one that focused on fostering skills and comprehension regarding the origins of words. And this is how the Shunha Torah was born. Rabbi Winder's method involved students learning the Shumresh, or root of a word separately, and then understanding how the prefixes and suffixes could modify its meaning. Each of the words came directly from the Torah, which provided students with a solid foundation of language skills. Gradually, students progressed with learning Hebrew more easily through each grade level. Rabbi Winder's method has become standard in many Jewish schools, and the primary objective of the Shonha Torah series is to empower students with the proficiency needed to translate Hebrew text with precision and ease. It was a joy speaking with Rabbi Winder and learning a little bit more about how his curriculum came to be. And I discovered his curriculum through interviewing Rabbi Riete previously, and Rabbi Riyede's curriculum is Breakthrough Schinoch, and on his website, he has a link to purchasing Rabbi Winder's series of his workbooks. First and foremost, he believes that it's important for us as parents, educators, to give students the ability to learn by themselves. That our goal is to develop independent learners. When we help students figure out what the Hebrew words mean, it really opens up a whole new world for them. The basic skills children learn will be skills that will carry them through throughout their whole lives. And he recognized this when he interacted with some students that he had had previously who learned under his method. And they told him how later it really helped them with their more advanced years in school. And lastly, when we encourage students to figure things out by giving them the tools that they'll need, as a result, they'll want to continue to learn more and they'll be so inspired. So I encourage you to take a look at the Lashonhatora series. You can go to the website, lashonhatorah.org, and it's l-sh o N H A T O R A H dot org. Lashonhatora.org. And I will include a link also in the show notes for you to take a look. So I really hope that you enjoy listening to this episode.
Why Independent Learning Matters
SPEAKER_02Our guest today is Rabbi Yehuda Winder. Hello, Rabbi Winder. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here today.
SPEAKER_00My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02My pleasure. To say I discovered you because I interviewed Rabbi Jonathan Rieti and he spoke very highly of your work with Lashona Kodesh and that you have workbooks to help students grasp a deeper knowledge of the Hebrew language. And I was wondering if you want to talk about that a little bit more in the work that you do currently.
SPEAKER_00Currently, I do some consulting with various schools. That's after many years of having developed this method of teaching. Starting out, I going back many years ago, I really fell into the kind of work that I'm doing all by the uh hand of Hashem, I would say, because uh it was something that I was not prepared for. Uh to just uh briefly uh talk about my history. So I had been in an yeshiva and kolel for like 13 years approximately after finishing high school. And after that I spent a few years uh teaching in basemadris. I found that comparing to that to what I uh ultimately did, I found that what I was doing was actually uh more rewarding for me uh than teaching based medish. And what happened was that uh I was teaching based medish in Eritusroel, and uh then we, for various reasons, we had to come back to America, and we decided that we would stay here for a year, and uh so I took my son to be registered in the local day school, and while I was there, surprisingly, the principal said to me, uh, how would you like to teach first grade? So I said, I know anything about it to tell you the truth. I never taught children, and I don't know anything about teaching first grade. Um uh basically so to briefly summarize this, I asked him, so uh what after another meeting, so what would I teach them? So the principal said, I'm not too sure myself, go ask somebody. So uh I uh I went around and asked a few people who I knew that they were machantim, and they gave me some ideas, but basically it seemed uh by his having said that to me, that he gave me pretty much a free hand to do whatever I thought I could do, and which is pretty much what I did. So the an important point to say is that the training that I had in Yeshiva all the years was that if you're teaching someone, you should give him the ability to be able to learn himself, to be able to gain the knowledge and the skills that will allow him to become an independent learner. And I, even though I was doing that, as I said, on a basemanish level, but I wanted to see how I could somehow incorporate that into my first grade class. And uh so doing something which was, I guess, not that common at the time, which was that the ordinarily
Replacing Rote Chumash With Meaning
SPEAKER_00when the students were learning khumish or chumash, as you might call it, the the way it was that the teacher would uh say the pasuk and then say the English, and the children would repeat it and say it over a number of times, and after repeating things for a long time, they would eventually catch on to the meanings of a lot of things. I decided that I wanted to be able to teach it in such a way that the children are going to be able to understand and figure out why the words mean what they meant. And that was something that was actually new to me. I I never really thought about it too much. Why the words mean what what they actually do.
SPEAKER_02Did you learn that way yourself?
SPEAKER_00No. So um um, but but I did have a pretty good day school education, so I knew something about Dig Duk, um, but a lot of gaps. I had a lot of gaps, things that I didn't know. So I started to search and to um do research to find out the information that will help me to understand why the words mean what they what they do. And over the course of the first year, so what I did was I, as I was teaching the Khumash, so I would take each word and try to analyze it and know what rules there were that made the word mean what they do. So let's take, for example, uh uh somewhat of a complex word. Let's say the word vaiyavarachehu. So the show should be bashhaf, bar barek, bless, and then you have the avav in front and the yud in front of the word. Uh, and then you have at the end, hey and ooh. So I had to uh find out what these different components do to make it. I knew the meaning because I just knew it by wrote, I guess. The Vayavarchaya meant and he and he blessed him. And um, but I want to know what what why did it mean him, why did it mean he blessed him instead of he will bless him, and which part means he, and what other possibilities that could be in place of the yud that will mean he. And so over the course of the year I started to point out to the children these various components as I was learning them. But by the end of the year, I had basically compiled a whole system of all of the various prefixes and suffixes that uh make up the components of the word besides the shorish. And I could show you like a um a screen, my wife showed me how to do this. Uh I would love that. Uh that shows the various prefixes and suffixes as I formulated them.
SPEAKER_02Say we bought Rabbi Rietti's curriculum that I I I actually homeschool. And so after, well, back a little bit, a friend of mine, actually a relative of mine, recommended Rabbi Rietti's um curriculum and he has the flashcards. And I noticed at the end of the flashcards where he basically goes through each of the words that appear in Tanakh and has flashcards for each of those words. And I noticed that he has all of these uh prefixes and suffixes there too. So and he recommends, in addition to his curriculum, yours too. So it's it's nice to actually see what you have there.
SPEAKER_00Right. So uh actually I became familiar with Travak Riadi while when I was teaching, so I forgot how it actually came about, but he came to visit my class. I think my wife got in touch with him and we became friends, and he came to to visit my class, and um he was actually blown away about what the kids were able to do. Uh he saw the systems I use, and over the years, you know, I I uh taught him and quote coached him on all these uh various things, and he you know developed his curriculum. Um so uh what you see over here are these I call them banners because they were on these uh large banners on on the top of the wall of and facing the children in the class. And um basically the the one on top is the the most simple one, which that's the prefixes, and it that's sort of taught in uh in the workbook. I call the workbook Aleph. And then the next two, which are much more numerous and complicated, those are the suffixes which appear in workbook Bayes, and then the red one is the prefixes and suffixes that are for future tense in workbook gimmold, and the last one is uh for these the uh suffixes that are in workbook Dalnet for the past tense. Um I would go I went about t uh after be able to put it into these groupings that I have over here to teach the children each banner in a single song and then do various manipulatives, diff different exercises in the class to be able to just have them absorb the the meanings of each of the different prefixes and suffixes that it became part of their, I guess you say here, their subconscious knowledge. They just they just knew it. You know, you you're talking with little children, that's one of the beautiful things of teaching a first grade class is that they're like a blank slate, and whatever you are going to fill them in with um so that that knowledge is going to stick for them and uh very often for a long time. Um in fact I found over the years students who had like 40 years ago, many of them are Rabeyim and uh or parents, they told me they still remember the basic skills that I taught them, and they they found it it carried them through all of their learning, all of the years that they were in uh yeshiva afterwards, because it was absorbed so easily that they really knew it, like like I said, in their subconscious mind, they really had it.
Roots Prefixes Suffixes As A System
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it really is amazing. You would think it'd be something of of course all educators would teach this way to our students so that they really have a firm grasp of the Hebrew language and what words mean in the prefixes and suffixes and Shorashim and everything. Why do you think it's not really taught that way anymore? Or why we don't teach that way?
SPEAKER_00First of all, I I think, although I might not be exactly correct, that uh since I instituted this many years ago, there are a lot of uh programs and uh teachers who have caught on to this uh these ideas, and in various degrees they have incorporated it into their teaching. But besides that, uh I think the reason why it was taught the other way is that I guess that's the way they were taught. I mean, uh so they taught that way because that's that's the way they were taught, so they just did the same thing. Um like I like I'm trying to say, though, I I I realized after having done this, the ramifications of it were that it really impacted the students' learning for the rest of their lives. It was not just a question of their being able to learn the uh the khumash or learn the skills, but to be able to get into their minds that it's possible to figure things out and to use use your head and just give them the right tools and they'll be able to do it. And that's uh that's I think a very significant thing.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I think that is one of the things that's our goal as Michanchem, as educators, right? That we we want to give them the tools and let them be able to use that to explore and deepen their knowledge on their own. We don't want them depending on us all the time for the information.
SPEAKER_00Another plus of this kind of way of learning is that it happens to be a lot of fun and it's challenging. And uh when you challenge somebody's mind and they're able to see that they can really understand and figure out things, it really uh inspires them to want to learn more and and they'll go further.
SPEAKER_02It just reminds me of the way sometimes we think, oh, this is the best way for us to learn, and we start to try to new, use new ways, but then we forget that sometimes it's just simply going back to the basics and really what's the foundation.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I agree with that. I agree. In my first year, I was really like searching, like I said, to be able to understand myself, but but by the end of the first year, I had uh pretty much come up with this complete system of uh separating all of the different prefixes and subigs into get various categories. Now, to go along with that, teaching children, I wanted to teach in such a way that I wasn't asking them to go home and memorize things. I wanted to the classroom activities to be such that they would be doing exercises where they would help them absorb the material and just know it without making any special demands on them or their parents. So I developed a lot of different games and manipulatives that the children would do after teaching them each of the uh the groupings of the previxes and suffixes. Um so um just skipping for a second, like to the one that's I guess the most numerous and complicated, which was the those two banners of the suffixes. Um so um to me, I guess it was uh was a discovery at the time that let's say the there are there are four suffixes that that uh I found in the chumash had two different meanings. So let's say the letter a ch at the end of a word, a chaf sophis with the comats. So let's say the word yivareche ch would mean he will bless you. So the the chha meant you. And that on the other hand, if you had the word yodcha, it means your hand.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So uh to me it at the time I guess it was a little confusing. What what is this? Does it mean this or does it mean that? So I finally figured out that it really means both. And it depends on the kind of I I guess I thought myself a little uh English grammar also that it depends on the kind of word that it's being used with. If it's being used with a a verb, so it'll mean you. If it's being used a noun, then it's possessive and it'll mean your. So yod is a a noun, yodcha means your your hand. Whereas your rechechha with the word barek means bless is a verb, it'll mean it'll mean you. So I took then all of the different suffixes that have that same meaning. That that's uh a ch with a kamats and a ch with a shva, and chem and chem. When children are learning diktuk in in in yeshivas, they they also there's a great emphasis placed on male, uh masculine, and feminine, and uh uh plural and uh singular. I wanted to be able to leave out as much uh extraneous information that didn't directly impact the meaning of the word. And as I I wanted to give it as simply as possible over to the children so that it's something they could use without knowing too much complications. So the the that was just taught us uh uh I call it Bha family. And the family means you or your. And then so and so forth. I did that with all the other suffixes made in the made them into groups. And and I taught them uh everything in a sing song at first that the kids learned it. I would say, ka family, you or your memon family, them or their, new, us or our, hey family, her or it, ra family, him or his or it. But after learning in uh these things in a sing song, it was necessary for the children to be able to individualize each of the various suffixes and to know which which group they they belong to. So uh I developed a game which I I feel it was like uh uh uh a tremendous uh uh device that uh the the children gained a lot from doing this game, and we do it over a number of days, and they um they really absorb the The information very well using it. I'll show you again.
SPEAKER_02I love that you introduced a song because like I have young children and they pick up so much so fast with songs and right, right? Such a great it's the best way to you know actually learn.
SPEAKER_00My songs are not, you know, anything special, but they
Songs Games And Classroom Tools
SPEAKER_00were just like a sing song. In those days, uh, I don't know the way things are now, but we we had chalkboards, so I would put onto the board all these boxes with the various um meanings of the groups of the suffixes. The the chalkboards were also magnetic, so I'd give each child a card, and they would have to go up to the board and put it into the right category. So this way, over a number of days, if they were doing this, they learned each of the suffixes what they meant.
SPEAKER_02I love that you have this footage. This is incredible, and to see the smiles on their faces when they go up and they put the magnet on there, they're so happy.
SPEAKER_00This you know, went through the whole gamut of all the suffixes and and like I said, doing it over a number of days, the children really learned all of those suffixes.
SPEAKER_02I would imagine that this is a way also to really help students gain a strong uh understanding of Hebrew and that a jump-off point so that they can learn how to not only read Hebrew, but then eventually speak too and really understand what they're saying. Would you say the same?
SPEAKER_00I I found that over the years that parents would tell me that they felt that their children were able to pick up Hebrew more easily than other their peers or other children because they had this uh this background. Now, after they learnt it in a in a sing song like that, and they were able to individualize. So now I had to get them to understand on their own when do you say you and when do you say your? Now I I was always wasn't gonna tell first graders, well, by a noun you do this and by a verb you do that. That's uh they don't know what I'm talking about. So I would take each group by itself and practice it with first nouns. So it put up, let's say the word yod on the port, and I would add onto the the word yod, let's say yodcha, and I would say, okay, it's you or your. Which one makes sense to you? You hand or your hand? Oh, it's your hand. Let's say it has a v at the end, yod o. Is it him hand or his hand? So doing that kind of thing, they they would catch on right away that you use the possessive pronoun, which I didn't say those words to them, and they knew how to apply it. Then I would go on to doing the other type of meaning. Let's say the uh the object meaning that uh if there is added to um verbs or to uh prepositions, so they had already learned, let's say, the prefixes already. So they learned, let's say, lamid means two or four, base means um in or with. So I would put a base on the board and add to the let's say again, a ch. So it's saying, are you gonna say in your or you're gonna say in you? If you say base and a verb, are you gonna say with his or with him? So again, they would catch up to the idea that there's another application without again explaining to them that this is a verb, this is a noun, this is a preposition, and they would learn how to apply them to all the various kinds of the words. So that I would then eventually be able to take even put two different words on the board, one's a noun, one's a verb, and one's a preposition, and and add the same suffix to all of them, and they were able to naturally apply it to each of the words on their own. The the books that I wrote, the reason why I wrote them is because the the children they they had this like sort of sophisticated knowledge by the time they finished my first grade. Sure. And when they went into the second grade and the the the Rebbe was teaching them like quote unquote the the old way of teaching, and the the parents started to go nuts that you know my kid was able to do all of this in the first grade on his own. Now you're teaching this. What's going on?
SPEAKER_01Man.
SPEAKER_00So I said, okay, I'll uh write a book to be able to practice the things that I taught in the first grade so they can continue to. That's that's how the books actually came about. And after I wrote them, I shared the books with other educators, principals, uh curriculum people, and um and uh some of them liked it, some of them said we know this already, or whatever, you know, whatever it was, but uh eventually it caught on, and uh and um we also ended up because we were in contact with a lot of different schools, so my wife actually wrote the books in Yiddish for the Yiddish speaking schools, and subsequently we've we've had requests for it, and they've been also translated into Spanish, into into French, into Russian. Not that we actually um sell them ourselves, but they they are being used in other countries uh uh using this uh method. And uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's really powerful. And again, just giving students that way that one they can learn on their own and giving them the tools so that they have a comfort with with our holy tongue, our holy uh language. It's it's really important.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02I know you mentioned that you had studied in yeshiva and you were in Israel for a little while. Are there any educators that you say have inspired you?
SPEAKER_00That's a very good question. So this like mindset that I had to to teach the skills was really a cornerstone of the teachings of my Rebbe in uh yeshiva was in Yeshiva Chafetz Chaim in uh in Queens. My Rebbe was the Roshiva Rabbi Hannah Chlebowitz. And um he his method of teaching, of giving a shear was not just to give a lecture. His shear was very much a give and take. He wanted to be able to get the boys to to work on it on the material and to question him. In fact, um if if the his his his goal was that during the shear the boy should attack him and should should fight with him, which often it it it it it it uh the shear could go on for quite a long time because there was so much give and take between the students and the Rebbe. And um again the uh I I adapted it to to teaching first grade. The skills set is different, and the the classroom kind of thing is different, but but uh essentially the the idea was uh that his it was his inspiration and the teachings that I got over there that um that made me think this way.
SPEAKER_02How long did you teach there? I'm I'm assuming this was in New York where you were teaching. Is that right?
SPEAKER_00In the the first grade uh I I was teaching in New York. I taught at first uh uh 13 years in in um Yeshiva Tefaris Moshe. It's called us in Queens. And um subsequently, because uh there's some people who saw what I did for their children or the grandchildren, and and they wanted to start a school in Long Island, so they brought me there to and I started a school with them. It's it's uh called Yeshiva Kitan of Long Island, and I taught there for another seven years, uh also the first grade.
SPEAKER_02And these were only boys, right? Have you found there to be a difference in the girls' schools? I don't know, were they also picking this up and trying to um give the girls this knowledge too, from your understanding?
SPEAKER_00So uh because of the I went to a different schools to give in services, uh, workshops, and uh it really went over very big in the girls' schools because of that. I mean the
Binyanim Signals And Global Adoption
SPEAKER_00there are there's uh like like one school in particular, it's uh Tor Academy for girls, that's over here in in the Farakaway area, and uh they've been using my methods and and um and booklets um I don't know how long, maybe 20 years or so, something like that. I should say also that I expanded my knowledge of the of the Dikduk into areas that I really didn't know or understand before at all, like it's called the Binyanim, all of the various uh verbal structures. And uh I was able to again using various sources and uh and uh doing research, I understood better uh how they operate and uh also what their purposes are. And um I wrote uh uh one of the workbooks which uh encompasses all of the various binyanyin, and I was able to also encapsulate and to find what part of the word, like what even what kind of nakudo or what kind of letter could could signal to a student that this word is this kind of binyun. So and I was able to give that over orally to the students even in the in the first grade. Let's say the word in the beginning of Lachor, you have vanivrhu vechal kolmishbach saadama. So the the the the word vnivrhu means and they will be blessed. So the question is let's look at the letters. So I taught them vov means and the nun in the front of the word should mean we will, and the oot, the oo at the end of the word means they. So I would write the word on the board and say, let's see if I can figure this out. And we will bless they. No, no, it doesn't sound right. How about and and they blessed we will. No, no, that doesn't work. Sound sounds wrong. So then I taught them the idea that when you have a word that's has the oo at the end, which means it's past tense, if you take away the nun, so you have the word uberhu using the the rule of uh how the verb changes the tense from past to future. So ooh berhu means and they will bless. And the nun is put in in the beginning of the word to make make it a passive word. That's the binyon of nifal. So the nivrhu means and they will be blessed, and say instead of, and uh, and so they I introduced these ideas to them as well, how to recognize that there are the different uh signals to the divers binyonim and exactly how they operate and what their purpose is.
SPEAKER_02So I'm just thinking about how much better I would have picked up Hebrew had I learned the method that you teach. It would have been made such a difference with uh how I learned Hebrew and uh understand Tana. I'm I'm actually thinking I need to go through your workbooks myself.
SPEAKER_00Um so um as as far as like learning the material from the workbooks, what happened was when I wrote those books, so a lot of our Bayam uh uh learned the material also, just just using the books. Uh they went through the books with the children and then they you know picked it up also.
SPEAKER_02And you mentioned that currently you do consulting for educators or schools. Is is that what you said?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so various schools uh call me to come give a give a lecture uh to to to teach the teachers and uh yeah, so I've been doing that off and on um over the last number of years. I mean over over the years, um that definitely initially when I first wrote the program, so I I was called to uh all sorts of places. I was in South Africa uh for actually a number of weeks, and I taught classes over there and in the in the schools and in uh and adult education classes, and I I did it in England. I also spent a number of weeks over there in in London and uh Gateshead. Um uh and we were contacted, like I said, from other countries uh like Belgium and um a lot of countries in South America, Colombia, um Mexico, uh where they've translated the books, some of them into Spanish, and some of them even continued using the workbooks in English for the whatever reason they they felt it would be more useful for them.
SPEAKER_02How about in Israel? Because you mentioned that you lived in Israel for a bit, and my husband and I, we also lived in Israel for a little while. Um, have you noticed the same response there? Have any schools been using it?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I I was there on a number of occasions uh giving lectures in uh the girls' seminaries. Uh most specifically girls' seminaries were the where they were either balaychufa or girls from out of the country who were developing their knowledge and skills. And uh it was very popular when I uh gave them the these knowledge. Some of the schools there continue to use the books even now.
SPEAKER_02You mentioned that you and your wife returned here to America. Do you see yourselves going back in the near future or when? Are you waiting for Mashiach? Or do you have thoughts and plans to go back sooner?
SPEAKER_00So the the truth of the truth of the matter is that my my heart has always been in Erit Israel. I've visited there many times. I have Arch Hashem, some very good friends over there. Um I was just there um in February and March. For about a month I was there, and uh I spent some time. The first time I was ever there in this community of uh Ramat Bait Shemesh, which has a lot of Americans there, and it's uh it's a kind of a place that I see Americans can feel very comfortable over there because there's so many English speaking speaking people, and uh and it's a beautiful place. Um really. I uh uh I speak with my wife often about it.
Helping Every Student And Resources
SPEAKER_00I'd like to go back and uh I'm hoping one day the dream dream will be fulfilled and be able to get there. Uh standing up.
SPEAKER_02Amen. So we learn in Mishlay chapter 22, verse 6 or mimana. So how does that pasak resonate with you?
SPEAKER_00I think I think very much so. It's um that if again, if you give the the children the the skills, and um I found that I had all levels and all different issues with various students, and using uh it's not something that I developed specifically for this, but I I I found that it was very successful with all types of children. Like over the years I had children, I remember one specific child uh as an example that he had all sorts of therapies going for him. He had uh uh this person used to come and give him physical therapy, this one gave him speech therapy, and this one gave him uh other things. I don't know, I forgot them all. And and uh they had once had a meeting with me and they asked how he's doing in the class, and I I told him that he he really he was able to absorb all of the skills just like all the other kids. Because I guess it was it's done in such a way that uh anyone could get get it. It's uh you know, unless there's some, I guess, some s very severe issue that I'm not a knowledgeable and expert enough to be able to comment on that, but uh that it it seemed to me over the years that all the kids were able to get it um and to be able to use it. Again, probably uh on different levels. Uh it was interesting. I I had some children in over the years who were geniuses, mom is geniuses. That that once I taught them this information and um it was like remember one child he had f I had finished Pasha Slachlacha um with with the class and he said what what should I do now? So I told him, you know, why don't you write me a translation for Pasha Snoach, which he had never learned before. And and uh about a week or two later he came back with a notebook. He had translated the entire Pajas Noach on his own.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00So like like his who like really bright, like I also, besides teaching the prefix and the suffixes, I I taught a lot of vocabulary words over the over the year. I had a list of like 600 words that the children learned with me. Um yeah, they're all words connected with Hanach, um, which is why by the way, an important point there is called the Shonha Torah because it wasn't the purpose of it, wasn't to learn Hebrew, the purpose was to give them the ability to be able to master the language of the Torah. And um even the the weakest children, if I taught a whole class 600 words, they knew at least 300 of them, which is like fantastic to woke out of first grade with 300 words under your belt. And um yeah, that was uh that was a tremendous accomplishment in and of itself.
SPEAKER_02So how let's say there's this student today that has not had um this background knowledge, and they're in I don't know, fifth grade, and they're really struggling with learning humash. Where should and the educator who's teaching them, or maybe even their parent for that matter, who wants to give them supplement, where should they start?
SPEAKER_00Um so I I've I've made certain like um videos and um working on another one right now to be able to teach how to teach the material. And um when people ask me, so I I share whatever I have with them, and uh a lot of uh people who teach uh like resource rooms and in various schools um have told me like uh over the years they've been using these methods and uh books for a long time. Just the other night we met somebody, she said that she's been using my books for the last 40 years. That um um she finds that it works like a charm with the children. She teaches like resource room kind of children that uh need extra help.
SPEAKER_02So beautiful.
SPEAKER_00So you know, I'd be happy to share with everyone and anyone whatever I can to be able to help them to teach the children.
SPEAKER_02Well, I will be sure to share. You do have a website if I recall correctly.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it has to be developed more again. Uh we we're pretty I mean I'm I'm certainly I know any no know anything, but my wife has over the years put some work into it, but she wants to do more to make it much more professional, I guess.
SPEAKER_02And sure. I'm happy to share with with um my audience here um your materials and are people able to also find uh your workbooks on Amazon and um oh I think you can find on Rabbi Rietti's website too, on Raker Feel. I will look. I think so.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I will definitely help share your materials too, because I think it's it's really necessary and needed. I think we as Jews need a strong foundation in our holy Torah. It's very important. And especially with the times we're living in, you know, it's these coming of Mashiach, these days we're we're living in, it's uh something special.
SPEAKER_00Very exciting times, right?
SPEAKER_02Very exciting times.
SPEAKER_00Hopefully, hopefully.
SPEAKER_02You know, we will have uh peace soon and all of this will be worked out.
SPEAKER_00Amen.
SPEAKER_02Rabbi Winder, I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me tonight. And I know we had some kinks with the technology, but we made it work.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And I continue to Bracha Vatslacha and your very beautiful work.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you so much. And Amen, and same to you too. This is really incredible what you're doing, and that you are so freely wanting to share your work with others and really help Claudia Surrel. It's um very meaningful and important work what you're doing too.
SPEAKER_00Thank you, appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, all right. All the best to you and uh Shbachalam coming up.
SPEAKER_00Okay, thank you. All the best.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Will. All the best.
SPEAKER_00Bye bye.
SPEAKER_02Bye.