2 Brothers Impress Community

By Alex Gorokhov – GlattPhotography

Two young boys, Zushy and Levi Vigler, age 12 and 10 respectively, were recently tested thoroughly by well-respected Flatbush Rabonim on the entire Mishnayos Seder Nezikin.

The Rabonim were Rav Cynamon, Rav David, Rav Eisen, Rav Frankel, Rav Muller, Rav Rokeach, Rav Shur, and Rav Zucker.

They also made a public siyum at Mayan Yisroel of Flatbush, and answered grueling questions from the audience like “where is Chanukah mentioned in Nezikin?” and “how many times is Admon quoted and where?” The boys gave the exact Perek and Mishnah to each question, plus the pshat.

The boys learned Nezikin after school hours with their father, Rabbi Yoseph Vigler, by using MasterTorah.com, Rabbi Meir Pogrow‘s innovative system of studying and reviewing.

Rabbi Vigler explained:

“I first heard of Master Torah in an email from the Chinuch Office in Crown Heights, and subsequently when they brought out Rabbi Pogrow to the Kinus haMechanchim. I was intrigued by the method, and spent a summer in Eretz Yisroel visiting the Zilberman yeshiva in the old city of Yerushalayim, where this method originated to discover first hand if it worked as well as they promised it did. I was blown away. I literally stood watching open mouthed as elementary school kids answered questions from all over the entire Tanach and Shas.”

“Then Reb Yosef Zilberman, the Menahel of the Yeshiva, turned to my son and asked what he was learning in Yeshiva. “Parshas Teruma”, he answered. “So how many בריחים were there in the mishkan?”, he asked. My son, although a good student, had no clue. When he asked his own son the same question, he promptly gave the correct answer even though a few years had passed since he had first learned Teruma in second grade! Honestly, I was jealous! Why shouldn’t my son know Tanach and Shas as well?!

“It boils down to simple technique: kids are sponges, but they need effective learning and most importantly, methodical reviewing, chazara. When done correctly, they remember everything, and their understanding actually increases over time instead of gradually forgetting what they learned when the test is over.”

After returning from Eretz Yisroel, Rabbi Vigler began learning with his sons daily using this model, and the results spoke for themselves. The boys were soon able to quote and reference to most of Chumash, large portions of Tanach, including even books like Yirmiyahu and Yechezkel, and Seder Nezikin and Mo’ed. At parents’ requests, the Yeshiva also slowly began implementing this method to a limited degree as well and a number of the Rebbis have also succeeded in imparting to their classes Chumash and Mishnayos using this system.

When asked if this style is consistent with “the conventional approach to Chinuch” Rabbi Vigler points to the Shulchan Aruch HaRav’s first words in Hilchos Talmud Torah where he writes that a five-year-old should learn the entire Tanach many times over, a ten-year-old the entire Mishnayos, and a fifteen-year-old, Gemara.

“Compare the alternative: Even a good student who really learns in our system and leaves knowing how to learn and find his way around a blatt Gemara, cannot claim that he has mastered any Sefer of Tanach, or any Mesechta. This is quite troubling. Learning really only begins once you know fluently the basic source material, the pesukim and mishnayos everything originates from. Automatically after that the child will ask intelligent questions and bring up engaging contradictions and comparisons.”

Although this requires more preparation for the teachers, as this educational method gains traction and followers, more and more schools are working on implementing it and adapting it for American non-Hebrew speakers.

In the meantime, Rabbi Vigler and his sons are well on their way through Seder Kodshim and hope to make another siyum soon.