About 7 months ago, in time for the current school year, an exciting new website was launched to help students with their Gemara studies in Yeshiva.
In this short amount of time, GemaraAcademy.com already has 268 videos on the first Mishna in Mesechta Shabbos with its Gemara Rashi, and all Tosfos, being over 100 Tosfos. There has been more than 4,600 plays and 58,000 hits.
There has also been feedback from various Yeshivos. A menahel of a Mesivta shared in an email that his bochurim are using the videos for their Chazarah and they love it.
Another menahel of a zal asked to bring the program into his Yeshiva to help the bochurim, and we are currently in the process of implementing it in their Yeshiva. Additionally, a number of Rebbes in our Yeshivos have begun using the program in their classrooms with amazing results.
The website features lessons on tractate Shabbos which is currently being learned in Yeshivos. It keeps getting updates with short video classes on Gemara, Rashi, and Tosfos.
Gemara Academy is designed to be a personal chavrusa that a student can use to learn at his own pace. The classes can be paused, rewound, or played over again. It can be used to prepare for the next day’s class or for chazarah of the previous day’s class.
The teacher is Rabbi Chananya Hoffinger who has been teaching at Hamesivta of Ocean Parkway for 7 years and experienced firsthand the difficulties that come up when learning and teaching Gemara.
“One of the most common difficulties is the vast expansiveness of the Gemara that makes it so hard to stay focused and see the structure of the Gemara,” he says. “Another challenge is the feeling of not knowing what approach and method the Gemara will use in the current Sugya.”
To deal with this, Rabbi Hoffinger created a system of teaching using PowerPoint presentations that use flowcharts that show exactly which tools the Gemara uses in each Sugya and the larger map of the Gemara.
Because Gemara is a study of the Mishna it therefore uses the same tools over and over again; since in the process of analyzing a teaching the same tools are always used. As a result after a very short time the student begins to become more familiar with these tools that the Gemara uses as he sees them used over and over again within the visual context of the flowchart.
One of the important goals of Gemara Academy is that the student come to appreciate the text, and not that the text be replaced with a visual based class. As a result each flowchart is exactly parallel and mirrors the Gemara that it’s teaching. In addition each PowerPoint presentation of the Gemara also has the Gemara text with the Tzuras Hadaf so that the student can become familiar and comfortable with the text.
So Gemara Academy seeks to accomplish a number of things:
1) Show the map of the Gemara so that the student can see the bigger picture and not become lost in the details
2) To become familiar with the style and tools that the Gemara uses
3) To see through the flowchart how the ideas in the Gemara are developed
4) To exactly mirror the text so the student comes to appreciate and become comfortable with the text
All of this will help students become more independent in their learning. As they master the style and tools the Gemara uses, they will feel more empowered and able to approach a new piece of Gemara and learn it on their own.
This system of learning was used this past year in Hamesivta and it had tremendous success. At the end of the year banquet in Hamesivta, student after student got up and spoke about how much they grew in their learning over the year.
Gemara Academy depends on funding from its users. In order to support the building of this project and continue to expand on what has already been done in Mesechta Shabbos and create the same platform on other Mesechtas, Gemara Academy needs users and those who believe in its goal and vision to help out with their donations. This will also help Gemara Academy build a beautiful and user friendly website which is currently in the making and needs funding in order to be completed.
Donations can be made online at gemaraacademy.com. For information on dedicating individual classes please email [email protected].
What a wonderful tool! Tizke Lemitzvos Chananya!
Thank you Rabbi Hoffinger.! Your work is truly amazing!
loved the vid, and 42 comments so far, all of them positive! schkoich!
Avrohom s.
All the other websites above to which others are referring to that are similar but not same as Gemara Academy were created by a GROUP of people. Over years. Rabbi Chananya Hoffinger has done ALL this work alone! Hours of intense learning. And he has covered SO MUCH material in such a short time. AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENT
For anybody that is interested and able to, you can dedicate a class for 1 month for $100. Your support allows this project to continue and grow.
The Jewish world thanks you, as well as Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Great work for klal yisroel! keep it up Rabbi Hoffinger!
its truly a remarkable and intelligent product you’ve designed
This is amazing! If schools have laptops they can pair up chavrusas to learn together. It’s amazing. Every students group continues iwhere they left off. They don’t have the pressure to keep up with the teacher and get lost or drown! It can be used as a Montessori style tool!! Amazing innovation.
All the yeshivas should join together and invest in purchasing this program! It’s a full curriculum?, you don’t even need the teacher to teach it. He can be present just for questions.
I actually worked for Daf Hachaim and wrote part of Mesechta Pesachim and the while Mesachta Shekalim for them. I’d say the differences are:
1) Gemara Academy has an exact flowchart of the Gemara that parallels and mirrors the text so that the focus always remains on the text. Daf Hachaim has an overview that’s arranged with the goal of having the main points of the Gemara organized as a summary.
2) Gemara Academy has Gemara, Rashi, and Tosfos. Daf Hachaim has Gemara.
What’s the difference between this and Daf Hachaim, the new video based Daf Yomi website?
Awesome Stuff! Love using this site.
Hope someone takes this on as a project and Finances it.
The website looks beautiful, with many tools to help in learning and understanding a sugiya. Keep it up!
Thanks for your service to the community at large! You clearly seem to enjoy what you do, but that does not make your efforts any less meaningful. Au contraire.
Thank you Chananya,
I am grateful that there are people like you. Someone who cares for a student who may not “get it”, and ingeniously harnessing advanced technological tools while doing so.
Truly inspirational!
Wow amazing!
It seems like an amazing program that many people of all different ages can’t benefit from. Thank you so much for bringing this brilliant idea to life.
A great job! A tremendous help to our bochurim – the mapping out with flowcharts, intros and full shiur. Keep up the good work! Would love to see more coming!
Another significant difference between Gemara Academy and Gemara Berurah (which was actually the main reason I created this program)
5) Gemara Academy uses Tzuras Hadaf. Gemara Berurah doesn’t.
I’ve found that Tzuras Hadaf is what people want most. They don’t want to just hear another amazing class that they can’t remember any part of, they want an experience of learning from an original and regular text. This gives a certain satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment that cannot be replaced with a visual class alone.
On the Gemara Academy website the text videos are used as much as the flowchart videos.
It’s amazing that students now have the ability to get a goodand real handle of the Gemara at their own pace, time, and convenience without the pressures and distractions of the classroom.
The videos are clear and a pleasure to watch. I highly recommend Rabbi Hofingger’s videos for anyone that wants to understand gemarah thoroughly.
Pinchas Margolis
Thanks for all the ideas and feedback. We are listening and reading what you have to say and will work on implementing it into the program.
Gemara is the basis of all deep thinking. Problem solving. Law minded. When understood, it sharpens the brain and allows for a broader mind. It is known that on Asia they use the Gemara in university with non Jews because of the complicated train of thought and involved cases brought down. This website gives a. Student the ability to acquire this higher level of thinking through simple explanations and visual aids. It’s amazing in two short words!!
This is just unbelievable!! I wonder why there isn’t more publicity for this site. My son is struggling with Gemara and I would have expected his Rebbe to mention this program. Could you make a color flier and ask the principals to distribute to the Talmidim. The best innovation since sliced bread!! What a Zchus to be part of this revolutionary way of learning! What a beautiful way to use technology for Torah!
The Gemara academy really breaks up the learning into bite size prices.
full disclosure: I am a big fan of Rabbi Hoffinger and his teaching methods I would title this article “Gemarra Academy cracks the Code” I believe that this unique program is exactly what we need. I teach in a Zal (Yeshivah Gedolah Miami). we receive the products of the Lubavitch school system. BH we have many fine Bachurim who are outstanding in their Middos Tovos, Yiras Shomayim and motivation and desire to learn. an area that needs improvement is access to original texts. It is a historical fact that in places where there were Yeshivos and scholarship, yiddishkeit survived, whereas… Read more »
well done. looking forward for elu metziois
R’ Chananya, where were you 40 years ago when I was struggling to develop a global understanding of each sugya?
I tried to memorize by rote but with your systematic program, a student will remember the sugya with clarity long after he’s moved on. Yankel from B.P.
It’s about time we start learning Nigleh (Gemora).
Keep up the good work. Please support this!
There are many differences between this and Gemara Berurah. I’ll mention the main ones: 1) Gemara Academy is a platform of video classes that anybody can access. Gemara Berurah is a curriculum based tool. 2) Gemara Academy has a total of 5 tools. Gemara Berurah uses a lot more than that. 3) Gemara Academy takes more of a top bottom approach of seeing the Gemara, its style, and process and then becoming familiar with it. Gemara Berurah is more of a bottom up approach of learning the skills to be able to learn. 4) Gemara Academy has classes on Gemara,… Read more »
You are truly gifted and amazing!!!
I appreciate you deeply.
As a Gemara teacher, I find this to be a very valuable tool. Question: In what ways is this different than Gemara Berurah?
Thanks and Hatzlacha!
Looks great
This site is so helpful to young Yeshiva students. I wish I had this as a child. I used tutors regularly, and this would have been a great help. Kol Hakovod to Rabbi Hoffinger.
The clarity and set framework of the powerpoints, were extremely helpful for myself, and my students. Great stuff! Thanx Chananya!
SD
This looks like a great innovative way for students to learn, struggling or otherwise! Way to go Chanany!
This information may/may not be relevant to you.
When a ‘bochor,’ I moved into Crown Heights, from Boro Park in (about) 1976 my apt. was at 836 Montgomery St. Apt A-1.(Hershy Young, A”H, was my roomate). Chananya Hoffinger, & family, after marrying (Henya Elishevitz), moved into 888 Montgomery St. Apt A1, first floor left (!).
Subtracting 836 from 888 equals 52 which is the ‘gematria’ of ‘ben!’ (‘Son’ in Hebrew). ‘Chananya’ was our first son.
Boruch & Brouria Hoffinger
Let everyone state their names!
There’s nothing to be afraid of!
(This applies to other articles as well.)
This is incredible. I was never the Gemarah kupp in school. It always scared me. But this is finally available. I am surprised how simple it become when broken down so coherently. The flowcharts and how nice the design is…I need to relearn all the Gemarah now, so I can finally understand what I learned.
I have several students who use the video for a difficult tosfos of sugya and it has really clarified everything for them
Fantastic! A HUGH ‘Kiddush HaShem!’ I’m ‘Chanaya’s’ father, I, & my wife and children are incredibly proud of him. I’m ‘reeling’ from the miracle of my own son doing such amazing things & pinching myself because it’s so hard to believe! My own parents, A”H, were mostly ignorant of ‘Nigleh’ and certainly ‘Chassidus.’ When I became ‘frum’ my father and mother did not resist, but respected me, and assisted me — amazing! May ‘Chananya’s’ efforts be a ‘zechus’ for my parent’s, and my wife’s parent’s ‘neshomos.’ May others learn and grow in ‘Torah’ and ‘maasim tovim.’ Let our greater understanding… Read more »
Its about time someone took initiative and filled the chasm that can exist between the text and many of the students struggling to follow it. I wish you hatzlacha and the means to keep this up. Kol hakavod!
I’m so inspired by your work, you are making an amazing impact, and changing the way learning happens! People should support you, they will see the changes happening before their eyes, kids learning, bochurim enjoying a piece of gemara! i watched some videos and the clarity and flowcharts are just amazing!!!
This website has been invaluable for hundreds of students. It brings down the classes to a level where anyone can understand and grasp the information . It creates a sense of being with the text. It allows the student to gain knowledge and learn Torah the way it should be done. I applaud this tremendous asset to today’s students! Kol hakavod.
Thank you Rabbi Hoffiger!!!
Looks really awesome, I’m sure many bochrim are benefiting from this. I wish they had this in my day.
This is truly amazing, so many people talk about making a change, Rabbi Hoffinger acts upon it. His videos are so helpful and shows how the Gemarah is so valuable to us!
So Thankful.