“Really?” Rabbi Wagner said. “Torah’s not for you?” Motti nodded, but Rabbi Wagner would have none of it
Rabbi Yehoshua Feigelstein is the dynamic sixth-grade rebbi in Monsey’s Yeshiva of Spring Valley. For years, he has taught Hakones, the sixth perek in Bava Kamma, shepherding his young students through one of their first years learning Gemara.
Five years ago, Rabbi Feigelstein’s mission took a transformational pivot when he created the Torascha B’Finu program, an offshoot of the famed Vhaarev Na program, tailored to boys in sixth and seventh grade. Defined by the basic mantra of “Chazarah, chazarah, chazarah,” these middle-school aged boys study and review the same pages of Gemara over and over until they literally can quote them verbatim.
Rabbi Feigelstein has been passionately implementing his program, encouraging constant review, then standing back and watching as Torah works its magic. In an effort to raise the level of excitement and motivation, each Friday, Rabbi Feigelstein asks the boys to commit to reviewing any number of amudim, any number of times. A pile of sticky notes awaits the students upon their return on Sunday and each one takes the number of notes that correspond with the number of amudim he learned. They then hang these notes on posters affixed to the wall.
For the past three years, Rabbi Feigelstein added an additional element to the thrill. When the collective amount of amudim the boys have learned nears 5,442, the total number of amudim in Shas, he auctions off the privilege to post this symbolic sticky note to the poster, the currency, of course, being hours of Torah study.
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