The chavrusas:Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib and Rabbi Aryeh Feigenbaum The location:Cincinnati, OH,and Dallas, TX
When Rabbi Avrohom Weinrib moved from the Jewish metropolis of Chicago to become a rav in Cincinnati’s frum community eight years ago, he felt the difference immediately. Rabbi Weinrib grew up in Flatbush, lived in Eretz Yisrael, and learned in Chicago, so the dearth of potential chavrusas weighed on him.
Today, his chavrusa is just a click away. Dallas may be 1,000 miles from Cincinnati, but Rabbi Weinrib has a daily seder with Rabbi Aryeh Feigenbaum of that Texas city, utilizing Skype to navigate the halachic intricacies of mashing eggs or measuring medicine on Shabbos. The chavrusashaft has held up for several years now, and conversations with other rabbanim across flyover country have helped spread the word.
Rabbi Weinrib studied at Yeshiva Bais Moshe of Scranton before heading for Mir in Yerushalayim for seven years. When he and his wife moved back to the United States, they settled in Chicago, and Rabbi Weinrib led a kehillah there for six years. They then set about looking for a smaller community where they could make a tangible difference. When the Weinribs first arrived in Ohio to lead Congregation Zichron Eliezer and the Cincinnati Kosher organization, Rabbi Weinrib learned by himself, which wasn’t ideal; or with a member of the kollel, but that proved too difficult.
“I very much wanted to delve further into areas that would be helpful for psak, but that didn’t necessarily coincide with what the kollel was learning,” he explains.
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