A Perek a Day

In a large shul with high ceilings and blond wood, hundreds of women sit together, listening intently to a lecturer. Teenagers sit next to octogenarians, besheiteled women next to women in vibrant tichels or hats. What’s the common factor in this diverse crowd? They’re all participants of the Torat Imecha Nach Yomi program, and they’ve come together to celebrate the completion of a cycle.

Family First spoke with Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman, who initiated the program, and a number of participants and teachers to find out more about this program, which so many women have described as “life-changing”

Around 20 years ago, someone approached Rabbi Jack Abramowitz at the Orthodox Union, and asked if he’d start a Nach Yomi program, in which participants learn a perek a day of Nach. He did, and it became the very first program in OU Torah, the OU’s Torah content website.

When Rebbetzin Shmidman became the founding director of the OU’s Women’s Initiatives Department in 2017, it was shortly before the beginning of another Nach Yomi cycle. At the time, Nach Yomi had only male teachers, and someone suggested that Rebbetzin Shmidman start a stream for women with female teachers.

“It was a great suggestion, but the timing wasn’t right,” says Rebbetzin Shmidman. She shelved the idea, intending to make it happen for the next cycle. “The cycle is almost two years long,” she explains. “It works out beautifully: Six months of Neviim Rishonim, six months of Neviim Acharonim, five months of Tehillim, and then the rest of the Kesuvim,” she says.

In November of 2019, it suddenly hit her that the current Nach Yomi cycle was almost finished, leaving her only ten weeks to launch a women’s version. The new Nach Yomi cycle would be starting at the same time as the new Daf Yomi cycle. “The spirit was in the air, the energy was there, the desire for learning was there. We were thrilled to move forward with that collective momentum,” she says.