If Memory Serves

Rabbi Dovid Schoonmaker spends his days guiding students through the complexities of the Talmud, but how much of what they learn will they remember once they close their tomes? He’s seen the frustration and despondency, when, after years of learning, people feel they have nothing to show for it – and that’s why he’s harnessed decades of teaching experience to bear on a vexing issue: How to prevent the knowledge gained through Torah study from slipping through your fingers?

It’s the beginning of a new zeman at Yeshivas Darchei Noam/the David Shapell College in Jerusalem, and this afternoon the beis medrash is full: Some young men are learning in pairs, others engrossed in their seforim in solitude. Rabbi Dovid Schoonmaker, the rosh yeshivah, spends a few minutes circling the room, conversing briefly with a group of students and introducing himself to a teenage boy and a man seated at one of the tables, neighborhood residents availing themselves of the open beis medrash. Whether they are newcomers or long-time learners, talmidim or local balabatim, he feels personal joy in their progress, but is also well-aware of one of their most frustrating struggles: how to retain and keep alive all that Torah learning once the sefer is closed?

After years helping newcomers find their footing in the beis medrash, first as a maggid shiur at Aish HaTorah and later in his current position at Darchei Noam, Rabbi Schoonmaker realized that there’s room for innovation even within the traditional framework of the beis medrash — methods, approaches, and skills that can help teachers relay the building blocks of Gemara learning, and not only for beginners. Now he’s moved on to the next step: a multi-pronged system to help everyone who loves learning retain their hard-won achievements.

His recently-published book, Yedias HaTorah: Step by Step, is a compact guidebook for anyone — student, rebbi, working man, even accomplished scholar — seeking a better method for retaining his learning. It might be an unconventional topic for a book, but it’s also a somewhat neglected and vexing issue in the world of Torah learning, which makes it practically tailor-made for Rabbi Dovid Schoonmaker to address.