Rabbi Avi Harari

Yeshivah Of Flatbush Rabbinical Leader

We have a tendency to see the world through "black and white" lenses. We assume that yeshivot teach and learn in classrooms, leaving all other aspects of Jewish life and culture to other places and institutions. The Yeshivah of Flatbush is the unique school which breaks that binary vision and approach. Our students, from early childhood all the way through high school, learn both inside and out of the classroom. They engage in acts of hesed outside and in the classroom. And they break down the superficial walls of personal growth, developing as human beings and Jews in every place and space.

We recite a relevant pasuk in keriat shema every day: 

And you shall teach these words to your children, and you shall speak about them, when you rest in your home and when you walk on your way, when you lie down and when you rise up. (Devarim 6:7)

Study of and engagement in Torah aren’t confined to a study hall or synagogue. They take place “when you rest in your home” and “when you walk on your way.”  They are constantly developing, in all places and in all ways. We find moments of growth at all times, as well, whether “lying down” and sleeping, or “rising up” and awake.

Growth and development in any field of focus need a clear structure, within which they can blossom and expand. They need an identity, a veritable “mission statement”. Growth as a Jew is no different. “Who am I?” and “What do I believe in?” are questions which need to inspire our thoughts and general direction. The Yeshivah of Flatbush is continuously framing our students’ identity and core beliefs in the Torah, Am and Medinah of Yisrael. The exceptional Matmidim program emphasizes the centrality of serious talmud Torah to our lives, the unique meetings with former hostages remind us of our kinship with other Jews, and the special trips to Israel strengthen our mindfulness and commitment to artzenu ha-kedoshah.

I am often positively overwhelmed by how much is going in any and every corner of the Yeshivah of Flatbush on a daily basis. I’ve come to realize that the daily rigor of Torah and general studies forms the backbone of the Yeshivah. Our school’s limbs, bones and muscles, though, are made up of everything else that takes place in any given place and on any given day.