Every week for the past three and a half years, Avrohom Keller and Eliezer Moshe Bulman have engaged in the timeless practice of partnered Torah study. But unlike a traditional study partners, Keller and Bulman are separated by 200 miles and three state-lines. Keller, a Brooklyn resident, and Bulman, in Annapolis, Maryland, study weekly as part of the JNet Torah study program.
A program of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, JNet has been pairing off students from around the world with partners in study since 2006. To date, some 1,800 study partners participate in these 30-minute weekly sessions.
The bonds of friendship formed by JNet study are a matter of pride for Rabbi Yehuda Dukes, the program’s managing director. “I’m always impressed by the long-term relationships formed by our participants,” he says.
A testament to their dedication, Keller and Bulman recently finished the Talmudic Tractate Berachot which took some 186 weeks of study. The experience, says Keller, has turned every study session into “a new chance to reflect on and find new insight into the tractate.”
Bulman is equally enthusiastic about the learning experience. “When I sit to learn with Rabbi Keller,” he says, “the study just flows from one topic to the next.”
As is customary, the men have concluded the study of a tractate with a celebration. And now they’re following another custom as well: beginning their joint study of the next tractate.
JNet was established with a generous grant from the Rohr Foundation
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