Charles Neuman’s (Plainview, NY) & Mordecai Plaut (Jerusalem, Israel)

Charles Neuman’s (Plainview, NY) words need no edits… you’ve gotta read this feedback he gave on the occasion of a 3 year learning with Mordecai Plaut (Jerusalem, Israel)! 

“One important thing I have learned from my Mordecai is the value of a fixed time for Torah study. With only a couple exceptions throughout the year, we learn every week. Mordecai works it in to his schedule no matter what is going on. Our learning is high priority. A couple times we didn’t have the full amount of time available. Instead of just meeting for a shorter amount of time, Mordecai found a way to make it work: for example, we would learn some before maariv, and then resume after. I recall that one time we learned for six minutes and then finished later that day. Iwas impressed that he would make use of six minutes for Torah study. I’ll never think of time the same way again.

I am happy I signed up for Partners in Torah. I feel that every Jew should learn with a partner, and even better with someone of a different background. We are all one community, and one way for us to realize that is to learn together. Partners in Torah is the best way to make it happen.

My advice for someone just getting started is to make learning your priority. There are so many times when I would have canceled our learning session because I was tired or couldn’t prepare. Since Mordecai makes it his priority, and his time is valuable, I knew I had to make it my priority. Sometimes I would stay up late the night before, or even do some learning right before our session so I could make the most of it. It is not easy balancing learning with the normal challenges of life, but in the end I’m glad I made learning a priority. It’s worth it.”