Beth Medrash Govoha

BMG - 7th Street Study Hall 1943 Beth Medrash Govoha was originally established as a kollel in White Plains, New York by Rabbis Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, Shmuel Schecter, and Hershel Genauer, alumni of the Kelm Talmud Torah in Lithuania. Established in spring 1942, it was the first kollel in the United States, and had 20 members. When Rabbi Aharon Kotler came to New York from Europe in 1943, the kollel members asked him to lead the institute. Kotler agreed on the condition that it be moved to Lakewood and expanded with a yeshiva gedola, which opened with an initial enrollment of 14 students. Beth Medrash Govoha is a successor institution to Yeshivas Etz Chaim , which was located in Slutzk , in what is today Belarus . That institution was led by Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer and by Rabbi Aaron Kotler, until it was forcibly closed by the Soviet Revolution of 1917, which banned all forms of Jewish studies. Etz Chaim was reestablished in Kletzk, under then Polish rule by Rabbi Aaron Kotler, where it thrived until World War II and the destruction of much of European Jewry. Rabbi Kotler escaped the Nazis in 1941 and came to the United States where he opened BMG in 1943.

BMG's four campuses are located on 35 acres (0.14 km 2 ) in Lakewood, with numerous academic facilities, libraries and residence halls. The newest building was completed in the summer of 2015, on the land where Bais Eliyahu (the "trailers") used to be. It was first used on Rosh Hashanah 5776, seating over one thousand people for the services. The building was sponsored by Ralph Herzka and Meir Levine. The yeshiva is licensed by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and accredited by the Association of Advanced Rabbinical and Talmudic Schools . [ 6 ] It is authorized to grant bachelor's and master's degrees in Talmudics , as well as two post-master's diplomas in Talmudics. What students seek in Beth Medrash Govoha is to at first attain the skills necessary to properly understand and analyze the Talmud and to be able to do independent research on a scholarly level, and then use these skills to become accomplished Talmudic scholars. [ 5 ] Beth Medrash Govoha is a postgraduate institution and the general age of entry for new students is about 22. A high level of analytic skill and comprehension in understanding the Talmud is required, to the extent that a student is able to study a subject from the starting point all the way to the most complex areas of that subject on his own. The yeshiva does not have a remedial program for weak or unprepared students, and reaching the level required to be a successful student at the yeshiva takes several years of intense, full-time study. As such, in general, only students who have already studied in an undergraduate level yeshiva geared for students aged 18–22, will be accepted.

Main articles: Yeshiva § Structure and features , and Yeshiva § Curriculum The yeshiva studies are based on classical Torah study traditions using the Talmud , Rishonim , Shulchan Aruch , Responsa , and Rabbinic literature as texts and sources. Subjects Although all students study the Talmud regardless of whether they just joined the yeshiva or have already been studying for well over a decade, when students first arrive they study the mesechta (Talmudic tractate) that the yeshiva has officially selected to study at that time. This mesechta will always be one of eight that deal with areas of civil law. Some students will continue learning these subjects for many years, developing great expertise in these areas, while others will study other areas of the Talmud . Some students focus primarily on the practical application of the talmudic laws based on the Halachic conclusions of the Shulchan Aruch . Because of the large number of students in the Yeshiva there are groups studying virtually every subject in the Talmud . Beth Medrash Govoha is unique among Yeshivas in that a student can study any subject in the Talmud or Halachah that he prefers.

The daily schedule consists of three sedarim (study sessions) – a morning session, an afternoon session, and an evening session, in which a total of 10 hours of each day is spent studying. For each session there is a limud (subject) which is a chapter of the mesechta that that group is learning. The morning session is the most important of the sessions and is the subject that students will devote their after-hours time to and are most likely to write papers on; it is also the subject of the lectures.