Now the book is available in Jewish bookstores in the U.S. and Canada.

It is a must for Rosh Yeshivas, Menahelim, Kolleleit, Rebbes, Parents, BTs, and Bochurim.

You can also purchase it online at Feldheim.com or on Amazon.

I CAN Learn….and So Can You!

So many institutions today are throwing up their hands not knowing how to deal with students who struggle with learning. So many students are dropping out of the Yeshiva system because they feel they just aren’t cut out for learning. So many bnei Torah are going through the motions but not feeling any true geshmack in their learning.

I am thrilled to share with you the wonderful news that my newly published book “I CAN Learn”

(Feldheim) is now available at all local Judaica book stores and on Amazon.com. This book has relevance for every member of the Jewish community. It promises to be a valuable resource for parents, students and educators, Roshei Yeshiva, menahelim and baalei teshuva.

“I CAN Learn” offers solutions to the challenges faced in Jewish education today.

Fortunately, the solutions to all these problems are relatively simple, involving not much more than a return to traditional teaching methods that are part of our mesorah and endorsed by Gedolim. If all Torah schools would implement the suggestions in this book:

• Students would not face rejections when applying for Torah institutions.
• Challenging students would not be expelled but given the real help they need.
• Schools would not need to invest in costly special education programming in Hebrew subjects, but would be able to follow a simple method that really works and empowers and motivates learners.

My programs, that I have been using successfully for over thirty years, are clearly explained in the book. Whilst it is always better to work with a teacher, I have tried to present a practical step-by-step method to help with Torah learning, whether it is Chumash, Mishna or Gemara. The goal being to help more people than I could do through my one on one teaching. I have also tried to explain that there is no magic or mystique in the methods I use, even though the transformative results might make it seem as though there is. It would be relatively simple and extremely cost effective for schools to offer training in these methods for their teachers, saving countless dollars and years of heartache and suffering.

Anyone who reads this book will learn how to learn Torah independently and with simcha. If you do not need this kind of help yourself, there is almost certainly someone in your life who could be helped by this book. This is why I believe the book is a must-have for every Jewish home.

Enclosed is this email I just received today:

Good evening, Rabbi Abenson. It was a tremendous hashgacha that I walked into the seforim store this Friday to purchase a book for my daughter when I noticed your book “I CAN Learn”. I read the back cover and got very excited about it. After finishing the book over Shabbos, I feel like you really get it! With Hashem’s help, it seems like this is the yeshuah we were waiting for for so many years! Mrs F.

One of the main premises of the book is that Torah learning is the birthright of every Jew and Hashem has created everyone with the ability to learn, successfully and joyfully and independently at his own level. They just need to be given the right tools for doing so. Unfortunately most schools are following a content-based curriculum (striving to cover a certain number of parshiyos, mesechtas and sugyas in the school year), rather than a skill-based one. This means that too many students are ending up missing skills, whether they are in basic kriah, accurate translation, grammar, Rashi reading, and so forth. When they do not have the proper skills for learning, they are always struggling, and lose the joy. Once we teach the fundamental skills, students almost always finally love to learn because learning becomes what it is supposed to be, a satisfying and gratifying pursuit that brings you closer to Hashem.

Another important principle of the methodology that I describe in the book is that skills must be learned in the proper order, and we do not move onto a higher skill before the lower one is mastered. There is no point learning grammar and translation IF the kriah is still weak (and as I have written about countless times previously in these pages, kriah challenges affect individuals in all strata of Torah society, from five year olds to roshei kollel).

So many of the students with so-called “focussing problems” that are brought to me have been remedied by teaching skills, in many cases obviating the need for medication. I always explain to parents that just as they would probably lose focus, maybe even act up if forced to sit through lectures in Chinese for hours every day when they do not speak Chinese, then so too kids who do not understand Chumash or Gemara will lose focus or act up in Chumash and Gemara class. But once they are properly taught, and can understand, they start to focus and behave beautifully.

One of my 16 year old students from England – whose story was featured in “The Best Investment” describing his transformation from struggle to success – developed a beautiful chiddush all on his own. He showed how he saw that this teaching methodology that I had taught him is alluded to in the Torah itself. He carefully translated each word of the pasuk in Devarim (30:15) as follows.

כִּי קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ הַדָבָר מְאֹד בְּפִיךָ וּבִּלְבָבְך

לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ

Devorim 30:14

כִּי when

קָרוֹב אֵלֶיךָ is it close to you (every individual)

הַדָבָר is this thing (torah)

מְאֹד very (you can also learn very much not just those with big brains)

בְּפִיךָ first it needs to be in your mouth (read it)

וּבִּלְבָבְךָ in your heart (after reading than you can understand it)

לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ then we can do it (the Torah).

Learning Torah is something every Jew can do. It is not an elite occupation for a designated special few. Torah is a “morasha kehillas Yaakov” the inheritance and birthright of the whole klal Yisroel. If there are Jews who are not succeeding in being able to learn, they should be taught the missing skills.

First we need to learn how to read it. My student is referring here to something I describe in the book: the importance, even when learning Gemara at advanced stages, of reading the lines fluently and out-loud before even attempting a translation. Indeed this reading out loud a few times is a prerequisite for translation. The simple act of just reading a text out loud a few times makes it so much easier to understand and translate. You can try it right now on any text in Hebrew, Aramaic or even English to see the results for yourself!

Once reading is mastered, working on translation is next, using proper grammar skills to develop a true understanding of the meaning of the text. When this is mastered then the student is in position to look into the halachic and hashkafic implications of the text, which guide us on the proper path of a Torah life.

Serving and connecting to Hashem with joy and happiness depends on being able to learn His Torah. This book shows you how!

Contact us for more information, consultations, or speaking engagements.

Rabbi Dovid Abenson

ShaarHatalmud.com

Tel 1514.739.3629 whatsapp/text 1514.993.5300

Email: [email protected]