Torah Judaism is used by Orthodox Jewish groups to describe their Judaism as being based on an adherence to the Torah's mitzvot as expounded in Orthodox halakha. These mitzvot include both the biblical and rabbinic mitzvot. The phrase Torah Judaism implies a belief and practice of Judaism that is based on the inclusion of the entire Tanakh and Talmud, as well as later rabbinic authorities, as sources of conducting oneself in life, and on the premise that the Torah emanates directly from God, as revealed at biblical Mount Sinai. The term "Torah Judaism" is consciously intended to label non-Orthodox Jewish religious movements as being divorced from the Torah.
A yeshiva is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha, while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The studying is usually done through daily shiurim as well as in study pairs called chavrusas. Chavrusa-style learning is one of the unique features of the yeshiva.
A kollel is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning sedarim (sessions); unlike most yeshivot, the student body of a kollel typically consists mostly of married men. A kollel generally pays a regular monthly stipend to its members.
Joseph Ber Soloveitchik was a major American Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. He was a scion of the Lithuanian Jewish Soloveitchik rabbinic dynasty.
Aharon Kotler was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and a prominent leader of Orthodox Judaism in Lithuania and the United States; the latter being where he founded Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood Township, New Jersey.
Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim is an Orthodox yeshiva based in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, New York, United States. It is primarily an American, non-chasidic ultra-orthodox Talmudic yeshiva. The yeshiva is legally titled Rabbinical Seminary of America (RSA) but is often referred to as just Chofetz Chaim as that was the nickname of its namesake, Yisroel Meir Kagan. It has affiliate branches in Israel and North America.
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas is a yeshiva in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.
Gil Ofer Student is the Book Editor of the Orthodox Union's Jewish Action magazine, former Managing Editor of OU Press, and an Orthodox Jewish blogger who writes about the interface between different facets of Judaism, specifically Orthodox Judaism and Modern Orthodox Judaism. He is an ordained non-pulpit serving Orthodox rabbi who serves as a member of the Editorial Committee of the Orthodox Union's Jewish Action magazine and the Director of the Halacha Commission of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. He is currently serving on his third term as a member of the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America.
Yosef Chaim Shneur Kotler was an Ashkenazi Orthodox rabbi from the Lithuanian movement and rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey from 1962 to 1982. During his tenure, he developed the Lithuanian-style, Haredi but non-Hasidic yeshiva into the largest post-graduate Torah institution in the world. He also established Lakewood-style kollels in 30 cities, and pioneered the establishment of community kollels in which Torah scholars study during the morning and afternoon hours and engage in community outreach during the evenings. Upon his death, he had served as the Lakewood rosh yeshiva for exactly the same amount of time as had his father, Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founding rosh yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha: nineteen years, seven months, and one day.
Shlomo Eliyahu Miller is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah. He is a Rosh Kollel (dean) and co-founder of the Kollel Avreichim Institute for Advanced Talmud Study, a haredi post-yeshiva educational institution in Toronto and head of its Beis Din. He is a Litvish Haredi Posek in Toronto.
Gadol or godol is used by religious Jews to refer to the most revered rabbis of the generation.
Beth Hatalmud Rabbinical College, or in short known as Bais Hatalmud, is a Rabbinical college located in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York.
Shmuel Kamenetsky is a Lithuanian–American ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) rabbi. He is the co-founder and rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia. He is also a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah.
The Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia is a Haredi Litvish yeshiva in the Overbrook neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its heads of school are Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, Rabbi Shimon Yehudah Svei and Rabbi Sholom Kaminetsky.
Beth Medrash Govoha is a Haredi Jewish Lithuanian yeshiva in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. It was founded by Rabbi Aaron Kotler in 1943 and is the second-largest yeshiva in the world, after Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. As of 2019, it had 6,715 students, 2,748 regular and 3,967 in Kollel status. The principal Rosh yeshiva since 1982 is Rabbi Malkiel Kotler. Talmud and halakha studies in the institution are carried in the form of over 200 small groups, Chaburos, which consist of several students mentored by a veteran, each pursuing its own specific curriculum with an emphasis on individual learning.
Yeshiva Gedola of Passaic is an advanced yeshiva in the Passaic Park neighborhood of Passaic, New Jersey catering to post-high-school-age men. Founded in 1973 by Rabbis Chaim Davis and Gershon Weisenfeld, and further developed by Rabbi Meir Stern who replaced Rabbi Wiesenfeld when the latter became ill before the yeshiva's opening, it developed into one of the leading yeshiva gedolas in the United States and revitalized the small Orthodox community of Passaic.
Yeshiva Gedola and Mesivta of Carteret informally, "YGOC", also called Yeshiva Tiferes Yehuda Aryeh, is a yeshiva and non-profit organization located in Carteret in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States.
Dov Schwartzman, also called Berel Schwartzman, was a Russian-born American Haredi Jewish rabbi, educator, Talmudic scholar, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Bais Hatalmud, which he founded in the Sanhedria Murhevet neighborhood of Jerusalem and led for over 40 years. He also founded and led the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia together with Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, and co-founded the first yeshiva in Israel for baalei teshuva. He taught tens of thousands of students, many of whom received semicha from him.
Moshe Hillel Hirsch is the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Slabodka in Bnei Brak, Israel. He is a native of the United States who studied at Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood under the Talmudic tutelage of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is an Orthodox Jewish day school located in Staten Island, New York that serves students from nursery through twelfth grade, with another branch in Edison, New Jersey. The school was founded in 1903 by Rabbi Shmuel Yitzchok Andron and named in honor of Rabbi Jacob Joseph, chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.
