Semikhah

“Students who successfully complete the Semikhah Initiative are able to offer pesak (rabbinic guidance) that is true to the sources and guided by moral integrity.”

Yashrut trains outstanding scholars for Orthodox Semikhah through the study of Talmud and Halacha. Students tackle the full range of halachic literature, synthesize the material, and exhibit creative thinking. The subject matter rotates each year to include Yoreh Deah, Even Haezer, Orech Hayim and other areas of advanced Talmud Study. Students who successfully complete the Semikhah Initiative are able to offer pesak (rabbinic guidance) that is true to the sources and guided by moral integrity.

The Semikhah shiur is taught in a collaborative seminar style, marked by lively student engagement and participation of multiple faculty members. The faculty understand their most essential role as co-seekers of peshat, along with the students. Students not only share their insights and difficulties with the group, but are also called upon to periodically lead shiur. The program carries a high expectation of students’ active preparation and involvement, efforts that allow for an intense, engaging, and enjoyable shiur experience.

Yashrut’s Semikhah is “old school” – viewed as more of a process than a program. Students enter the experience with high proficiency in Talmud study, joining fellow students and faculty committed to a life of Torah and leading the Jewish people. Students gain unique perspective around roles of rabbinic leadership that are inspired by the traditional learning and teaching relationship between Rebbe/mentor and student . Each student receives an individualized learning experience and spends multiple years studying Halakha with Rav Landes and Yashrut faculty leading to oral, face-to-face Semikhah examinations.

At Yashrut  we read the text deeply, openly, and interestingly to see what legal consequences can, and often should, be drawn. Peshat, lamdanut, psak halakha, and good humor meet. If there is one additional lens that we value highly, it is that of yashrut – moral integrity: to find the moral meanings, problematics, and resolutions in the text, and its relevance to our lives.

Students enter the Semikhah Initiative with considerable experience and ability to learn Talmud and Halakhah. Some potential students might be instructed to first spend a year or more in Yashrut’s Classic Talmud Program.

Yashrut musmachim/ot (ordainees) go on to serve in a wide variety of roles, leading and organizing a diverse array of communities and causes. Applying their rigorous textual training and their refined moral commitments, rabbis with Yashrut semikhah are equipped to express their individual strengths in service of bettering the Jewish world and humanity.

Get a taste of Yashrut’s Semikhah in this inspiring recap of Yashrut’s 2024 Semikhah Tekes: