Ramat Gan Yeshiva Students Oral-Tested on 1,296 Pages of Talmud

At the Sanhedrin Yeshiva in Rehovot, the final week of the school year was turned into an intensive learning initiative rather than a wind-down before vacation. The school organized a special study marathon in which students were orally examined by their teachers on Talmud pages, including mastery of the sugya, or full flow of the passage.

By the end of the week, the yeshiva logged 1,296 pages of Talmud on which students were tested. About 150 students took part in the project. Staff said the academic achievement was only part of the story, and that several personal moments revealed the deeper impact of the effort.

One seventh-grade student completed an exam on a page of Talmud but later felt he had not mastered it well enough. Although the page had already been credited to him in the system, he asked for it to be removed. When he learned that the record could not be deleted, he chose to study and be tested on another page without receiving credit, so his result would better reflect his actual knowledge.

In another case, a student who had struggled during the year set a target of ten Talmud pages for the week and met it. The yeshiva also said the project created unexpected study partnerships, including an older student who spent much of his time learning with a younger boy anxious about the workload. According to the staff, that joint study helped the younger student join the program and even inspired him to keep learning afterward. The mother of one student wrote that her son came home excited and spoke enthusiastically about the partnership with an older student. Yeshiva head Rabbi Yehonatan Chait said the initiative reflected a year-long educational process, adding, “When boys feel a real connection to learning, they can reach achievements that do not always seem possible in advance.”