16 February 2007

Recent Commentator Article on YCT

A few weeks ago, an article came out in the Commentator on YCT (my school) entitled, "Who is YCT? A Look at Upper Manhattan's Other Orthodox Seminary", written by Zev Eleff. I was glad there was something written on it, the last article since Avi Robinson's of four years prior. So it was nice and there were also good little quotes sprinkled throughout. I saw two things in the article that I thought I may correct.
1) The article states, "Second year students study laws of family purity and mourning; the third year students focus on Sabbath and laws and the following year concentrates on kashrut." In truth, years 2-4 study these topics, but do so on a three-year cycle. For instance, I am studying נדה (menstrual impurity) this year, כשרות (kosher food) next year, and שבת (Sabbath) the following [and my last] year. Previously, the menstrual impurity section was done along with mourning, but it has now become part of our lifecycles curriculum.
2) The article states, "Only four students have left the school without graduating since its inaugural year." I do not know at how this figure was arrived. I can immediately think of at least a half-dozen students who have left the school in my two and half years there. Unless the number was arrived at by considering just the rabbinical students and not including the mechina/beit midrash students.
Just thought I'd set a couple of things straight. Shabbat shalom.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you can give us your views of the recent yated Neeman article on YCT?

Drew Kaplan said...

anonymous,
I would most certainly like to dispense with some of my views on the article, but I am going to hold back for now.

Anonymous said...

The Torah observant community would also like to "dispense with" your views and those of YCT - that was the point of the article, I believe.

Anonymous said...

anonymous 1:55 -
Does the Torah observant community also need to learn proper English? That was definitely the point I took from the article.

Anonymous said...

The irony of that last comment in light of Drew's desire to "dispense with" some of his views in staggering.

Anonymous said...

Yes, indeed, it is "in staggering"