The Captain and His Rabbi

By COLlive reporter

There was an unusual scene captured by COLlive contributing photographer Levik Hertzel when parents were sending off their children to board the buses on Eastern Parkway to spend the summer season in overnight camps.

Rabbi Nachman Wilhelm, who runs his own Yeshivas Kayitz Minnesota (YKM) this time of the year, was spotted with a soldier in U.S. Military uniform who said he is a Chaplain (CPT) and his name is Moshe Lans. He couldn’t comment further about himself without the approval of his superiors.

But Rabbi Wilhelm was able to fill us in.

“Moshe Lans is stationed out of Fort Hood, Texas, and is a diligent talmid and friend. He’s someone I have gotten to know very personally through his participation in Online Smicha,” an e-learning rabbinical ordination program that Wilhelm founded 2 years ago.

“He’s the type of talmid that tunes in to every shiur I give online, whenever it is and no matter where he is stationed in the world. One week he may be in Fort Hood, and the next week he is logging in from a far-off foreign country whose name I don’t even ask. He’s always on time, and like a soldier, Moshe is a ‘chayal’ in all aspects of his studies as well,” commented Wilhelm.

According to Rabbi Wilhelm, Lans has been involved with other distance learning programs in rabbinical ordination, but he praises onlinesmicha.com for the personalized attention and live interactive shiurim, something Lans has pointed out to Wilhelm that other programs simply do not offer.

The Captain logs in to the virtual classroom from a remote PC or laptop computer and joins the learning as Rabbi Wilhelm motivates, engages, and brings together all types of committed and dedicated students from around the world – from shluchim, to doctors, to lawyers, and even soldiers, apparently.

Online Smicha is now accepting applications for the fall semester and can tailor a program to your level. For more info, visit onlinesmicha.com.