Torah-web-athon from LA hopes to set a new record, at 18 hours

To raise awareness and funds for Jewish education, Rabbi Shlomo Einhorn of Los Angeles will live-stream his attempt to deliver the longest Torah class in history, from Dec. 23 at 11:59 pm to Dec. 24 at 6 pm, PST.

Rabbi Einhorn is going for the record by conducting an 18-hour live streaming, longest-ever Torah shiur to raise awareness and funds for Jewish education.

He will focus on a different subtopic every hour for the full 18 hours, and the lectures promise to be eye opening, controversial, exciting and enlightening. At the end of the 18 hours there will be a dinner celebration with community members and the student body at Yavneh Hebrew Academy, an Orthodox day school where he is dean.

His students will be celebrating their own achievement, mastering 18,000 questions on sefer Bereishit.

With a goal of raising $200,000 towards Jewish education, viewers can watch and donate by going to www.longestshiur.com

Why 18 hours? We live in a world where everything needs to be way under 18 minutes (even Matzoh), he said, a world where our attention span is rapidly depleting. This is an attempt to shift to the other extreme. A force against nature.

“I’m not sure I can do all 18 hours,” says Rabbi Einhorn, “but I will give it everything I have. You can watch me battle with joy for all 18 hours or by stopping by for any part of the event.

Rabbi Einhorn is a musmach of the RIETS Theological School of Yeshiva University and he earned a Masters in Education from YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration.

Rabbi Steven Weil, senior managing director of the Orthodox Union, called Rabbi Einhorn “the top young Orthodox rabbi in all of North America.”

“He puts an inordinate amount of time into learning all aspects of Jewish and secular knowledge,” Rabbi Weil said.

Rabbi Einhorn, author of Judaism Alive, is the former Head Rabbi of New York’s West Side Institutional Synagogue. Seven years after assuming that position, this once empty shul was drawing over 400 people each week and had increased synagogue membership by 70 percent.

HeHe is also known for his ability to quote from dozens of Torah sources while at the same time referencing pop culture heroes and self-help gurus.

To prepare for his 18-hour lecture, Rabbi Einhorn is training with a vocal coach and doing other exercises to get in shape for the longest shiur ever.