Planting Seeds and Harvesting Torah
Noach Tuchinsky
Beginners’ Program and Beit Midrash Alumnus
Noach Tuchinsky, age 29, is married and father to three children. He currently lives in Beitar, although he grew up in Hollywood, Florida. Noach attended Hebrew Academy of Greater Miami. He is a two-time alumnus of Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. After learning for two months in Ohr Somayach’s Beginners’ Program in the summer of 2004, he returned to the Ohr Somayach Beit Midrash Program from 2007-2009. He currently learns at Mir in Jerusalem and is a trained sofer who is in the middle of writing an English translation of halachot in Yoreh De'ah.
After graduating from high school, Noach spent six months at one of the many post-high school yeshivot in Israel, and then decided to try out the Beginners' Program at Ohr Somayach in order to confront the fundamental issues of belief and observance that had remained unresolved throughout his years of Jewish education. He attended Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb's lectures and Rabbi Dovid Kaplan's class. After two months in Ohr Somayach he returned to the US. Although not yet fully observant, the seeds had been firmly planted.
After two years in Touro College he realized that he was ready for more serious learning, and returned to Ohr Somayach to commit himself to learning Torah full-time.
The way Noach describes his experience is typical of many Ohr Somayach alumni. “Ohr Somayach doesn't ‘make’ people observant. Rather, it gives them logical, rational tools to make their own personal and individualized commitment to a more observant Jewish lifestyle.”
