I wanted to get in to a certain yeshivah.
“You have no chance,” people in the know told me. “It’s a yeshivah for metzuyanim.”
I wanted to be with the good boys in this yeshivah, I wanted that “matzav” in learning, which would obligate me as well, and there were several other things I wanted, which I would find in this yeshivah.
“It’s a yeshivah that accepts only a certain number of boys,” a friend explained. “And you need connections in order to get in there. Listen,” he said, preparing me for the disappointment that would surely come, “it’s not that you’re not successful; it’s simply the hanhalah there. Why insist on something that’s doomed to failure from the start?”
But I insisted. I asked them to allow me to take an entrance exam, even if they had no intention of accepting me. “This is a very difficult test,” I was warned. But I wanted the challenge.
I showed up, and the rebbi who interviewed mebochen asked involved questions about the masechta. Baruch Hashem, I knew how to answer all the questions. “How many times are Abaye and Rava mentioned in the masechta?” he asked as his final question.
I knew the answer to that question as well – and I was accepted into the yeshivah.
How did I know the material so well? How did I know to answer the question about how many times those Amora’im are mentioned in the masechta? The answer is that not long ago, I was tested in the framework of a certain organization.
