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Commercial plants who prepare shofars for sale often use electric drills to widen the space in the mouthpiece. It is not uncommon that the drill accidentally perforates the shofar’s wall, posuling the shofar. It is also tragically happens that the guilty technician tries to save the shofar by filling the hole with putty and sanding it over to make it invisible to the untrained eye. Of course, the shofar remains posul, but the average consumer wouldn’t know how to detect that.

The avreichim at the Center for Kehillah Development in Yerushalayim spent a night in Elul constructing their own shofars so that they could see the process and learn how to distinguish a kasher shofar from a posul one.

A few weeks later, HaRav Moshe Bransdorfer of the B’datz Eidah HaChareidis, spent the day with the CKD avreichim teaching them how to identify when someone has tampered with an esrog to make it appear more “mehadrin” while simultaneously creating a p’sul invisible to the untrained eye. HaRav Bransdorfer also trained the avreichim in the subtle standards for identifying genuine hiddur in all arba minim.

A few weeks later, the avreichim began their weekly sofrus course. Each CKD avreich is trained as a sofer and actually writes his own Megillah. “Our goal is not to produce sofrim,” explained Rav Leib Kelemen, Dean of CKD. “In order to truly know how to poskin sheilos in Sifrei Torah, Tefillin and Mezuzos, a rav needs to thoroughly understand the process from beginning to end, and that’s not something that can be learned theoretically. You need to get your hands dirty.”

The Center for Kehillah Development’s goal is to train high-level rabbinic leadership for English speaking communities around the world. Rav Kelemen explained that in addition to getting multiple smichos and mastering hundreds of dapim of Gemara, the avreichim get shimush learning the halachos and practice of Sta”m, milah, shechitah and a host of other parts of real rabbinic life. The avreichim also get high level training in chinuch, marriage- counseling, and crisis-intervention.

Today the CKD has 20 exceptional avreichim, and it plans to accept a few more similarly talented avreichim this Elul. Their registration has begun, and as in previous years applications are being reviewed on a first-come- first-served basis. Avreichim between ages 25-30 who aspire to spend their lives in rabbanus, chinuch, or kiruv can find out more about the program by visiting www.c4kd.org or may apply by emailing [email protected].