Rabbi Yaacov Benamou believes that the only way to bring value to Jewish traditions and Judaism is through education. That’s why he teaches more than 10,000 people year-round through the Jewish Rockville Outreach Center, an organization he founded in 2006.
Learners attend classes from Rockville and the surrounding areas and, now, all over the world due to a virtual option.
Some of Benamou’s current classes include a two-part series on the “nuts and bolts of the High Holidays, Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret,” the laws of teshuvah and Tanakh.
“One of the most important things is that no Jew can possibly celebrate the High Holidays if you don’t know the 10 chapters of ‘Maimonides on Teshuvah,’” Benamou said, referring to the rabbi and philosopher who became one of the most influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.
Benamou added that teshuvah is the process of repentance, which is paramount in observing Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“What [are] the High Holidays all about?” he asked. “It’s about repentance, renewing ourselves and beginning fresh, coming back to a point in our life when we can start over again, and this time, we have a better understanding about life because the person grows and becomes older. If he’s been educated all along, his understanding and deep analysis of life grows in an unbelievable way.”
Benamou said he teaches Maimonides “all the time” during and leading up to the High Holidays. Anyone can come to a class free of charge, regardless of prior experience. His classes range from curious beginners to advanced scholars.
“It’s fascinating how many people come every year to study it again and again and again, and they never feel they know it, because every time, I give [a] different dimension of the class and give a deep analysis of the text,” he said.
He added that up to half of his students are observant Jews who grew up observant and attended Jewish day schools. Some have even completed a more advanced education through an American or Israeli yeshiva, “and they still find [my classes] as a main source of inspiration,” Benamou said. “So it’s not just for newcomers; it’s for everyone.”
JewishROC’s classes are text-based, but material is translated from Hebrew into English, making the texts accessible to a wider audience.
“I teach in English and I refer to text in English, and I just mention the Hebrew text,” Benamou said. “Slowly, people are introduced to the Hebrew text, and they start learning Hebrew.”
With Yom Kippur on the horizon, Benamou reflected that the holiday emphasizes relationships, which he’ll discuss in his upcoming classes and services.
“As I teach here in Washington for the past 22 years, I found that … the center of this holiday [is] our relationship with fellow Jews and our fellow friends in general: Jew or non-Jew,” Benamou said. “That is what Yom Kippur is all about.”
Another key aspect of Yom Kippur is our relationship with God.
“Many people are having a very hard time [with their relationship with God],” Benamou said. “[With] a relationship between human beings, maybe they can relate to some extent and in a deep way. But with God, it’s extremely difficult, no matter how learned is the person.”
Benamou said that is the issue that “occupies the mind” of many of his students. Yom Kippur is the “opportunity to resolve [this relationship], to understand it, to relate it, to deal with it and to come to some kind of comprehension to where I am in that relationship with Almighty God.”
He added that his classes prompt “tons and tons” of questions, which is why Benamou also offers spiritual counseling to help people combine what they’re learning with their lives.
The rabbi and spiritual leader not only teaches two daily classes most days — with his son, Rabbi Yudi Benamou, teaching two evening classes per week — but he also leads services.
“The services at JewishROC are meaningful and always educational,” Rabbi Yaacov Benamou said. “I always educate the people as we do the service, so they grow through that aspect of spirituality when they come to worship.”
