The milky fork somehow ended up in the meaty sink which was full of dirty cutlery – do I need to kasher the fork and the other cutlery? If I taste some chicken soup but do not swallow it – do I need to wait the length of time that I normally wait between meat and milk? I cut the onion with the meaty knife and then cooked it in my cheese omelet – can I eat the omelet and do I need to kasher the frying pan? These and numerous other questions are impossible to answer unless one has a thorough knowledge of the laws of Issur v’Heter.   As the head of a household every ben Torah has a responsibility to know Hilchos Issur v’Heter. Furthermore, we eat three times a day, thus our encounters with food are very frequent.  But what many people don’t realize is that the level of kashrus of the food that we eat directly affects our neshama and thus our ability to learn Torah and connect to Hashem. It can be helpful to read one of the many books that explain the basic laws, but to really understand the halachos and know how to apply them, it is essential to learn Hilchos Issur v’Heter with the background discussion of the Gemara and commentators.  Unlike many other areas of halacha, Issur v’Heter requires simultaneous knowledge of many different sugyos to properly answer almost every halachic question. What is the challenge we face?  It can take several years for a full-time advanced Torah learner to cover the laws of Issur v’Heter in depth.  So how can a working ben Torah, or one with less advanced skills, begin this seemingly daunting task? Now there is a solution.  World famous Rosh Yeshiva HaRav HaGaon Yitzchak Berkovits shlit’a used his vast knowledge to arrange all the Gemaras with the commentators on each area of Hilchos Issur v’Heter and present it in the form of source sheets that cover material from the Gemara through the practical halacha.  This enables one to cover the main opinions in each topic and gain a deep understanding of the halacha without being overwhelmed with too much information.   This was created for full-time Torah learners who have advanced Hebrew skills and can devote many hours each day to learn.  What about busy bnei Torah who have limited time to learn but want to properly master Hilchos Issur v’Heter? Two of the Rabbi Berkovits’s close talmidim, Rabbi Yehonasan Gefen and Rabbi Yakov Pesah, with the Rav’s haskama, took on the monumental task of adapting the Hebrew sheets into English.  The material is written with care and great clarity, and includes the various opinions in the contemporary halacha, including many relevant practical cases. All of this started many years ago when Rabbi Gefen first created and taught such a curriculum for Hilchos Shabbos.  Meanwhile, independently, Rabbi Yakov Pesah was developing what would ultimately become the ‘Mitzvas Talmud Torah’ Program by Rabbi Berkovits. Several years ago, they joined forces and together co-founded the ‘Kinyan Hilchos Shabbos’ Program for men and launched it online.  It became an instant worldwide success.  This was followed by the ‘Hilchos Bein Adam L’Chaveiro’ Program for men developed by Rabbi Gefen based on the curriculum of Kollel Linas Hatzedek/Center for Jewish Values a premier international Bein Adam L’Chaveiro resource. Women’s cohorts for both of these programs […]