The Beit Midrash Program is a one-year immersive learning program designed to enhance prospective semikha students’ Jewish textual literacy, fluency and skills.

Who should apply to the Beit Midrash Program?

  • students with familiarity and some experience learning Jewish texts

  • have at least an advanced-beginner level of Hebrew

  • hold a college degree

  • be engaged in Jewish communal life

  • find personal meaning in living halakhically

  • be excited about having an immersive Torah learning experience

  • be interested in the possibility of pursuing rabbinic education and a rabbinic career in the future

How do I apply to the Beit Midrash Program?

  1. Written application: This includes sections about your educational background, personal history, personal statements, and two references.

  2. Admissions Interview: Applicants offered an interview will meet with members of the admissions committee to discuss their educational background and candidacy.

  3. Learning Skills Assessment: Meet with a faculty member to discuss your learning experiences and assess your Hebrew and Aramaic reading and translation skills, understanding of concepts and structures in Talmud and key commentaries, and capacity for learning advancement.

YCT admits students of any race, color, national origin, or ethnic origin. All documents submitted in support of an application for admission become the permanent possession of YCT and cannot be returned to the applicant.

Application Deadline: March 30, 2026
YCT offers qualified students tuition remission and a generous monthly living stipend. 

For more information email admissions@yctorah.org.

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Semikha

Rikmah

Rikmah

YCT student learning Black and white photograph cropped of Rabbi Aaron Portman. Image of a man in grey scale with a transparent background. He has light skin, appears to be in his 30s, and can be seen from the chest up. He is hovering over a large open sefer, possibly Gemara, where the outside of the pages seems to be textured with blotches of color. He has thick, dark, short hair that is swept to the right, half closed eyes and a wide open mouthed smile. He is wearing a white keepah with a hair clip on the left, circular wire rim glasses, a ribbed dark sweater and a checkered button down shirt and a ring on his left ring finger. There is nothing else in the picture besides the transparent background so he appears to be floating in the air.

Beit Midrash

A blurry photo-realistic stock image called "bohemian-man-with-his-arms-crossed". Image of a man standing straight and directly facing the camera and visible from the waist up. The whole image is in grey-scale with a transparent background. He has a light skin-tone, a full-faced, bushy, dark, beard and mustache and short, wavy, dark hair. He seems to be smiling but his facial hair covers most of his mouth. He is wearing large, circular, black framed glasses, a mid-tone fedora with a woven checker pattern and a long sleeved comfy shirt with ribbed cuffs. He is also wearing a scarf wrapped twice around his neck with the ends not visible, the scarf has horizontal stripes going in a pattern from light to dark. His arms are crossed and he as a significant amount of hair on his fore-arms.

Jewel