Of course, university was coming up...

After attending the University of St. Louis in Washington I went to Yeshivah University in New York. There I was able to drink from the fountain of Judaism, and I began to discover the astonishing world of Torah. At the same time I used to go to Harlem to teach Puerto Rican children how to read and write. I wanted to prove that study makes a difference in the world of action.

When I finished my degree in Sociology, I longed for a time when I would be able to study Torah in a yeshivah in Eretz Yisrael. I felt a tremendous lack in sacred learning.

In the year 5726 (1976) I met "by accident" the Rosh Yeshivah of Yeshivat Hanegev, the gaon Rabbi Yissachar Meier, Shlita, who was then visiting in the U.S. He suggested to me that I should come to Yeshivat Toshia in the town of Tifrach, in the Negev. He said that he would arrange for me to study with a young American Torah student in English.

In the summer of 5728 (1978) I landed in Israel and arrived in the "desert." It was really a desert, but there was a small lamp of light in its midst -- Tifrach.

The Rosh Yeshivah arranged for me to begin studying with Rabbi Yitzchak Obermeister, Shlita. We turned our nights into days, studying Torah all the time.