A Builder of the English-Speaking Torah World
Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz of Yerushalayim has spent decades doing something more ambitious than giving shiurim: building the people who give them. As founder and head of The Jerusalem Kollel, he has trained generations of English-speaking rabbanim now serving communities across the globe — a quiet multiplication of Torah few teachers can claim.
Before that, years as a senior educator at Aish HaTorah placed him at the crossroads where searching Jews meet serious Torah, and it left its mark: he teaches with the patience of a man used to building from foundations.
The Torah of How We Treat Each Other
Rabbi Berkowitz's signature domain is bein adam lachaveiro — the halacha and soul of how Jews treat one another. His teaching on shmiras halashon, judging favorably, and the practical laws of interpersonal life takes the material out of the mussar shmuess and into the street, the office, and the kitchen.
In his hands these are not pieties but disciplines: sugyos with definitions, parameters, and cases, taught with the same rigor as any area of halacha — because, he insists, that is exactly what they are.
Halacha for Living Communities
As a posek and teacher of poskim, Rabbi Berkowitz addresses practical halacha across the whole terrain of Jewish life. His recorded shiurim let a listener sit in on the very training that forms community rabbanim — how a question is analyzed, how sources are weighed, how a ruling meets reality.
For the serious learner, this is a masterclass in how halacha actually works; for the layman, it is a window into the care behind every psak.
A Rebbi's Rebbi
Ask rabbanim who their rebbi is, and Rabbi Berkowitz's name comes up with striking frequency. That is perhaps the truest measure of a teacher — the teachers he has made — and it gives his recorded Torah a particular value: this is the voice that trained the voices.
For a family, his shiurim on middos and interpersonal halacha may be the most immediately life-changing Torah on any shelf.
Finding kosher Torah video for your family
FilteredTube is a kosher video service built for Jewish families — every single video is approved against one written standard before it can appear, with no open feed, no comments, and no surprises. It is a calm, safe place to look for the Torah and Jewish music you love.
If your family enjoys teachers like Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz, search FilteredTube for the speakers and topics that matter most to you. With a daf yomi shelf, a weekly parsha shelf, topic shelves, audio-only listening for the car, and a kids mode with a PIN, kosher Jewish video is easy to reach — and the approved catalog keeps growing every day.
At a glance
Key takeaways
- Rabbi Yitzchak Berkowitz founded and heads The Jerusalem Kollel, training English-speaking rabbanim worldwide.
- His signature Torah is bein adam lachaveiro — interpersonal halacha taught with full rigor.
- His shiurim are the training room of community rabbanim, open to any listener.
- Generations of teachers call him their rebbi — the truest measure of a teacher.
- Search FilteredTube for kosher, approved Torah video — the catalog grows every day.