Yuval Peer: 'Through Studying Gemara, I Succeeded in Passing the Bar Exams in Law'

Yuval Peer was on the verge of taking the bar exams in law, just as he decided to enter a yeshiva and devote his life to Torah study. After years of slow spiritual awakening, a painful car accident made it clear to him that it was time to take the step. Not long after opening the Gemara, he discovered an interesting parallel between its study and law studies. The greater discovery for him was regarding the challenging bar exams, which demand precision across numerous cases. Yuval realized that they could be tackled more easily by employing Jewish study methods. "Unique memorization techniques, using live examples, and summarizing the topics in diagrams were what led me to success," he says.

Split Life

Yuval began his childhood in a family of lawyers. "My father and my brother are in the field, as are two cousins," he says. "Since I can remember, it was clear that this was the path I would take, and indeed, it's what I chose later on." Over the years, his family's connection to the world of Torah and mitzvot strengthened. "The home I grew up in was always traditional; we made *kiddush* on Shabbat and kept kosher, yet my grandfather was more distant. He went through the hardships of the terrible Holocaust and kept saying in our ears that there is no Creator of the world. My eldest sister, who heard him, decided to explore the topic deeply, and not only did she find a Creator, but she also became *ba'alat teshuva*. Later, my brother and another sister joined her, and at the same time, my father began to strengthen his religious observance. Now he keeps Shabbat and kashrut, and occasionally goes to prayers and Torah classes."

Yuval in the yeshiva

After all his siblings became *ba'alei teshuva*, Yuval began his journey at the age of 14. "I started observing out of fear, and less from an internal connection, because I heard about the punishments for those who commit sins, and that's what drove me. Additionally, after all my siblings went through this process before me, it was only natural that I would behave at least a bit like them. Two years later, I even started attending a Torah class, which my sister's husband organized for me and my friends."

At the class, Yuval's return to religious observance became more significant. "I opened up to my brother-in-law about all the questions I had, and I started getting serious answers. Suddenly, I discovered that there's truth on this path, and fear began to give way to a real internal connection. I still lived outwardly secular lives, observing only a few select mitzvot, but something inside me had changed, and deep in my heart, a desire to progress in a different direction emerged. For instance, I could attend a party with friends and afterward tell Hashem with tears that I was sorry for being there. I knew where the truth lay, and whenever I diverged from it, I felt bad about myself. Ultimately, these pains led to growth, because after each such moment of regret for the way I was used to living, I managed to take on something more."

How do you explain the fact that four children from one family became *ba'alei teshuva*?

"It seems it came from my father - he's an honest man, a person with inner integrity, and we inherited this trait from him. Thanks to it, each of us began to search for truth in life."

An Uplifting Accident

After finishing high school, Yuval began law studies. "In the first two years of my studies, I was still a split person. On one hand behaving secularly, and on the other hand observing Shabbat," he says. "Over time, I became more strengthened in keeping mitzvot, but mentally it was difficult for me, and one particularly painful day, I felt I had to talk to Hashem about it. That's how I started doing *hitbodedut* quite regularly, and this closeness to Hashem helped me elevate myself. A few months later, I was already on a spiritual high, feeling connected to the Creator of the world like never before."

But then the blow came. "It was a normal day, I was driving on one of Tel Aviv's roads on my way to *hitbodedut*. The song 'You Have Turned My Mourning into Dancing' by Avraham Fried was playing in the car, and I sang along with it. Just then, feeling so whole and happy, a bicyclist suddenly crashed into me, trying to cross to the opposite lane and failing to do so in time. Amidst the shock of what was happening before my eyes, I thanked Hashem even for the accident, and immediately afterward I rushed anxiously to help him."

Yuval with his father, attorney Yossi Peer

The accident he was involuntarily involved in led Yuval to rethink life. "I saw how a person can be in the best and happiest state, and in one moment, Hashem changes everything for him. This reality shook me, and the question arose within me as to what these lives are really for and how I could make the most of them. The questions that raced through my mind ultimately led to the understanding that I need to enter yeshiva and begin studying Torah in a formal way. Although I had studied before, I did it mostly alone. I consulted with a rabbi, and he advised me to give a few more months to law studies to complete them, and only then enter yeshiva. Indeed, I followed his advice."

At the end of those months, Yuval arrived at the yeshiva 'Ahavat Aharon' in Bnei Brak. "While studying Torah, I also started preparing for the bar exams, which I had to pass to obtain a lawyer's license," he says. "These are exams that only about 50% of students manage to pass because they are difficult and complex. However, it was through studying Gemara that it became easier for me to do so. First of all, in the bar exams, you have to grasp many nuances among different cases, and anyone who studies Gemara knows far more nuances. This habit of deeply studying each subject and understanding the variances among its derivative cases helped me develop the same thinking for bar exams."

What helped Yuval even more was the unique memorization method he chose. "There is a rabbi I know who remembers entire pages of Gemara by heart, and I decided to follow his method. This rabbi hangs sheets in his home, with printed words of the Gemara, and reads them every few hours. This way the material enters his mind more easily until he remembers it entirely. I decided to take the diagrams I received during my studies, hang them on the wall, and memorize them every hour and a half. I had over 100 diagrams, and every day I went over 3 of them several times a day. For the rest of the time, I studied normally for the bar exams, but this repetition time after time engrained the material into my memory. Additionally, I realized that I needed to infuse emotion into my study, which activates both hemispheres of the brain - the right and left, and causes it to remember things better. So, I used many examples, just like in the Gemara, and they breathed life into the dry rules."

Usually, people with good memory are those who can hold so much material in their minds, perhaps you are one of them?

"Actually, no, I have fairly average learning and memory abilities, and that's why this method was significant for me. Much more than learning through long and tedious summaries. In conclusion, I'll just say that today I'm after the exam stage, which I had the merit to pass successfully. I've returned to yeshiva for full-time study, and my lawyer's license will wait for now so that I can fill myself with Torah."