Meet Rabbi Yoel Oliel, an exceptional avreich from Argentina, who doesn’t just read it. He learns it from cover to cover, spending at least an hour on each issue.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Argentina is famous for many things, not least its harboring of Nazis after the Holocaust. But for religious Jews today, it’s become something else entirely—a place of Torah and growth. Buenos Aires, the capital, is home to most of the country’s Jews. Assimilation has taken its toll here as it has elsewhere, but its frum community is vibrant and strong, with schools, shuls, yeshivos, and organizations of every kind.
Family Roots
Rabbi Oliel’s family hails from Morocco. His grandfather, in a display of bravery and commitment to his people, fought in Israel’s Six-Day War. There, on an Israeli kibbutz, he met a lovely volunteer nurse from Argentina, and the rest, as they say, is history. They settled in Argentina, where they raised their family.
International Roaming
Rabbi Oliel spent his childhood years in Buenos Aires as part of the Syrian community, attending Jewish schools. Once he completed high school, he set off for Har Nof, learning in a yeshivah catering to Spanish speakers.
It was there that he first crossed paths with Toras Avigdor.
“My yeshivah was next to an American shul. Someone asked me if I could distribute these booklets. I said, ‘Sure, why not? It’s only two blocks from me.’ So I started doing that on Fridays, in my free time, just taking these booklets to the shul.
“After about a week, one of the guys told me, ‘Oh, you’re the one in charge! We love this, we wait for it all week, it’s the best part of Shabbos!’”
Rabbi Oliel was intrigued—but the booklets were in English, and English wasn’t yet his language. Then Covid hit, the yeshivah closed, and he found himself on a plane back to Argentina. It was different this time, though. He’d spent time on the holy soil of Eretz Yisrael, and couldn’t readjust to his hometown.
Lakewood and Toras Avigdor
Lakewood was calling him. Taking the plunge once more, Rabbi Oliel boarded a plane to the States. He spent two happy, successful years immersed in yeshivah in Lakewood, learning Torah and, remarkably, picking up a high-level spoken English.
Toras Avigdor, it turned out, wasn’t finished with him.
“All my friends told me it’s the best. They’d say, ‘Toras Avigdor is amazing, we love it!’ But my English at that time was very bad. I tried one, but it was hard—Rabbi Miller’s English is not easy.”
Settling Down
Those two years in Lakewood came to an end. And with them, the life of singlehood. It was time to start shidduchim. And for that, he needed to return to Argentina.
It’s been a year since his marriage, and Hashem has blessed him with a son, Yisrael Yedidyah, as well as a full spiritual life. His days revolve around kollel and teaching. He learns in the yeshivah of Rabbi Shmuel Aryeh Levine, a talmid muvhak of Rav Shach zt”l, and teaches Torah to a group of teenage boys, often incorporating Rabbi Miller’s Torah.
When he found out later that Toras Avigdor was available in Spanish, he jumped at the chance to read it himself.
“I started—and couldn’t stop. It was very important to me, an eye-opener, like my friends had told me. It took me about an hour to read the whole weekly one. It also gave me momentum. I started reading more and more consistently. I love the booklets. They help me, for example, before Shavuos or Pesach or Sukkos. I read one before the chag and it becomes a completely different chag. It helps me have more kavanah about the chag.”
Toras Avigdor has even found its way into his family life. When their baby was born, they couldn’t decide on a name for him. In one of the booklets, Rabbi Oliel saw Rabbi Miller discussing the beauty and significance of the name Yisrael. That was the name they chose.
Personal Impact
Toras Avigdor has helped Rabbi Oliel grow spiritually, well beyond the time he spends learning it each week. He’s built a beautiful Torah home based on mutual love and respect, and, at Rabbi Miller’s prompting, he started learning more Jewish history, even completing Sefer Yehoshua with his students. Those students thrive on Rabbi Miller’s teachings. They particularly enjoy the Q and A sections, which turn a good shiur into a great discussion.
The impact has reached into his character, too. He’s learned about the importance of holding back instead of responding. He hopes one day to read translations of Rabbi Miller’s full-length sefarim, and he’s planning to hang up a picture of Rabbi Miller in his living room.
“Toras Avigdor has made me more proud to be Jewish,” says Rabbi Oliel. “Read it and you’ll see—it will change your life. You just need to set aside the time.”
Nu, so how long do you spend learning Toras Avigdor each week?
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