Rabbi Eliyahu Alpert Brings His Unique Perspective
to Advanced Placement Calculus at the Mesivta
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alculus. A familiar-sounding word weight-
ed with an aura of mystery. What is it ex-
actly? Why do some people roll their eyes
at the mention of the word? Is it really the exclu-
sive domain of geniuses?
A peek inside Rabbi Alpert’s Advanced
Placement calculus class at Mesivta Chaim
Shlomo provides a few clues. There, a group of
11th and 12th graders are poring over a calculus
test. Hunched over their notebooks and calcula-
tors, they ponder the questions. How much time
and fuel are needed to plow X feet of snow in
50 driveways, with differing amounts of snow
accumulation in each driveway? How much will
your energy bill cost over 5 years, given a fluc-
tuation range of energy usage per month and
changing energy rates?
The clock ticks away as the students com-
bine calculus principles, logic, and intuition
to solve the problems. Foreheads wrinkle in
concentration. The room is quiet, except for
the nearly audible whir of mental machinery.
“Derivatives” and “integrals,” the nuts and
bolts of calculus, continue to hold the boys
hostage until the ringing bell signals the end of
the class.
Surprisingly, there is no dash for freedom.
Students crowd around Rabbi Alpert’s desk ea-
ger for clues as to whether their calculations are
correct. One student is still sweating over his
test. Suddenly he has a “eureka” moment. He
plugs his hunch into his calculations. Bingo—it
works! He springs out of his seat triumphantly.
Laughter. Fist-pumping.
“I have a real love for teaching this subject,
and it’s the boys who are responsible for that,”
says Rabbi Alpert. “They’re tremendously mo-
tivated. It’s an intense forty-minute class and
you’d expect them to bolt when the bell rings,
but they don’t. They want to be sure they grasp
all the angles.”
There are two Advanced Placement calculus
classes, comprised of small groups of 11th and
12th graders who are gifted with an aptitude for
mathematics. Rabbi Alpert teaches both classes—
as he has been doing for at least 20 years—in ad-
dition to teaching mathematics in the afternoons
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at two other local high schools.
He notes that while calculus is not for ev-
eryone, for those with a natural bent for higher
mathematics, it can be the launching pad for a
solid career in finance and related fields.
When he first began teaching the course,
he recalls, the job seemed to pose an ideological
conflict. “I was raised in an environment where
a young man’s “career” was becoming a ben
Torah and learning full time,” said Rabbi Alpert,
whose father, Rav Nisson Alpert zt”l, was a re-
nowned talmid of Hagaon Rav Moshe Feinstein
zt”l, the rav of Agudath Israel of Long Island and
a maggid shiur at Yeshivas Rabbeinu Yitzchak
Elchanan. “And here I was, practicing those val-
ues in my own life while coaching students for
college. Wasn’t that a contradiction?
“I soon realized that high school students
today come with a wide range of aptitudes and
plans for their future,” he reflected. “Many of our
boys will choose to sit and learn; some will not.
It’s important to give them something valuable in
high school that can be the stepping stone to a
productive—and kosher—career.”
Rabbi Alpert’s first love remains the study
of Torah. He enthuses about the benefits of ap-
plying calculus to solve certain halachic issues.
As an example, he cites an article by the late Dr.
Erich Erlbach, “Calculus Use in a Mishneh”,
which explains how knowledge of calculus
can facilitate the process of replacing mayim
she’uvim, unsuitable water, with kosher rain-
water to render a mikveh kosher.
“The Mesivta is fortunate to have a talmid
chacham of Rabbi Alpert’s stature teaching the
AP course to our students,” notes Rabbi Shimon
Dachs, general studies principal. “In addition to
being a superlative teacher, he is an outstanding
role model to our students.”
Rabbi Alpert is the proud father of seven sons
who have all graduated Yeshiva Darchei Torah’s
elementary school; six have gone on to learn at
Mesivta Chaim Shlomo. Some have even taken
their father’s AP calculus course. That all seven
children have flourished in the same yeshiva, he
says, is “a remarkable testament to the Yeshiva’s
extraordinary caring and overall excellence. !
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