Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot

Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot is Chair of the Departments of Bible and Jewish Thought, as well as a maggid shiur in the Talmud and Halakha Departments at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York City . He is the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Teaneck , NJ . He also serves on the Judaic studies faculty at the SAR High School and the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education.

R. Helfgot is a graduate of Yeshiva College with honors and was subsequently ordained by RIETS after studying for a number of years in its Kollel program. He also received a Master's in Jewish Education from the Azrieli Graduate School of Education and completed graduate work in Bible at the bernard Revel Graduate School .

He studied for a number of years in Israel with Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein at Yeshivat Har Eztion and the Gruss Institute, to whom he remains a close disciple, currently editing some of his Hebrew essays for publication.

He has published widely in English and Hebrew in areas of Bible, Jewish law and Ethics, Jewish Philosophy and contemporary events. He is the author of Divrei Berakah U-Moed,(2003) a collection of Hebrew novellae on halakhic topics as well as the editor of Community, Covenant and Commitment :Selected Letters and Communications of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (2005) and The YCT Companion to the Book of Samuel(2006). In February 2012, a collection of his essays on Bible, entitled Mikra and Meaning will be published by Koren/Maggid Publishers. He is also serves as the associate editor of the Meorot Journal, on the ediotrial board of Jewish Educational Leadership and the immediate past editor of Or ha-Mizrach.

R. Helfgot is a member of the executive committee of the Orthodox Caucus, on the steering committee of the Orthodox Forum, an officer of the International Rabbinic Fellowship and a board member of Yeshivat Har Etzion. He and his wife Rachel ,and their four young boys, reside in Teaneck , NJ .

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