e blazed trails," recalls Rabbi Shaya Karlinsky. He's talking about his co-founding, with Rabbis Hirshfeld and Feigenbaum, of the Darche Noam institutions in 1978.

The trails blazed included innovative programs for baalei teshuvah that offered ways to cope with "baal teshuvah burnout," the exhaustion that comes from making significant lifestyle changes too quickly; that accentuated "slow growth," a step-by-step approach to making Torah become a natural part of one's life, while respecting the individuality and talents of each student; and that gave students the tools to learn independently.

These ideas, Rabbi Karlinsky notes with quiet pride, marked a path for successful integration of newcomers to the Torah world that was considered groundbreaking at the time, but that have influenced virtually all other baal teshuvah yeshivas in the interim.

Trail blazing remains Rabbi Karlinsky's job. As Dean of Darche Noam Institutions, he views his role as being the eyes and ears of the institution, anticipating the effects of developing social and educational trends and then communicating the ever-changing set of needs of the students to the educational staff. Students today arrive with very different educational and cultural backgrounds compared to those of 10 years ago. Sound bytes, MTV and the internet, "political correctness" and changes in the universities have all had their effect on the minds and souls of today's student. "We deal with baalei teshuvah who come from the larger world, and we need to tailor our educational programs to appeal to them both intellectually and spiritually, so that we can successfully recruit and then educate them," he says. Rabbi Karlinsky works untiringly, keeping his ear to the ground and his mind open, to ensure that the programs and curriculum remain aligned with the needs of the students; helping the staff to successfully educate each group of students to become thinking and feeling Torah Jews.

Rabbi Karlinsky's personal history also cuts an unusual track for the Torah world. A Los Angeles native who grew up in Bnei Akiva learning a "love of Eretz Yisrael," he came on aliyah in 1968 to study at Kerem b'Yavneh. "In those days not to go on kibbutz hachshara was almost treason in Bnei Akiva," he laughs - but he wanted to learn Torah.

After learning for two years in the hesder yeshiva Kerem b'Yavneh, he moved to the haredi Mir Yeshiva. There he met Rabbi Hirshfeld, who remains his chevrusa to this day, and made the decision to devote his life to Jewish education. After getting smicha from Israel Torah Research Institute in 1973, he returned to America, where he earned an M.Ed. from Temple University, focusing on cognitive psychology and theories of learning. These, he explains, provided the knowledge and the framework that he could transfer to methods of teaching Torah. Rabbi Karlinsky also worked part-time as a highly sought after photojournalist and photo-illustrator, from his days on the UCLA Daily Bruin until his "last major project," a 1985 Feldheim book, My First Book of Mitzvot. Rabbi Karlinsky's educational studies and training, coupled with his unique talents and interests, have been vital in enabling him to connect to the varied group of students coming to learn at Darche Noam.

When he returned to Israel, the baal teshuvah educational system was in its early stages, and he taught in programs aimed at English speakers, including Aish HaTorah and Shapell College. In 1978, he co-founded Darche Noam, with a first-year class of 8. Eighteen months later, the yeshiva merged with Shapell's, under Rosh Yeshiva Nosson Kamenetsky. "Usually institutions split as their Roshei Yeshiva take different paths," Rabbi Karlinsky reminisces. "Here, the Roshei Yeshiva realized that we had similar philosophies, goals and student bodies and should get together." Today Darche Noam serves 65-70 male students and 30-35 women.

Rabbi Karlinsky has invested considerable time in a number of different projects, all aimed at enriching the student's experience in the Beis Midrash and for the alumni in their own communities. These include significant time delving into the works of the Marahal of Prague and creating and distributing shiurim to alumni via email. The email project - begun over eight years ago when only 15 alums had email accounts - has blossomed with our present day website, www.darchenoam.org. The distribution of Rabbi Karlinsky's shiurim on Derech Chaim, the Maharal's commentary on Pirke Avot, reaches over 5,000 online subscribers via Project Genesis. An aficionado of classical music, he finds the structure, flow and dialogue of music resonant with his study and teaching of Torah. "In Gemara, too, you want to sensitize students to structure, and to the flow and dialogue of Talmudic thought."

At the same time, his teaching style is "interactive, confrontational, and challenging," not restful. "Learning is not a spectator sport, it's a dialogue, just like the Gemara is. My students check their ego at the door - and so do I. We're searching for what best explains the text, what is compellingly logical." At the end of the day, Rabbi Karlinsky's chief concern is not just giving his students the tools they need to properly explain the text but imparting to them those tools necessary to successfully integrate into the Torah world and communities. And in that, too, Rabbi Karlinsky is sharply at the cutting edge.