JERUSALEM, Israel โ For much of his childhood and teenage years, Elisha Derrick looked much like many other Jewish teenagers growing up in Toronto.
He loved sports. Baseball and hockey occupied much of his attention. Professional leagues and athletic competition were central interests. Judaism was part of family life, but intensive Torah study was not.
Today, after completing a ten-month gap year at Aish in Jerusalem, Derrick says he is leaving Israel as a profoundly different person.
The Toronto native, who attended both the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, commonly known as CHAT, and later public school, said that pursuing a year of yeshiva studies was never an obvious next step.
Yet he also knew that moving directly from high school into university was not the path he wanted to follow.
“I always had this clarity in my mind that I didn’t want to go straight off to college or university,” Derrick said in an interview.
“The whole concept of consistently for the first 22 years of your life being in school and slaving away to some sort of superior teacher just for the score of a grade didn’t seem right to me.”
Instead, Derrick chose to spend his gap year at the efg@Aish program in Jerusalem, devoting himself to Torah study and personal growth.
His decision was influenced in part by his older brother, who never had the opportunity to attend yeshiva.
“He was a big advocate for me,” Derrick recalled.
A pivotal moment came in February 2025, when Rachelli Krongold, Director of Impact for NCSY and a Gap Year Specialist with Olami Launch, arranged for Derrick to participate in a five-day trip to Israel to explore post-secondary options.
During that trip, the group spent Shabbat at Aish in Jerusalem’s Old City.
For Derrick, the experience proved decisive.
“When we came to Aish for Shabbat, I knew that this was where my next step needed to be,” he said.
The decision also came during an especially difficult period in his life.
In the summer before his final year of high school, one of Derrick’s close friends passed away unexpectedly.
The loss forced him to confront profound questions about life, purpose, and identity at a young age.
“It made me realize how precious life is,” Derrick said. “Don’t wait for anything to happen. Live your life the way you want to live it.”
That realization became a driving force behind his decision to step outside the traditional educational path and dedicate time to self-discovery.
Even before departing for Israel, Derrick was already signaling a willingness to chart his own course.
The night after his high school graduation ceremony, he drove straight to his barber and had his hair bleached.
The act, he says, reflected a broader commitment to living authentically and making independent choices.
At Aish, Derrick encountered an environment unlike anything he had previously experienced.
Despite arriving with little background in Torah learning and no prior yeshiva experience, he said he immediately felt welcomed.
“Everyone was warm, everyone was looking to make new friends, looking to grow,” he said. “Everyone was comfortable being vulnerable with each other.”
One of the most significant influences during the year was Rabbi Yehuda Werblowsky, whom Derrick describes as a mentor and role model.
“He changed my life, just by being the man he is,” Derrick said.
“One of those people that everyone radiates to. Always smiling, always doing things for the sake of others. He is a very selfless person, and I learned a lot from him.”
During the year, Derrick immersed himself in Jewish learning, studying Nevi’im, Ketuvim, Mishnah, and beginning Talmud studies.
He quickly discovered a passion for Torah learning.
A fellow student once described Torah using an analogy that deeply resonated with him.
“Torah is like a bulldozer,” Derrick explained. “There are some guys who run way ahead of it, some who are getting pushed by it, and some who are sitting in that little scoop at the front. But everyone is getting pushed regardless.”
For Derrick, the impact of the year extends far beyond academics.
“When I look back at the person I was before I came to Aish, and compare him to the person leaving tomorrow, it’s night and day,” he said.
“Aish forever changed my life. The values that I intend to instill into my family, the wife I’m going to look for, the community that I’m going to reside in, it’s all a testament to what Aish has done for me.”
He added that the experience exposed him to dimensions of Jewish life and identity that had previously been absent from his experience.
“It’s really opened my eyes up to a whole other culture,” Derrick said. “This is a completely different side of Judaism that I never really saw before. You can’t put a price on that.”
Looking back at many of his peers who entered university immediately after high school, Derrick believes his gap year provided a unique opportunity for personal reflection and growth.
“My friends from Toronto went off to university straight out of high school,” he said. “They went in with very closed minds, not really thinking for themselves. What I’ve accomplished in a year, in terms of my own personal journey, is on a different level entirely.”
As he prepares to return to Aish for another year of study, Derrick hopes other young Jews will consider experiencing Torah learning firsthand.
Drawing on a teaching he recently heard at a Shabbat meal, he offered a message to those who may be uncertain about exploring Jewish learning.
“Torah is like water,” he said. “If you put it in a bag and carry it on your back as a burden, it will weigh you down. But if you put it down, let it flow, and step into it, something else entirely happens. It will carry you.”
“If you invest yourself in the Torah and let the waves take you with it,” he added, “it will be beautiful, life-changing, eye-opening, and forever change your life.”
Derrick says that when he returns to Jerusalem next year, he may bring along another newly discovered passion: the guitar his father purchased for him during his final year of high school.
