Pivoting Toward the Center?

R' Dovid Leibel (VIN)

Last night I had the privilege and pleasure of attending the 75^th annual banquet of Arie Crown Hebrew Day School (ACHDS). Privilege because of the values it espouses which these days seem like a rarity. Pleasure because I was able to sit with my wife among the 1000 mostly Orthodox guests that attended. Many of whom were in fact ‘card carrying’ Charedim that were doing the same thing.

Pleasure also because of a full 23 piece orchestra performing Beethoven’s 9^th  Symphony ‘Ode to Joy’,  Aaron Copeland’s ‘Rodeo’, as well as a medley of award winning movie themes by composer John Williams.  But most importantly because Arie Crown is not afraid or embarrassed to mention the phrase ‘secular studies’. (I recall once attending a Charedi elementary school graduation where their well educated general studies principal and 7^th grade Rebbe spoke only about Limidei Kodesh. Almost as though Limudei Chol was a dirty word!)

Arie Crown Head of School, Rabbi Eli Samber – a former Avreich at the Lakewood affiliated, Chicago Community Kollel - proudly touted the fact that his school – known for inspiring awe for God (the Mida of Yiras Shomayim of Bein Adam L’Makom) and character development (the Midos of Bein Adam L’Chavero) also  boasts a high quality dual curriculum of religious and secular studies. And that many of its graduates have filled or continue to fill positions of the highest order in both of those worlds. (The late Mir Rosh HaYeshiva, R’ Nosson Tzvi Finkel among them.)

I mention this in light of what seems to be a promising turn in the Charedi world pointing a bit more in the direction of working for a living instead of studying Torah full time. In what can called a revolutionary speech, VIN reported that  a highly respected Charedi leader said the following:     

In an unusual statement for a chareidi leader, Rabbi Dovid Leibel, the president of the Achvas Torah communities, spoke at a meeting for hundreds of members of the communities in Beit Shemesh and stressed that chareidi married men should be encouraged to join the workforce and that this is Lechatchila (preferable behavior). 

This has always been my own view. But for quite some time now, this view has been abandoned in favor of encouraging - if not outright demanding - that every single student study in Yeshivos for as long as possible. Which in most cases means well beyond high school or even marriage. 

The idea being the ‘Desslerian’ one which goes something like this: Even if we send a 1000 people into the Beis HaMedrash and only one person becomes a Gadol – while the rest flounder, it is still worth sacrificing those 999 people because Klal Yisroel needs Gedolim. 

It’s true. We need Gedolim. (How one defines Gedolim is beyond the scope of the post.) But the idea that we need to sacrifice everyone else as the only way to do that, never rang true with me. That is, however, the way the Charedi world sees it. That - and the fact that there is so much Torah material to study - is why they structured their educational system along ‘Torah only’ lines.

I had always insisted that anyone with the potential to be a Gadol should consider Torah study as a career. Although in my view they should also be well educated in Limudei Chol as well - that does not preclude a lifetime of Torah study. The greatest example of a Gedolim like that are R’ Yoshe Ber Soloveichik, his brother R’ Ahron, R’ Aharon Lichtenstein, and R’ Hershel Schachter.

But the vast majority of students need not be sacrificed for the sake of the few who ‘make it to the top’. Each individual must utilize his own God given talents in service to God and not ignore them in pursuit of a goal they are not really suited for.

The counter argument that I keep hearing is that some people are late bloomers. Had they not ‘stuck it out’ we wouldn’t have had them as Gedolim. And that’s the reason that 1000 people need to be thrown into the Beis HaMedrash to get one Gadol.

Well late bloomers will find their way. If they don’t, they probably wouldn’t even if they stayed in the Beis HaMedrash for 1000 years. 

But that view is completely rejected by the Charedi world. Especially in Israel but increasingly in the US. Every single Charedi student is encouraged to be part of that ‘1000’.  The process by which those 1000 are tested requires devaluing and abandoning any study of Limudei Chol as part of their educational system.

While it’s true that a lot of Charedim eventually do find their way into the workforce. And in many instances catch up enough with their secular and Dati, MO, or Centrist counterparts and find jobs that require such an education. But not everyone is capable of doing that. They are relegated to low paying jobs that do not require any secular education.

That a respected Charedi Rav - who studies Torah full time himself - has publicly endorsed the idea of working for a living as a legitimate primary choice for all Charedim - is a welcome new sign. It gives me hope that the pendulum is now swinging back to the center where it naturally belongs. He is in effect saying that full time Torah study is not for everyone. It is really only for the elite – as it was for hundreds of years in pre Holocaust Europe.

With this pronouncement comes responsibility. If this idea catches on, then Charedi leaders have an obligation to make sure their students are given the chance to succeed by offering them a dual curriculum of Limudei Kodesh and Limudei Chol at least through high school. That would level the playing field in the market place for jobs. 

Will this happen? I doubt it. But logic dictates that it should. No?