When I first heard about this Yeshiva, I had to laugh. A Secular Yeshiva?! What could that possibly mean? And when I started reading an article about it in Ha’aretz, I had the same attitude. In the opening paragraphs the author of this article’s approach to traditional Roshei Yeshiva as one of great deference. I then chuckled at the following:
“For some reason - maybe because of the laid-back personality of the rosh yeshiva, maybe because of her blue jeans - I allowed myself to speak to her in a way I never would have spoken to any of the yeshiva types I'd known before”
And indeed there is plenty to criticize about this place. It is certainly not a true Makom Torah. Perhaps one can even say it is a Makom Tumah. Most of the totally bare headed students there eat on Yom Kippur! My initial thoughts with respect to this place were that they are just a bunch of secularist Jews with an agenda to learn Torah in order to better be able to disprove it, or disparage it. But that is not the case.
This is a school where learning is taken quite seriously. And it seems that there is no agenda. Not a religious one or a secular one. The idea as stated by its “Rosh HaYeshiva” is to learn Torah L’Shma. Of course by Orthodoxy’s definition this cannot be Torah L’Shma. One must first be a Maamin... a believer... and a committed Shomer Torah and Mitzvos... observant. One cannot eat on Yom Kippur and say he is learning L’Shma. But in the sense that she means it it is L’Shma. Not for the sake of heaven but for the sake of Torah knowledge and no other reason.
The people who come here are either entirely secular in many cases from anti Frum backgrounds. Or they are from Frum backgrounds who have gone off the Derech… and yet want to re-attach and learn a bit more about Judaism from the classic sources without the pressures of staying Frum.
Pleases do not misunderstand. I do not endorse such a place as an alternative to Yeshivos any more than if the Vatican were to offer such courses. Well, perhaps a bit more. But basically these are non observant but somewhatr knowledgeble Jews who in their own minds and in their own way are teaching Torah as honestly as they can. Are they teaching it accurately? Probably not. Certainly not anything Orthodoxy would call accurate. But neither are they teaching it disparagingly or with an anti-religious agenda.
Who teaches there? One teacher is a former Charedi who “graduated” from a Charedi Yeshiva. But he is now no longer observant. Although he does still hold on to a few rituals like Teffilin. He is certainly not anyone I would even remotely consider in any role of teaching Torah or involved with Kiruv. Yet….
So what is their goal, if it is not to bash Torah? According to the “Rosh HaYeshiva” it is to give content or as I would put it, meaning to one’s life. The students that are there are either pre-army, deferred in order to study Torah full time for a modest ‘tuition’. Or they are post army and paid a stipend… kind of like a Kollel.
One might ask, if these students are seeking truth, why don’t they just go to an Ohr Sameach or another Bal Teshuva type Yeshiva? Well, that would be great if they were so inclined. But they do not want to be observant. Some of them stem from anti religious Kibbutzim, hardly Kiruv fodder. They just want to know what Judaism teaches. And they want it unfiltered… not through Orthodoxy or through a secularist agenda.
After reading this article, my attitude of ridicule changed.
I certainly wouldn’t recommend that any Frum person go there. Nor would I recommend it as a Kiruv Yeshiva at all. God forbid. But it does have a Kiruv affect on some people, And the “Rosh HaYeshiva” does not consider it a failure if one of her students becomes Frum. She actually considers that a success. And in fact there are descriptions in the story of students from totally secular backgrounds starting to observe Mitzvos for the first time in their lives. And the fact that some of the anti-religious parents are paranoid about their children ‘going of the Derech’ and becoming observant makes it obvious to me that such a possibility must exist and have actually happened.
So I no longer laugh at this place. If the Rosh HaYeshiva has enough respect for the words of the Torah to understand that someone might become religious and actually applauds that, then I would not do anything to undermine it. Because if one learns Torah without an anti religious agenda, the result cannot be that it will not have a positive impact.
The message the Gemarah teaches is one of morality, and belief. And it teaches the importance of doing Mitzvos so as to give life meaning. And in a non-anti Religious environment, even if it is secular in approach, it can’t but be absorbed at some level. And this can only be good.
