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| Rav Ahron Soloveichik, ZTL - proponent of Torah U'Mada |
The fact is that Yeshiva University is a Yeshiva that has
both a Yeshiva and a university on the same campus and encourages its
students to study both. Its motto is Torah U’Mada. That is in contrast to the Charedi worldview where very few Charedim seek secular education beyond high school in America (and at all in Israel). That some
go on to become professionals via a higher education is not a function of any
value they place on secular studies. It is solely a function of getting the
education required to make a decent living.
There is nothing wrong with studying Mada for parnassa
purposes. That’s what Touro
does. Their education is geared towards Paranassa. I am a big supporter of
that. But YU actually values secular studies per se. They take seriously the Gemarah’s statement ‘Im Omar Lecha Yesh Chochma BaGoyim, Taamin’. If someone
tells you that non Jews have wisdom, believe them.
YU’s goal is to seek out
that wisdom and teach it to its students. It is the only Yeshiva to do so L'Chatchila beyond high school . Those who study in the Yeshiva program - the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS, which is what YU is really all about)
are typical of those who place primary importance on Torah study
but place great value on Mada too. There are plenty of Masmidim there. One can
go into the Beis HaMedrash at YU at any given time and find it filled with
students learning B’Hasmadah Rabbah (with great diligence). Some into the wee
hours of the morning. And they do not neglect their study of Mada at all - succeeding at those studies with similar
degrees of excellence.
I bring all this up in light of the recent report about the
financial straits YU is going through.
Apparently YU’s board of directors approved risky investments that went
south to the tune of a billion dollars. I cannot image any Yeshiva having those kinds of funds to invest, let alone to operate with. That is some serious
money. That’s 1000 million dollars. They lost it all, it seems.
A lot of people blame YU’s president, Richard Joel. He is after all the CEO responsible for among
other things YU’s financial welfare (and being handsomely paid for it). But
I am not one of them. He consulted with the
board about those investments and they must have approved it. He did not just blindly go into the market
and invest in penny stocks. He consulted with acknowledged experts in the field
of financial investments and if I understand correctly followed their recommendations. When the economy tanked a few years ago, so
did those investments and apparently they did not recover when the economy
started rebounding.
But… I understand that Mr. Joel is getting the blame for all
this. He is the man in charge. He is the man at the top. The buck stops there.
So if he gets fired, it is just as understandable as when a Cubs manager gets
fired. If the team is doing badly you don’t fire the team. You fire the
manager. Even if he is a proven winner in his past engagements with other teams
that have won pennants under his leadership. That’s just the way it is. Richard
Joel will land on his feet. I’m pretty sure he put away piles of money from
the very generous compensation he received over the years as CEO of YU (unless
he put that money into risky investments too. I hope not).
But this post is not about Richard Joel’s misfortune. It is
about the Talmidei Chachamin at that institution that are in danger of losing
their jobs. Perhaps more importantly it is about the existence of
the only school that represents the values of Torah U’Mada. As an adherent of
this Hashkafa, I would consider it a tragedy of major proportions if YU were to
go down.
At an existential level we cannot allow Orthodoxy to become a world where there is
no value given to the wisdom of the world. That would in my view be contrary to
the mission of Judaism. Ein Somchin Al
HaNes, the Gemarah tells us. To say for example that we don’t need our people
to study areas that are vital to the health of our people is to ignore the
Torah’s admonition that we are required to do our part in it. It’s called Hishtadlus.
So that to encourage all Jews to study Torah and ignore the medical sciences is
an abdication of that Hishtadlus.
It isn’t only about our physical health. To deny the study of
the great thinkers of the world who have aided in our own understanding of Emes
is to limit our ability to understand our own Hashkafos. That is why Rav Yoshe
Ber Soloveitchik studied philosophy. He became a world renowned expert in it. He
could thus better explain Jewish philosophy by comparing it to current
philosophical thought. Much as did the
Rambam with the philosophic thought of his day.
In an era where there is so much information available instantly,
what better way to prepare for encounters with that, than with a Yeshiva like YU?
Yes the Torah only approach is fine for those who limit or
even deny themselves exposure to outside world. But for those who study the works of other
great thinkers, there is only one YU.
It would be tragic beyond all proportion if Yeshiva University
were to fold. I don’t think that is going to happen. But the mere prospect of
losing the only asset that rises to the task – scares me. And when a billion
dollars is so easily lost, it is no longer out of the realm of possibility for
something like that to happen.
