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| 2 very wise Torah giants: R' Moshe Feinstein and R' Yitzchok Hutner |
Rabbi Fink is a successful award winning litigation
attorney practicing in Baltimore. He is an alumnus of Ner Israel, Yeshiva
Mishkan Hatorah (Lakewood), Yeshivas Mir (Yerushalayim) and Yeshiva Derech Ayson (Far Rockaway) .
I took the liberty of translating some of his transliterated
Hebrew words which may not be familiar to all of my readers. Those words are italicized. Otherwise the
words are his own and they follow in their entirety.
After the negative report from the Miraglim (spies), one of
the less discussed quandaries was the vacuum in leadership left behind.
The entire generation would have to die in the desert. Moreover, the leaders
from nearly every tribe were to die
as well. True, Moshe Rabbeinu would be with them for most of the 40
years, but he too would not be going into Eretz Yisroel. 39 years were
left to develop youngsters and raise the new leadership to replace those that
were not going to be there.
In 1945, Klal Yisroel faced a similarly daunting task. How to
replace the Gedolei Hador who were lost in the Holocaust? Thousands of
Torah giants, the backbone of our people, taken from us, practically all at
once.
Enter 3 great Torah giants, Rav Ahron Kotler, ZT”L, Rav
Yaakov Ruderman, ZT”L and Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky,ZT”L, who took upon themselves
the task of rebuilding Torah in America. Their charge - to groom and
replenish the unfathomable losses of WWII. Add to the predicament a
backdrop of an America with a largely assimilated Jewish population and the
challenge was daunting indeed. They set out to open Yeshivos and
support the founding of day schools so that the few committed Jews in America
could be groomed to be the next generation of teachers, Rabbeim and
Gedolim.
What a legacy. Over the next 60 years Torah flourished in America in
unprecedented numbers. There are now more people learning Torah, more
Yeshivos and more Torah Giants than at any time in our
history. This was no accident. Our yeshivos and our day
schools were designed to develop precisely such a valuable product.
Indeed, the emphasis on Gemara study, practically to the exclusion of all other
areas, was with an eye on developing true Talmidei Chachomim and Gedolim.
Fast forward to the present and we have largely the same structure and
curriculum in our Yeshivos and day schools that was designed in 1945.
There is one whopping difference. In 1945, the only hope for developing
tomorrow’s Torah scholars was to fashion a method of study which encouraged and
cultivated within each precious student the drive and the foundation to become
a Gadol B’Yisroel.
Today, among the tens of thousands of day school and
Yeshiva students, only a very small percentage go on to become Gedolim.
The vast majority of students become learned, Shomer Shabbos (Sabbath observant)
members of the community.
Yet, they spent the majority of their years studying a
curriculum for something they were not going to be. It’s no wonder
that many of our Yeshivos are “accused” of teaching to the “top third of the
class”. That is precisely what they were designed to do. Moreover,
it is also why so many boys coming out of Yeshiva today know a fair amount of
Gemara but precious little in the way of practical Halacha like Hilchos Shabbos
or Kashrus. The Yeshivos were meant to develop Torah scholars who would
master Halacha after they became Talmudic masters. Simply put,
the Yeshivos were never intended to educate all Torah youth in a manner which
helped them become productive, functioning, educated frum Jews.
Today, when we face serious challenges of disenfranchised youth (spending years
in a system which was never intended for them), a dearth of unemployed Rebbeim
(trained for positions for which there is now a 300-1 surplus), and frankly an
unfamiliarity with basic Halacha - that cannot be serving us well. We plod along perpetuating the same system
which was so successful in producing Gedolim.
When was the last time today’s leaders sat down and tried to
honestly assess the needs of today’s frum community and today’s youth. Instead,
heroic efforts are made to teach a small percentage of each class what they can
grasp with the assumption that it must be right because that’s the way we’ve
always done it.*
Moreover, our day schools have an unprecedented number of
“tutors” and “kids who can’t make the grade” than ever before when in fact the
vast majority of them are completely normal, just laboring in a system which
was designed for the academically elite. Many of them cannot help but feel
their inability to put in a 10 hour day, mastering a dual curriculum means
there is something wrong with them or something wrong with all of us.
Similarly, how many families that simply want to do the “right thing” have
bought into this concept that sending 13 year old boys away from home to study,
often until they are “ready” to get married, is a good idea?
With few exceptions, it is not. Boys in dormitory
yeshivos are exposed to some terrible things - as bad as anything available on the internet
today. The dorms are largely unsupervised before bed time and teenage
boys often find ways to make less than good use of their spare
time.
These critical years are not spent observing how their
parents treat each other and work through challenges and difficult times. Conversely,
for teenage boys who stay in-town, each night when they come home his parents
can pick up on subtle changes in his demeanor, behavior etc. which are critical
clues for when extra “parenting” is needed. These valuable opportunities
are lost when a boy comes home once a month or even once a week.
The simple truth is that the trend of sending boys away to Yeshiva was started
when there was really no choice. If you wanted your child to have a Torah
education, there were only a few cities where this could be accomplished.
Prior to 1960 the idea of a local boy staying in a Yeshiva dorm was
ridiculous. Dorms were a necessary last resort for boys who had to leave
home in order get a Torah education.**
It is not
a coincidence that this derech parallels a major shift in parents
entrusting their children’s chinuch almost entirely to schools and
Yeshivos.
There is no substitute for good parenting! Not even
great Rebbeim and Yeshivos. Ideally, a partnership can help each child
reach their full potential. You will not find anyone qualified to speak
on the subject who advocates sending boys away from home for Yeshiva at age 13,
outside of those who have a vested interest in perpetuating the dormitory
system. Your children are your treasures. No one, NO ONE loves or
knows your child better than you do.
The time has come for such a reevaluation. We cannot look at the children
that don’t make it as “statistically acceptable”. Many of our youth who
have trouble are a direct result of being round pegs in square holes.
Many of our boys who are unprepared for marriage are a direct result of being
away from home from the time they were old enough to observe how a healthy
marriage functions.
Many of the people who appear to be totally observant Jews
until we find out they are engaged in blatantly criminal behavior are a result
of an inadequate emphasis of the basic Halachos of our Torah.
When Klal Yisroel faced this challenge in the desert they did not start encouraging everyone to assume the mantel
of leaders. Surely some did,
but many continued to be groomed as farmers, sailors and shepherds. There
were always important contributions from all sects of every tribe. Once again, we were
never all supposed to be the same. Yehoshua became the next leader, new leaders were appointed and (our) elders took on a more prominent role as
a check on future impulsiveness.
“Change” can at times be a dirty word. It should be looked at quite differently
when we are “changing back”. Rav Yitzchak Hutner once explained
that Yeshivos in America post 1945 were like Noah's ark – places of refuge where
the only hope of raising children to be Shomrei Torah U’mitzvos (observant Jews) existed. He
lamented how in prewar Europe, yeshivas were like the Mishkan (Tabernacle) – where only a
few went to reach the highest heights of Torah scholarship.
Inertia and momentum are not good justifications for the way we educate our children. We need to rededicate ourselves to the principals enunciated by our sages of being “Mechanech Naar L’fi Darco”.
Inertia and momentum are not good justifications for the way we educate our children. We need to rededicate ourselves to the principals enunciated by our sages of being “Mechanech Naar L’fi Darco”.
* I am compelled to point out
that my children have always been part of that “top third” and the system has
worked well for them. This is not the writing of someone who the system has
failed. Rather, it is a cry for compassion for those who never had a
chance.
**Ironically, the other boys who sought out a dormitory were
those whose parents were not willing to pursue a Torah education for their sons
past Bar Mitzva. Many of those same boys are not even welcome in
mainstream Yeshivos today.
