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| Rav Moshe Sternbuch (Arutz Sheva) |
And yet when the Charedi world mentions ‘Daas Torah’ you
can see why they are called Charedim. They seem go venerate them as though they equaled the Gedolim of the
past.
The argument is that each generation must honor their Gedolim regardless of how ‘small’ they are compared to previous generation. The Gemarah (Rosh Hashana 25b) actually spells this out: Yoftach B’doro - K’Shmuel B’doro. Of the 2 biblical figures, both were considered leaders of their generation despite Yiftach's spectacularly inferior stature compared to Shmuel. It didn’t matter. They are both to be treated with the same degree
of respect as the leader of their respective generation.
I suppose there is a certain logic to that.
You need to play the cards your dealt. That said, I find it difficult to give any of today’s rabbinic leaders the same kind of veneration
I did to the leaders of yesteryear. At least here in America. Just to name a few names from the previous generation to illustrate my point, we will likely never see anyone near having the greatness of Rav Yoseph Dov Soloveitchik, Rav Aharon Soloveichik, Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Ya’akov Kamenetsky, Rav Yitzchok Hutner, Rav Moshe Feinstein, Rav Yoel Tietelbaum, and Rav Menachem Mendel Schneerson. (A very incomplete list to say the least.) Regardless of how anyone feels about any of these Gedolim personally, there can be no doubt about their stature as Gedolim.
It isn’t only the
concept of Niskatnu HaDoros at work. Which means that the further away from the
events that took place a Sinai the less great we can be. Although that is surely
true, there have been major breaks historically that separated eras. I think a major ‘break’ has occurred in my lifetime between the Gedolim raised in the great yeshivas
of Europe pre-Holocaust - and those raised here post Holocaust. Similar to the break which separated Rishonim from Achronim.
The question is, why is that? Why do we not have any Gedolim
like that these days.? An attempt at answering that question was made by
someone that many people feel is a Gadol in his own right, Rav Moshe Sterbuch. Here in part is what he said from an Arutz Sheva article:
(B)y looking at the constancy of the studies of students at the Volozhin Yeshiva compared to the situation today, we can understand the basis for the difference. In Volozhin, the intermediate learners learned at least 16 hours, certainly no less than 14 hours, every day, including Fridays and Shabbat. They did not drive on any trips home, nor once every few months. They did not know at all what recess was, neither that of Nissan nor Av nor Tishrei, and since they learned without any interruption and distraction constantly, Torah giants emerged from among them.”
Rav Sternbuch adds a few other ‘distractions’ today that did
not exist in previous generations.
I have to disagree with him. He is right about the dearth of Gedolim today. But in my view he is wrong about the reasons. I’m not even sure
how accurate he is about his description of yesteryear. 14 to 16
hours a day of Torah study? 7 days a week? Without interruption? Hard to believe that is even possible.
But even if
it’s true, I think there is a far more obvious reason for what we have today. First
of all there are students today that do study long uninterrupted hours. But I doubt the spend a full 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, and doing it for weeks and months at a time! ...without somewhere along the
line having a mental breakdown.
The problem today is mass production. Which never produces the
kind of quality that results when individual care is given to each product.
While I am generally very opposed to elitism, I believe that is exactly what we
are missing today.
Back in pre-Holocaust Europe, only the most elite and
brilliant students were invited to attend the great Yeshivos of Europe. There
was no such thing as tens of thousands of students studying in yeshivas. Today every
Charedi is expected to attend Yeshivos full time well into their married lives.
We live in a time of quantity versus quality. When there are that many people
learning in Yeshiov you end up with mediocrity as the standard of
Torah study. The competition to achieve is therefore lowered as well.
The reason we have this scenario now is because of Gemarah
that tells us that you throw a 1000 people into a Beis HaMedrash and one will become a Gadol. That everyone else might fall through
the cracks and could have been more productive as Jews doing something else
might be the price to pay. But it is worth it to get that one Gadol. R’Eliyahu Dessler justifies the process in our own day by saying that the Jewish people needs Gedolim – to ‘lead the way’. Which is exactly how the Charedi world operates. Every single male is indoctrinated - and
expected - to go to Yeshiva full time well into their married lives.
But even if you agree with Rav Dessler, it is one thing to
throw a 1000 students into the Beis HaMedrash. It is another to throw every
single male into
the Beis HaMedrash - from early childhood well into adulthood - resulting in tens of thousands or more doing it. You are not ‘sacrificing a thousand’. You are sacrificing everyone!
I truly believe that if the Yeshiva system would return to
being elitist, and invite only those with the potential to become Gedolim to learn at that level, the overall
quality of Torah study would be raised immensely. The competition would reach unprecedented heights post Holocaust. Mediocrity would no longer rule the day.
The rest of us would be encouraged to find their own personal niche in
serving God and educated accordingly. they would still all study in Yeshivos. But
that study would be accompanied by a focus on the multitude of studies available
in the word where each jew could find his own unique way of serving God. Which would
of course include working at a job that would provide a decent income for their families.
Alas, that is not the case today at all. Today we have quantity
over quality. Sure - there are some bright stars among those tens of
thousands of students. But imagine how those stars would shine given the kind of
elitist atmosphere that existed pre-Holocaust. I believe they would thrive at levels not seen since before the Holocaust.
That is why we have so few Gedolim today. And why those we
do have do not measure up to the Gedolim of even the immediate past.
Just my off the cuff reaction to Rav Sternbuch.
