Q:
Are the yeshivas today functioning as they should or are they dealing with problems unique to American bachurim?
A:
Let me tell you something about the yeshivas. There certainly is room for improvement in the yeshivas, but I want to tell you something. I’ve been in the yeshivas for many years. Over fifty years ago, I came to Chaim Berlin; over fifty years ago. And I saw bachurim who were worthless; they didn’t learn anything. Today they’re all zeidas, frum zeidas with frum children and frum grandchildren. They have children in Brisk and all the yeshivas. Even though they did not learn in the yeshivas, they became frum Jews. The yeshivas accomplished tremendously even with boys who weren’t learning seriously. Tremendously! I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the yeshivas.
Here is a boy, a chatzuf. I once spoke to him in the yeshiva. A gadol was niftar and I asked him, “Why don’t you go to the levayah of this gadol?”
He said, “Who cares for a gadol?”
A 15-year-old boy.
Today he has a big beard. He’s a lamdan. He’s a tzaddik. The yeshivas did a wonderful job, no question about it.
So even though yeshivas could be improved — I have my own ideas how to improve the yeshivas — nevertheless, the yeshivas, you should know, are mamash a bracha for the Am Yisroel. You do not realize. They have saved hundreds and hundreds of families. They have beautiful families today all because they sat and they were batlanim in the yeshivas. To loaf in the yeshiva is a hatzlachah gedolah!
I’m not joking. The avirah of the yeshiva transforms them. They’re devoted to the yeshiva, devoted to learning. He doesn’t learn, but he understands learning is a very important thing. And he makes his children learn and his eineklach learn. Baruch Hashem for the yeshivas! Today there are six hundred mosdos in America, ken yirbu. Six hundred mosdos in America. High schools and yeshivos ketanah and kollelim. Baruch Hashem! It’s turning out a tremendous crop of bnei Torah.
And the girls’ schools today, same thing. The girls’ schools are making a mahapeichah. Rav Aharon Kotler, zichrono livracha, said that if not for Beis Yaakov they couldn’t have any kollelim in America. Beis Yaakov taught the girls to want to have bnei Torah for a husband. And they’re willing to work to support them. Idealistic girls. Today so many people are learning Torah because of frum wives, frum girls. It’s a wonderful thing. So the institutions have made a mahapeichah.
I remember sixty years ago you couldn’t find a frum girl. A frum girl was a rarity in America sixty years ago. I once met a man whom I knew seventy years ago — more than that. “Shalom aleichem,” I said to him. “How are you?”
So he introduces me to his wife standing near him. Her hair was uncovered. He’s proud of his wife with her uncovered hair. And they have three grandchildren. Sixty years ago, he married an American girl and they have two children and three grandchildren. And he’s so full of simchah and nachas. A churban. A wife with her hair uncovered and they have three grandchildren. But he didn’t go to the yeshiva so he’s happy with it.
But the yeshivas created a frum nation. And so there’s been a mahapeichah because of the yeshivas and we owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude.
So I have ideas how to improve the yeshivas. Yes, I know how to improve the yeshivas. They won’t listen to me, however, and anyhow they’re doing a good job.
So I say anybody who supports the yeshivas today is doing a very big mitzvah. It’s a mitzvah to support yeshivas. A very big mitzvah. A tremendous thing they’re doing. I cannot tell you how much we owe our gratitude to them.
March 16, 2000
