Q:
Are the yeshivos today functioning as they should, dealing with problems unique to American bachurim?
A:
Let me tell you something about the yeshivos. There certainly is room for improvement in the yeshivos but I want to tell you something. I’ve been in the yeshivos for many years. Over fifty years ago I came to Chaim Berlin; over fifty years. I saw bochurim who were worthless, who didn’t learn anything. Today they’re all zeidahs; frum zeidahs with frum children and frum grandchildren. They have children in Brisk and all the yeshivos. Even though they did not learn in the yeshivos but they became frum Jews there. The yeshivos accomplished tremendously. Tremendously! I cannot tell you how grateful I am to the yeshivos.
Here is a boy, a chatzuf. I once spoke to him in the yeshivah. A gadol was niftar and I said, “Why don’t you go to the levayah of this gadol?” And 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 yeshivos did a wonderful job, no question about it. So even though yeshivos could be improved – I have my own ideas about how to improve the yeshivos – nevertheless the yeshivos, you should know, are mamash a brachah for the Am Yisrael.
You do not realize. They have saved hundreds and hundreds of families; there are beautiful families today all because they sat and they were batlanim in the yeshivos. To loaf in the yeshivah is a hatzlachah gedolah! I’m not joking. The avirah, the atmosphere, of the yeshivah transforms them. They’re devoted to the yeshivah, 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 yeshivos! Today there are six hundred mosdos in America, kein 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 girl schools today! The girl schools are making a mahapeichah, a revolution. Rav Aharon Kotler, zichrono levrachah, said if not for Bais Yaakov they couldn’t have any kollelim in America. Bais 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 who I knew seventy years ago, more than that. I said, “Shalom aleichem, how are you?” He said, “Ooh, I’m very happy.” He’s a zeidah. He showed me his wife standing nearby. Her head was uncovered. Her hair was uncovered. He’s proud of his wife; hair uncovered and they have three grandchildren. Sixty years ago he married an American girl and he’s so full of simchah and nachas. Her hair is uncovered and they have three grandchildren. That’s a churban. That’s a churban. A wife with her hair uncovered and they have three grandchildren. And he’s happy with it. But today there’s been a mahapeichah.
So I have ideas how to improve the yeshivos. Yes, I know how to improve the yeshivos. They won’t listen to me, however, and still they’re doing a good job. And I say that anybody who supports the yeshivos today is doing a very big mitzvah. It’s a mitzvah to support yeshivos, a very big mitzvah. A tremendous thing they’re doing. I cannot tell you how much we owe our gratitude to them.
TAPE # E-225 (March 16, 2000)