More insights and thoughts on various aspects of
chinuch
from a veteran Torah educator.
Being a Leader is Slavery, Not Power
Some think of teaching as a profession and a livelihood,
others consider
it social status and a source of prestige, while still others
consider
it a mission in life. None of these is the way the Torah
looks at
it.
The gemora (Horayos 10a) tells about R'
Yehoshua recommending
two chachomim to become roshei yeshiva: R'
Eliezer Chatma
and R' Yochonon ben Gudgoda, who were outstanding scholars
and desperately
poor. "[Rabban Gamliel] thought of appointing them as
roshei
yeshiva [so they would have ample livelihood -- Rashi].
He sent
someone to call them over so he could appoint them. They,
however,
did not come [since they ran away from prestige]. He sent
another
shaliach and they came. He said to them: `Perhaps you
think
I am giving you a position of power? I am giving you
slavery!'"
The Rambam (Hilchos Sanhedrin 25:2) rules: "[A leader]
must suffer the public's yoke and affairs like Moshe Rabbenu,
as is
written, `As a nursing father carries the sucking child.'
Furthermore,
the Torah writes (Devorim 1:16), `I charged your
judges at
that time.' This is a warning for a judge to endure the
public as
a nursing father puts up with the sucking child. Let us learn
from
Moshe, the teacher of all the nevi'im. When He sent
Moshe and
Aharon it was on the understanding that bnei Yisroel
would
curse and stone them." If about each person the Rambam
(Hilchos
Teshuvah 5) writes, "each person can be like Moshe," an
educator and a rav are actually obligated to be like Moshe
and tolerate
their charges as a nursing father.
An amazing Midrash (Devorim Rabbah 7:11) will
now be
understood: "Moshe and a hundred like him should die and not
even
one fingernail of a single Jew should be hurt." The obvious
question
is that Moshe Rabbenu himself is included within Klal
Yisroel,
so how can it possibly be that one Jew's fingernail is
preferable
to Moshe's life or the life of a hundred like him? The
gemora
(Sanhedrin 75a) only writes that a person's own blood
is not
redder than another's. Why should we say that the other
person's blood
is redder than his? It surely needs to be explained why a
fingernail
of another person is preferable to his own life and even that
of a
hundred like him.
This is responsibility. The moment one accepts on himself the
responsibility
to help the public -- and as explained above, the public is
made
up of individuals -- he is responsible for each one of them.
He
must dedicate himself entirely to his mission and be faithful
to his
responsibility up to the point of mesiras nefesh.
I Am the Kaporo of Bnei Yisroel
We can now understand how gedolei hador, geonim
and
tzaddikim, led our people in the time of calamity,
during the
ghastly Holocaust of the Churban of Europe.
Not long before World War II began, Maran HaRav Elchonon
Wassermann
zt'l Hy'd was in the U.S.A. to raise money for his
yeshiva.
Although he clearly heard the dreadful news of approaching
war, he
packed his bags and returned to Poland. People begged him to
remain
until after things had calmed down, and even bring two of his
sons,
R' Naftoli Beinush and R' Tzvi Leib, to the U.S.A. He
answered: "I
do not have only two sons; I have four hundred children. How
can I
abandon them?"
He answered R' Naftoli Carlebach's question; how he was
allowed to
endanger himself when aware of the situation. R' Elchonon
answered:
"I am a soldier and must go to the front."
At that time the Karliner Rebbe zt'l Hy'd visited
Eretz Yisroel
and spoke openly about the approaching dark days, a time when
the
Jews in golus will sink into blood, fire, and smoke.
When people
beseeched him to remain in Eretz Yisroel, he answered that
his Chassidim
were waiting for him -- and departed in a boat for Europe.
With remarkable efforts the Slonimer Chassidim in Eretz
Yisroel managed
to obtain a visa for their Rebbe, HaRav Shlomo zt'l
Hy'd, and
his household. They wired him about the news. He, however,
answered
that he could not come, since "he had children who depend
upon
him." He had an only daughter for whom a visa was sent, but
he
was devoted to his Chassidim who depended on him and were
encouraged
by his presence.
When it became apparent that those living in the Warsaw
ghetto were
destined to die, HaRav Menachem Ziemba zt'l Hy'd was
offered
a way to escape. He answered: "A captain does not abandon his
sinking ship."
There were gedolei Torah who decided differently.
There were
some who emigrated to the U.S.A. in an attempt to try to save
as much
as possible. There were those who went to Eretz Yisroel to
rehabilitate
the war refuges and rebuild what was destroyed. This became a
foundation
for the present-day flourishing of Torah and Chassidus and
the fulfillment
of the eternal promise of "it shall not be forgotten out of
the
mouths of their seed" (Devorim 31:21). The principle
was,
however, one and the same: total responsibility without
considering
oneself at all.
Chevlei Yotzeir (pg. 368) tells that the poseik
HaRav
S. Wosner shlita asked Maran the Chazon Ish
zt'l why
he had decided to settle in Bnei Brak instead of
Yerushalayim. At
that time Bnei Brak was only an agricultural settlement, in
the beginning
of its development, whereas Yerushalayim was a city full of
Torah
scholars. The Chazon Ish answered: "Yerushalayim is full of
tzaddikim
and gedolei Torah, but in the new settlement I find a
desert
. . . I want to plant some seedlings of Torah . . . and
therefore
I came to Bnei Brak, and I think if I do not succeed in
planting them,
I will go to Gehennom together with its settlers."
Unbounded Responsibility
An educator's responsibility is boundless; it has no set
times. "
`They who turn the many to righteousness are like the stars
for ever
and ever' (Daniel 12:3). `They' refers to
teachers of
children. Such as who? Rav said: Such as Rav Shmuel bar
Shilas. Rav
found Rav Shmuel bar Shilas standing in a garden. Rav asked
him: `Have
you left your duty?' [Rashi explains that Rav Shmuel was
accustomed
to teach his talmidim faithfully and always sat with
them.]
Rav Shmuel said to Rav: `It has been thirteen years since I
last saw
a garden, and even now I am thinking about [my students]'"
(Bovo
Basra 8b).
Maran HaRav E. M. Shach shlita told me that he once
served
as a rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Slutzk, which was headed
by Maran
HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l. After Communist and
Bolshevik harassment
intensified, Maran HaRav Kotler decided to transfer the
yeshiva to
Kletzk, in Poland. He moved with part of his talmidim
and the
other part, that at the time could not leave Soviet Russia,
remained
in Slutzk under the leadership of Maran HaRav Shach.
HaRav Shach said that as rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas
Slutzk he
was strongly against bochurim making a mishmar
(studying
the entire night) on Thursday nights. Even erev Shabbos
is
a day like any other day: we must daven a
yeshivisheh davening,
study during the seder, and attend the shiur.
Students
who have studied the whole night daven vosikin hastily
and
afterwards they sleep until the afternoon. Their gain becomes
a sure
loss.
Some talmidim did not heed the Rosh Yeshiva's warning
and continued
studying the whole night. "What did I do?" says HaRav Shach.
"I remained awake and studied with them in the beis
midrash
until morning. They davened vosikin and then went off
to sleep,
but I continued studying until the regular Shacharis
of the
yeshiva. I was present at the seder and even gave a
shiur.
Why did I remain with them the whole night? I had to watch
over them
to ensure that they truly studied."
A talmid of the mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir, who
later
himself served as a mashgiach in a yeshiva, wanted to
visit
Mir for a few days and confer with his rebbe to, so to speak,
refill
his batteries. Beforehand he wrote to his rebbe asking
permission.
In HaRav Yeruchom Lebowitz's answer (printed in Daas
Chochmah
Umussar, II, discourse 279) the Mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir
agreed
in principle with the idea. The talmid's coming to Mir
"would greatly benefit him." But "nonetheless, cholila
for His Honor to do this, because of several reasons. The
main reason
is that the work of hashgocho demands never diverting
one's
attention. A mashgiach's absence for a day, and
perhaps a little
more, could cause irreparable damage."
The Oron Hakodesh and Its Poles
Later R' Yeruchom mentions how trustworthy Yaakov Ovinu was
when
pasturing Lovon's sheep, despite his father-in-law's
deceiving him
endless times. "`Yaakov sent and called Rachel and Leah to
the
field to his flock' (Bereishis 31:4). Yaakov called
Rachel
and Leah to him instead of going to them because of his
responsibility
to guard Lovon's sheep. Yaakov said, `Thus I was: in the day
the drought
consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed
from my
eyes' (Bereishis 31:40). From Yaakov Ovinu we infer
the halochos
of shemirah (as the Rambam writes in Hilchos
Sechirus
13:17). Why should we not at least learn a little about
something
that applies directly to us? We have obligated ourselves to
watch
over the talmidim. We guard their spiritual level and
we must
even risk our lives to fulfill the simple halocho of
shemirah
since we are not only regular shomrim (shomrei
chinom), guarding
for free. We are paid shomrim (shomrei sochor)."
In another letter (ibid., pg. 272) R' Yeruchom
narrates
a startling personal anecdote. "I will tell you a story,"
R' Yeruchom wrote to a famous rosh yeshiva who was
considering
resigning from his job because of the intolerable poverty he
was suffering.
"When I was in Lithuania I was thinking of leaving my
position
in Yeshivas Mir so I could study in Yeshivas Kelm (and engage
in more
moral self- improvement), but I experienced several delays
from Heaven,
and therefore carried out the famous goral (the
Vilna's Gaon's
goral). I was terrified by the posuk that
turned up
and learned a great chidush from it: `The poles shall
be in
the rings of the Oron; they shall not be taken from
it' (Shemos
25:15). Surely that posuk was not revealed to me by my
own
zechus but because of those who needed me.
"The following is an excellent explanation emanating from
this halocho and it shows its practical implications:
The poles
allude to people who carry the Oron of the Torah. They
are
compared to the poles of the Oron, that may never be
removed
from the Oron. Ever since then, even the few times
when I was
forced to leave the yeshiva for a short while troubled me.
What I
am writing is simple and quite clear."
Keeping Both Quantity and Quality
What we have written so far is with regard to preserving
quantity:
days and hours. Negligence in maintaining quantity causes
irreparable
damage. No less care -- and even more -- should be employed
when preserving quality. We must keep track of each
talmid's
progress and formulate ways to elevate him. We must analyze
precisely
whether this talmid is currently advancing, and advise
him
how to take even better advantage of his talents, or whether
he is
wandering and encourage him to make better efforts. Maran
HaRav Shach
shlita told me that when he was rosh yeshiva in
Yeshivas
Slutzk, Maran HaRav Yechezkel Levinstein zt'l served
as mashgiach.
Every morning the Rosh Yeshiva would meet with the
mashgiach
and they would decide with whom the Rosh Yeshiva should
"talk
in learning" and with whom the mashgiach should try to
induce more qualitative studying.
Unfortunately the exact opposite can happen. A boy came to a
mashgiach in the middle of the zman and
notified him
that he was leaving the yeshiva. "But why?" asked the
mashgiach.
The boy answered: "Because this is the first question the
mashgiach
has asked me since the day I entered the yeshiva!"
We can deduce our two obligations, that of constantly keeping
guard and that of carefully examining each talmid's
progress,
from Noach's obligation towards those who were under his
supervision:
the animals in the teivah. Noach was on duty around
the clock,
without any break. "Noach's son said, `We suffered
tremendously
in the teivah. During the day we fed animals
accustomed to
eat during the day, and at night we fed animals accustomed to
eat
at night. During all of those twelve months in the
teivah Noach
slept neither by day nor by night, since he was busy feeding
the animals.
He would feed branches of leaves to the elephants and glass
to the
ichneumon. Noach tried different sorts of food for those
animals that
refused to eat until he found what they would agree to eat'"
(Sanhedrin
108b).
According to the Midrash (Midrash Tehillim 37)
Avrohom Ovinu understood the need to do chesed from a
kal
vochomer. If Noach did chesed for animals and was
zoche
to be saved, by doing chesed for people he himself
would surely
be saved from any harm. At the eshel that Avrohom
planted he
would give each person even more than he desired (Ovos
DeReb Nosson
7), and "whatever he asked for he would find there."
Avrohom Ovinu would demand of his guests to make a
brocho
to Hashem, and if they refused he would insist they pay for
what they
ate (Midrash Rabbah 54). Avrohom's chesed for
the other's
ruchniyus needs was greater than his chesed for
their
material needs.
We too can make a kal vochomer: If, when doing
chesed
for animals, one must be on constant day-and- night guard and
provide
the particular food for every animal at its proper time, how
much
more should we be concerned with the ruchniyus of
people, who
are children to HaKodosh Boruch Hu, tinokos shel
beis rabban.
