Interviewer: Rabbi Yenerkliger, thank you for agreeing to
share your views with our readers.
Rabbi Y.: It is an honor and a pleasure.
I: Your cheder is now in its twelfth year. In a few
words, can you explain how it is different from other
chadorim?
RY: Our cheder is based on the main pieces of advice
which Chazal have scattered all over Shas. We take that
advice and unify it into a complete system.
I: Can you give us an example?
RY: Yes. Chazal say that a child should begin to learn to
read when he is 5 years old. In other places, Chazal tell us
that the letters really have deep kabbalistic meanings.
Therefore, when a child first comes to our cheder when
he is 3 years old, we first start to teach him Kabbala so
that by the time he is 5, he is ready to learn the alef-
bais.
I: But I always heard that one may not teach someone Kabbala
until he is ready.
RY: Correct. So we teach it to him in Aramaic so that he will
not understand it. Don't forget that a 3-year- old child knew
Kabbala three and a half years ago, before he was born. Even
though he does not understand what he is now being taught,
his soul does.
I: At what age do you start teaching mishnayos?
RY: Everyone knows that in order to understand a
mishna really well, you must go through the
gemora, so we teach gemora before starting to
teach mishna.
I: How do you have time to teach such young children all the
gemora?
RY: Children waste most of their time playing, anyway, so we
have a very full day. We start lessons at 7 o'clock in the
morning and learn straight through to 10 o'clock at night.
I: Why don't you start earlier and finish later?
RY: I would like to, but the parents complain that they
themselves cannot take the strain of getting up so early and
going to sleep so late.
I: It is a very long day. Don't you find the children get
tired and fall asleep?
RY: There are many stories of great Sages who kept themselves
awake by putting their feet in basins of cold water. So we
have installed troughs of refrigerated water by each chair
and if a child starts to fall asleep, we put his feet in the
water.
I: That is a brilliant idea. What do you do with children who
cannot sit still?
RY: We do not relate to all these modern so-called ailments
such as ADD and ADHD. If a child can't sit still, we have
special pants and chairs covered with Velcro. We dress them
in the pants and stick them on the chairs. We also have
Velcro on the desks and patches for the arms so that we can
stick their arms to their desks.
I: Even with such a long day, how do you manage to teach so
much gemora in such a short time?
RY: Well, first we teach them the Acharonim. The
Acharonim help us to understand the gemora, so
after they have learned the Acharonim, the
gemora is easy.
I: Do you ever find that a child does not understand the
gemora?
RY: We do not go along with that nonsense. Everyone knows
that the human brain is infinitely powerful and if someone
really wants to do something, he can do it. We go to the true
root of the problem and we make sure that he wants to
understand the gemora.
I: How do you do that?
RY: We make him say, "I really want to understand," over and
over until he understands it, and we also have the
cheder papered with special wallpaper which has "I
really want to understand," printed very lightly on it so
that the talmidim pick up the message subliminally.
I: When do you teach them chumash?
RY: They will learn chumash when they go to
shul and hear the weekly parsha during
kriyas haTorah, so we don't bother.
I: I have heard that you have some unusual
minhogim.
RY: We do not have any unusual minhogim but we aim for
the very highest spiritual level, so we try to fulfill all
the chumros possible.
I: Can you please give us an example?
RY: Yes. For tefilla, we have a separate sholiach
tzibbur for each of the different nuscho'os so
that our students can be yotze all of them.
I: Doesn't that cause prayers to take a very long time?
RY: No. We have them all praying concurrently.
I: I have heard rumors that some of your students have
nervous breakdowns. Is that true?
RY: It is true that out of the 20 boys in the top class, 15
suffered nervous breakdowns.
I: Don't you feel that this indicates that there might be
something wrong with your system?
RY: The fact that 5 did not, shows that the system itself is
Okay.
I: So how do you explain the nervous breakdowns of the 15
children?
RY: I continually warn the parents against feeding their
children healthy food. In the cheder we give the
children only junk food of the lowest nutritional value. We
know that many of our greatest sages suffered greatly from
ill health. It is obvious that a healthy body strengthens the
yetzer hora and so we must do our maximum to ensure
that the student's body is as physically weak as possible.
However, some parents undermine our efforts and give their
children healthy food, and that is what causes the nervous
breakdowns.
I: I had noticed when I came into the cheder that most
of the children do look pale and thin and have bent backs
with hunched shoulders.
RY: Thank you for your encouraging comments. Some of our
great talmidei chachomim were pale and thin and had
bent backs, and we are preparing our students for their
future, to grow into great Torah scholars.
I: I also noticed that some of the children are so weak that
they have to use walking sticks.
RY: I am glad you noticed that. We are quite proud of those
children. If you look at old photos and paintings of the
great Sages of the past, you see that many of them had to go
with canes. That is one of the signs that we really are on
the true path.
I: How do you deal with discipline problems?
RY: Basically, we do not have any -- and that is another
indicator of the superiority of our system. Chazal state that
one may only give corporal punishment with a shoelace, so
when we first established the cheder, I ordered
special shoelaces from a manufacturer. Look! I still have one
in my desk.
I: It is a very unusual shoelace. It must be about one and a
half meters long and one centimeter thick and made of very
hard cord.
RY: Yes. As I said, I had them especially custom-made by a
shoelace manufacturer. However, we do not need to use them.
We now find that our students are so physically retarded and
emaciated that they do not have the strength to be unruly.
This reinforcs our premise that a physically healthy
upbringing strengthens the yetzer hora. Occasionally,
we do get a child who tries to be naughty and then we reduce
his calorie intake until his yetzer hora becomes too
weak to cause any trouble.
I: You explained before that the nervous breakdowns of your
talmidim comes from the parents feeding them healthy
food. However, parents of children from other chadorim
do feed their children healthy food, yet they do not have
nervous breakdowns. How do you explain that?
RY: This proves that our system is correct, because it
develops the yetzer hatov more than others and it is
the conflict of the two which leads to the nervous
breakdowns.
I: But the other chadorim are only following the way
chadorim have been run for hundreds of generations. In
Europe, children attended cheder until 12 or 1 o'clock
and they spent the afternoons playing. In cheder, they
spent most of their time learning to read and then learning
chumash. They only started learning gemora when
they were 12 -- and then they went through shas. And
they did not have nervous breakdowns.
RY: Don't you agree that we need to try and improve? They
were happy to have only a few geonim scattered here
and there, and many of the rest became simple baalei
batim. But we are working to ensure that every child
becomes a gaon.
I: But how can they all become geonim if 15 out of 20
get nervous breakdowns?
RY: I told you that the nervous breakdowns are due to the
parents feeding their children too well and strengthening
their yetzer hora.
I: But Chazal tell us that we have to be healthy and eat well
and the Rambam has whole chapters on the topic. Incidentally,
he also says that a child should only start cheder
when he is 5 or 6 years old and you are starting your program
when they are only 3.
RY: Look, a lot has changed since the days of the Rambam and
you cannot necessarily take everything at face value.
I: But you yourself are basing your system on quotes from
Chazal. How do you decide what to take at face value and what
not to take at face value?
RY: My dear young man! You have to understand that I have
been in chinuch for many years.
I: But many of the great gedolim in Europe had also
been in chinuch for many years and while I appreciate
that you are a great talmid chochom, many of them were
even greater and they knew all your sources. Still, they did
not promote a system like yours.
RY: I do not make a secret of my shitos. The parents
who send their children to me have to take the final
responsibility for their children's education. I am only
their representative.
I: True. I suppose your talmidim come out unusually
talented talmidei chachomim.
RY: Most do know a few chapters of mishnayos by heart
and they can work their way through an easy page of
gemora with the help of a translation.
I: But in Europe, many bochurim that age were already
real talmidei chachomim, knowing hundreds of pages of
gemora and some were thoroughly versed in all of
shas.
RY: You have no idea how terrible is the yeridas
hadoros since those days.
I: Rabbi Yenerkliger, thank you for your time and
patience.
