Part III
In the first part, Rabbi Grossman discussed the fact that
the preservation of the purity of the Torah education that
our children receive is one of the linchpins of our
educational system. The slightest damage to the integrity of
Torah's transmission can harm its special qualities. To
illustrate and explain this, Rabbi Grossman cited the story
of the deeds of Rav Chiya and the steps he took to ensure
that Torah would not be forgotten. He planted flax, made
nets, caught deer, gave their meat to orphans and used their
skins to write Torah, and then went to children and taught
them Torah. Why did he undertake this extensive preparation?
The Vilna Gaon explains that it is because if any step taken
involves some prohibited deed (for example if the production
is financed by an interest-bearing loan that is prohibited)
then the objects being prepared will be tainted and the Torah
transmission will be imperfect. By seeing that the production
of the seforim would be untainted by anything
forbidden, no impure spirit would rest upon the scrolls from
which the children would learn. It was in this way that he
ensured that Torah would not be forgotten in Israel.
In the second part, Rabbi Grossman quoted HaRav Steinman
who notes that the Gra said that in earlier generations they
learned out in the fields so that they would avoid a building
that was perhaps not built with pure intentions. This is an
indicator of one important difference in approach between the
chareidi community and the National Religious sector that
decided to subsume its education under the Israeli
government, thereby hoping to reach more children. In the end
they had trouble even retaining their good children.
The Alter of Kelm wrote that he was not trying to expand
the Talmud Torah of Kelm but to raise its quality. He quotes
the Chovos Halevovos, "A small amount that is pure is
a great deal." HaRav Shach also discusses this idea in
several places. In connection with an edition of the
gemora that was intended to popularize it in order to
make it accessible to the "masses" he said, "Such learning
removes every trace of holiness and faith. It renders
Shas a book of laws, like gentile learning R'l.
It is clear that this approach will cause Torah to be
forgotten, chas vesholom."
*
Elsewhere, Rav Shach explains that our main work nowadays in
order to ensure that Torah is not forgotten is to protect the
integrity of Torah education and of the holy yeshivos -- the
small amount of purity that we possess. The few whom these
produce, whose Torah and whose world-outlook are strong, will
be the ones from which Klal Yisroel will be
rebuilt.
"Based upon what I know about my teachers and from my own
experience, I know that what used to be the way to influence
others and the kind of things that once had to be done, have
undergone drastic change in our times. In my opinion, the
most important thing of all that can be done nowadays relates
to chinuch. This includes establishing chareidi
schools, yeshivos ketanos and gedolos without
any alien admixture -- for it is unavoidable that mixing in
other branches of knowledge should alter the authentic
outlook and distort the Torah mindset as it has been
transmitted to us by earlier generations, resulting chas
vesholom, in Torah's being forgotten. When a thousand
pupils enter cheder, the Torah of the one who
eventually emerges who is capable of determining halochoh, is
whole and perfect. However, if the Torah of that individual
is not strong and whole, we have lost everything. What a task
thus lies ahead for our few remaining youngsters who continue
learning in the yeshivos ketanos and gedolos,
who have not come under the influence of crooked ideas and
false outlooks! They protect the embers of Torah from being
extinguished, chas vesholom" (letter dated the sixth
of Iyar 5736, ibid)
Concentrating Solely on Torah Chinuch
HaRav Shach's comments in the introduction to the fourth
edition of his Avi Ezri are well known. "Nowadays,
among our many sins, the ranks of those who learn in order to
quarrel (lekanteir) have swollen compared to those who
maintain fidelity to Torah and mitzvos in their authentic
form as they were originally given. The former employ
worthless and baseless arguments to prove that times have
changed and that it is incumbent to draw themselves and the
public closer to those who have strayed. If we take that path
chas vesholom, Torah will eventually be completely
forgotten and we will sink deeper and deeper . . .
"All we can do is fulfill our duty to increase Torah and
yirah, Torah [learned] in its full purity and
perfection, in its authentic form, and Hashem will do what He
needs to do to ensure that Torah is not forgotten, as He
promised us."
This referred to the Lubavitch Movement which attacked the
Torah world for years for its "insularity" and for focusing
exclusively on the Torah academies and holy yeshivos while
preaching their doctrine of taking to the streets with large-
scale campaigns of tefillin laying and other mitzvah
projects.
In his annual letters of greeting to Agudas Yisroel of
America, where the Lubavitch movement was particularly active
and tried to persuade chareidi circles to agree with their
attacks on the Torah world, HaRav Shach would express himself
in no uncertain terms.
"There is no need to write at length because success is
ensured at all times by spreading Torah and yirah
through the chadorim, yeshivos ketanos, and
gedolos and through Chinuch Atzmai. This was the area
in which Avrohom Ovinu excelled -- "For I know him because he
instructs his sons and his household after him . . ."
(Bereishis 18:19) -- and the gemora says that
our forefathers were all elders who sat and studied in
yeshivas (Yoma 28). Nowadays, when there is such
widespread desolation and abandonment among those who have
not been educated in the traditional approach that we have
received from our ancestors, the path of Torah and mitzvos,
there is one sure way for us to be successful and to survive -
- to establish more Torah institutions and to maintain the
existing ones" (letter dated twenty fifth of Cheshvan 5742,
Michtovim Umaamorim vol. V).
"In these lines, I would like to say that at no time has
there ever been a greater obligation to fulfill `then those
who feared Hashem spoke together' (Mal'achi 3:16)
[through learning Torah (Ovos 3:2)] than there is at
present. Even though there are some encouraging things, like
the baalei teshuvoh, they are a few individuals maybe
a few hundred. But this does not affect our duty or our
existence in Klal Yisroel at all. The only guarantee
is Torah study, starting with talmudei Torah and
Chinuch Atzmai, the yeshivos ketanos and
gedolos, where Torah is learned in holy purity like it
was given at Sinai. Nothing whatsoever can be a substitute
for this (the eighth of Kislev 5744, ibid.).
"Allow me to state briefly the most fundamental thing of all,
to which all our thoughts and activities should be devoted
nowadays . . . It is hard for me to write all that one can
see among the youth . Those who think new things work and
have an influence using methods that they dreamed up
themselves are mistaken and are leading others astray. There
is one true way -- solely by increasing Torah. Another
cheder, another yeshiva ketanoh, another
yeshiva gedolah -- this is the only way that we will
emerge victorious" (the ninth of Kislev 5749,
ibid).
Because of a Single Halochoh
To end, it is worthwhile quoting the comment of the Ritvo
(Succah 20). Referring to the gemora's
discussion of which pieces of wicker are fit to use for the
roof of the succah, Resh Lokish says: "I offer myself
as atonement for Rabbi Chiya and his sons for originally,
when Torah was being forgotten, Ezra ascended from Bovel and
reestablished it. It was forgotten again and Hillel the Bavli
ascended and reestablished it. It was forgotten again and
Rabbi Chiya and his sons ascended and reestablished it. So
said Rabbi Chiya and his sons: Rabbi Dosa and the Sages are
not arguing about the wicker of Usha . . ." Simply
understood, Rabbi Chiya reestablished Torah through his work
at teaching young children, as the gemoras in
Kesuvos and Bovo Metzia relate.
The Ritvo however writes: "We don't find that Torah was
forgotten in Rabbi Chiya's time, which was the time of
Rabbenu Hakodosh and his colleagues, who were gedolei
Yisroel. [Rather] he said this in reference to the new
information that they conveyed with this halochoh. The
forgetting of a single halochoh relating to purity and
impurity of pieces of wicker was seen by Resh Lokish as
justifying the statement that Torah was being forgotten and
that Rabbi Chiya reestablished it, for as the Ritvo writes,
`Whoever perpetuates a single halochoh and prevents it from
being forgotten, it is as though he was establishing the
entire Torah . . .' "
Rabbi Chiya used that power in his work to preserve Torah in
its purity. The immense toil involved in clarifying the
meaning of a sugya of gemora is an effort made
to prevent Torah's being forgotten. So is the training of
five or six young boys, teaching them a complete and perfect
Torah in purity, because "a small amount that is pure is a
great deal."
