HaRav Berel Povarsky shlita
"The advantage of a yeshiva lies in receiving Torah from a Rav through brotherhood and unity." These were the words of encouragement which HaRav Boruch Dov Povarski, Rosh Yeshivas Ponovezh and member of Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah, conveyed in a special mussar talk he delivered in Yeshivas Shaarei Shmuos in Beis Chilkiya, regarding the importance and advantage of a yeshiva vis-a-vis establishing its particular approach to Torah study and adhering to it.
The gaon consented to the request of the roshei yeshiva, HaRav Naftoli Tzvi Yehuda Shapira and HaRav Arye Shapira, and came specially to the yeshiva to deliver his message to the yeshiva body and to the many local residents who also attended this event.
In his speech, he stressed that "the advantage of a yeshiva is to foster brotherhood and unity in the fact that the students are all under the tutelage of their master, as is quoted in Chazal in several places. The proper relationship between rav and talmid is that all feel like sons by their father, for in this manner, they can absorb their master's Torah who, similarly, feels like a father to these sons. Yeshiva students are meant to feel like brothers to one another within the yeshiva for this is the fundamental principle of the sense of fraternity, of sons to one father.
"When a new student arrives at a yeshiva, he should realize that he has now become united with all the others and has virtually become their brother. This principle is one of the conditions of the success in yeshiva where the Rav relates to the students as his children and they, in turn, regard their Rav as a father and that all the students are his brothers.
"There are some," he added, "who seem to truly be the messengers of Hashem to teach Torah, and their devotion to their students is apparent. Hashem has specifically chosen them as being fit for this mission. And if a master is seen as an angel sent from Hashem to transmit Torah, they are worthy of the task and must be sought for their teachings. If not, let not the student seek to learn Torah from them. And this is the advantage of a yeshiva, that besides it being an established place for Torah, it is also an opportunity for the students to bind with one another in unity."
