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29 Tammuz, 5779 - August 1, 2019 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Guidelines for Girls' Education

By Y. Shain

To Read the Guidelines

Last week the teachers in girls' high schools and seminaries gathered at Binyanei Ha'Uma in Jerusalem to hear Daas Torah about the content and purposes of education. One of the main themes was the importance of remaining within the Bais Yaakov framework and not pursuing education in an institution created and run by regular academic institutions, even if concessions are made to some ways to the chareidi community. Institutions and courses that are supervised and controlled by non-religious staff and institutions are inimical to the chareidi way of life.

The Prohibition Remains the Same

HaRav Hirsch
3

The keynote address was delivered by HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, rosh yeshiva of Slobodka, who opened by mentioning the major rally which took place three years ago when gedolei Yisroel categorically forbade attending academies and colleges, noting that efforts have been made to provide livelihoods in permissible ways.

"To our regret, even though much has been accomplished in this area, still, the results do not yet satisfy our expectations. Some people ask if this prohibition has changed in any way in the interim. However, after we have seen with our own eyes what happens to those who attend colleges, how their Yiddishkeit plummets, including their modesty in attire, we are convinced that the prohibition is certainly warranted, even if there are exceptions of those who were not adversely affected. Surely this is no cause to gamble in general.

"All academic studies are coupled with university lecturers, who breathe apikorsus and denigration of the Torah way. This can surface even through a single [innocent] sentence in a math course, and its effect can be felt since the lecturer is in a position of authority to a certain degree and his words have clout so that in an incidental moment, the influence worms its way in and can have further repercussions.

"Means of livelihood is an undeniable problem. It is difficult to live in deprivation but it is imperative that our teachers clarify to their students that one does not gamble with Yiddishkeit. As for those who maintain that they are impervious [to undesirable influence], this is promoted by their self-interest in the matter, from the difficulty they encounter in living in scarcity. They fool themselves that no danger exists, but this is misguided.

"If a Bais Yaakov student truly and strongly felt in her heart and mind that her only purpose in life is maintaining a life of Torah, and that the way to achieve eternal life is only through Torah and mitzvos, if she were altogether convinced that Yiddishkeit is the only way of life, she would take no chances in exposing herself to danger. This, then, is the message of Bais Yaakov: even if one experiences deprivation, one does not gamble, since (Torah) is the sole purpose of life."

HaRav Dovid Cohen addressing the keness
3

"The Outcome is only One: Ruin and Destruction"

Central to this event was the message which HaRav Dov Landau expressed when he quoted from a letter he wrote that "any desire to connect to the outside world, its secularism, culture, values, concepts and method of thinking, its disparate aspirations and approach to whatever is happening, all these have one end result: ruin, ruin and ruin, Hashem preserve. It is a mitzvah to gird oneself and stand steadfast, composed and cautious against all of those phenomena, in all their shades and all directions."

Further on, the message to this rally of the Mashgiach, HaRav Don Segal, was quoted. He said: "It is clear that if one attends other places of academia etc., even if no heresy is expressed there, the matter is not at all simple and is even worse than hearing outright apikorsus, because in the latter case, I know what I stand for. But if [the lecturer] expresses ideas that are not directly connected to emunah, there is no control or criticism against what he says. In truth, everything that he utters is the very opposite of Torah thinking and one does not feel that he is absorbing ideas that are wholly contrary to Torah. Thus, it is obvious how great the danger is. We are not talking about externals and tangentials, but on basic fundamentals of Judaism. Why then [take the chance]? For the sake of parnossa? Our obligation of input and effort, hishtadlus, is up to this point: from thereon in!" [Hashem yishmor baadeinu]

The Slonimer Rebbe also delivered a message to this assembly and said, "At times such as these we find a general uprising. It seems as if the whole world is decelerating and our job, our small cadre of Hashem, is to declare that we will not abandon Him, not through Internet, academia, academic degrees, nor in attire that does not abide by the spirit of our leadership. We will never relinquish our independence regarding education but will stand loyally and staunchly. This is our responsibility in this generation: not to give in as much as a hairsbreadth."

HaRav Moshe Tzadka expressed very powerful words of reinforcement, of the need to preserve the form of Bais Yaakov education and not let ourselves be swayed to embrace academic studies in any shape, even from those institutions which maintain that they are chareidi, for all of them incorporate a great danger to the character of Bais Yaakov.

HaRav Moshe Schlesinger, liaison director of chareidi public relations in the Maccabee Health Fund, the body which subscribed this event in conjunction with the Tamach organization which provides training and work places for chareidi women, also addressed the assembly with a strong message.

 

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