"The Greatest Challenge We Face Today is Making Yiddishkeit and Torah Geshmak for Us and Our Youth"
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Dovid Teitelbaum
Apr 7, 2013, 3:46:18 PM4/7/13
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"The Greatest Challenge We Face Today is Making Yiddishkeit and Torah Geshmak for Us and Our Youth"
"The Greatest Challenge We Face Today is Making Yiddishkeit and Torah Geshmak for Us and Our Youth" - Those are not my words but words from an interview with Rabbi Lieff, Rav of Agudas Yisroel of Flatbush, in the Pesach Edition of the Yated Neeman. I read that quote over many times because I was so excited to see an issue dear to my heart finally being brought out into the open. But all that excitement dissipated when I read the interview. Mainly, because the topic wasn't raised at all. For a caption that is labeled as the greatest challenge of our time I would expect a little more in depth examination.
It was one year ago that I wrote an article about the importance of adding excitement (what you call Geshmak) into our chinuch system. I called them my E's. Excitement, Entertainment, Endearment, Exposure, Expression, Embracement and Enjoyment. I came to my conclusion not by reading the papers but from first hand experience with teenagers and reading books that interviewed teenagers firsthand. I tried publishing it in the yeshiva papers but it was rejected as being too controversial. Reluctantly, I had no choice but to post the article on the internet. It went viral and within a week 30 other popular blogs reprinted it and it was translated into Yiddish and Hebrew. I received thousands of comments, emails and phone calls from parents, Mechanchim, and even Roshei Yeshiva. They all had just one thing to say. Thank you for bringing up an issue that was kept under the rug for too long.
Maybe this short story told to me by a Bais Yaakov girl will explain what we are facing. It was before Pesach vacation and the principal entered the classroom to make an important announcement. He brought a list of all the places the girls should not visit on Chol Hamoed. It highlighted about ten places that weren't appropriate for a BY girl. After he finished a girl raises her hand and asks the principal if instead of mentioning all the places they can't go why not give them some ideas of where they can go. The principal takes a few moments acknowledging the question and tells the class he will get back to them. It's now after Pesach and she is still waiting. It's pretty simple what's going on, outside entertainment is not allowed and even Jewish entertainment is frowned upon and sometimes outright banned.
When you do the reverse, when you give children the impression that the Torah life is one of boredom and restrictions then we are in for a disaster. Rabbi Yitzchok Feigenbaum clearly spelled this out in his impactful essay. "Been There, Done That: Why Being Frum Is So Boring". Whether we like it or not teens see the outside world and it looks even more glorious from the outside, as the heart desires that which it cannot have. Most kids will do these things anyway and they will begin to associate a fun and exciting life as something that’s in contradiction to the Torah way of life and that can have long term detrimental effects on their outlook towards Yiddishkeit.
I remember one time a prospective parent called my father about registering their son for camp and wanted to know how many hours of learning we had each day. My father replied "10 hours". After the parent realized my father was being facetious, my father explained to the parent that learning isn't just about sitting at the Gemarah but is in fact a full day activity. Whether it's hiking through Ein Gedi where they learn about Dovid Hamelech hiding from Shaul or at a midnight Kumzits where the campers hear stories that inspire them or just seeing the beauty of Eretz Yisroel, these are all learning experiences.
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Dovid Teitelbaum
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via Tales from a summer camp... by Dovid Teitelbaum on 4/7/13
"The Greatest Challenge We Face Today is Making Yiddishkeit and Torah Geshmak for Us and Our Youth" - Those are not my words but words from an interview with Rabbi Lieff, Rav of Agudas Yisroel of Flatbush, in the Pesach Edition of the Yated Neeman. I read that quote over many times because I was so excited to see an issue dear to my heart finally being brought out into the open. But all that excitement dissipated when I read the interview. Mainly, because the topic wasn't raised at all. For a caption that is labeled as the greatest challenge of our time I would expect a little more in depth examination.
The first question that would come to mind is how did Rabbi Lieff come to this realization. Just one year ago at the Agudah Convention our Rabbonim were determined that the greatest challenge of our generation was technology, not one word about our kids needing more of a geshmak in Yiddishkeit was mentioned. And now, a year later it seems we had it all wrong.
While that would have intrigued anyone, I was more bothered by the absolute silence as to what is being done to implement this Geshmak in yiddishkeit. That would be the logical follow up question. To be fair, it did mention something about singing more Shabbos Zemiros and saying less pilpul from the Brisker Rav. If that is the plan, I think it better to not raise the question. This gave me the feeling that we don't have any answers and that really concerned me.
This made me optimistic, but not for long. Because these calls were followed by other phone calls and those were quite depressing. These phone calls were also from Mechanchim, but these were educators who tried to implement the ideas I wrote about but found themselves completely knocked down by the system.
One after another they began to tell me their stories. Some were told there just wasn't a need for this kind of chinuch, others were told there was no money to invest in such activities. Another rebbe told me that after he presented a more exciting curriculum, one that would focus on loving Yiddishkeit and what it means to be a Jew, he was told that yeshivos are not kiruv institutions. Community activists that gave freely of their time to incorporate out of school fun activities were not only ignored by the yeshivas but sometimes felt they were fighting against the system. Even more disturbing was hearing from other writers who tried to bring awareness to this subject, were either turned down or told to edit out parts. These are just some of the mild things I heard. Roshei Yeshivas that didn't send out letters and sign bans were threatened with intimidation tactics. The pressure that I have seen in the frum world to those that want to raise real issues is similar to the mafia, and this is no exaggeration.
If I may, let me bring to light just some of what others have brought to my attention. Chumrus have gotten out of hand. We take some of most beautiful concepts of Yidishkeit and apply stringencies until we suck the Gishmak out of them. Tznius has become one of just rules and our girls have lost any appreciation for the beauty of modesty. We focus so much energy on outside appearances while character development and middos have fallen to the wayside. It was during the Hurricane Sandy devastation that our Yeshivos had the opportunity to show our children what it means to help a fellow Jew, but instead Bital Torah was cited as an obstacle. It's Middos and Derech Eretz itself they instill a love for Yidishkeit in our youth, not so much Talmud Torah.
Maybe this short story told to me by a Bais Yaakov girl will explain what we are facing. It was before Pesach vacation and the principal entered the classroom to make an important announcement. He brought a list of all the places the girls should not visit on Chol Hamoed. It highlighted about ten places that weren't appropriate for a BY girl. After he finished a girl raises her hand and asks the principal if instead of mentioning all the places they can't go why not give them some ideas of where they can go. The principal takes a few moments acknowledging the question and tells the class he will get back to them. It's now after Pesach and she is still waiting. It's pretty simple what's going on, outside entertainment is not allowed and even Jewish entertainment is frowned upon and sometimes outright banned.
Rav Hirsch says it like no one else. "Israel is required to be a shining example, demonstrating that one who would lead a spiritual and moral life, completely dedicated to duty is not necessarily obliged to renounce the enjoyment of earthly happiness; rather the highest degree of morality is entirely compatible with the greatest measure of earthly happiness". A child must feel that his religious lifestyle is as pleasurable as that of the outside world. Bringing Torah values into our everyday life is what makes us unique".
When you do the reverse, when you give children the impression that the Torah life is one of boredom and restrictions then we are in for a disaster. Rabbi Yitzchok Feigenbaum clearly spelled this out in his impactful essay. "Been There, Done That: Why Being Frum Is So Boring". Whether we like it or not teens see the outside world and it looks even more glorious from the outside, as the heart desires that which it cannot have. Most kids will do these things anyway and they will begin to associate a fun and exciting life as something that’s in contradiction to the Torah way of life and that can have long term detrimental effects on their outlook towards Yiddishkeit.
So what's in plan to make Yiddishkeit more exciting? This Chol Hamoed I glanced at the shul bulletin board to see what was on the agenda. Every other sign was about another Chol Hamoed learning program. This has been the trend for some time, any vacation time our children have they are encouraged to sit in front of a Gemarah and learn. We need to examine whether these methods are part of the problem.
I remember one time a prospective parent called my father about registering their son for camp and wanted to know how many hours of learning we had each day. My father replied "10 hours". After the parent realized my father was being facetious, my father explained to the parent that learning isn't just about sitting at the Gemarah but is in fact a full day activity. Whether it's hiking through Ein Gedi where they learn about Dovid Hamelech hiding from Shaul or at a midnight Kumzits where the campers hear stories that inspire them or just seeing the beauty of Eretz Yisroel, these are all learning experiences.
I could list many ideas that are out there and that work, but in order to make a difference we need to revise our educational system, not just hand out a couple of more lollipops. We can bring back some of the pirchei trips my father a"h used to do. We can add swimming and recreation, and inter-school leagues. Ask any Rebbi that uses an interactive smartboard and he will tell you the boys get so excited. Kids love the latest gadgets and if you show them that they can do their Gemara review over Skype with a friend and see the Gemara on the side, you have made it exciting for them.
We need to implement the latest and greatest technologies into our classroom like Torahlive.com. But this technology does not come cheaply. And so we need to encourage our givirim to give money to the right places. Will their names to be seen on a new fancy bais medrash or will it be stamped on the latest Artscroll iPad for kids? Will they support a new Kollel institution or a new exciting recreation center for our teens to enjoy? You can support the Kollel center now but in 20 years you’re not going to have anyone to fill it up. We have today the highest quality Rabbeyim the Jewish world has ever seen. We have the mechanchim that want to bring change. All we need is for more Rabbonim to encourage and speak out on the subject.
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| Torah Live in Camp Sdei Chemed |
At first I believed things would change, with so much of a positive response to my article how could it not. But over the past year it seemed things were just getting worse and It began to feel like I was just preaching to the choir. Many more important issues were brought to my attention and not one of them even got a mention in the frum press. It felt like those making decisions are not living in the same reality as the klal.
I'm fully aware that most of the pressure against any progress is from fanatics but sometimes it feels like they are the ones in control. And just as you have those whose one goal is spreading loshon hara about Rabbonim, you have on the other end a large group of people that survive off attacking those who try and bring important issues to the table. They love gossip just as much as the first group and they contribute nothing to society but hinder progress.
Unless this was a misprint, it seems we have finally admitted that excitement in Yidishkeit is a problem that needs attention, and that is a major milestone. This headline gave me hope once again that this topic will be taken seriously. I beg that the solutions proposed are real solutions and not quick fix solutions that are ineffective.
Dovid Teitelbaum
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Dovid Teitelbaum
Camp Sdei Chemed
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