HaGaon HaRav Yitzchok Yehuda Yuroslovsky Shlita, who serves as the secretary for Chabad batei din in Eretz Yisrael is instructing mosdos Chabad to join the battle against government efforts to dictate what subject matter will be taught in chareidi mosdos.
Rav Yuroslovsky, who is also mora d’asra of the kehilla in Nachlas Har Chabad, granted an interview in the weekly Kfar Chabad magazine, closing ranks with Gedolei Yisrael Shlita. The rav explains there is no place for outsiders to dictate what will be taught in a talmid torah or cheider. He adds that while government agencies can indeed respond by cutting funding, mosdos mustn’t give in to the pressure.
The rav adds that a school in Kiryat Malachi affiliated with the chassidus was instructed to add English to its curriculum but the school refused and as a result, it lost a portion of its funding “But I am certain we acted correctly, in line with HKBH’s will” he adds.
The rav explains that davka during these times, “when so many threats to the souls of the young pure children lurk in every corner, so many spiritual dangers, we must resist these efforts at all costs.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
Yes, outsiders should not dictate what should be taught in their school.
UNLESS they want any kind of government funding. And UNLESS their graduates will expect financial aid when they cannot find a job because they dont speak Hebrew properly, or dont speak English, or have the math skills of a first grader.
1. Those hareidi Jews who want jobs in the goyish economy are blocked by laws prohibiting them from working since they don’t join the army first.
2. If you wanted Israel to be Anglophonic, you should have supported the “American Trust Territory” alternative in 1948. Frankly, Arabic might be even more useful for those who aren’t in tourism related industries.
3. Hareidim are hardly linguistically challenged. Indeed most are trilingual. The problem is that the elites don’t like their accents (hint, most Americans can’t stand Brooklyn accents either, and most Whites can’t stand Black accents). The problem is not with the speaker, but with the bias of the hearer.
4. I’ve seen plenty of hareidim running businesses which require a lot more math than a typical first grader. I guess that means the hareidim are all mathematically gifted.
5. The anti-zionists have for years opposed accepting zionist money. It corrupts. Jews should not solicit tsadakah from goyim, especially from goyim with an agenda that includes destroying Torah and Mitsvos. Note I am using the word “goyim” in the original sense, to refer a “nation” of the world, which the zionists have aspired to become one of (an intentional downgrade, though they don’t admit it).
6. When the Muslims ruled Eretz Yisrael, they never offered us money – but they never told us what to do.
Chardal,
They pay taxes. The school funds are merely their own funds being returned to them. The government can dictate if the funds are being handed out without reciprocation. But Charedim better have a say in how their own money is spent – on them.
#1, interesting approach. I disagree, I believe has the right and responsibility to make sure all of its citizens learn certain core requirements up until a certain age. In America, everyone has to go to school with the standards of the American government up until the age of 16. You don’t see the Chareidim in places like Monsey or Boro Bark complaining that the government is out to get them. The school I went to for elementary school was very Yeshivish (my teachers were all from Lakewood or Boro Park), yet in the afternoon we learned Math, Science, Social Studies and English – the four core requirements of America. By the time I graduated, I already knew Algebra 1, which for some reason I don’t understand 25 year old Chareidim in Israel don’t know.
While maybe I don’t agree with cutting funding, I think it is absurdity that they are so adamant against teaching these core requirements. I think that they are all just being ridiculous.
#1 But they will have the skills of living like a TRUE Yid by having as much knowledge in Torah and Yiras Shomayim as possible. You probably don’t understand this but that’s really living! As the saying goes “Try it. You’ll like it”
Dayan harav….
Akuperma,one can acknoledge the rishus of the zionists and yesh atidniks without diregarding the complete willfull negligence of the chereidi leadership(not the gedolim but those that benefit from the status qoe) who have done zeroto aleviate the terrible hardships that cheredim face economicly in ey.their foremost priority should be to abolish the army to work requirement,but no chareidi politician has ever seriously made that a priority.
Akuperma,
Yes the good old days under Ottoman and British rule. They sure never told us what to do, for example:
1. They didn’t stop us from blowing shofar at the kotel on Rosh Hashannah / Yom Kippur because it offends the muslims.
2. They didn’t bother us by dumping trash and other household garbage by the kotel
3. They didn’t bother us by killing dozens in hevron in 1929.
Daya zogger : The only way to eliminate the economic problems of the Israel hareidim is to eliminate the medinah. They could all be fluent in 70 languages, and expert in all the hachmos of the world, and the Israelis would not offer them jobs. Since the hareidim rabbanim are great lovers of peace, and oppose bloodshed, they can’t come up with an effective solution to get rid of the zionists – so they look for ways to peacefully coexist with them.
Nombody: I noticed you focused on the Christians (in power 1918-1948). The halachic significance of the kotel is limited – no hareidi rabbanim would support giving up Jewish lives or Bitul Torah in order to fight a war over it. My point remains, that neither the British Christians not the Turkish Muslims were “anti-Torah” or “anti-Yeshivah”. A government that sees Torah learning as something to surpress is a function of the triumph of zionism. If they press too hard (today’s press has reports of plans for mass arrests of yeshiva students if they refuse to stop learning and join the army), the percentage of Hareidim preferring a single democratic state between the desert and the seas (which will have an Arab majority) will start to increase.
the goyim are wondering ‘why are Jews so smart’ and they have a difficulty understanding why. An excellent article explains that there is two types of learning: factual learning and analytical learning.
Most public schools stress factual learning, ie 1+1=2, the is so many miles from earth, the capital of this country is whateversville, etc. The yishivas teach analytical learning ie, if Rabbi Meir holds this and Rabbi Yehuda holds that then it is impossible for the mishna to be either of them, but if they hold like this instead, then we can say the mishna is only d’rabbanon and like Rabbi…, you get the idea.
It is the analytical skills that give the Jews the edge. see: http://www.jewishmag.com/171mag/jewish_learning/jewish_learning.htm
Daya zogger
One of the current proposals was that at age 21 Hareidi could work without having to serve in the military (though certain benefits enjoyed by veterans will not be available).