[Be-Ahavah U-Be-Emunah – Vayeilech
5773 – translated by R. Blumberg]
Question: What is
better for our dear children: Torah learning and secular studies together, or
just Torah learning?
Answer: Just Torah
learning! Such is Rambam’s ruling, that a small child should learn only Torah
(Hilchot Talmud Torah, Chapter 2), and we find the same in Yoreh Deah 245. Such
has been the ruling down through our people’s long history that children learn
only Torah and nothing else. It is by virtue of this that the Jewish People
have survived with all their greatness, reverence, Torah learning, purity and
holiness intact.
And why
not secular learning? Does it not include some very nice features? Certainly, very
nice features indeed, very important and very essential. These features are
interesting, they broaden the mind, expand the intellect, increase one’s
understanding of the world and even one’s understanding of Torah. They are also
a means of earning a living and a necessary vehicle for upholding the State.
Our country needs physicians, engineers, soldiers and all kinds of professions.
Secular knowledge is essential for enabling one to earn a living so that he
does not become a parasite, and all the more so for enabling him to support and
strengthen the Jewish State, which is great Mitzvah.
All this
is very important, but not for children. Not every burden has to be laid upon children.
It is very important to get married, and even so, the secrets of married life
are not a topic for children. The time will come to teach them everything, but
first comes the main thing, and afterwards the additions. The main thing is not
broadening the mind with general knowledge, or acquiring a profession for the
sake of earning a living. Rather, the main thing is good character, fear of
G-d, goodness and integrity, and keeping Torah and Mitzvot (Igrot Ha-Re'eiyah,
Igeret #170). All the rest constitute tools, tools towards there being a world,
a Jewish State, towards a person’s surviving and succeeding. What could be better? Yet why does a person want to succeed? Why is
he alive? To serve G-d. Obviously, without people there can be no one to serve
G-d, but the main thing is serving G-d, knowing
G-d,
fearing G-d, having good character, amassing Torah knowledge, doing Mitzvot
relating to G-d and to one’s fellow man. That is the essence of life, and that
is what a child must be taught.
Afterwards
we can add on the less essential matters, and then they, too, can serve as an auxiliary
to what is really important. General knowledge can join together with one’s
Torah knowledge, and a profession can help one to win life’s battles on behalf
of what is important. The main thing, however, is to start out with what is
important. Here is not the place to deliberate on how long childhood lasts --
until thirteen, fifteen or eighteen. This is something that changes with each
generation. Nowadays, maturity is considered not to come until age twenty or
twenty-two. Yeshiva students are called “Tinokot Shel Bet Rabban,” - “The
children of our master’s school.”
We are not
against secular studies. We are in favor of them. Yet yeshiva elementary school
and high school should be devoted to G-d alone. Secular studies are not what
children are about. Holiness is. Good character, a good heart, fear and love
and devotion for G-d.
Afterwards,
whatever secular studies a person learns, whether for his general knowledge or for
his livelihood, will bring a blessing.
If the
opposite happens, however, and a person ends up with neither good character nor
a good heart, why should we develop his talents? What benefit will there be
from talented people who lack a conscience? As the philosopher Rabelais said,
“Knowledge without a conscience is the soul’s destruction.”
Of what
use is a talented university student who breaks into the University computer system,
changes his grades and erases the files of others? He is learned and
knowledgeable, yet he is barbaric. One thinker called this the
“techno-barbarian culture.” The wild man armed with technological knowledge is
more dangerous than the primitive barbarian, because he holds in his hands the
means and the tools to destroy.
We want
good, ethical, upright children, and that is what we have to concentrate on.
Later on
we can broaden our ambitions. With G-d’s help, life lasts a long time. We
should let our children and our youth study Torah without distractions, in the
Talmud Torah, the Yeshiva Ketana and the post-high school Yeshiva. Afterwards,
if they wish, they can study Torah their whole lives and become rabbis, and if
they wish, they can choose a different profession.
One might
ask: At age twenty-five one should start studying secular professions? So suddenly?
This is an appropriate remark in relation to anyone who has never learned anything,
and his brain is rusty. Yet we are talking about people who have studied the Talmud,
which is the profoundest field of knowledge there is, more so than any secular
field.
For such
people, secular fields are child’s play. Look around and see for yourself. At Machon
Lev (The Jerusalem College of Technology) they opened a preparatory “Mechinah”
for youths who have studied in Yeshivot Ketanot and have never touched secular
studies. In one year, studying secular studies only half a day, they all passed
their matriculation exams.
These
youth have good study habits and are able to pace themselves. It is important
for a person to know how to study on his own, to progress and to toil, to make
an effort, to use learning tools and strategies, and not just to sit in class
passively for hours and hours. That such students can be rapidly trained for a
profession has been confirmed empirically. There are numerous examples of Yeshiva
students successfully being integrated into various study programs.
When a boy
is young, however, he should be allowed to learn Torah, so that he can grow up
good and upright. Mathematics and Physics do not make a person good and
upright, neither do they make him evil. They are irrelevant on this point.
Some
people quote our Sages’ various utterances, that a man has to teach his son a trade
(Kiddushin 29a); that many conducted themselves like Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, studying
only Torah, and were unsuccessful (Berachot 35b); that astronomy is our science
in the eyes of the nations (Shabbat 75a), etc. Yet Rambam knew all these
sources and they have no connection to the rules of educating children. The two
issues must not be confused.
Should our
Sages’ utterances about the Mitzvah of being fruitful and multiplying make us marry
off our children in early adolescence?
All of our
Sages’ utterances regarding the value of secular knowledge are well-known and
correct. Rambam, as well, knew these sources, and he incorporated them in
various places in his works. Our children, however, should be left in peace.
There’s no rush. It can wait. When they are young, what is important for them
is to gain as much Torah and holiness as they can. That way they can become
Torah-true, not half secular and half Torah-oriented, but totally of G-d. G-d
alone is exalted.
I am not invalidating
national-religious education or the Yeshiva high schools. I am not invalidating
anything. Everyone must do what is best for him, on condition that he maintain holiness
and purity. By the same token, we must not foster intolerance towards those who
wish their children to study according to the pattern recorded in the Talmud,
Rambam and the Shulchan Aruch, a pattern that was practiced down through the
generations. After all, it was from that pattern that Torah luminaries and
reputable children sprang forth. Don’t spread your wings over everyone, saying,
“You all have to be like us.”
Quite the
contrary, the child’s environment has to be one of holiness. The Torah must be
his life, and he should love the Torah and be excited by it. It should be his whole
world.
In
Jerusalem there are several hundred Yeshivot Ketanot belonging to various
streams, and in each of them are dozens of children studying with pleasure and
enthusiasm. For the National-Religious population, there are almost none like
this. This demonstrates an enormous lack of understanding. This has no
connection to arguments about Eretz Yisrael and the Redemption. During the time
of the Redemption, is there no need to fill ourselves with Torah and the fear
of G-d? Quite the contrary, we need it all the more! We need still more Torah and
fear of G-d, more Torah and Mitzvot than in the exile! Because of Zionism we have
to weaken the Torah? We have to strengthen it more. In order to build a single individual
you need a lot of Torah, and in order to build a state, which is so complicated
a task, you need even more!
Over time,
general knowledge can be introduced in limited doses to the main objective, which
is Torah and serving G-d, for that is why we are on this earth. That is the
revolution that lies before us now: to establish Yeshivot Ketanot. From these,
real Torah scholars will emerge, both those for whom the Torah is their trade
all their lives, and those who will choose a different profession in time.
Through both will be fulfilled, “All your children shall be taught of Hashem” (Yeshayahu
54:13).
