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19 Shevat 5760 - January 26, 2000 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Opinion & Comment
Principles of Education

by HaRav Nosson Einfeld

More insights and thoughts on various aspects of chinuch from a veteran Torah educator.

Being a Leader is Slavery, Not Power

Some think of teaching as a profession and a livelihood, others consider it social status and a source of prestige, while still others consider it a mission in life. None of these is the way the Torah looks at it.

The gemora (Horayos 10a) tells about R' Yehoshua recommending two chachomim to become roshei yeshiva: R' Eliezer Chatma and R' Yochonon ben Gudgoda, who were outstanding scholars and desperately poor. "[Rabban Gamliel] thought of appointing them as roshei yeshiva [so they would have ample livelihood -- Rashi]. He sent someone to call them over so he could appoint them. They, however, did not come [since they ran away from prestige]. He sent another shaliach and they came. He said to them: `Perhaps you think I am giving you a position of power? I am giving you slavery!'"

The Rambam (Hilchos Sanhedrin 25:2) rules: "[A leader] must suffer the public's yoke and affairs like Moshe Rabbenu, as is written, `As a nursing father carries the sucking child.' Furthermore, the Torah writes (Devorim 1:16), `I charged your judges at that time.' This is a warning for a judge to endure the public as a nursing father puts up with the sucking child. Let us learn from Moshe, the teacher of all the nevi'im. When He sent Moshe and Aharon it was on the understanding that bnei Yisroel would curse and stone them." If about each person the Rambam (Hilchos Teshuvah 5) writes, "each person can be like Moshe," an educator and a rav are actually obligated to be like Moshe and tolerate their charges as a nursing father.

An amazing Midrash (Devorim Rabbah 7:11) will now be understood: "Moshe and a hundred like him should die and not even one fingernail of a single Jew should be hurt." The obvious question is that Moshe Rabbenu himself is included within Klal Yisroel, so how can it possibly be that one Jew's fingernail is preferable to Moshe's life or the life of a hundred like him? The gemora (Sanhedrin 75a) only writes that a person's own blood is not redder than another's. Why should we say that the other person's blood is redder than his? It surely needs to be explained why a fingernail of another person is preferable to his own life and even that of a hundred like him.

This is responsibility. The moment one accepts on himself the responsibility to help the public -- and as explained above, the public is made up of individuals -- he is responsible for each one of them. He must dedicate himself entirely to his mission and be faithful to his responsibility up to the point of mesiras nefesh.

I Am the Kaporo of Bnei Yisroel

We can now understand how gedolei hador, geonim and tzaddikim, led our people in the time of calamity, during the ghastly Holocaust of the Churban of Europe.

Not long before World War II began, Maran HaRav Elchonon Wassermann zt'l Hy'd was in the U.S.A. to raise money for his yeshiva. Although he clearly heard the dreadful news of approaching war, he packed his bags and returned to Poland. People begged him to remain until after things had calmed down, and even bring two of his sons, R' Naftoli Beinush and R' Tzvi Leib, to the U.S.A. He answered: "I do not have only two sons; I have four hundred children. How can I abandon them?"

He answered R' Naftoli Carlebach's question; how he was allowed to endanger himself when aware of the situation. R' Elchonon answered: "I am a soldier and must go to the front."

At that time the Karliner Rebbe zt'l Hy'd visited Eretz Yisroel and spoke openly about the approaching dark days, a time when the Jews in golus will sink into blood, fire, and smoke. When people beseeched him to remain in Eretz Yisroel, he answered that his Chassidim were waiting for him -- and departed in a boat for Europe.

With remarkable efforts the Slonimer Chassidim in Eretz Yisroel managed to obtain a visa for their Rebbe, HaRav Shlomo zt'l Hy'd, and his household. They wired him about the news. He, however, answered that he could not come, since "he had children who depend upon him." He had an only daughter for whom a visa was sent, but he was devoted to his Chassidim who depended on him and were encouraged by his presence.

When it became apparent that those living in the Warsaw ghetto were destined to die, HaRav Menachem Ziemba zt'l Hy'd was offered a way to escape. He answered: "A captain does not abandon his sinking ship."

There were gedolei Torah who decided differently. There were some who emigrated to the U.S.A. in an attempt to try to save as much as possible. There were those who went to Eretz Yisroel to rehabilitate the war refuges and rebuild what was destroyed. This became a foundation for the present-day flourishing of Torah and Chassidus and the fulfillment of the eternal promise of "it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed" (Devorim 31:21). The principle was, however, one and the same: total responsibility without considering oneself at all.

Chevlei Yotzeir (pg. 368) tells that the poseik HaRav S. Wosner shlita asked Maran the Chazon Ish zt'l why he had decided to settle in Bnei Brak instead of Yerushalayim. At that time Bnei Brak was only an agricultural settlement, in the beginning of its development, whereas Yerushalayim was a city full of Torah scholars. The Chazon Ish answered: "Yerushalayim is full of tzaddikim and gedolei Torah, but in the new settlement I find a desert . . . I want to plant some seedlings of Torah . . . and therefore I came to Bnei Brak, and I think if I do not succeed in planting them, I will go to Gehennom together with its settlers."

Unbounded Responsibility

An educator's responsibility is boundless; it has no set times. " `They who turn the many to righteousness are like the stars for ever and ever' (Daniel 12:3). `They' refers to teachers of children. Such as who? Rav said: Such as Rav Shmuel bar Shilas. Rav found Rav Shmuel bar Shilas standing in a garden. Rav asked him: `Have you left your duty?' [Rashi explains that Rav Shmuel was accustomed to teach his talmidim faithfully and always sat with them.] Rav Shmuel said to Rav: `It has been thirteen years since I last saw a garden, and even now I am thinking about [my students]'" (Bovo Basra 8b).

Maran HaRav E. M. Shach shlita told me that he once served as a rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Slutzk, which was headed by Maran HaRav Aharon Kotler zt'l. After Communist and Bolshevik harassment intensified, Maran HaRav Kotler decided to transfer the yeshiva to Kletzk, in Poland. He moved with part of his talmidim and the other part, that at the time could not leave Soviet Russia, remained in Slutzk under the leadership of Maran HaRav Shach.

HaRav Shach said that as rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Slutzk he was strongly against bochurim making a mishmar (studying the entire night) on Thursday nights. Even erev Shabbos is a day like any other day: we must daven a yeshivisheh davening, study during the seder, and attend the shiur. Students who have studied the whole night daven vosikin hastily and afterwards they sleep until the afternoon. Their gain becomes a sure loss.

Some talmidim did not heed the Rosh Yeshiva's warning and continued studying the whole night. "What did I do?" says HaRav Shach. "I remained awake and studied with them in the beis midrash until morning. They davened vosikin and then went off to sleep, but I continued studying until the regular Shacharis of the yeshiva. I was present at the seder and even gave a shiur. Why did I remain with them the whole night? I had to watch over them to ensure that they truly studied."

A talmid of the mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir, who later himself served as a mashgiach in a yeshiva, wanted to visit Mir for a few days and confer with his rebbe to, so to speak, refill his batteries. Beforehand he wrote to his rebbe asking permission. In HaRav Yeruchom Lebowitz's answer (printed in Daas Chochmah Umussar, II, discourse 279) the Mashgiach of Yeshivas Mir agreed in principle with the idea. The talmid's coming to Mir "would greatly benefit him." But "nonetheless, cholila for His Honor to do this, because of several reasons. The main reason is that the work of hashgocho demands never diverting one's attention. A mashgiach's absence for a day, and perhaps a little more, could cause irreparable damage."

The Oron Hakodesh and Its Poles

Later R' Yeruchom mentions how trustworthy Yaakov Ovinu was when pasturing Lovon's sheep, despite his father-in-law's deceiving him endless times. "`Yaakov sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock' (Bereishis 31:4). Yaakov called Rachel and Leah to him instead of going to them because of his responsibility to guard Lovon's sheep. Yaakov said, `Thus I was: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes' (Bereishis 31:40). From Yaakov Ovinu we infer the halochos of shemirah (as the Rambam writes in Hilchos Sechirus 13:17). Why should we not at least learn a little about something that applies directly to us? We have obligated ourselves to watch over the talmidim. We guard their spiritual level and we must even risk our lives to fulfill the simple halocho of shemirah since we are not only regular shomrim (shomrei chinom), guarding for free. We are paid shomrim (shomrei sochor)."

In another letter (ibid., pg. 272) R' Yeruchom narrates a startling personal anecdote. "I will tell you a story," R' Yeruchom wrote to a famous rosh yeshiva who was considering resigning from his job because of the intolerable poverty he was suffering. "When I was in Lithuania I was thinking of leaving my position in Yeshivas Mir so I could study in Yeshivas Kelm (and engage in more moral self- improvement), but I experienced several delays from Heaven, and therefore carried out the famous goral (the Vilna's Gaon's goral). I was terrified by the posuk that turned up and learned a great chidush from it: `The poles shall be in the rings of the Oron; they shall not be taken from it' (Shemos 25:15). Surely that posuk was not revealed to me by my own zechus but because of those who needed me.

"The following is an excellent explanation emanating from this halocho and it shows its practical implications: The poles allude to people who carry the Oron of the Torah. They are compared to the poles of the Oron, that may never be removed from the Oron. Ever since then, even the few times when I was forced to leave the yeshiva for a short while troubled me. What I am writing is simple and quite clear."

Keeping Both Quantity and Quality

What we have written so far is with regard to preserving quantity: days and hours. Negligence in maintaining quantity causes irreparable damage. No less care -- and even more -- should be employed when preserving quality. We must keep track of each talmid's progress and formulate ways to elevate him. We must analyze precisely whether this talmid is currently advancing, and advise him how to take even better advantage of his talents, or whether he is wandering and encourage him to make better efforts. Maran HaRav Shach shlita told me that when he was rosh yeshiva in Yeshivas Slutzk, Maran HaRav Yechezkel Levinstein zt'l served as mashgiach. Every morning the Rosh Yeshiva would meet with the mashgiach and they would decide with whom the Rosh Yeshiva should "talk in learning" and with whom the mashgiach should try to induce more qualitative studying.

Unfortunately the exact opposite can happen. A boy came to a mashgiach in the middle of the zman and notified him that he was leaving the yeshiva. "But why?" asked the mashgiach. The boy answered: "Because this is the first question the mashgiach has asked me since the day I entered the yeshiva!"

We can deduce our two obligations, that of constantly keeping guard and that of carefully examining each talmid's progress, from Noach's obligation towards those who were under his supervision: the animals in the teivah. Noach was on duty around the clock, without any break. "Noach's son said, `We suffered tremendously in the teivah. During the day we fed animals accustomed to eat during the day, and at night we fed animals accustomed to eat at night. During all of those twelve months in the teivah Noach slept neither by day nor by night, since he was busy feeding the animals. He would feed branches of leaves to the elephants and glass to the ichneumon. Noach tried different sorts of food for those animals that refused to eat until he found what they would agree to eat'" (Sanhedrin 108b).

According to the Midrash (Midrash Tehillim 37) Avrohom Ovinu understood the need to do chesed from a kal vochomer. If Noach did chesed for animals and was zoche to be saved, by doing chesed for people he himself would surely be saved from any harm. At the eshel that Avrohom planted he would give each person even more than he desired (Ovos DeReb Nosson 7), and "whatever he asked for he would find there."

Avrohom Ovinu would demand of his guests to make a brocho to Hashem, and if they refused he would insist they pay for what they ate (Midrash Rabbah 54). Avrohom's chesed for the other's ruchniyus needs was greater than his chesed for their material needs.

We too can make a kal vochomer: If, when doing chesed for animals, one must be on constant day-and- night guard and provide the particular food for every animal at its proper time, how much more should we be concerned with the ruchniyus of people, who are children to HaKodosh Boruch Hu, tinokos shel beis rabban.


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