We have finally come to the realization and admission that
something is rotten in the general educational system. The
decadence, corruption and demoralization is couched in
prettier terms, like culture, openness, freedom of
expression, art, the right of the public to know, the right
of a person to his own privacy, life and body, and other
euphemisms. These conveniently cover up the areas of decay
which have spread throughout modern society.
But the violence that has erupted among the products of this
permissive, libertine approach cannot be covered over or
explained away. It appears in the headlines daily and is
blatantly evident to the adult who comes in contact with the
unruly youth, on buses and in the streets, and which is
prevalent in their schools. Violence has spread to all ages,
from kindergarten, through elementary school and even to the
adults who have already established their own families.
When a scourge manifests itself in the world, the believing
Jew comforts himself that this applies only to the physical
world. Before him lies an eternal existence where only
justice and truth prevail and there is no evil.
But there are those who deny the existence of an afterworld
and wish to indulge fully in the pleasures available here
with no holds barred. In addition, they seek to send their
children to school or to play outside, with the confidence
that nothing will happen to them. They are not prepared to
accept the possibility that someone will do him, or a member
of his family, harm, when he walks innocently outside or
descends the stairway of his building. The media report that
someone attacked a woman or child in a brutal way shakes his
confidence and undermines his security in this world.
Attempts of educators and academicians to offer solutions to
the problem cannot help but arouse pity and even ridicule.
Some try to pinpoint the crux of the corruption, but instead
of suggesting to dry up the swampy muck, they exert
themselves in searching for a protective palliative which
only smears them as they sink lower into the mud. They
deceive their readers and listeners — and themselves as
well — with the suggestion that if they add to the
replete barrage of violence of sight, color and sound some
documentary "educational" film produced by the Ministry of
Education, they will have provided protection to the youth
and preserved its innate purity.
Their searches for solutions are not serious. Did any of them
ever approach one of ours with the question: Dear chareidi
brother, please, tell us your secret. How are you able to
prevent violence in the conduct of youth and adults? How are
you so successful in this area? The `aficionados of truth' in
their midst repeatedly tell their public that violence by the
chareidim is no less prevalent than by them, only `they' (we)
don't report it.
Even though we haven't been asked this question, we should
note, for our own benefit, one of the answers that partially
addresses this question:
There is some advantage to be gained from reflectively
reading interviews made with those violent delinquents after
having been caught in the act. One, who, while waiting in
line for a public telephone, stabbed the one before him to
death, or, with the youth who knifed another boy, who called
him a dirty name.
There is one particular phrase repeatedly used by them in
explaining their rash behavior: "The blood went to my head."
"I acted on impulse." "It was a gut reaction." "I don't know
why I did it . . . " Or "I didn't have time to think what I
was doing."
These answers point to the short road leading from the
arousal to anger and the execution of some terrible act. This
road is smooth, without obstacles, roadblocks, stop signs,
without any controls whatsoever, not even slow-down road
humps. The blood rushes to their heads and the path to
retaliative action is smooth and clear. No reflection of
possible implications, not even the egotistic considerations
of the outcome to themselves and certainly not of moral
values. Not even an elementary consideration whether it is
worth sitting ten years in jail just to "teach a person a
lesson" or to defend one's pride. No cerebral input
whatsoever.
They acted impulsively, automatically, with pushbutton speed
that resulted in whatever crime they committed. The thinking
process emerged only after long days and nights behind bars,
sometimes thousands of days and nights of imprisonment.
The establishment of such a control center as an intermediary
step between provocation and violent reaction is not made
overnight. Certainly not in one minute. This requires a long
period of exercise through situations that provide such road
signs as "Stop," "Slow," "No entry," "Think before you leap."
One must acquire practice through situations that serve to
develop one's ability to think and weigh future implications,
that promote one's ability to size up impulse vs. values, to
exercise moral judgment and self-control when common sense
indicates the necessary mode of action.
Today's society idolizes spontaneity, instant reaction,
instant gratification; it discourages this form of exercise.
Just see how political leaders are often forced to deny what
they blurted in a moment of impulse, or claim that the words
"were taken out of their context."
Such exercise does exist by us. Every week we put it into
practice for a full day, twenty-five consecutive hours during
which we break the automation of our conduct. We practice
mental self control in every action we do. This is a day of
awareness of every act, every motion. We have an entire
system of safeguards and definitions of actions which we
impose upon ourselves on this day. Before doing anything, we
examine it consciously if it is not, G-d forbid, on the
blacklist of forbidden things.
This is how we break the routine of our actions and create a
constant awareness and alertness to our behavior. This is how
we establish a highly sensitive control center that regulates
and prevents any irregular act that does not abide by the
rules, the values and principles of `forbidden' and
`permissible.'
On this day of awareness, we train our children as well so
that they will grow up with built-in reflexes. They emerge
completely different from the example of the robot that walks
the streets. The results of this training, programming if you
will, is very apparent. Even a very young child who awakens
from a deep sleep and is still fuzzy, will not turn the
electricity on or off with an automatic motion. He is fully
aware, from his subconscious and up, of whatever he is doing,
and supervises his every action in accordance with the
principles and rules he learned.
The training course for development of self-awareness and
control over every action rides tandem to the day of Shabbos,
of course.
But let us not think that this is the essence of Shabbos by
any means. The holy Shabbos was given to us by the Creator of
man and its spiritual essence soars to the very highest
heavens. But Shabbos, as a many-storied-tower of impact and
influence does, in fact, devote one floor to removing its
upholders from the reflexive routine of spontaneous behavior
and transforming them into thinking beings who exert self
control and who tightly hold the reins of each of their
actions.
One of the basic gifts which every Shabbos observer merits
is: becoming a person, mastering his thoughts and his
conduct, distancing himself very far from spontaneous,
unmeditated violence of raising a fist and drawing a knife.
We will not go into the rewards merited in the this-world of
the higher floors of that tower of Shabbos holiness. But
those who have tasted it in the flesh have reaped life.
`If only My people heeded Me to observe Shabbos properly,'
all the problems of violence would be naturally bypassed.
Shabbos is the design model that creates a different type of
man, one who is measured and deliberate in his actions, in
control of his limbs, whose ethic principles supervise his
motions. A man who is capable of saying `No' to himself. A
Jewish person who does his Maker proud.
