At the Knesset's debate on the violence rampant among today's
secular youth, Rabbi Ravitz said that all should learn from
the Torah model of education. "For the sake of our future and
the future of our children, let's go to the beis
medrashand learn from its ways," he fervently cried
out.
Rabbi Ravitz summarized the great errors of the secular
educational system. "Fellow Knesset members, perhaps the
system is nonetheless making a big mistake. Perhaps the
foundation of the educational system is wrong. Who says that
education for independence is the principal goal of modern
education? Perhaps education for humility and submission will
yield better fruits? Perhaps it will result in greater
independence at the age when this becomes necessary? Who says
that young people have to be given everything? How can we
expect a child who has not been raised properly not to be
reckless? Which is the better type of training:
chinuch for humility and obedience or chinuch
for egocentricity? Why, friends, don't we learn from
generations upon generations of educators, and generations
upon generations of well-educated progeny who lived under
poverty and stress yet never resorted to violence or crime.
Chinuch is our brainchild: the Jewish brainchild until
this very day.
"I know that one Knesset member or another will always say:
`The chareidim also have problems.' But you know that you are
speaking about a quantity which has become a totally
different kind of reality. We are speaking about enormous
numbers. 92% of our people, of our children, are liable to be
influenced by the violence being perpetrated and overlooked
in the secular school systems. You won't find such problems
in the age-old educational systems of the beis
hamedrash. Fellow Knesset members, even if you don't want
to or are incapable of accepting the religious form of
education, why not at least learn from the method, the
content, the values, the glorious past of our people, and the
authentic Jewish way of raising children?" concluded Rabbi
Ravitz.
