Rabbi's Blog

This week’s Parsha Mikeitz reports the birth of Yosef’s two sons, Ephraim and Menashe. There is a custom to bless our children on Yom Kippur eve and some do this every Friday night. The bracha for sons is that they should become like Ephraim and Menashe, who were born in Mitzrayim and not the other sons of Yaakov or the forefathers themselves who were either born or raised in Eretz Canaan. One basic reason given for this is they were born in Galus/exile amongst the Egyptians. Despite the enormous challenges they faced, they turned out more than okay.

The underlying theme of Chanukah is the study of Torah. It is the candle representing the Mitzvah and the light that emanates is the Torah. The custom of giving children gelt/money is to reward them for studying Torah in a world that challenges children to anything but learning Torah. The Assyrian Greeks forbade the learning of Torah; it was with Mesiras Nefesh that teachers and students defied the decree and learned. In today’s day and age there is also mesiras nefesh for children to learn under difficult conditions.

A few years ago someone who is very close and dear to me gave me an article about children being asked to leave and were dismissed from a Yeshiva. The gist of the article was about Chinuch, educating children under any and all circumstances. In today’s world of Jewish education (particularly in the Yeshiva system) everyone is looking to have perfect, trouble-free good students. Very few institutions are willing to work with kids who are struggling in both physical learning and spiritual growth. Entire new schools have opened to educate the “problem” students, which is good because they have no other place to go. But these schools were borne out of necessity: the Jewish system of chinuch, Jewish education, has failed these children, not the children failing in school.

The following message of the Chazon Ish is so strong that if he were to make such a statement today he would be banned from the Jewish world!  The article quotes a Rabbi Yehoshua Yagel*, a Jewish educator par excellence, who told a story about his interaction with the Chazon Ish.  The following is an excerpt from Arutz Sheva written by Hillel Fendel in December 2006 when Rabbi Yagel passed away at the age of ninety-one.

Rabbi Yagel wrote that he once asked the Chazon Ish whether it was permitted to expel a problematic pupil [based on a translation by Meshullam Klarberg]: "I put the question to the Chazon Ish as follows: There were a number of problem pupils who were likely to become worse if I were to expel them, but if I allowed their continued study in the Yeshiva they were likely to have a negative influence on others. The Chazon Ish's answer was that it was a difficult problem of 'dinei nefashot' (life and death).

"In the course of the discussion, he asked me: 'How have you dealt with this to date?' I answered that there were very few I had expelled, but experience has shown when a group of difficult pupils left of their own accord, the rest of the class graduated successfully from every point of view. The Chazon Ish interrupted me and said firmly: 'Experience does not overrule the Shulchan Arukh [Code of Jewish Law]. You don't have to pursue [a problematic student] to ensure that he remains; but if he clings to the place, you are not entitled to expel him. You have to devote all your energy to educate him and supervise his behavior.'"

Rabbi Yagel then concluded that his operative understanding was as follows: "It is a moral imperative to expel [only] a 'pupil who is not worthy,' who does not want to improve, and is not prepared to accept guidance which will bring him to proper behavior. However, such a pupil does not exist. The only criterion is whether the pupil is willing to improve, and also whether the educator is prepared to undertake the heavy burden of this important goal."

A talmid of the Chazon Ish took upon himself the task of taking care of three young bachurim who had recently immigrated to Eretz Yisrael. He arranged for them to enter a local yeshivah and found them chavrusos (study partners). To his chagrin, the hanhalah/administation told him at the end of the zman/year that the three bachurim/students could no longer stay in the yeshivah. “They have no place in the yeshivah. In middle of a zman/semester I did not want to tell you to take them out, but now that the zman has ended I can tell you….”

The askan/communal advocate made his way to the Chazon Ish and told him what had transpired. The Chazon Ish responded sharply: “Say to the [hanhalah] in my name: ‘Why did you have to send these bachurim home? You could have taken them to the middle of the sea and thrown them into the water!”

On another occasion, after a certain bachur was expelled from yeshivah, he began to slip rapidly into a spiritual abyss. Word of the case reached the Chazon Ish. When the Rosh Yeshivah, who had made the decision to expel the bachur, visited the Chazon Ish, the latter had a question for him. “You pasken on dinei nefashos (you rule on matters of life and death)?” The Rosh Yeshivah attempted to defend himself by explaining that he simply could no longer keep the bachur in the yeshivah. “What could I have done?” the Rosh Yeshivah asked the Chazon Ish regretfully.

“Learn with him, become his chavrusa/study partner!” the Chazon Ish replied. “This is the ‘medicine’ for such an ‘ill’ bachur!” “I personally am not capable of learning with such a bachur,” the Rosh Yeshivah argued. “Not capable?” the Chazon Ish retorted. “Then I will learn with him. Keep him in your yeshivah and I will learn with him.” For a long time the Chazon Ish learned with the bachur, who is today a renowned marbitz/spreader Torah and a mentor to talmidei chachamim.

Rav Yagel’s Yahrzeit is 26th of Kislev, the second day of Chanuka.  He died the week of Parshas Mikeitz.

Let us all celebrate the kindling of the Shabbos and Chanukah lights that will lead us to true expressions of learning and teaching of Torah to ALL who want to learn!

Ah Gut Shabbos & Ah Lichtiga Chanuka.

Rabbi Avraham Bogopulsky

*Rabbi Yehoshua Yagel, who headed the Midrashiyat Noam yeshiva high school since its founding in 1945, died Saturday night December 16th  2006 which corresponded to 26th of Kislev following an illness. He was 91.

Midrashiyat Noam, located in Pardes Hannah, was the first yeshiva high school in Israel and has become one of the flagship Israeli yeshivas of religious Zionism. Yagel emphasized the value of friendship and loyalty among students and graduates of the yeshiva, and opened the doors of his institution to students from low-income families. He also maintained close ties with the ultra-Orthodox world, and many Midrashiyat Noam graduates went on to study at ultra-Orthodox institutions.

Polish-bornYagel, at the age of 11, left home  to study for three years at the well-known Slonim yeshiva, which his uncle headed. Later on, he went on to other yeshivas, studying with two of the most highly regarded ultra-Orthodox rabbis in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe: Rabbis Elhanan Wasserman and Aharon Kotler.

Rabbi Yagel moved to Israel in 1936 to study at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He received the President's Prize for Life Achievement in Education in 1998,

Although he officially headed Midrashiyat Noam until his death in 2006, most of Yagel's tasks were carried out by others during the past decade. He did, however, continue to participate, until recently, in all meetings concerning the yeshiva's educational path. Midrashiyat Noam graduates include Minister Eitan Cabel (Labor) and former ministers Yaakov Neeman, Benny Elon and Rabbi Yitzhak Peretz..

Adam Baruch, a journalist who graduated from Midrashiyat Noam, said Yagel succeeded in turning high-school yeshivas into a sort of training ground for post-high-school yeshiva study, rather than making a distinction between the two types of religious institutions.

Yagel's original intention was to create a yeshiva highschool institution that would prepare the young generation of that era for a life of Torah that also involved full participation in the state that was on the way to being created. This goal contradicted the ideology of the ultra-Orthodox "Old Yishuv," which mandated isolation from political Zionism.

Yagel is in large part responsible for the shaping of a new generation of religious Zionists before the advent of settlements - a generation of Torah-observant young people who were part of the fabric of Tel Aviv life, a generation of religious moderation whose educators chose to establish a "midrashiya" in direct contrast to a "yeshiva" of the old-school variety.

Yagel was buried on the Mount of Olives. He was survived by his wife and son, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.