2008 Woodie Awards
Our Yeshiva, Our Newspaper and Our Yirei Shamayim University
Zev Eleff
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In an essay published in Chaucer and the Jews that explores the struggles of teaching literature to Yeshiva College students, English Professor Gillian Steinberg writes about her compulsion “to challenge them to read and discuss that which is unfamiliar to them.” Several interesting points are raised in the article about working in a college where “students frequently check with their rabbis to find out if certain reading is halakhically acceptable” but most fascinating to me is an innocuous comment Dr. Steinberg makes toward the end of the piece: “One of my students, for instance,” Dr. Steinberg writes, “has refused to read the school’s newspaper because he was warned by his shiur rabbi that he would find some of the writers’ liberalism too disturbing.”
Acting Intellectually Honest, Always
Although Dr. Steinberg’s essay was published in 2002, it doesn’t take much imagination to recreate this scene today. Editorial boards change yearly but the notion of any talmidim writing critical editorials for a broad readership, however respectful, makes many uneasy in both the Yeshiva and the University.
Specifically from the Yeshiva’s standpoint, while it serves as good discussion fodder, there is no room for a student paper’s hutzpah and irreverent tones in a traditional beit midrash. Owing to the fact that the same students study in the beit midrash and the classroom, what is inappropriate for the b’nei ha-yeshiva to read in one, is equally inappropriate in the other.
One example illustrates this point clearly. Rabbi Meir Bar-Ilan wrote about his father, the Neziv, that he refused to allow students in the Volozhin yeshiva to print their own newspapers. Knowing the Neziv’s insistence to keep his yeshiva insular, this fact should surprise nobody. Carrying this idea into today’s more familiar models, there could never be a KBY Chronicle, a Gush Gazette or a Reishit Rag; such a concept is too sensational to imagine. If YU is at its core a traditional yeshiva fashioned after the great yeshiva in Volozhin, then, from a historical perspective, there would appear little to discuss on this matter.
But we aren’t the same as those yeshivot, are we? The composition of those yeshivot, however ideologically disparate from one another, operate more or less the same and function in consonance with other yeshivot like Chaim Berlin or Torah V’Daas. Their curriculums all include Baba Kama, Shulkhan Arukh and Rashi’s Commentary on Torah.
Here at YU, we also probe the same Rambams and hold the surname ‘Soloveitchik’ in high esteem. Though our Torah study is concentrated into heavy doses during our mornings and nights, we certainly deserve to be recognized as one of the great centers of Torah in the world today.
Nonetheless, it does not appear shayakh to treat YU like the offspring yeshivot of the great Volozhin yeshiva. In fact, many students who arrive here expecting to maintain that atmosphere after time spent in traditional yeshiva curriculums often stand the worst chance of succeeding here. Indeed, our batei midrash are full of different seforim and diverse students. Add to that the other large morning programs, and factoring in rigorous classes and many extracurricular opportunities, we would be well served to be modeh al ha-emes – from cultural and educational perspectives, that we are a very different sort of yeshiva.
Many of us engage the College and devote time to extracurriculars because we feel that these activities, too, enhance our Hakhmat ha-Olam, and not just to get us into a better medical school. Others, as Dr. Steinberg articulates, are more hesitant to commit to such a program. Yet, I do not mean here to discuss the exhausted issue of educational synthesis. Biology may or may not help to further one’s understanding of Hulin. Likewise, mastering the technical arithmetic found throughout Eruvin does not necessarily make someone into a better math student.
No matter how important students consider the study of limudei hol, they must consider the breach of intellectual integrity required of them to deem a certain set of activities appropriate for one half of the day and another set for the other.
If something taught in the afternoon violates the Halakha that is taught in the morning, a student has the right to pronounce that contradiction, audibly. Similarly, if the science and history he learns forces him to rethink the interpretations of sacred texts he pours over, he deserves to ask questions and demand reasonable answers.
And, at the behest of his Rosh Yeshiva, if the newspaper a student reads in the afternoon undermines the environment he surrounds himself in the morning, then it is equally inappropriate to wait until after 3 PM to pick up a copy of the most recent edition.
Roshei Yeshiva and MYP Professors of Talmud
The student who told his English professor that he was ordered by his shiur rabbi to resist reading the disturbing content of the student newspaper is an extreme example of a natural phenomenon at YU. With good reason, many of us look to our Roshei Yeshiva as the core of Yeshiva University. More than any other element, they have defined what type of Yeshiva have become.
I would like to believe that this is so not just because of their scholarship, but because of a vested interest they have in the talmidei ha-Yeshiva. Rabbi Baruch Simon eats lunch with his students and regularly makes himself available on campus. Rabbi Hershel Schachter extends himself to deliver shiurim in YU virtually every Shabbat, and numerous other Roshei Yeshiva and Roshei Kollel do much to justify our Yeshiva having so many with those prestigious titles.
Yet, there are Roshei Yeshiva who serve part-time, with other roles as synagogue rabbis that take up much of their time. Moreover, unlike what is typical in other yeshivot, most of our Roshei Yeshiva do not live in Washington Heights, near Yeshiva. Consequently, with the exception of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, none of our Roshei Yeshiva attend night seder in the Main Beit Midrash and rarely spend more than two weekends on campus, yearly. Some don’t even hold “office hours” during morning seder and can go an entire year without being able to name every student in their shiur by face.
This is a critical problem already being addressed by YU administrators. As the campus grows and more apartment become available for the University’s use, there is already a push to attract rabbinic staff and college faculty to live on campus. Still, with their other commitments, it is not easy for YU to convince Roshei Yeshiva to move to urban Washington Heights.
Certainly, the University must provide the financial incentives necessary for Roshei Yeshiva to create whatever yeshiva-type they desire. However, that one Rosh Yeshiva told me recently that the group rarely has dialogue amongst each other and their meetings are sparse and poorly attended, makes one wonder about some Roshei Yeshiva’s commitment to our institution.
Shnei Dinim in Being Dean
An example of someone devoted to his students, YC Dean David Srolovitz is one of the first in the Main Beit Midrash each morning and can be seen frequently with groups of students late at night after maariv before he returns to his apartment on Laurel Hill Terrace. By contrast, some Roshei Yeshiva have no reason to know when the various campus minyanim run. Despite the fact that Dean Srolovitz may have better clarity of the issues facing students, he is confronted with obstacles in the College far less often than our Roshei Yeshiva.
The reason for this is elementary. As religious students, most of us value the advice of gadolei Torah over our conversations with gadolei physics. Aware of this, some Roshei Yeshiva address critical issues facing the Yeshiva when they speak publicly. Usually because these Roshei Yeshiva are the ones least connected to students and the Yeshiva, they can afford to use harsh and negative rhetoric to excite a packed beit midrash of students. Though relatively easy to point out flaws, it is difficult to offer competent solutions.
Easiest of all, however, is to ignore the issues and relegate them to another institution’s domain.
Stop Blaming Rav Aharon Lichtenstein
Never ignorant of the struggles involved in a YU education, for those thoughtful students who have taken the time to consider our conditions at Yeshiva, what I have written thus far has been fairly obvious. And while it is very often beneficial to reaffirm our views in print, it will hurt us dearly that many incorrigible students will resent us for acknowledging these realities while an entirely different group will apathetically dismiss us because they stopped caring about such things long ago.
As a result of loneliness and drained of a long search for leadership, I’ve heard several of my peers complain: “Rav Lichtenstein abandoned YU. If he had stayed here, then Torah u-Madda would make more sense.” They conclude: “the Roshei Yeshiva would have a greater appreciation for the College” and “the College would value the Yeshiva more.” The frequency with which these types of comments come up probably depend on ones particular social circle, but all should comprehend the sentiment.
I’ve been fortunate to generate relationships with my rebbeim at YU who have answered my countless questions.
Yet, a large number of us crave a type of leadership sorely missing at YU. Most often conjured as a rabbinic figure understanding of the importance of the conflicts our studies present, Rav Lichtenstein is the obvious archetype for which to look. Nonetheless, though Rav Lichtenstein has visited Yeshiva many times since making aliyah and has written important essays to help grapple with the University’s mission, his limited presence here may have delayed the rise of other leaders capable of carrying that mantle.
Whether we look to current Roshei Yeshiva to find inspiration or even within our own ranks, it is not possible to keep Halakhic Man and Leaves of Faith by our nightstand and hope that these texts will sufficiently serve as a guide. Our course must be charted by personalities with a physical presence on campus, willing to face the realities and complications of Yeshiva’s Torah u-Madda education.
Who Does Torah u-Madda, Anyway?
In the meantime, administrators are busy with meetings and fundraising. Rabbinic faculty are occupied with their shul’s and preparing shiurim. Faculty are overworked with papers to grade and academic journals to read. The only ones truly entrenched in the world of Torah u-Madda, with some exceptions, are the students themselves.
Therefore, the difficulties in confronting the modern day YC curriculum are the students’ alone. Especially in a new era of the College, where syllabi are becoming lengthier and graduate schools more demanding, current students are exploring new methods for juggling coursework and talmud Torah. Make no mistake, the advice offered by our teachers can very often prove most valuable. Yet, as King Solomon in his vast wisdom said, “Here I have grown and gathered great knowledge.” The greatest advice finds its source inside those with experience and who have grown because of it.
Though the student body is the principle group involved, these important issues are constantly on the minds of the entire YU community. The only place I’m aware of where Roshei Yeshiva, English professors and students have conversations, together, on these topics is located on the pages of The Commentator.
A Newspaper in YU and a YU Newspaper
The difference between these two types of publications is very significant.
A newspaper in YU does not necessarily invest in the future of the University. Instead, such a paper serves as a Fourth Estate, in Edmond Burke’s model, meant to be a non-political check-and-balance over the Administration. Certainly, this does not have to be a bad thing. A newspaper in YU can be sensitive to the privacy of individuals and institutions. However, its purpose is to report and to editorialize on issues regardless of the ramifications that ensue. A YU newspaper, on the other hand, is more deeply woven into the fabric of the University. With an understanding of the challenges at Yeshiva, a YU newspaper aspires to inspire, ask difficult questions about this Modern Orthodox, Yirei Shamayim Yeshiva University and, with even greater difficulty, work hard to find solutions to those questions.
As college students, despite our inherent involvement in the YU community and insight into the operations of the University, we cannot do this alone. Therefore, at the end of last year I approached virtually all of the Roshei Yeshiva to discuss what issues they would like to see addressed in The Commentator. Rabbis Schachter and Adler, among others, have already asked that we look into certain areas.
I believe we have been successful so far. This fifth edition of The Commentator this semester serves as a statement that our newspaper’s leadership is no longer willing to raise questions without seeking answers, too. With weeks to go before midterms, we have printed the same number of issues that previous editorial boards managed to produce in an entire semester. Have there been technical problems? Of course. Copy editing is always an arduous chore and I haven’t made life easy on editors by demanding tight deadlines. In addition, switching to a more affordable but unfamiliar printing company has led to extra page thirteens and a jumbled crossword puzzle. We’ll get better. We have to get better.
We are not willing to ignore the problems no matter how unsettling they might appear. To paraphrase the Ravad’s words in Hilkhot Teshuva, we will not ask questions without looking for answers. At the least, we owe our Yeshiva that much.