life after the Mir yeshiva

Barbarians at the gates of the Mir yeshiva

I bet you a million dollars that you can't tell me the name of the founder of the Mir yeshiva. Opps! (A gambler can't testify in Beit Din. (A Jewish court of law.)) I guess I can't testify in beit din now. Great. I hate beit dins. On the other hand this whole story I am about to tell you is a kind of testimony so I have to take back the bet. Sorry fo all those people that might have just made a million dollars. His name was R. Shmuel Tiktinsky.
It seems to me that top institutions are never founded by charismatic powerful leaders, just hard working folks with some core principle.

The Mir yeshiva founded in 1815 by and on this principle: to learn Torah and to learn it on the deepest level possible.. The later roshei yeshivot did not want to mix together this basi principle with any side issues at all; not musar [books of Jewish ethics], not chasidut, nothing. This was to be\ yeshiva that was for learning Torah, period. But there was very little in the way of provisions. Th students subsisted on a starvation diet. But the spirit of the modern isms [in particular socialism], was in the air. One day in 1906 the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Kamai walked inside the yeshiva the students had placed all the books from the shelves onto the window sills in protest. He felt the spirit of social protest had no place in yeshiva. He knew there was a need for something besides Talmudic studies, a need for some core value. He said from this day on this will be a musar yeshiva [a yeshiva where ethics is also learnt]. From then on the yeshiva learnt musar--and there were better lunches too. It was the top and best yeshiva in the world.
Almost all roshei yeshivot in Lithuania came from the Mir yeshiva.
AUGUST 31, 1973
I went to the yeshiva, Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway and became immersed in Talmudic studies. There was such a powerful pull of Torah in that yeshiva, that you felt that you did not want anything but Torah--; the Torah drew you in. This world or the world to come were irrelevant. All I wanted was to learn Torah. When I sat down to learn the Talmud, I felt I entered a new universe. Or more like this new universe pulled me into itself. After a few years, in 1976, I heard of the Mir Yeshiva and Reb Shmuel Berenbaum. Yeshiva students in those days said that he was the deepest
Talmudic scholar of the generation. They said, "if you can understand his lectures, you can understand anything in the world." In those days there were four levels. The entry level (first year class) was given by the author of the Sukat David (Reb Eliyahu). The next higher level by Shmuel Brudnie. The third year by Shraga Moshe Kalmanovitch. The highest level by Reb Shmuel Berenbaum.

ARRIVAL AT THE YESHIVA
When I first arrived at the Mir I encountered a pervasive philosophy and energy. It was not learn Torah since it is a great mitzvah; it was not "Be there at seder (afternoon and morning session)". It was, "Torah is everything. And nothing else exists." Translated that means learning Torah is what we exist for. Yes, we do mitzvot also, and we hope to go to olam haba (the world to come) also, and we even get married and have children also--but we exist to learn Torah. Many people after leaving began other yeshivot or movements, but none with the longevity and effect on the world of the Mir yeshiva. In the Mir you were bombarded with a set of signals so consistent that it was impossible to misunderstand.
When the davening started the atmosphere was electric. Nothing like it did I ever see again in any shul -- Breslov or elsewhere.
The first thing R. Shmuel Berenbaumsaid to me when I entered the yeshiva was the verse, "You shall know in your heart that G-d is God above
and on earth beneath." In that yeshiva this feeling was quite real and paltible.

Principles of the yeshiva
The Mir stood for learning in depth. But in the afternoon seder the rosh yeshiva sat in the back and learnt by himself. Whoever wanted to could come over and ask a question. But the first year I was there, the rosh yeshiva learnt by himself Chulin. I had to walk by him to get to his place in the beit midrash. Every time I walked by him, R. Berenbaum had learnt forward about twenty pages. But I was not watching every day so that meant that R. Shmuel was learning about 10 pages of fast learning per day. [This is just an
approximation. I did not keep count. But there was one thing for sure. Birnbaum was going through a lot of Gemara very, very fast.] The next year he learnt with a partner

Shmuel Berenbaum

R. Shmuel radiates energy. Even as an older man people call him a "youngerman". When on the bimah discussing Torah he exudes excitement
I never saw anyone in Israel on the level of learning of the Mir or Natali Yagear. His son Leibel used to learn in very small room a little bigger than a closet where a lot of books were stored. It is musty and unbearably hot in the summer. He used to stand up and go through a tractate per day in there-- I believe while fasting.--I don't remember 100% about the fasting part.
My story
I became a member of the household of R. Shmuel Berenbaum. I told bed time stories to his children. I learnt Kabalah with his older son Leibel Berenbaumin the wee morning hours before the morning prayers. There I noticed many things that I could not explain. First the hasmada of R. Shmuel. [He learnt Torah all the time]. You would think that after Shabat, what does one do to relax? I would take his violin over there and play violin for the family and tell the children stories. R. Birnbaum himself learnt Gemara, period.
Because of my hanging around there so much I saw a lot of very interesting stuff that was not known to the public.
One of the things I saw was that R. Berenbaumis very strict about is not, (repeat NOT) to speak slander. One day in the yeshiva, I noticed a group of guys talking with the Rosh Yeshiva about something. He did not know about what. (In those days the rosh yeshiva himself gave the musar talk since there was no mashgiach [teacher of ethics] at the time.) Then since that day was the normal day for a musar talk, he got in front of the bimah and gave a musar [ethics] talk---but what a musar talk! He was irate. He said that for the sin of slander, one goes to hell where it is hot and where the fire burns and burns and burns. I had never before or after had ever seen the rosh yeshiva so upset. I found out later that that a group of yeshiva students had spoken to R. Shmuel about the workers in the kitchen. The workers were dyed in the wool fry [not orthodox] Jews from Russia. Well, in the kitchen there had turned up some question of a mixture of meat and milk. So the yeshiva men went to him to ask him to fire the Russian workers.
I could not figure out why R. Shmuel was upset. The workers were hired as cooks in a Kosher yeshiva. They did not do their job properly; what could be wrong with firing them? That is how anyone in the orthodox world would look at it. Anyone except Shmuel Berenbaum. In his eyes that group of young men had committed a heinous unforgivable sin - slander with intent to harm. Pure slander with malicious intent. Reb Berenbaum to say the least did not think much of slander (lashon hara) on anyone -- whether legally permitted or not. R. Berenbaumis careful about more than lashon hara (sin of slander). I was sure that most of the guys in the Mir for about 30 years never
fulfilled the obligation of hearing the Megilah. The reason was the person who read the Megilah in the yeshiva was an old Jew that read it so
soft, that unless one was within 10 feet either he would not hear or miss words. Folks talked away and complained. But regardless of that
fact, R. Berenbaumwould never have anyone else do it. He did not want to hurt the fellow's feelings, and that was that. Folks don't fulfill the
mitzvah; so what? To R. Berenaum, you did not hurt the feelings of another human being, period. That pushes off the mitzvah of to hear the
Megilah.
Nor does he think anything of orthodox crusades. He was asked to sign a statement against a chasidic rebbi that at the time made himself out to be the messiah. He refused. He was asked to join all the major orthodox organizations in NY and Israel and the orthodox political parties. The most famous political party actually sent one particular fellow to the Mir to hang around there for years trying every possible way he could to convince or coherece R. Shmuel to join the party. R. Shmuel was like a rod of solid iron rooted hundreds of miles into the earth. Unmovable. He just blew all those guys off like so much dust.
He is interested in one thing alone: learning Torah. Orthodox crusades or saving Yidishkeit or bringing men and women back in repentance o "saving the world" were a waste of time that could have better been spent learning Torah.) He held "Learn Torah" and everything else will take
care of itself.
But he did walk once a year along Kings Highway on Shabat as a Shabat march to show Jewish Shop owners that had their stores open on Shabat.
And if you would ask him, he would agree with your crusade for Yiddishkeit. But being close to him, I saw a peculiar coldness of his attitude towards such things. More like he would say it it to fulfill the obligation of saying it. But not really thinking it made any difference. He loves learning Torah and he loves teaching Torah. In human relations he is very real and dynamic and energetic. But his love is reserved for
Torah
His being was forged in the fires World War II. In the Mir yeshiva Europe and in Shanghai, R. Birnbaum, learnt Torah with a world war and
while atom bombs blew up around him. That became the core of his being-- learn Torah. Period. If the whole world is crushed into its primal elements around him - fine. The fires of World War Two forged and burnt the Torah into his soul.

Breslov in the Mir
There were Breslover books in the musar section of the yeshiva. They were there the first year I was there while Reb Feldman [who as from Europe] was the mashgiah. During the years afterward when there was no mashgiach, the Breslov books remained. Later Don Segal was the mashgiach
and the books remained. That strange fact I never could figure out.(But never did I see the main book of R. Nachman, the Lekutai
Moharan,-- only the book of R. Nathan about self strength and never to give up. The book about prayer of R. Nathan "outpouring of the soul" was in the library. And there was the book of Rav Shick "Patience". All could be called Musar (ethics) books. But the curious thing was that this book
was in the book case in the main hall of the yeshiva where students were
expected to go to to get a ethics book to learn during Musar time. But the reaction of R. Shmuel Berenbaumto any book of R. Nachman was "It is high things. Too high for me." He always learned the regular musar books during that time like Mesilat Yesharim.
Curiously enough, one time I brought the More Nevuchim over to R. Shraga Moshe (who gave the third year class) His reaction was the same
like R. Birnbaum, "Too high for me") Neither wanted anything to do with hashkafa or the philosophy of Torah in any way. There was a year or two that R. Berenbaumgave a musar talks that were always tied to one theme alone: "Learning Torah". It became a standing joke in the yeshiva to see him make a whole pilpul out of any subject in the Torah portion of that week and then for the punch line he always tied it to learning Torah. For instance Noah’s Ark. After an hour long pilpul on the subject of Noah, he explained how today the yeshiva is Noah's Ark. But I got interested in Chasidut from the book, "The Will and Testament of the Baal Shem Tov" that I used to learn during the Musar seder. The funny thing was for some reason the years were going by and I still was not married. There was one girl I had known for a very long time but never cared for much, but she was after me for years. She even went to collage in New York to be close to me. I just ignored her pleas of love. But one day a zadik, the Rimnezer, came out from Russia. This was a zadik that fit no where and no place in the frum world's idea of a zadik except that he had been a friend of the Satmer Rav. He davened at all types of way out times. His Chanukah candle lighting was open to the public. But you had to
get there by 2 A.M. to be able to see when he would light at about 4:45 A. Almost everyone I knew went to the Rimnizer to get a blessing. They
said, "We will worry about monotheism tomorrow. Today we need blessing from a zadik." But he was impossible to get to have a personal interview without at least $100 to the gabai [the one who set up whom he would and would not see.] I had not that type of money. So one day I made up my mind to corner the zadik at the mikvah. I had no way of knowing when he would be there on a normal day but on Friday I knew he had to get in and out of the mikvah before Shabat. So I waited. When he went in, I did not have a chance. But when he came out, I said to him, "Good year (Shana Tova)." [This was during the Days of Awe.] The zadik answered me, "Have a good year." That year I got married to that girl.
I was by the Rimnizer for one Shabat meal about 3 A.M. His entire Shabat drasha (talk) was five words. He just quoted the verse, "A
continuous offering that is done on Mount Sinai." [In Hebrew that is five.] But he said it with such power and intensity that you felt there was an
infinite depth of meaning in this verse. There was a few years later, I heard about an opposite incident with the Satmer Rav. I knew a fellow [over 30] and befriended him. The fellow told him how about five [or more] years before then he had gone
with a group of friends to the Satmer Rav for a blessing to get married. They sat outside the room for many hours. Then he asked himself, "Why wait?--What is the point?" He left to take a break. Just then, the door opened and all the other friends got in but him. All got married except that one fellow. It seemed to me that to learn Torah one needed to go to a Litvak yeshiva. But to find a zadik (saint) one needed to a chasidic zadik.
I never knew what R. Berenbaumthought of chasidut until one day at the I was having the festival meal with him and his family on the second
day of Shavuot. He mentioned that it was the yarzeit of the Baal Shem Tov and gave a pilpul on the subject of the Baal Shem Tov. I forget what the punch line was but I am almost positive it since the Baal Shem Tov learnt Torah and came to great spiritual revelations so we should
learn Torah also. What a surprise.
Navardok books of trusting in God had a whole shelf devoted to them in
the musar section.
I knew nothing about Navardok but there was one old man who had been a
student in a Navardok yeshiva. He had no family and no one came when he
passed away. I went to complete the minyan. later the brother of the
mashich at the Mir, Reb Feldman gave a hesped in the shul where that
fellow had prayed. He had been in the same yeshiva at one time and saw in
that student an amazing act of kindness. I forget exactly what it what
but it was along the lines of giving his entire monthly stipend away to
another student that was about to be married.
I, for some reason, got very involved in study of later authorities.
I spent an enormous amount of time on the Pnei Yehoshu and the Marsha.
Then I got a book "the long Marsha". That was a concoction of
commentaries on the Marsha. Not one person in the yeshiva understood why I did
this. Most fellows read the material (did "the sugia"
I.e. just Gemra, Rashi and Tosaphot) and then the commentaries after
the Ketzot HaChoshen and those. But I felt a need for the later
authorities.
I once asked Reb Nelkenbaum about it. In particular I asked about my
way of learning every Maharsha. He said my way is a valid approach.
But I lost my chavruta [learning partner] on Mesechta Shabat because
he could not stand how I had to learn every single Pnei Yehoshua.
One of my learning partners was Chagi Preshel. When I learnt with
Chagai, we went right to the Rosh and Rif and Beit Joseph.
Learning with Chagai, we had a kashe on the Rosh in mesechta Shabat.
We went to a fellow with a reputation to be a genius. As our constant
experience with geniuses was in the frum world we discovered he knew
nothing and understood nothing but could snowball you with a lot of words.
As a last resort we decided to go to Nelkenbaum who had no reputation
at all in the yeshiva. He gave no chabura. No one went to him with
questions. Almost a non-entity. He looked at the problem for about a
minute. As he was looked Chagia and I were eyeballing each other as if to say
here we go again, someone that knows nothing. Then he opened his mouth
and no only did he have the answer --crystal clear, but he had deep
and involved knowledge of the whole subject.
We returned to our seats stunned. Chagai said, "On him applies the
verse, 'With the modest is wisdom.'"
R. Berenbaumhas a similar characteristic. Once a bunch of young men
wanted him to give a chabura in Eruvin (a completely non yeshivishe
meshechta) on some random page. He gave an incredibly deep class on the
spot.
Chagai became a rosh yeshiva in Russia. Later he went to Israel and
became a rosh yeshiva in Jerusalem.
Rav Nelkenbaum is presently a rosh yeshiva in the Mir. Many years later I went to R. Nelkenbaum with the problm of
electricity on Shabat. At that point I had realized electricity is not fire so I was studying the chazon Ish to see why he says it is "building".
I said to Rav Nelkenbaum, "Apparently the Chazon Ish is right." He said to me, "I heard from a great man that the Chazon Ish is simply not
correct." I begged him to tell me the name. He refused. Later in Israel I looked again at it and could not find any flaw in the reasoning of the
Chazon Ish. So I decided that what anonymous "great man" had meant was that the Chazon Ish is self consistent and can be fitted into the Gemera, but it is not inherent in the Gemara itself. [The reasoning is outside reasoning stuck into the Gemara. If it would have been inherent in the
Gemara, the Magen Avraham and the First authorities could not have said
what they did say about "building".] I had discovered a very radical kabalistic opinion in the kabalistic
works of R. Avarham Abulafia. I told it to Rav Nelkenbaum's son. R. Nelkenbaum said to me I can discuss it with him but not with his son.
I never knew what R. Berenbaumfelt about kabalah. I don't remember how the subject came to me. I think it was through musar. A bunch of
musar books I had been reading said it is a mitzvah to learn kabalah. The ones I remember saying this were the Shelah, the Pri Eitz Chayim of the
Ramchal. Maybe the Reishit Chachma. But I never asked him about it. Only when I returned from Israel did I ask him. He said, "Learn Shas
first." I said, "I learnt it." He said, "Learn it again." I think I began learning it after I had done most of Shas but I did not want to ask him
because I guess I knew he would not approve. I used to give a (chabura) lecture in the Mir yeshiva. [That was in
those days a type of class only for very advanced questions in specialized subjects.] Until one day during the class I answered a question of
R. Akiva Eiger. Those questions are considered unanswerable except by perhaps the leading rosh yeshiva of the generation. So the guys in the
class stopped coming. In halacha I had a mentor, Rav Glazel, the rav of a city in Europe.
I had also noticed an odd thing when I came first to the Mir, i.e. that every rabbi in the community [not in the yeshiva itself] was an am
haaretz (ignoramus). I noticed the distinction between a rosh yeshiva [1] and between "Rabbi". This was a distinction of night and day. First
was the bizarre fact that no orthodox rabbi knew a thing. Not one knew how to learn for the life of them, but they could fake very well.
["Knowing how to learn" is a core concept of Torah. A way to explain it is by a true story. There was a fellow from a Ukrainian village that got
accepted to a college where a friend of mine, Alex Kovalenko teaches English. This student said he did not need to take the remedial English
courses since he knew English perfectly. The teachers gave him a simple test. He failed the test with flying colors. Alex was curious as to why
he thought he knew English; so he asked him. In fact, the fellow had memorized the entire English dictionary perfectly. That is like guys that
have learnt a lot of Gemara and can tell you what it says --but don't know "how to learn". Like the old pin test.] Those guys had spent their
time learning how to con folks instead of learning Torah. (That is why there was so much emphasis in their yeshivot on dress.) They were 100%
glatt ignorant. But further there was a large gap in character. All the traditional stereotypes about what is wrong with Jews were fulfilled
by "rabbis". Rabbis were rude, uncouth, unclean, unmannered, back biters, and slanderers; and lacked good taste. This was on the surface.
Underneath were forces of darkness. At first I thought guys in yeshivot were much better.
Eventually I noticed this is not a clear cut distinction, since there are many heads of yeshivot that don't spend time learning and are just
Mr. "Rabbi". [And there are sometimes often simple folks that are connected with G-d on other levels.] Most rabbis couldn't tell you the
difference between what is forbidden and permitted if it hit them in the head. My only conclusion can be that though the frum world throws the word "genius" around a lot, but most of them are of average intelligence but just act the part of holy sages very well.
Every day were people from Israel collecting charity. They always made out as if they were accepting anyone who wanted to learn Torah. Only
later did I discover that the word "anyone" meant "anyone" who has wealthy American parents. They never said they had a private club for just
them and their buddies that they were collecting charity for. I had a question on the Tur one Friday night. I went over to a rav
[not of the yeshiva but he used to daven there on Shabat--reputation as a great scholar] and he started the same process I discovered some much
in later years. Instead of admitting he did not know the answer. He started playing word games. But even with young married men who were
supposed to be very good I discovered the same thing. R. Berenbaum is completely oblivious to the subject of halacha. He
would never discuss it. I don't think it was because he feared the problems that would ensue if rabbis felt he was intruding on their
territory. I just think the whole question of halacha is uninteresting to him from any point of view. "What ever people do they do. What ever they want
to do, they will do. Now let's get back to learning." There was a rav that people were referred to for questions in nida
that had no connection with the yeshiva. But one thing did interest him in halacha. He never ate meat. Never.
Whether it was festivals or Shabat, he only chicken adorned his table.
I think the reason was nikur [taking away forbidden fat] was a
question in America. I discovered once that all the authorities say the halacha is like
Rabbnu Tam that the night starts 72 minutes after sunset. I decided once
to ask him about it. I said to him, "The Magen Avraham says the halchah
is like R. Tam." He said, "Show me." I simply took out the Shulchan
Aruch. He looked at it for about two minutes and said simply, "Yes, that
is what he says." Like I say, he never, never, never wanted to commit to
anything in the realm of halachah. You could never know what he thinks
unless you actually watch what he does. There were start up small places in those days. R. Shmuel Brudni was
asked sometimes by one student or another if to go to one. He always said yes. He said, It is because I know they will always come back.
One Wednesday night, Eliezer Ginsburg started giving musar shmusim. His first was on what he had heard that the most important of the forty
eight ways to acquire Torah is to bear the yoke with ones friend--to bear his yoke with him
After I was about to return to Israel, R. Ginsburg told me as a going
away blessing the verse, "And David took strength in the Lord his God."
The profoundest lesson I learnt from any of my rebbis always came with great emotional pain.
The profoundest lesson I learnt from R. Birbaum was when I left the yeshiva. I had thought that if I had a piece of paper saying I had
learnt at the Mir then none of the rabbis would have attacked my family. This was probably not true. But regardless of that fact I asked R. Birbaum
for such a piece of paper. he said: "You don't need such a thing. You own deeds will bring you close and your own deeds will bring you far."
I.e. no piece of paper will make any difference, only my own deeds - for better or worse.
As far as R. Berenbaumis concerned, learning Gemara is the meaning of life -- to be preserved at all costs. Let me ask you how many rosh
yeshivot do you know like that--(as smart in Gemara as they may be)? You can't choose these values. You can't decide intellectually that
they are right and decide to follow them. Either you have this in your bones, or you don't have it at all.
The drive for learning at the Mir was not an intellectual recognition that, "Learning Torah is healthy in a changing world" or "Learning
Torah is a wholesome pursuit". At the Mir it was a deep, inner, compulsive, primal drive. And R. Shmuel is at the center of that primal force.
Right or wrong, good or bad, I can't say. Maybe you will look at all this in some negative light. After all it is not human rights or freedom,
or maybe not even good business sense. Maybe it is insanity and obsession. I don't know. Say what you will. But Shmuel Berenbaumwill learn
Torah until the very end - until his last breath - and even I think he will keep on going.

The Marriage Bed

There was a bed in my dorm room that had a property that whoever slept in it, got married within three to four months. It did not matter who
it was, a good learner, a weak learner, fat, thin, bald or brown. The fellow before me was Shelmo. I was on the bottom bunk. After him I
moved up (it was the top bunk). I was married soon after. (It was on the dot between three to four months.) After me I think was Eliyahu. He also
got married soon afterwards. [He is still there plugging away at the Gemara with lots of little Eliyahus running around.]
But this process from what I understood had been going on way before I even got to the yeshiva.
But there was one more condition for it to work. Lighting the two
candles before davening in the morning [and at night I think.]
But I want to make clear --discussion of spiritual phenomena in the
yeshiva was a no no. It smacked of that unmentionable C-word.
(((chasidut--in very tiny print))). So this was never discussed openly. It was
just a odd fact mentioned to me when I got to the room by I think
Eliyahu. He said "It is funny but it seems like everyone who gets to that bed
gets married."
One thing was clear at least to me:- that as long as the spirit of
Torah was in the world, as long as the words of the Torah matter, then
the Mir Yeshiva would continue. Maybe not in name but in essence.

Peretz

One summer day [after I had married], I went over to a young boy by
the name of Perez Aurbach. He was learning by himself in the beit
midrash and it was my custom to befriend friendless people in those days. I
started learning with him and became his mentor in spiritual issues and
kabalist questions. I had him over to my home often.
I told him to come to Israel after me and I think I said if he would
come he could have my shas. That Shas ended up anyway in the Breslov
shul of Rav Gabai in Safed where it is until this day.
I lost track of Perz until I needed his kindness in Israel. I had my
own set of problems and came to him for a place to stay.

Chasidim
It made a big mistake letting Chasidim in from Buro Park.
R. Nachman says that wherever there is great holiness, where ever
your hope and correction lay, the klipot-the dark side, surrounds it.
Since in the Mir there is great holiness, the klipot, the chasidim
from the dark side, want to come in and destroy it by making into a
frumkeit factory place, a factory for rabid rabbis.
There are people that want to learn Torah. But because they have not
perfected their character, they get seduced to the Evil Side and begin
to use Torah for their own purposes. They become "rabbi". The holiness
of the Torah feeds their evil being and gives them spiritual energy
that they use to destroy good men and women.
The Mir must stick with its core ideology--learning Talmud.

The Rebezin

People say that behind every great man is a great woman; and the rosh yeshiva is no exception. His wife was the essence and motor of the
yeshiva. The wife of R. Berenbaumbelieved in him and in the yeshiva with a passion. She spent all day every day in the office taking care of the
financial aspect so he could sit and learn. [R. Handelsman also worked very hard to help run the yeshiva with great devotion.]
But it was not just sitting in the office taking care of the finances, but the spirit with which she ran the place. While the essence of R.
Shmuel is the desire to learn Torah, her essence was belief in the Mir Yeshiva -- as the most unique, powerful, significant organization that
ever hit the face of the Earth. Being a father for the first time I had no idea how to deal with
learning and taking care of children at the same time. Sometimes in the
middle of a Gemara, my children would start crying for a bottle. I simply
did not know how long to let them cry before I got up to take care of
them.
In those days doctors said it is not good to get up immediately to
take care of your child as soon as they cry. (Now they probably deny that
they ever said such nonsense.)
My mother was not alive at the time and because of my own stupidity I
had little contact with my father.
The comment of the rebitzin was, "How long can you let a baby cry?"
I.e. the way she said it was like implying, "How on earth can you see
anyone in need and ignore it?"
She did not believe in the modern theories of that time the said one
should not jump up every time a baby cries because it spoils them. She
thought that was all just cruel, modern nonsense.
Her attitude was very similar to my parents that had healthy
suspicion towards all modern ideas. The funny thing was my father was a
scientist who invented stuff for NASA. But he and my mother were deeply
suspicious of technology. They believed in never taking any medicine that had
not been on the market for at least fifty Years. They
believed in never using any modern device unless you can do the same job
without it. Technology was just to make things faster, not better. My
father would not let me use a ski lift until I could climb up the
mountain on my own and ski down it. He would not let me use a slide rule
unless I could do the calculations by hand. (There were many times I
encountered this attitude in him, most of which I have forgotten. But this
was a very core value to him.) I rarely saw this attitude in the orthodox
world.
What I always encountered was that if someone else expert doesn't do
some "it" for you, then forget it. You can't do it by yourself.
In halacha people are always telling me, I can't do my own thinking.
Even with my own wife, people were telling her you want to live with your
husband without asking a rav how to do it. You can't do that. She went
to rabbis and they all told her to get a divorce.
But I never accepted this idea of doing what everyone else is doing.
I decided a long time ago to keep the Torah as it says with the Talmud
as the only valid commentary on it.
I am pretty convinced that this attitude of chasidim that independent
thinking is the most heinous crime against God and the Torah is what has
destroyed the Torah world. People are taught never to trust their instincts, never to think
independently until they lose the ability to do so. Since all the emphasis is on asking a halacha authority all one's personal questions, this
makes it the ambition of all sadistic, small, minded people to become rabbinical authorities. They wear that authority like a well tailored coat.
They love it and relish in it. Of course when they see an independent thinker they go berserk with rage.
This is the attitude the chasidim engender and promote. It is the opposite of the Mir where one is rewarded and encouraged to think for
himself. If the Mir continues to let in chasidim, I dare say they will sink into oblivion.
But you can ask did not Rebbi Nachman start the Breslov chasidim? My answer is yes until he went to Uman. Then he said, "I don't need any
more chasidim." Then began a new path of personal service between you and your maker. Chasidai Breslov has been a false concept that Rebi
Nachman himself nullified before it even got started. He said now everything depends on coming to him for Rosh Hashanah. And the other types of
service he emphasized have nothing to do with any group.--talking privately with God, learning in order all subjects of the Torah, Talmud, kabalh,
Shulchan Aruch, etc.
Conclusion
There is an enormous amount of information about the Jewish world
that is public and available. Some qualitative some quantitative. The
question is how to distil this information into a few key concepts. I have
seen a repeating pattern and I have been able to identify an
underlying trend.
Now I believe I can explain the historical trajectory of the Jewish
world in a way that can provide guidance to all those who want to build
their yeshivas or shuls as lasting institutions for the 21th century
and beyond.
The primary question which I keep asking myself is, "What separates a
yeshiva that has been successful for two hundred years from the many
start up groups?"
The problem of the existence of movements is very different than that of groups. Once there was a yeshiva Vollozin which no longer exists,
but the yeshiva movement has been very successful to the degree that even chasidim have now yeshivas.
There are within the Jewish people many movements which have been very successful and here lays the question of good and evil. Which is
good? If any or all?
This seems unanswerable since who knows what good and evil is? But I
think we can still see basic human good wholesome influences in some of these movements and some not.
But then there is the larger question of the direction of the Jewish people itself. Still a people with no country, and no leader. There is
a Jewish colony in Israel which America and Russia are still fighting over. (Russia using the Arabs to do its dirty work.)
I believe it all (i.e. all these questions and everything else in the universe) boils down to one thing --Talmud Babli.
As long as we learn this book we have a leader, and a country. Without it we are lost.
But this is just the beginning. Our job as a people--is to make people happy. We have lost this goal
and ambition and this is the source of all our problems. Why do you think there are Arab terrorists? Do you think it is because they are
happy?
The solution to the problems in Israel is simple.
A shul should be a place where people can come and get a little
happiness, a smile, a little joy, a little learning.
I highly recommend every Rosh yeshiva to go to learn, not how to make
more restrictions, not how solve the problems of kashrut, or Talmudic
intricacies, but how to make people happy. This requires study, and
discipline. It certainly does not mean to let people do what ever they
like, nor does it mean making people frum or fry.
It is a deep study, and expensive. And success is not guaranteed.
Most people can't be a Rosh yeshiva. There are even people, you can't let
into shul for they will try to make others unhappy. They might even
start slandering others. Slanderers have no place in Israel.
Mir and R. Nachman are the yin and the yang.
Yet, any miztvah one does with the stated intention of helping people
is (because of our state of exile) going to have the exact opposite
effect. Think of people that actually hurt you. There is no question that
they were convinced and still are that they were doing the greatest of
mitzvot and actually helping you.
For kindness went to the other side. And the little bit left to us is
actually cruelty.
So they only way we can actually be kind is by being selfish. To
learn Torah for ourselves. To go to the Zion of R. Nachman for our own
correction.
Then by the overflow of good that we can't contain others benefit.
So if we go around trying to make others happy we will surely fail.
Rather we must try to achieve happiness ourselves and from the overflow,
others will also get it.
And this is the secret of the Mir. Learn Torah for yourself and your
own correction. Others will see and come running. People can smell
commitment a thousand miles away.