Having just celebrated the yom tov of kabbalas haTorah, now is as appropriate a time as any to focus on improvement in Torah study. Providing a quality Torah education for our youth is, as Jews, a high priority for parents and the community as a whole. It would be nreasonable to expect our yeshiva system to work perfectly for everyone, but it should at least do the job properly for most students.
In reality, the current yeshiva system falls somewhat short of this goal. This column details a number of issues concerning yeshivas in general (of course, exceptions do exist). Nothing mentioned here is intended as halacha; I’m not authorized to make such determinations. My aim is simply to raise awareness among parents, educators, and others involved or interested in the yeshiva system.
Teaching the Whole Class
Teaching a class of any size successfully is a formidable challenge. Each student is most receptive to a specific style of instruction, as Shlomo hamelech says in Mishlei (22:6): “Chanoch lana’ar al pi darko” (Educate the youth according to his way).
Thus, every lesson is by definition a compromise. One would therefore expect that the goal of the rebbe would be to effectively reach as many students as possible. Yet rebbeim in many instances tend to focus the lessons toward the stronger, or strongest, students in the class. This tendency is most common in high school and post-high school (beis midrash) shiurim, where it is inherently more harmful since the studies are more complex and difficult in the first
place. The material and pace may be appropriate for only a small minority of the class – perhaps less than a handful of individuals – and the others must struggle to grasp the shiur and keep up, often unsuccessfully. Aside from the obvious negative impact this style of teaching can have on students’ academic advancement, there can be considerable adverse psychological effects as well.
Language Skills
The ability to read fluently and understand both lashon hakodesh and the Aramaic used throughout the Mishna, Gemara and commentaries is a skill no student can do without. In general, it’s safe to say that the more easily one is able to read seforim, the more likely (other factors notwithstanding) it is that one will be inclined to actually doing so, since people tend to prefer doing things they’re good at.
The ability to read well does not per se guarantee that one will become a talmid chacham, but it is certainly an essential ingredient in the recipe. In many yeshivas there is not enough emphasis on language and reading proficiency. The common assumption is that students will pick up a working familiarity with the language from the material they learn anyway, but for many students this does not suffice. Students who don’t pick up the skills quickly enough have
trouble keeping up with new material, and encounter great difficulties when trying to learn new material on their own. Many yeshivas do provide some formal instruction in dikduk, but it’s often limited to a single grade of the students’ education and does not accomplish much.
Relatedly, more attention should be given to teaching the meaning of davening as early as possible. Davening can be an empty and even unpleasant experience for students who do not understand what they are saying. Prayer is a fundamental part of our religion, and it is vital that students understand and value davening properly. Kavanah is not merely desirable; it is an essential element of proper prayer (see, for example, Shulchan Oruch Orach Chaim 1:4, 5:1,
61:1, and 98:1). Is this the idea that students get from years of perfunctory repetition? Teaching the meaning of davening as early as possible would get students into the habit of praying mindfully from the start.
High School Learning
At the high school level, the prevailing derech halimud focuses extensively on learning Gemara b’iyun (in depth). From early on, many of the more advanced commentaries and analyses that grace Torah sheb’al peh are covered in depth and at length. Needless to say, these works are of inestimable importance – there is infinite depth to the Torah. However, an excessive focus on tackling such complicated and abstract lines of reasoning as early as possible may not be as beneficial as it seems. While there are always students who are able to follow the difficult discussions and indeed enjoy the challenge and intellectual satisfaction of mastering the intricacies of these studies, many students cannot really keep pace. Even the students who can handle the deeper and more protracted logic may often be lacking in their understanding of the very Gemara, Rashi, and Tosafos upon which the discussions are built.
In practice, many students don’t gain the intended benefits from this style of learning so early on, and some are left without the ability to properly learn the Gemara/Rashi itself. As the Gemara says, “tofastoh merubah, lo tofastoh” (Attempt too much, and you will not be successful). In the hurry to advance to the more “exciting” and “geshmak” discussions, the basics and fundamentals suffer. (Perhaps this problem can be related to the preeminence in our time of superficiality and instant gratification. A bachur can be taught to sound like a lamdon even if he has not really mastered so much as the basic skills prerequisite for true lamdonus.)
Instead, it should be a first priority that students attain proficiency in properly learning the fundamentals, and indeed become knowledgeable in them, before proceeding to focus on the more advanced rishonim and acharonim. We must not sacrifice essential growth in Torah learning in a rush to collect the golden eggs of true lamdonus and pilpul.
The Orchos Tzadikim (end of sha’ar haTorah), after describing how dedicated the chachmei haTalmud were to learning Torah, and how they did so in the proper derech, writes regarding his own generation: “But all this, they do not do today, for each one wants to learn Tosafos and all chidushim and chidushei d’chidushim before he knows the form (tzurah) of the Talmud. If so, how can they be successful, being that they are doing the opposite of what the chachmei haTalmud prescribed?”
Similarly, the Maharal (Nesivos Olam, Nesiv HaTorah 5) writes: “[The students] have nothing in their hands, and it is all because they learn Tosafos, a thing that is an addition (hosafa) – would it not be better that they should first acquire the Talmud itself? It is all due to the fact that the Tosafos were printed alongside the Gemara.”
Room for Improvement
The ultimate indicators of the yeshiva system’s successfulness are the graduates it produces. The inescapable truth is that most students who go through the system – completing high school and perhaps spending several years in beis midrash afterwards – come out considerably below their true potential in acquired Torah knowledge and often in Torah-learning skills as well.
Most yeshiva graduates are not quite competent in Chumash and Mishna, and have no more than some limited degree of familiarity with the masechtos of Gemara studied in yeshiva. Knowledge of halacha is often inadequate as well. It’s worth noting that the widespread lack of proficiency in Chumash and Mishna among yeshiva graduates might be attributable in part to the derech halimud followed by the vast majority of elementary yeshivas. Whereas most yeshivas introduce Mishna and Gemara in the third and fifth grades, respectively, the derech prescribed in the Mishna in Avos (5:25) is to start Mishna at age ten and Gemara at age fifteen. The Vilna Gaon (as expressed in the sefer Even Sh’leima 8:1), discussing the proper methods for learning Torah, says: “[Children] must first learn the entire Chumash, until they are familiar with it practically from memory (b’al peh).” Suffice it to say that most students do not have such familiarity with Chumash even after high school, let alone before learning Mishna and Gemara.
From all of the above it should be clear that there is ample room for improvement in the yeshiva system. Yeshivas should take a hard and honest look at reality and reevaluate their goals and curricula. The deficiencies in the status quo are real, and changes will have to be made for improvements to be realized.
Yeshiva students are the future of our nation, bearers of the torch of the Torah for generations to come. The quality of Torah education today is the quality of Torah knowledge, observance, and leadership tomorrow. May Hashem grant us hatzlacha in providing the chinuch that will enable our nation to grow and flourish in the derech haTorah.
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