Dear Rabbi Lebowitz,
I recently read an interview
you did after you were hired as the director of the semicha program at RIETS.
One particular answer stood out. When you were asked about the importance of
investing in the rabbis of tomorrow, you said:
“It’s actually pretty simple. To get the most “bang for your
buck,” it makes sense to invest time and energy in the influencers of society. If
we want an educated and genuinely inspired community, it is critically
important to develop the kind of leaders that can help teach, guide and inspire
people in a meaningful way. When I visit other communities, in the United
States and in Israel, I see my friends from my days at RIETS making a major
impact.
Thousands
of young men and women in yeshivot and seminaries in Israel are being
influenced by my RIETS classmates. Hundreds of communities, shuls and schools
are being lead today by my RIETS classmates. It follows that if we want to determine
the direction of the community in two decades from now, we should look at the
current students in RIETS.” (Underline added)
Although
I am not a musmach of YU, I greatly appreciated this response. As someone who
was and continues to be influenced by many rabbeim from YU, as well as someone
with 20+ years in chinuch, I’ve thought a lot about what the next generation of
Jews needs. I would suggest that there is one critical change to the semicha
program which needs to happen in order for your goal to be achieved.
While
there are many ways that YU semicha has changed over the years, and requires
more than “just” learning and mastering Gemara and Halacha, there is still no
requirement for YU musmachim to learn through at least one major work of
machshava. Please allow me to explain why I think this should change.
While
there may have been a time when it was enough to teach students about the “What?”
of Judaism, that is certainly no longer the case. The Piaseczna Rebbe already
recognized 100 years that students needs had changed, and that students
required a different type of chinuch. If we want to produce students who are
loyal to the Ribono Shel Olam and his Torah, and are passionate about their
Judaism, we must also teach the relevance of the Torah which we teach. I have
personally seen how much students, as early as 7th grade respond to
the ideas of great thinkers like the Rambam, Ramchal, Rebbe Nachman, and The
Rav, and many others.
Although
there are certainly some musmachim who learn these or other thinkers in depth,
it has been my experience that many, perhaps even most, do not, never having
gone through an entire sefer of this kind in depth. I am aware that some YU
Roshei Yeshiva do bring some of this content into their shiurim, that is still
a far cry from having worked deeply through these ideas. It is not uncommon to
meet musmachim who can discuss a sugya in depth, or give a high level halacha
shiur, but who cannot give over hashkafic ideas on a similar level.
You
correctly note that we need an educated and inspired community. I would contend
that a requirement to learn, either in a formal shiur or an in-depth chavrusa,
at least one sefer machshava, will produce mechanchim (and rabbonim) who can
help produce that community.
Sincerely,
Pesach
Sommer
