Home Home / Some Friendly Advice (1998)

Article

August 23, 1998

Some Friendly Advice (1998)

Rosh Hashanah Torah Umadda Yeshiva University
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Speech

A Perspective for the 80s (1979)

At this time of jubilee reunion, instead of being satisfied with reviewing the past and indulging in self-gratulation over what we have accomplished in American and world Jewry and in the community at large, it is more constructive for us to turn to the future and speak about what we are planning for the years to come. It simply is too much to plan for the next 50 years, but we can and have planned for the next decade, for the 1980s. A vibrant institution must always plan, must always revise, must always reorganize. It may not, cannot, dare not stand still. And even if we do not accept this as a general institutional virtue, it is, under the present circumstances, an absolute necessity. American higher education, as we all know, has come upon very difficult times, and Yeshiva University has not escaped this “plague of the generation.” If anything, our situation is more serious because of our dual undergraduate program where, in effect, we give two educations for the price of one – or less. The key to the survival of this institution is financial stability. There are times when the “bottom line” must go to the top of the agenda. At such times we are called upon to be realistic, which means, in this context, to appreciate that we cannot do everything. This is truly regrettable; I wish that I could respond affirmatively every time an alumnus or a community leader or student calls me with a great idea. But if I responded affirmatively to all, we would get nothing done. What we must do is establish priorities – priorities that express and reflect our institutional goals and our institutional mission. You all know full well the mission of Yeshiva University, and it requires no iteration or elaboration by me at this time. Our mission is Torah U’Mada, “synthesis,” the full and total commitment to the study of Torah – the entire scope of Jewish studies – and the concomitant commitment to education, culture, and research. We hope that somehow in the hearts and minds of our s…
Torah Umadda Yeshiva University

Speech

Commencement Address (1987)

It is with a mixture of personal pleasure and the poignant pain of nostalgia that I preside over this commencement which is the last official ceremony of our Centennial year – which has now lasted more than two years.... Last September, at the beginning of this academic year, I spoke at our formal Centennial Convocation and pleaded for greater awareness of moral values in education. Secretary William Bennett, who was present at that event, had been talking the subject up and down the nation, and Governor Mario Cuomo had just recently spoken in the same vein. Finding myself in such distinguished company from both sides of the political divide, I expected little passion in reaction to my comments, even when they were condensed in an op-ed page article for The New York Times.I was sorely mistaken. There was passion aplenty in both my supporters (who obviously were in the right...) and my detractors. My opponents, all from the academic community, were all high-minded, sophisticated, and articulate — but not always consistent. Thus, a typical response was that I was merely mouthing truisms to which no one could take exception, and hence I was really saying nothing, AND that my thesis was a disguised attempt at introducing denominational indoctrination into our universities. That the two propositions contradict each otherwas not apparent to my critics.More to the point, other critics, equally oblivious to the need for elementary consistency, asked why my values should be preferred to others, and continued to assert a basically relativistic ethos according to which all values have equal validity in the "marketplace of ideas," a theory which if pursued to its logical conclusion leads to moral nihilism. They then proceeded to assure me and their own readers that the academy certainly does act upon certain accepted moral principles, such as no murder, mayhem, robbery, or cheating. How nice.There is, however, a fundamental error committed by both sides in this national debate…
Torah Study Torah Umadda Yeshiva University

Speech

Yeshiva University in the World Today (1965)

YU not only institution, also idea and symbol. Synthesis. The modern Orthodox Jew as expression of this educational philosophy. Not a comfortable proposition. Synthesis, living in two worlds at same time, always has concommigant tension. Therefore, never complete success. Tension revealed in famous story of early Rosh Yeshivah, who walking through the then new halls of Yeshiva College one morning greeted other faculty members who passed by: Good morning. Dr. Churgin, Dr. Revel, Dr. Mirsky, Dr. Belkin... then said to an student nearby: "Vos iz dos, a Yeshiva oder a hospital?"Origins: Medieval Spain Yeshiva of Rabbi Reines. Idea of Rav Kook on the sacred and profane having mutual roots in theholy of holies , and function of holy to sanctify profane, and all profane as the not — yet — holy. S.R. Hirsch — as follows, shortly.YU began as high school ( 1886) worked up to thirteen schools plus four high schools (in addition to the present one on tha Pacific Coast); more than 6,660 students, 1200 faculty.But more than double curriculum. Three great ninteenth century interpretations of a principle of Judaism are incorporated in Yeshiva. The principle is from Perek: the study of Torah is beautiful with derekh eretz.S.R. Hirsch — the educational — cultural interpretation.R. Hayyin of Volozhin — the intellectual - metaphysical interpretation.The Hasidic interpretation, which is the practical-existential.S.R.H. — Incorporated in student studying in Yeshiva and at same time, Yeshiva College, Stern College, the high schools.Hayyim of Volozhin — incorporated in Riets, and Kollel.Hasidic, with emphasis on out-going, practical effects of education, in schools such as TIM, TIW, Medical School, Social Work.Emphasize J.S.P. personal stories about Jeff Tillman and his questions about tfillin in afternoon.Thus too: CSD — educational servicing of synagoggues such as educational servicing NCSY youth groups, place rabbis.Has transformed American Judaism. Imagine American Jewry without YU.No…
Torah Umadda Yeshiva University