Home Home / Torah Education at the Crossroads - Spe…

Speech

March 14, 1989

Torah Education at the Crossroads - Speech (1989)

Eulogies & Memorials Jewish Education
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

Eulogy for Rabbi Morris Besdin (1982)

The death of Rabbi Moshe Besdin is an occasion of deep bereavement not only for his loving family, many friends, and former congregants, but especially for Yeshiva University – of which he was a proud and loyal son, and which he served with great distinction, love, and dedication. This funeral takes place almost six years to the day that the late Dr. Samuel Belkin, of blessed memory, passed away. And it is my sad duty to speak the eulogy over a distinguished member of Yeshiva's faculties for the third time in two months.Rabbi Besdin, the greatest of all our educators, was in almost every way unique. He was a humble man who bore his humility naturally. His modesty was genuine, not in the least contrived. He possessed remarkable self-knowledge: he completely appreciated his own strengths, especially his superior pedagogic talents, without a trace of false humility and without a scintilla of superciliousness or arrogance. His intellectual integrity and love of truth were so powerful that he was able to view himself with astounding objectivity.Thus, when Moshe Besdin referred to himself as a melamed, it was more than mere playfulness and was certainly not an affectation. It was, rather, an accurate professional description — and a self-identification that lent glory to the entire teaching profession and shed lustre on all who strive to be marbitzei Torah. If ever the term "melamed" had a degree of opprobrium to it, Rabbi Besdin changed all that and made of it an honorific title.He often spoke of having learned how to teach from his late father whom, herevered deeply. But the ability to teach was for Moshe Besdin not an acquired gift, not even a vocation or profession or mission; teaching and teaching ability were part and parcel of his personality. He was a teacher when he taught, when he talked, when he joked, when he preached, when he learned.He was, indeed, the melamed par excellence. In educational philosophy he was essentially a traditionalist. He was an educatio…
Eulogies & Memorials Jewish Education

Outline

Memorial Address for Rabbi Zeev Shussheim (1989)

גמ׳ ב"מ פ״ה ע״א: א״ר פרנך א״ר יוחנן כל שהוא ת״ח ובנו ת״ח ובן בנו ת״ח שוב אין תורה פוסקת מזרעו לעולם. מ״ר ירמי מכאן ואילך תורה מחזרת על אכסניא שלה. והמהרש״א שם הק׳ הלא שנינו במס׳ אבות והתקן על רמז ללמוד תורה שאתה ירשה לך, א״כ מזה שתלוי בלימוד ולא ביחוסי ותיר? שבן ת״ח אם לומד תורה יזכה שמא הוא יהי אכסניא לתורה כמו שהיו אבותיו. ולע״ד שזה תופס גם לענין מוסד ישיבה תורה ממזרת על אכסניא שלה: ״פירושו, שאם הישיבה אמנם מקום תורה ואכסניא לתורה, בא התורה תחזור לה,
Eulogies & Memorials

Article

Torah Education at the Crossroads (1989)

In addressing this topic, I make certain assumptions which it is best to declare at the outset. I speak of “Torah Education” as it is known and practiced in Centrist or Modern Orthodoxy. This means Jewish education in that community which subscribes to Torah U’Madda as a desideratum and not a concession, to tolerance and moderation, to the State of Israel, and to the unity of the Jewish people. But these admirable qualities and values are ancillary to the primary principle of Torah as the very source of our lives, both individual and communal, and the study of Torah as the pre-eminent mitzvah of Judaism. My remarks might be viewed as self-critical, negatively constructive. Although I dwell upon our faults and failures and flaws, and forgo self-gratulation, do not conclude therefrom that we are inherently inadequate and doomed. Quite to the contrary: if I am critical of our educational efforts, perhaps harshly, I ask you to attribute the public airing of my misgivings as a sign of collective self-confidence and strength. Were I less confident of our past achievements and future triumphs, I would not risk exposing our weaknesses. I shall cluster my remarks about two poles or centers of concern: Torah and Mitzvot. Why, after all, should a young person study Torah when it is so easy to be accepted, successful, and recognized without a whisper of Jewish literacy? The Torah component in the theme of “Torah Education at the Crossroads” may be divided into a discussion of motivation, continuity, and axiology (or: the role of Torah in the hierarchy of values). Motivation: one of the most fundamental, difficult, and persistent questions which Jewish educators have to confront is that of the motivation to learn. This is universally the case, but it is especially nettlesome for children or adolescents of our community who are exposed to the whole gamut of contemporary experience in which Torah learning is not a prestige item. The perennial problem is getting more difficult of …
Eulogies & Memorials Jewish Education