[Avodah] Self Esteem

[Micha Berger]

Two more RDE blog entries:
1- http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/11/yeshiva-education-causes-low-self.html
2- http://daattorah.blogspot.com/2010/11/rav-dessler-yeshiva-should-deny-self.html
(a/k/a <http://bit.ly/eWfrDd>.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

1- Saturday, November 27, 2010
   Yeshiva education causes low self-esteem & susceptibility to Internet
   addiction

   [Image of hakamah at <http://bit.ly/gBIUCX>. -micha]

   Just noticed this haskoma that Rav Reuven Feinstein gave to
   "Bringing Out the Best" by Rabbi Roll. The book describes how to
   build self-esteem based on the wisdom of the Alter of Slobadka. What
   is interesting is Rabbi Feinstein stating, "In yeshivos today there
   is literally a pandemic of low self-esteem. An outcome of this most
   horrible condition, is that once a person has achieved a state where
   self-worth and self-value are diminished, that person is literally open
   to all foreign pressures, both within and without our community. Once
   those pressures are given free reign, the outcome is without exception,
   negative."

   I asked someone who is a principal about this and he said simply it is
   a serious problem in the litvishe yeshivas but not in the chassidic
   or Sefardic ones. He said it is an inherent result of the elitist
   philosophy that if you are not the best in learning you are nothing. He
   agreed that this is a reflection of the success of the view espoused by
   Rav Dessler in Michtav M'Eliyahu. (search this blog for the translated
   source). In the chassidic and sefardic yeshiva systems it is possible
   to have self-esteem in ways other than being the top guy in learning.

   My question is since the pandemic of low self-esteem is apparently
   a direct and inevitable consequence of the yeshiva education itself
   than why is it being lamented? This is akin to the son who killed his
   parents and then pleads for mercy since he is an orphan. You can't
   deliberately develop an educational system that inevitably destroys
   self-esteem and then bemoan the fact that yeshiva kids go off the
   derech because they have low self-esteem.

   This is related to my recent post about the dangers of the Internet.
   While the yeshiva world is warning of the huge danger that the
   Internet presents to our communities - they seem to be ignoring the
   risk factors which make people susceptible to Internet addiction. One
   of them happens to be low self-esteem.

   In short, it is well within the capability of the yeshiva world to
   build up self esteem in their students and thus diminish the real
   dangers from the outside secular world - but they chose not to and
   instead focus on restricting access to the outside world. An exercise
   in futility.

2- Monday, November 29, 2010
   Rav Dessler: Yeshiva should deny self-esteem to those not fully
   involved in Torah study

   What follows is a partial translation of Rav Dessler (Michtav M'Eliyahu
   3 page 355-357 by Prof. Low. I have modified the translation in a
   number of places - in particular the last line.

	The Frankfurt school supported an educational system in which the
	students were exposed to the study of secular subjects and later
	went on to universities. At the same time it paid attention to
	the strict observance of all the mitzvot. The advantage of the
	system was that the vast majority of its adherents stayed Orthodox
	and carefully observed the ordinances of the Shulchan Aruch,
	despite the fact that they were exposed to a general non-Jewish
	intellectual environment.It is true that they [the Frankfurt
	School] benefited in that the number of defectors from mitzvah
	observance was small. The price paid for this was that few, if
	any, Gedolei Torah emerged from such an educational system. On
	the other hand, their weltanschauung was somewhat imperfect
	as far as the complete acceptance of the Torah point of view
	is concerned. Whenever there was a conflict between sciences
	and Torah, they resorted to a strange combination of the two,
	as if the two systems can be combined as a unity". Therefore,
	exposure to non-Jewish ideas affected to some extent the purity
	of their faith in the absolute truth of Torah, resulting in
	strange compromises.

	The Lithuanian Rashei Yeshivah, on the other hand, set as their
	main objective to educate Gedolei Torah, discouraging all contact
	with the intellectual world outside the yeshiva. They realized
	that the only way to achieve this was to concentrate all the
	energies of their students exclusively on Torah learning [and
	not to allow any alternative respectful goals.] They were well
	aware of the price they had to pay for this because they knew
	that many yeshivah students were not able to deal with this
	extreme lifestyle and would [and in fact did] leave religious
	observance. They tried as best they could to help those who
	could not remain in the yeshiva as bnei Torah.

	Those who had to leave the yeshivah world were advised to take low
	status jobs, for example as small businessmen - which required
	little if any training and were not inherently interesting -
	rather than as professionals . Those yeshivah students who did
	insist on going to study at University to be professionals or
	academics were therefore disregarded. The connection between
	Rashei Yeshivah and these Orthodox university students was severed
	in order to prevent their exercising a detrimental influence on
	the the rest of the yeshivah students. I heard that justification
	of the Rashei Yeshiva to pay such a heavy price to produce Gedolei
	Torah was Vayikra Rabbah 2:1, "One thousand students enter to
	study Mikra [Bible)... and only one emerges to hora'ah [halachic
	decision..making]. They also cited the words of the Rambam
	"It is better that 1000 fools die to obtain one genuine scholar."

   [It is important to note that the medrash cited by Rav Dessler
   does not support this program as it is simply describing natural
   attrition. It is not prescribing a program which might destroy the
   majority of students. Just as problematic, the Rambam never said the
   words attributed to him. The Rambam did say in Moreh Nevuchim that we
   teach the truth even if 1000 fools are messed up by misunderstanding
   the truth that we present them.The Rambam's words are the following:
   [translation by Prof S Pines] "To sum up: I am the man who when the
   concern pressed him and his way was straitened and he could find no
   other device by which to teach a demonstrated truth other than by
   giving satisfaction to a single virtuous man while displeasing ten
   thousand ignoramuses - I am he who prefers to address that single man
   by himself, and I do not heed the blame of those many creatures. For I
   claim to liberate that virtuous one from that into which he has sunk,
   and I shall guide him in his perplexity until he becomes perfect and
   he finds rest." The interpretation cited by Rav Dessler is actually
   from Shem Tov's commentary to the Moreh Nevuchim [page 10 of the
   standard edition] and is clearly not the intention of the Rambam.]