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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2
face=Arial>From: Micha Berger <micha@aishdas.org><BR><BR>>>I really
can't think of a single communal issue on which the gedolim<BR>did nearly as
well in dispensing advice as the expects in the specific<BR>field in
question.<<<BR><BR><BR>-- <BR>Micha
Berger
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<DIV>Just off the top of my head, when R' Aharon Kotler advised bachurim to sit
and learn in Lakewood rather than go to college, no one thought that was a
viable plan. No one thought Lakewood was a viable yeshiva.</DIV>
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<DIV>Today Lakewood and its offshoots and its community kollelim and its
"graduates" who work in all kinds of fields -- in chinuch, rabbanus, in business
and accounting, etc, etc -- far outrank YU's graduates in numbers and
influence. No one, 50 years ago, would ever have foreseen that
Lakewood would be more successful than YU. No one would have foreseen the
growth of the huge community that has sprung up around the Lakewood yeshiva --
compare that with what has happened to Washington Hts.</DIV>
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<DIV>I say that with admiration and respect for RAK and for Lakewood, even
though its hashkafa is not mine, and even though I would not have considered a
Lakewooder as a husband, nor would I want a Lakewooder for a son-in-law.</DIV>
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<DIV>But you have to acknowledge the amazing vision that RAK had.</DIV>
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<DIV><B><BR><FONT color=#0000ff>--Toby Katz</FONT><FONT lang=0 color=#ffffff
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