I want to share the following thoughts on the influence of Rav Hirsch Zt’l on our community and its adherents.
It has always been my contention that a philosophy can be studied, but it can also be understood by the way it is lived.
Rav Hirsch may have written about Torah im Derch Eretz in several places, but the true meaning should be learned from the community he developed and the way it evolved.
- Our Rabbonim
Both Rav Schwab and Rav Breuer, who were products of Yeshivahs in other countries (Hungary and Poland) had a healthy distrust for people who chose the Torah path – in a way that was not deliberate.
Elsewhere, we wrote about a man in the community who was a close Talmid of Rav Breuer, but his son went to the Philadelphia Yeshivah in the 1960s. Rav Breuer asked him what he plans to do. He answered that he wants to teach Torah. The Rav looked at him and said, “If you are not able to teach, I pity you and the class!” (The man has been in chinuch for over forty years by now.)
Rav Schwab would also advise young bochurim who were considering becoming rebbeim to try their hand at summer camp and see if they have the talent before choosing this path.
They did not encourage people to “blindly” choose “Avodas Hakoodesh” for idealistic reasons. I believe the reason is that Torah im Derech Eretz commands people to weigh the world and all it has to offer, and the best way to navigate circumstances without risking failure and causing a Chilul Hashem.
Rav Schwab once received a phone call from a Yeshivah bochur who, due to a wedding the night before, overslept for minyan one morning. He was asking the Rav what to daven. Before answering him, the Rav told him that since his parents are supporting him in Yeshivah, he has no right to oversleep, and he is akin to a Ganev!
This is sharp mussar and perhaps a little too much to bear! Yet, it comes from an understanding that less is sometimes more, and, ergo, more is not always more.
Because TIDE teaches that Avodas Hashem applies everywhere, one who enters the Beis HaMedrash for his Avodas Hashem is expected to be an exemplar of Avodah. He is meant to be fully engaged.
For this reason, when anyone with Semicha is called up to the Torah in our Kehillah, they are given the title “Moreinu”, our teacher. Now, it is well known that not every Semicha ordainee will pursue the rabbinate (most won’t), but the tenets of TIDE command that one who has received Semicha must be exemplary and worthy of a title.
Further, Rav Schwab expected those who received Semicha to accept upon themselves the stringency of Rambam’s ruling to wait six hours between meat and milk. One who has chosen the Torah path must live by a higher standard.
Rav Schwab zt’l certainly had a great love for those who devoted themselves to Torah, and for this reason, after choosing a cover for his sefer “Mayan Beis Hashoeivah” that raised the cost of the book, he asked Artscroll to make a more affordable version with a simpler cover for the Lomdei Torah.
Our Laity:
The laity in the community has the utmost respect for the decisions of the rabbinate.
I want to relay something I heard at the Levaya of a member of the shul recently:
He was at the end of a long sickness, and he was presented with the choice to have a very painful procedure done that could prolong his life, but not necessarily. He adamantly refused. He was already at the throes of death, r’l. His family asked Rav Mantel Shlita, who recommended that he go through with the procedure. He immediately complied with the suggestion and did not look back.
Many years ago, a man in the community married at an advanced age. He told me the following: As a bachelor, he was very set in his ways, and marriage was too much for him. He wanted to leave the marriage immediately…only he would not be able to face Rav Breuer zt’l.
So he stayed married for decades.
The irony of the above is that by requiring the laity to be missionized with the task of TIDE, you have raised the person who is a Talmid Chochom to an even higher level in the eyes of the Tzibur.
The standard is very high, and perhaps this is why the KAJ Rabbonim were part of the Agudas Yisroel Moetzes Gedolei Torah.
In the broader “Yeshivah communities”, the Rav may be more of a combination of a Posek and a Mashgiach of the Lithuanian Yeshivos. The role is quantitatively and, I believe, qualitatively different.
Although this was not covered in Elu V’Elu, some standards may have been watered down by the universalization of Torah-only, and, ironically, it may have changed the
role of a rabbi as well.
This is important to consider as the community searches for a Rav in a sea of candidates who may never have had a “rav” themselves in the classic sense of the word.
