Rav Dessler - Produce gedolim even if most students are destroyed.

first posted Oct 6 2008

 Rav Dessler (Michtav M’Eliyahu 3:356-357): [translation copyrighted] The Frankfurt school system taught secular subjects and viewed going to university as an accepted part of education.  The price that they paid for this approach was the reduction in the number of great Torah scholars that came from their students. And even those who went on to learn in the Lithuanian and Polish yeshivas after learning secular subjects in Germany – only an extremely small number...went on to become great Torah scholars. On the other hand the advantage of this system was that only a very small number of the students ended up leaving religious observance. In spite of this minimal loss, there was a definite problem about the purity of religious faith in the Torah. Whenever there was a conflict between Torah and the sciences, they would make strange compromises. As if it was possible to have contradictory beliefs in one heart. Nevertheless almost all of them remained faithful to observing the mitzvos with dedication and self-sacrifice. And many were extremely careful to observe even the finer details of the mitzvos. In contrast the Lithuanian yeshivos focused on a single goal – to create great Torah scholars who were also G-d fearing people. To accomplish this they prohibited going to university. They realized that there was no other way to produce great Torah scholars except by concentrating all their students’ energies and desires exclusively to learning Torah. Don’t think that they didn’t realize from the beginning that this approach would ruin some who would not be able to deal with this extreme lifestyle and would consequently leave religious observance. But this is the price that they paid for the sake of producing in their schools great Torah scholars who were G‑d fearing. Obviously they tried their best to deal with those who could not remain full time yeshiva students – but not in a way which would encourage others to follow in their path of leaving yeshiva. For example, those who had to leave the yeshiva were advised to become storekeepers or other low-status jobs which were not professions. These were jobs which didn’t require training or studying and would not be attractive or interesting to the students. However those who had a strong desire to learn a profession and surely those were interested in become academics were completely abandoned and not dealt with at all. This rejection was done so that the actions of these students wouldn’t harm others by giving them any legitimacy by trying to help them in any way. I heard that they found support for such an approach by the statement found in Vayikra Rabba (2:10), One thousand students enter to study Bible and only one comes out as a posek and G-d says “that is the one I desire.” They also mentioned the words of the Rambam in Moreh Nevuchim, “It is better that 1000 fools die in order to obtain one Torah scholar.”

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It is important to note that the medrash cited does not support this program as it is simply describing the natural attrition. It is not prescribing a program which is known to 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.

Shem Tov said:

Let millions of fools die for the sake of saving the superior man. And the superior man should not be sacrificed for the sake of saving millions of fools. That is because the fools are comparable to animals for which it is a mitzva to slaughter them for the sake of intelligent man. So surely it is not appropriate to be concerned about the degradation of the great masses if there can be benefit to the superior man. Therefore it is required for the chochom to reveal the truth in a manner so as not to contradict the Divine intent - even if it leads to the debasement of many fools.

Rabbi Shwab wrote a critical letter - published anonymously - in which he points out that there was no evidence that such a program actually produced gedolim. See a discussion of this matter in Prof. Willam Low's article on page 204 in Encounter - published by the Association of Orthodox Scientists.
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Based upon a conversation I had with Rabbi Ronny Greenwald about this letter , Rav Dessler (in consultation with the Chazon Ish) was noting that after the holocaust it was critical to rebuild Torah leadership as well as appreciation for Torah scholarship. He was asserting that this was best done by a system which was elitist and was focused on greatness in Torah. The fact that such a system would inevitably result in losses was acknowledged but it was felt that there was no alternative to try to recover from the devastation of the war. It was now a time to fight for Torah and as in every war there are losses. We are not talking about a lack of concern for the masses. His point of view was simply that the entire world requires and benefits from having gedolim. The fact that there were many who would not develop to their potential as Torah scholars because of the focus on producing gedoim would be compensated by the production of gedolim. Rabbi Greenwald pointed out that this approach has succeeded but now we are no longer facing the same crises. The issue now is whether the system would not be better served by altering the single focus to one that allows a multiple tier educational system. Are the losses justifiable anymore? It is not that Rav Dessler was wrong but that the circumstances are no probably longer best served by the approach he advocated then. Rabbi Greenwald stated that the gedolim have in fact been reorienting their goals as a result of the changed circumstances.

[Rav Sternbuch told me to append a note to this letter of Rav Dessler’s letter. He said that the halacha is clear that it is not allowed to produce gedolim if it causes others to stop being observant. He said that Rav Dessler doesn’t mean that it is certain that people will go off the derech because of this approach – but only that it can happen. In addition that going off the derech here refers to a possiblity of losing the yeshiva standard of observance  - not giving up religious observance entirely.]