The Year in Israel

[I changed the picture because the previous one contained inividuals who did not display the highest standards of modesty in dress!]
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As usual, and especially this time of year, I've been considering my having begun University-level studies much later than most (obviously due to my having been in institutions of Jewish learning for so long). I usually consider my situation, unfortunately, in contrast with those many years my junior who are commencing or have commenced their studies, sometimes in the very same field I am pursuing (not to mention the 150 hour rule!). I consider my situation, friends, at times in contrast to people who not only did not attend institutions of higher Judaic education for many years such as myself, but with those who haven't attended at all; with those that took their lives and careers more seriously than myself from an early age.

But then again friends, is it correct to me to envy those individuals? I've considered this and have concluded that there is no reason for me to respect these people so. For the young man who or young woman who forfeit attending yeshiva or seminary for at least a year in our current framework perhaps takes their careers seriously, but it is obvious that they do not take their religion very seriously.

"Attending these institutions is of doubtful necessity" one may say, "and are not necessarily conductive to greater piety" one may add. I have considered this matter as well, many years ago, and in my historic/tradition-oriented approach to judging the propriety or lack thereof of practices in vogue in the Jewish community, I have concluded that the Jews seem to have always, if not surpassed the level of schooling of their neighbors with religious schooling, at least reached the same level. For example for most of recent history, primary school was the height of education for most, therefore Jewish schools ended at the age of thirteen as well. When high schools started to pop up, the Jews in Europe started to have religious schooling till the same age. And the same goes for college. Yet the question became "what ratio should there be of general studies to religious studies?". This question, mind you, applies to the University just as much as it does to the grade school.

The answers were varied. To make a long story short; it has been decided by some that one is to at least engage in a significant amount (year) of all-religious studies at the college level, just as our fore bearers spent their grade school years in religious studies (although the majority of our ancestors did not have the opportunity to study in yeshivas. In those times it was reserved to only the most scholarly).

This, therefore, is a once in many generation opportunity for us; for us, the common man, to be able to enter into the Beit Midrash and study the Torah in the very same way only the greatest scholars of the past have. (I came to think of this more in 2006, during my time at "Bircas Hatorah", which is situated next door to the Ohr Hachaim synagogue, which is the very place where "the Ohr Hachaim" held his classes in Jerusalem, and where studied in their youth such memorable personalities such as "the Chida". Yet in the eighteenth century they were only a handful of Jews who were able to study and not work (the Chida himself was actually later forced by the community to collect alms for them around the world). Yet today many of us find ourselves in such privileged spots, in an experiment to see what religious life was like for those great men).

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Yet many Jews pass up this opportunity, as they pass up many other opportunities open to only this generation. So yes, these individuals may be serious about their careers, but they are not serious about their religion, and their place in the destiny of their people.

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