Rabbanan. Okay, again, continuing here in the letter to, good morning Rabbosai. I hope everyone's well. Beginning in the paragraph on the bottom of page Resh Chaf Tes, the footnote continuing in his letter to the alumni. So Rav Hutner in a really sharp, very pointed manner makes an important point. He writes that אזיינען דארט מענטשן וואס האבן געלערנט אין ישיבה און זיינען שפעטער געווארן רבנן.
The alumni of the yeshiva who later after their tkufa of learning in the yeshiva became rabbanim. האבן זיי גערעדט וועגן עצות פאר מתחילים אין רבנות when they spoke at the convention, so they gave advice for people who, younger people who would be beginning in rabbanus. And then Rav Hutner writes very, very sharply. He says: פונקט אזוי איז פאראן מענטשן וואס האבן געלערנט אין ישיבה און זיינען שפעטער געווארן סוחרים.
But by the same token, there are people who learned in the yeshiva and they subsequently became businessmen. האבן זיי געדארפט רעדן עצות אויף די קאנווענשאן וועגן עצות פאר מתחילים אין מסחר.
He says it would be equally appropriate and it should have been the case that if you're going to give advice for people who after the yeshiva are starting out in rabbanus, you should also give advice and give eitzos for people who are starting out in the business world. So again, that's obviously a very, almost jarring equivalence and we'll see in a minute what he has in mind. In the on the next page in page Resh Lamed, he writes that there was a certain complaint or grievance aired that the talmidim who left the yeshiva and proceeded to enter rabbanus were not prepared for certain of the challenges of their rabbinical position. So in response to that complaint, Rav Hutner says as follows. Again, this is the paragraph which begins in Resh Lamed, es ducht zich, it's the fourth line. זאל טאקע דא גלייך געזאגט ווערן אז די ישיבה האט נאר איין.
There's only one mission of the Yeshiva, one and only one mission of the Yeshiva, and דאָס איז אריין צו קלאַפּן אין קאָפּ און אין האַרצן וואָס מער תורה מיט יראת שמים,
to bring into literally the head and the heart as much Torah and as much yiras shomayim as is possible. And then again this same comparison he said, punkt azoy, I skipped a sentence, עס איז נישט שייך אז דער סוחר זאָל וואונדערן וואָס ווען ער איז ארויס פון די ישיבה האָט ער גאָרנישט געוואוסט וועגן ביזנעס, אזוי דארף זיך דער רב נישט וואונדערן וואָס ער האָט גאָרנישט געוואוסט פון די רבנישע ביזנעס.
The same way a businessman doesn't expect and can't expect his time in Yeshiva to have prepared him for the business world, so it's equally true that a Yeshiva alumnus who goes into rabbanus shouldn't be expecting his time in Yeshiva to have prepared him for rabbanus. So what is he trying to convey here? The point needs to be separated in our understanding and in our minds from the form it takes here. The point is that Rav Hutner is saying that Torah is not supposed to be commercialized. Torah is not a professional track. A Jew learns Torah because it's Toras Hashem. There's no Torah doesn't need to be Talmud Torah and therefore the mission of the Yeshiva is not validated in terms of anything outside of Torah or beyond Torah. And that's what he means that even, again this is the extreme way in which he's saying it, even as a hachana to rabbanus, no, Torah is a person learns and Torah is central to our lives because it's Toras Hashem. One doesn't need and one shouldn't be looking beyond that. You go to law school to be a lawyer, you don't go to law school to study law, you go to law school to become a lawyer. You go to medical school to become a doctor, you go to business school to enter the business world. You learn Torah to learn Torah and that's the point that Rav Hutner is trying to convey. I think they say besheim Reb Aaron Kotler that when he established the Yeshiva in Lakewood he says he has no doubt that the Yeshiva will produce rabbanim and he has no doubt the Yeshiva will produce dayanim. He says but that's not why he's establishing the Yeshiva. He's establishing the Yeshiva for people to learn Torah lishmah. He proceeds to comment in if you look in the bottom of page Reish Lamed in the paragraph that begins es is oich, so he writes, it's the third line from the end of the paragraph, מען ווייסט דאָך גאנץ גוט אז יידן האָבן שוין ישיבות פאַר א לאַנגע צייט און עס איז קיין מאָל נישט געווען אז א ישיבה זאָל ארויסגעבן סמיכה.
He has a fascinating historical comment. He says you know until recently traditionally a person got a smicha, he went to, smichas were all personal, they weren't institutional until in recent times. A person didn't get smicha from Volozhin, he didn't get smicha from Slabodka, he went to Reb Yitzchak Elchanan and Reb Yitzchak Elchanan would farher him and he'd get a smicha. He went to Reb Chaim Ozer and Reb Chaim Ozer... If he found him qualified would give him a semichah. And Rav Hutner is saying the reason for that division is again to clearly, clearly indicate that as obviously as holy and vital and crucial and central and indispensable as the position of rabbanut is, but a yeshiva, that a yeshiva doesn't need that for its justification. The justification for the yeshiva is to learn Torah. It's not like the justification of a law school, lehavdil, is to become a lawyer. So by analogy, the justification of a yeshiva is to produce rabbanim. No, the justification of the yeshiva is again to learn Torah, to cultivate, to deepen one's yirat shamayim. Is this historical comment, is that a question on how our yeshiva functions? No, it isn't and that's what, you know, all along we've been alluding to, that one needs to separate the tochen hadvarim from the tzurat hadvarim which is, I think Rav Schechter tells a story that once the Rav had some kind of, I don't know, some kind of precursor to the Q&As that happen nowadays. I don't imagine it was a full-blown or anything, but at any point there was some kind of forum in which talmidim could ask questions. And one of the talmidim said, how is it possible that the Beis HaLevi amongst others said that the yeshiva in Volozhin should be closed down and not give in to the demands of the Czar's government in terms of introducing secular studies? And we have a yeshiva that's affiliated with and that works alongside a college? So what Rav Schechter quotes is that the Rav apparently wasn't too impressed with the question and just answered, times are different. So the yesod is an important one, and that's why a person always has to know how to distinguish tochen from tzura. A person has to know how to distinguish what the core is from the tzura, from the form of presentation and the form of implementation. Because the core, the essence, doesn't change in terms of chinuch, but sometimes the most effective way to implement will change. Chinuch today on all levels and all circles is not implemented the way it used to be. One hundred and fifty years ago, there was no such thing as women's education of any sort. And the point is that in chinuch, part of the חנוך לנער על פי דרכו is the generation in which the na'ar is living, is the times in which he's living, the reality in which he's living. So it has to be that the core, the essence, the tochen is constant and unchanging, eternal masorah, but the tzurat hadvarim in terms of what the most effective way to deliver that unchanging eternal chinuch, that doesn't change. So Rav Hutner's point that Torah isn't subservient to anything else. Even the din in Avot of ללמוד על מנת ללמד, ללמוד על מנת לעשות, meaning that's internal to Torah. It's not Torah being subservient to something else. And that's what the tochen is here. That's what the eternal tochen is, is that Torah isn't a means to, law school is a means to being a lawyer, business school is a means to... Entering the job market in the business world. Torah is not a means in that sense. Torah is for Torah. A Yeshiva is for Torah. That's what the eternal tochan is here. In terms of the tzuras hadvarim, so for the tzuras hadvarim, when chachmei Yisrael see a need for it, the tzuras hadvarim in this type of chinuch context will change. Okay, maybe we'll talk a little bit more about this yet tomorrow בלי נדר אם ירצה השם, so we'll break now and hopefully resume בלי נדר אם ירצה השם as usual at 1:30. So have a productive morning, rabosai. Be well, be safe. Kol tuv.