RAYK on Education (Part 1)

Here is a beautiful quote from RAYK that I found in the volume "Modern Scholarship in the Study of Torah" by Rabbi Shalom Carmy.

"The Unblemished saints do not complain about evil, but increase righteousness; do not complain about hereresy but increase faith; do not complain about ignorance, but increase wisdom"

RAYK like Hillel his forbearer(1), held that when dealing with individuals who are not living up to the potential or who need guidance that one must approach them with loving kidness and outstretched arms. In todays generation this has been the only succesful approach in trying to reach out to others.

A relevant passage from RAYK's writings comes from a letter where RAYK comforts a father who is distraugh over the apostasy of this son:

" Yes, my dear friend, I understand well the sadness of your heart. But if you should concur with the majority of scholars that it is seemly at this time to reject utterly those children who have swerved from the paths of Torah and faith because of the tumultuous current of the age, I must explicitly and emphatically declare that this not method which G-d desires. Just as the (Baalei) Tosafot in Tractate Sanhedrin (26b) mantain that it logical not to invalidate one suspected of sexual immorality from giving testimony because he is considered an onus - since his instincts overwhelhed him = and the (Baalei) Tosafot in Tractate Gittin (41b) mantain that since a maid servant enticed him to immorality he is considered as having acted against his will, in a similiar fashion (is to be judged) the "evil maid servant" of the current of the age ... who entices many of our youngsters with all of her wiles to commit adultery with her. They act completely against their will and far be it from us to judge a transgression which one is forced to commit (onus) in the same manner as we judge a premeditated, willful transgression. " (2)

To be continued...

(1) Once there was a gentile who came before Shammai, and said to him: "Convert me on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot. Shammai pushed him aside with the measuring stick he was holding. The same fellow came before Hillel, and Hillel converted him, saying: That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow, this is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary, go and learn it." (Shabbat 31 a) (source -- http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Quote/hillel.html)

(2) RAYK, Igrot Ha Rayh, Vol I, Responsum 138 -- Taken from an interesting Article entitled "Orthodoxy and her alleged Heretics" by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin (Tradition Vol 15, No 4 Spring 1976)