Hear POWERFUL words from Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l re College and Materialism

As restated by Rabbi Yair Hoffman

On July 1^st, 1975 (29 Sivan, 5735), a meeting took place in the auditorium of  the Bais Yaakov at 46th Street and 14th Avenue in Boro Park, Brooklyn.  Hundreds of Bnei Torah were in attendance. 

The main speaker? The Gadol haDor – HaGaon Moreinu HaRav Moshe Feinstein zt”l.

His topic?  College. Materialism

In that electrifying drasha, Rav Moshe zatzal urged yeshiva youth not to follow “the counsel of the wicked” and forsake the learning of Torah for college studies.  We see a Rav Moshe zatzal who opens his heart passionately on the topic – because he believed that it was so very necessary at the time.  [How much more so in our times.]

Inveighing against the materialistic sense of values that has stolen into the structure of Jewish life in America, he refuted the contention that college education is justified for the sake of ‘parnasah’ and called upon yeshiva youth to abstain from college even in face of their parents’ insistence to the contrary.

Publication Information

A tape recording of the drasha in Rav Moshe Feinstein’s own voice, in Yiddish was released at the time. (If anyone has it, please forward it to me to be made available.) What follows was adapted from the tape as printed in LIGHT Magazine, issues 166, 167, and 168.

Spiritual Power, Not Physical Force

Z’charya HaNavi says, “Not with armies and not with strength.” In our times, we do not have the ability to go out and fight with force against the evil that exists in the world. We can act, as the Navi continues, “only with My spirit”—to go out to the world with a few words.

The Responsibility of Self-Improvement

The first thing we must do is to work on ourselves. It is incumbent upon every ben Torah to make clear to himself where he stands, what he wants out of life, and what being a true ben-Torah really means. That there be true b’ney Torah, this of itself is the biggest benefit of all for k’lal-Yisroel. The entire redemption will be in the merit of young students learning Torah. The very existence of the world depends on them.

This is a basic principle. Their merit prevents war, famine, and other punishments. This is all because of the few true b’neiTorah. And then, when we become true b’nei Torah, we, as a matter of course, have a positive influence on others.

The Ideal Time and Place

But we must know how to become Bnei Torah. In truth, from the time of the churban until today, this country in which we live here and now is the easiest place and  the easiest time in which to delve into avodas HaShem.

There were times when it was very hard to reach lofty levels in Torah and yet at those very times many Torah greats were produced.

In this country, however, with a benevolent government, where there is no lack of anything, and where it is possible to labor in Torah and avoda in peace, there still do not rise up true Bnei Torah as in the places where it was possible to reach greatness only through hardship.

Why is this so?

The Lesson of the Spies

We know the story of the m’raglim. They weren’t schoolchildren. “They were all men,” the Torah says.  Rashi explains that they were important and righteous men.

The Or HaChayim adds that HaKodosh boruch hu, appointed the spy from each tribe and they did not go on their own. Yet we find a very strange thing—they turned into deniers of HaShem! This is so shocking that even for Yehoshua Bin Nun, the servant of Moshe—who was the greatest of them all, for he never left the tent of Torah, and HaShem said of him that he would be Moshe’s successor to spread Torah in Israel—even for him Moshe was apprehensive that he might falter!

Moshe had to bless him, “May HaShem save you from the counsel of the spies.” This is extraordinary. Similarly, Kalaiv ran to Chevron to prostrate himself upon the graves of the Avos and pray that HaShem should save him from the spies’ plot.

What was this “counsel of the spies”?

Understanding the Counsel of the Wicked

The pasuk in T’hilim says, “Fortunate is the person who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” This means with the counsel of the wicked. Because it is impossible to turn a righteous person into a wicked person overnight.

It takes many hard years for the yeitzer harah to turn a tzadik into a rasha.  That is – unless he comes with “counsel” and methods. Then, even great people and Bnei Torah are entrapped into his net and altered. This is what happened to the spies. The yeitzer HaRah caught them with his counsel for the sake of a mitzva, as we find in Chazal.

How Good Intentions Can Lead Astray

But the spies forgot one thing, that with all their mitzva-intentions they were still not allowed to go against Hashem’s will, not even a single iota. If one follows his own thoughts and interpretations, even if his intention is for Heaven’s sake, he is unconsciously turning against Hashem’s will.

The same is true in our times: different groups who see themselves as religious have created for themselves new interpretations of Torah in order to attract members.  They claim their intention is for Heaven’s sake.

But according to their new interpretations, they will have to give up part of the Torah; and even if they do not give up anything, their basic ideas are new and different from those of the Torah. They cannot succeed. One can only succeed by following the Torah’s counsel.

The Natural State of Jewish Righteousness

Dovid HaMelech said, “Fortunate is the person who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked,” because a person does not become wicked overnight. To turn a righteous person into a wicked person takes time, for every Jew is presumed to be kosher and righteous. He or she is born with the holiness of Yisroel and possessing the holiness of our forefathers, which is not easily uprooted.

We also find in Halacha that even someone who is known to commit certain aveiros is still considered to be a kosher Jew regarding more severe aveiros. Chazal testify that it is not easy to turn the heart of a Jew.

All this is true, however, when there is no plan. But if someone comes with evil counsel then the matter takes on a completely different perspective. Because the counsel of the wicked is something that can take hold even in a kosher Jew’s thinking.

This is especially so when the plan has a foundation in the words of Chazal, where the words are interpreted to suit the plan and not in the manner transmitted from one generation to the next.

The Evolution of Apikorsus

Elazar ben Po’ira advised King Yanai to kill the Jewish Sages. Yanai asked him, “What will happen to Torah?” He replied, “Torah has been put in a corner.” In other words, whoever wants to can learn the Torah. “Immediately,” the Gemora tells us, “a spirit of apikorsus entered his mind. He should have said, ‘That is true for Torah shebich’sav, but what will happen to Torah sheb’al-peh?'” But he did not ask this and was labeled an apikoros for denying Torah sheb’al-peh.

Modern Forms of Denial

In our days, however, when the Torah sheb’al-peh has been fixed in the Shas Bavli and Y’rushalmi, when rishonim and m’forshim and the Shulchon Oruch have all been printed, the Oral Tradition can also be “put in a corner.” It is quite possible today to be an apikores even if one believes in Torah sheb’al-peh.

How so?

Torah sheb’al-peh, the explanation of Torah shebich’sav, was put into writing because of the posuk “A time to act for HaShem.” This written oral tradition is thus only an extension of Torah shebich’sav; this written Torah sheb’al-peh needs to be studied through the m’sora from Chazal in the same way that the Torah shebich’sav, given at Sinai, was studied via the m’sora from Moshe.

The kabala that the sages of the different generations transmitted regarding how to learn the Mishna, the G’mora, and the words of Chazal, is binding upon us. When one learns G’mora according to the way he feels, and not in the way Chazal received and transmitted, he is exactly like the apikores who learns the Torah shebich’sav without the accepted explanation of Chazal from Sinai.

The Temptation of American Prosperity

Here in America, the rich America, through the kindness of HaShem, it is so easy to earn a livelihood. Yet there are people who are not satisfied with earning a little.  They seek all the means possible for earning more.

From their youth they are indoctrinated by their parents that the only way to earn a livelihood is by throwing away Torah learning and going to college to study subjects that are prohibited to learn. Even if they choose courses which are permissible to learn—what will become of Torah? If the Jewish intelligentsia dedicates itself to secular knowledge, who will remain to labor in Torah?

The Misguided Use of Jewish Sources

This counsel is the counsel of the wicked about which was said, “Fortunate is the person who did not walk in the counsel of the wicked.” This is the kind of counsel that is often accepted even by kosher Jews. For they find a source in Chazal, “A father must teach his son a profession.”

They say that a college degree is a means to a livelihood, and because of this they have their sons fattened on k’fira. Even when it is not k’fira but permissible studies, their whole brainpower is taken away from Torah. Isn’t it enough that during their entire childhood their time is wasted with secular studies?

In America, they have the illusion that they are necessary. When they reach the age of 15 or 16 the time has come for them at least then to dedicate their whole selves to learning Torah and to grabbing girsa d’yankusa—the “learning of youth.” Yet they still cannot detach themselves from secular studies.

This counsel of the wicked tells them that it is not enough to learn just a little secular studies but that they have to learn more and more, until they completely forget about learning Torah.

The Need for Steadfast Conviction

This is why today we do not produce people great in Torah, whereas in those countries where we suffered great poverty and pain, there grew many g’dolei Torah. Every individual must therefore be very, very careful not to be misled by this “counsel of the wicked,” chas v’sholom.

This must be explained to parents; and if the parents are stubborn, the son must be equally stubborn against it. In this type of situation one is not obligated to listen to his parents, but must stand firm. We must know that all the claims about college being necessary for livelihood are illusions. There is no excuse for leaving the yeshiva, chalila.

If in his days Rabi N’HaRah’i said, “I ignore every profession in the world and teach my son only Torah,” surely we can say it today in this country where no miracles are needed and there is enough parnosa in the normal manner. One can earn his livelihood in a simple manner even if he does not follow their counsel and does not go in their way and does not go to college.

The Delusion of Materialism

Many people think a person must gratify all the desires of this world; except that kosher Jews must seek kosher ways to gratify their desires. This idea itself is completely treif.

The fact that a person should think that he must gratify all his desires even in a kosher way, that in itself is the most treifa notion. No ben-Torah can develop under such circumstances; and not only a ben-Torah, but not even a kosher Jew can develop in this way.

The Virtue of Contentment

A Jew has to possess the trait of “being content with his lot”—not to grab at all the pleasures of this world. Though we cannot demand of those who grew up here in America that they be content with the very same lot that we were content with in those poor countries of yesteryear, however we do require of them that “contentment with one’s lot” which obviates grabbing all the pleasures of this world, even in a permissible way. They must realize that this is forbidden. For thus they waste their energy, and turn themselves into a personification of desire. Besides, where will they get all the money self-gratification requires?

The Path of Modesty and Sufficiency

Every ben-Torah—and not only every ben Torah but also every Jew—is obligated to know that he has no need to grab the whole world. On the other hand, whatever Hashem gives he has no obligation to throw away. Even then, he has to pray for the power to withstand the temptations that wealth brings to him.

It is forbidden for one to seek to gain all the desires of the world like the biggest millionaire; this is not the way of Yiddishkeit. A person should want only the bare necessities, if not the bare necessities of Rabi Shim’on bar Yocho’i and those like him, at most the bare necessities which one needs to live modestly here in America. He would then be able to learn in peace.

If every person realized that he did not need more than bare necessities, then we would not be seeking ways and means—from childhood onward—to obtain all the money needed to buy fancy cars and beautiful houses. We would not need so many devices and ways to find our parnasa. Such a way of life would eliminate desire and render the “counsel of the wicked” entirely ineffective.

Divine Providence and Life’s Necessities

Hashem, as we see, gives food to every human being/ He does good for all, giving to each person according to his place and period, so that he should not feel himself distressed in relation to the rest of the people of that time and place. This is surely true for those who have taken upon themselves the yoke of Torah.

About them the Tana says that Heaven removes from them the yoke of sustaining a family. But all this applies only when we do not ask for more than we really need, when we want to live a life of Yiddishkeit without extras—with only the bare necessities of life, even if they are the basic necessities of a comfortable life.

The Errors of Previous Generations

Years ago, American Jewry strayed far from the righteous path, because fathers taught their children that it is hard to be a Jew, and that if they keep Shabbos they will lose their parnasa. Even though they themselves were kosher Jews and withstood many temptations, yet by harping to their children about the difficulty of keeping the Torah, they created a great negative temptation in the eyes of their children, who were unable to withstand it. Those fathers misled a whole generation from Judaism. That was the counsel of the yeitzer HaRah and it was successful.

The Joy of Torah Observance

How much better it is for us to keep the Torah without temptations. If the fathers of the last generation had taught their children that Shabbos is great, that the keeping of Shabbos is the greatest pleasure and happiness—aside from our belief that Shabbos brings in its merit parnosa and all good and that it is worth all the wealth in the world, more than a mansion and more than a Cadillac [Tesla, bazman hazeh]—then Shabbos [violation] would have posed for their children no temptation at all.

Is there any need to resist temptation when someone pays to buy a mansion? He pays with a desire-filled heart, painlessly. That way there would have been no temptation attached to keeping Shabbos even when it cost money.

If those fathers would have taught this to their children, Shabbos would have been their greatest joy, the keeping of Torah would have been a pleasure unhampered by temptation. If a person would train himself to believe that Hashem supports and sustains, there would be no temptation to sin in monetary matters.

Because when G-d gives with His outstretched hand, He gives people their parnosa in a way that precludes cheating, taking interest, and stealing, in a way that allows people to keep all the halachos in Choshen Mishpot.

Belief as the Foundation of Moral Behavior

If people had this belief, they would not have to fight any temptations. But when a person lacks this belief, or if he fails to better his character traits, and is full of vanity and stubborn about everything, and he chases after the desires of the world, then he succumbs to every temptation.

The only difference between him and a rasha is that he wants to be careful to fulfill all his desires in a kosher manner. If he would know that chasing after one’s desires or after non-obligatory things is in itself the most treifa occupation in the world, then he wouldn’t want them at all; and that would remove the temptation from them.

The Obligation to Value Torah Above All

Every Jew has an obligation to know—at least every ben-Torah must know, for the multitude of the people will not understand my words—that he must become a genuine ben-Torah. Even though it is impossible to demand that everyone fulfill the statement of Chazal, “Bread in salt will you eat, and water in measure will you drink,” nevertheless each individual must feel that the Torah is so sweet and so precious that it is worth living at the standard of “Bread in salt will you eat” in order to develop a desirable amount of Torah-knowledge.

Plainly, we may not ask for more than the bare necessities, so that we can hope to grow great in Torah. Each person has to recognize his own potential importance if he will grow in knowledge to be a kosher Jew and to become a great person in Torah. “Whoever does a single mitzva tips the scales of the world to the side of merit,” for the whole world depends upon Torah.

If everyone would understand this, this understanding, of itself, would be of the greatest benefit for each Jew individually and for the Jewish people as a whole.

The Individual Responsibility to Become a Torah Scholar

Today more than in years past, the responsibility lies upon each individual to become a gadol baTorah. Even if all become g’dolim baTorah we will still have too few—until we fulfill the wish expressed in the posuk, “If only all of G-d’s nation would be prophets!” In this generation there are so few g’dolim baTorah that one can count them on his fingers. What will become of the next generation?

Of course we are looking forward to the arrival of Moshi’ach who will come soon and then “the world will be filled with knowledge…” But until he comes, we must bear the responsibility for the existence of our Torah and for the continued existence of the whole Jewish people.

Rabbi Hoffman can be reached at [email protected]