Reproduced from the September 6, 2006 edition of the KEHILATH JESHURUN BULLETIN

“THE YESHIVA SHEL MA'ALA AND THE IVY LEAGUE” BY RABBI MEIR SOLOVEICHIK

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, Associate Rabbi of the Congregation, delivered the following sermon on Parshat Vayera, January 28th: November 21, 1925 ought to have been a the arrival of Eastern European Jews in tion was not instituted in Britain until 1870.” wonderful weekend for Harvard alumnus W. America. “In those days,” writes David The Jewish focus on education brings to F. Williams, who had traveled from his home Brooks in an article on the book, “people who mind that old joke about the anti-Semite who in Greenwich Connecticut to watch his alma applied to schools like Harvard were admitted walked into a Jewish fish store in a shtetle and mater play in the 44th Harvard-Yale football because people who weren't from the right asked the proprietor “Tell me, what makes you game. Yale was favored to win, but Harvard's social class didn't bother applying. But Jews, Jews so clever? Why are you so smart?” defensive line kept the score to 0-0, or what for reasons that are not clear, never got the “Well,” responded the store owner, “it's the Harvard Crimson called “a scoreless victo- message. They applied to Harvard, Yale and because we eat a lot of herring.” The anti- ry.” But when he arrived at the campus, he Princeton even though they weren't really Semite immediately bought an enormous found with dismay that his beloved school had wanted. And because many were so academ- amount of herring and spent the night ingest- changed since he had attended Harvard in ically qualified, they increasingly got in.” It ing the smelly fish. The next morning, cross- 1900. Where, he wondered, had all these Jews was in response to this increased Jewish atten- eyed and green, he stumbled into the fish store come from? He headed home in disgust, and dance that a form of quotas were subsequent- and said to the owner, “This is ridiculous. wrote a letter of complaint to Harvard's presi- ly instituted, drastically limiting Jewish Eating herring doesn't make you any smarter.” dent: “Being uncertain what stadium entrance enrollment. “See,” said the Jew, “it's working already!” to use,” he recounted in this correspondence, Now, the Jews who applied to the Ivies To the extent that there is a connection “I stopped a boy, evidently a student, to ask were under no illusions that the social stigma between Judaism and intellectual achieve- directions - he was a Jew. I was ushered to my surrounding Jewish students would dissipate ment, some have suggested that the link can seat at the game by a Jew, and another of the over the course of their four years; in the three be found first and foremost in the Jewish same “breed” followed me to my seat and decades between 1900 and 1930, 1,200 Jews focus on education. Many of you have read required me to sign my ticket.” attended Yale, but not a single one of them recently of Robert Aumann, the religious Jew “Naturally,” he wrote elsewhere in his let- was admitted into a senior society. But what and the new Nobel laureate in economics, and ter, “after 25 years, one expects to find many drove Jews to apply, to attend, in ever increas- someone whose success can make all Jews changes, but to find that one's University had ing numbers, was an eagerness to experience proud. Aumann brought his children and 19 become so Hebrewized was a fearful shock. the highest degree of academia. That they grandchildren with him to the ceremony; he There were Jews to the right of me, Jews to would not avail themselves of the best educa- arrived late at the Nobel dinner, because it was the left of me, in fact they were obviously tional opportunities America had to offer was scheduled on Saturday; of course, the fact that everywhere that instead of leaving the Yard unthinkable. shkiah was at 2:30 PM in Sweden helped with pleasant memories of the past I left with And there is no question that a love of things a bit. And it goes without saying, he a feeling of utter disgust of the present and education, and a thirst for knowledge, has didn't partake in the salmon mousse with cray- grave doubts about the future of my Alma been an essential aspect of Jewish tradition for fish sauce served at the Nobel banquet, and Mater.” thousands of years. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks probably had to order one of those triple- Leaving aside his abrasive anti-Semitism, once took note of an extraordinary passage in wrapped airline meals. And he even had his Williams was on to something; Harvard of the the book of Shoftim. The Jewish judge Gidon required tuxedo and tails flown from Sweden 1920’s did have a significantly higher Jewish is described as seeking to punish the elders of to Israel to be tested for Shatnez; it tested pos- population than any time earlier; in fact the Jewish city of Sukkot: “Vayilkod naar itive, by the way. In an interview with The Jewish undergraduate enrollment was fully 28 meianshei sukkot,” we are told, Gidon cap- New York Sun, Aumann was asked whether percent of the student body. Williams’ letter tured one of the youths of sukkot, and ordered there was any connection between the Jewish and the history of Jewish enrollment in the him to write down the names of the people love of learning and the fact that while Jews Ivies, is discussed in a recent book that I have Gidon sought. The youth complied: “vayich- make up a mere 0.25 percent of the world's begun reading by historian Jerome Karabel, tov eilav et sarei sukkot ve-et zekeineha.” The population and a mere 3 percent of the United entitled The Chosen: The Hidden History of story doesn't seem all that interesting, writes States, they account for 27 percent of all Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale Rabbi Sacks, until we realize the following: American Nobel Prize winners. Aumann and Princeton, to which I was first referred by In ancient Israel, it was logical for someone to answered that there may be something to this: an excellent review by Jonathan Kay in assume that a random youth seized on the road “One of the reasons may be that there is an Commentary. Karabel depicts an early twen- could read and write. One implication is that ingrained love of learning in Jews. It's not tieth-century Ivy League in which intellectual this was not a society in which only the ingrained in genetics, its ingrained in tradi- achievement was less celebrated than were priests, or the nobles, were literate, but one tion,” he said. “Study for its own sake has extracurricular activities and social class. In where education was compulsory; veshinan- become a prime value, a religious command- fact, in 1904 the Yale yearbook boasted that tam levanecha. H.G. Wells wrote that “the ment, like eating kosher, like keeping the their university had “more gentlemen and Jewish religion, because it was a literature- Sabbath.” fewer scholars than any other class in the sustained religion, led to the first efforts to And yet, if Jews always believed in the memory of man.” Because it was assumed provide elementary education for all the chil- importance of the intellect, if Jewish child that only the “right people” would apply, dren in the community.” In contrast, writes after Jewish child was taught that a mind was describes Karabel, no quotas were needed. Rabbi Sacks, “universal literacy is a relatively a terrible thing to waste, it was also assumed And this system worked, Karabel writes, until recent idea in the West. Compulsory educa- that Jewish minds were meant to be utilized 1 first and foremost for intellectual achievement all the great Torah scholars through the millen- assure the ability of all Jews to progress in in Torah study. Rashi on our parsha quotes nia - it is not just because they were brilliant Torah learning whatever other endeavors they one of the strangest statements in the people who happened to be Jewish, but pursue: “Should any one of our nation be midrashic corpus. Noting that at times par- because they devoted their awesome intellects asked about our laws,” writes Josephus proud- shat va'eira places Aharon's name before his to the study of God's Torah, and because, ly in the 1st century C.E., “he will repeat them younger brother Moshe, and at times the through their insights, they enhanced our own as readily as his own name. The result of our reverse, the Sages comment that melamed she- intellectual appreciation of the Almighty. thorough education in our laws from the very shneihem shekulim, this teaches us that Moshe My father once went to a classical music dawn of intelligence is that they are, as it were, and Aharon were equals: intellectually, ethi- concert with my mother. Following the per- engraved on our souls.” cally and spiritually. What is this, a bit of rab- formance, the crowd rose to its feet and yelled In the 1960’s, Karabel concludes, America binic blasphemy? Is it not one of the deeply “Encore! Encore!!,” asking for one more found itself in a space race, and all of a sudden held doctrines of our faith that Moshe was of piece of music before they returned home. its intellectual and national prestige were an unsurpassed intellectual achievement in Following the performance, my father com- intertwined. Quotas were disbanded, universi- Torah and spiritual relationship with the mented to my mom that it’s funny how you ties became more meritocratic. Now, Jews in Divine? Did we not proudly proclaim last never see that happen after a shiur. When a America are offered everything our grandpar- night that lo kam beYisrael keMoshe od navi Rosh Yeshiva teaches a blatt gemara for 2 ents sought and more; educational opportuni- umabit et temunato? Did not God later stern- hours, after the Rambam had been explained ty, and also social acceptance. Today, the ly inform Aharon and Miriam that lo kein avid and the class comes to a close, the students challenge facing religious Jews who are also Moshe, my servant Moses is utterly unlike rarely rise from their seats shouting Encore! engaged with the modern world is not to over- you, that peh el peh adaber bo, that he alone is Encore! Ten more minutes of Torah! One come admission hurdles but in some way able to speak to God face to face? Is not the more chidush! But the truth is that those who almost the reverse: to refrain from making truth of our Torah at least partially premised have been so fortunate as to sit spellbound in these schools the standard of Jewish intellec- upon the fact that he who received it and trans- the presence of an extraordinarily brilliant tual achievement. We rightly hope for the best mitted it to us was the greatest prophet alive? magid shiur realize that one is experiencing educational opportunities for our children; but How, then, can Moshe and Aharon be com- not only an astounding display of human cre- we must always remember that their attending pared, placed on the same spiritual pedestal? ativity, but also insights into God’s words, and Ivy League schools is a lot less important than Rav Ahron Lichtenstein once offered a thereby insights into God himself; if, in their growth, day by day, as knowledgeable striking explanation: Moshe and Ahraron are Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan’s felici- Jews, and that their admission to Harvard, depicted in our parsha as equals because at tous phrase, astronauts aspire to slip the surly Yale or Princeton, Cornell or Penn, Columbia, this point, when they stood before Pharaoh, bonds of earth to touch the face of God, we Dartmouth or Brown is a lot less important they were equal. Both were prophets, both Jews have treasured the Torah because it than their aspiring to ultimate admission to the righteous, both religious role models. But allows us to experience the mind of God. It is Yeshiva shel Maala. And whether we are doc- what made Moshe so special is that he always no coincidence that Chazal describe the after- tors or lawyers, artists, scientists, business- sought to grow in his understanding of God life in academic terms; heaven was called the men, musicians, or rabbis, we are never and his Torah. Even after serving as our inter- Yeshiva shel Maala, the Almighty’s academy, allowed to be satisfied with the Jewish knowl- mediary in communicating God's law to the where God is the only instructor, where we are edge we have achieved thus far, but must seek Jewish people, still Moshe sought to improve all eager students, and as, with “Encore!” on to constantly improve our knowledge of the his spiritual understanding. Hodieini na et our lips, we ask to learn more and more about Torah, our knowledge of God. The dirachecha, Moshe implores the Almighty: ourselves, about the Torah, and about Him. Almighty’s heavenly academy is one school to Teach me more about You. It is because None of us can be Moshe; but we are all which none of us want to apply early admis- Moshe wished to dedicate his mind toward expected to imitate him. All of us are expect- sion, but I have heard that once you get there, sacred knowledge, because he thirsted to bet- ed to sanctify our own intellect, to grow, day it features one incredible class. ter comprehend God, that God chose Moshe to by day, bit by bit, in our own knowledge of receive and communicate the Torah, to Torah, in our own intellectual engagement of achieve more intellectually than any other God, at whatever level we may be. And J human being before him, to know more about though our tradition has always embraced Note: I am indebted to reviews of the book dis- God and His Torah than any human being that many forms of intellectual endeavor, we are cussed, published in The New York Times by David followed. If the Jewish intellectual hero is all expected to devote a little of our daily Brooks and in Commentary by Jonathan Kay. Moshe, and if we have always revered his schedule to grow in Torah learning. Our insis- intellectual heirs, Rabbi Akiva, the Rambam, tence on education was always meant to

2