The spotlight that the now well-known Yated article shined on the Yeshiva Chovevei Torah (YCT) continues to shine; the scrutiny is not going away. The latest entry into the chorus of criticism, justification and inquiry is R. Michael J. Broydes's letter, found here, http://hirhurim.blogspot.com/2007/03/rabbi-zev-farber-yeshiva-chovevei-torah.html
In my previous post, I pledged a follow-up. Now, after several weeks of farther reflection, I am prepared to share it.
What, you may ask, qualifies me to offer analyses and why should you, the reader, give it your consideration? Perhaps,I might respond that I understand the milieu of YCT very well. Without giving much away, I can assure you, dear reader, that my background, experience and exposure, enable me to speak on this topic both as an insider and as an outsider. Even more importantly, I hold YCT to be a noble experiment that has much to contribute to Jewish life. Right now it is in great danger. I would like to help.
As it is unfolding now, this valuable effort suffers from basic structural flaws. I hope that these words can assist in the process of self-re-evaluation that should be taking place among YCT leadership, to make YCT what it should be and become, for us and our children.
YCT suffers from strategic confusion and lack of clarity.
Vagueness had its place in organizations. As a temporary condition it keeps disparate factions together and postpones conflict. Yet, there comes the time of reckoning, when outside forces force the moment of truth and the organization is plunged into crisis. The moment had not yet come for YCT but it is fast approaching. The attention and scrutiny will not go away and it is only a a matter of time before is makes itself felt in dropping recruitment, fund raising and placement. Already, YCT faces a choice and it must recognize that it is facing a choice. It can allow demoralization, mediocrity and loss of morale slowly leach its vitality under unremitting attack. It can compromise its ambitions by obstinately shouldering on, as it hemorrhages talent and support, or it can clarify it mission and stake a clear position on which it can build and which it can market. It can bury its head in the sand and deny or it can take charge of its destiny. YCT is now where IBM or Apple were at a certain time in their history and its current predicament is easily recognizable by those schooled in organizational behavior and corporate management.
The core issue is the confusion at the core. What is YCT? Is it an yeshiva, as its name implies, an institution dedicated to the study of Talmud and codes? Is it a glorified "chaplaincy", a rabbinic seminary program that trains its students to engage in communal work as Rabbis and educators? Or, is it a force for re-evaluation and revitalization of Orthodoxy through intellectual ferment and leveraging of academic and traditional learning to new forms of expression and worship?
Here are three numbered statements from the web site. Each beautifully states a different ambition but each by itself is profound challenge for a small institution to realize. Quite simply, a school of the size and resources of YCT cannot possible accomplish all three goals. Hence - confusion!
1. Expand and transform
We at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School (YCT) believe that the future of Orthodoxy depends on our becoming a movement that expands outward non-dogmatically and cooperatively to encompass the needs of the larger Jewish community and the world. For this vision to succeed, we require a new breed of leaders - rabbis who are open, non-judgmental, knowledgeable, empathetic, and eager to transform Orthodoxy into a movement that meaningfully and respectfully interacts with all Jews, regardless of affiliation, commitment, or background.
2. Practical Rabbinics (I call it Chaplaincy)
YCT as an institution, and our students as individuals, are strongly and actively committed to the principle of Tikkun Olam, helping others and working to improve the larger world. On the collective level, students plan and organize rallies for support of Israel, travel to Eretz Yisrael in times of struggle and sorrow, spend time abroad with other seminaries on missions to help the poor and learn about living conditions in third-world countries. On the individual level, students work with the homeless, teach the underprivileged, and attend to the sick.
Recognizing the critical importance that pastoral counseling plays in the rabbinate, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah places particular emphasis on its Pastoral Counseling Curriculum. Yeshivat Chovevei Torah is the only rabbinical school with a four-year pastoral counseling program. Taught by leading psychiatric professionals, this intensive curriculum includes formal classroom instruction, role-playing, clinical experience and mentored field work. The formal curriculum consists of classroom instruction and role-playing exercises. Students are taught the basic tools of interviewing, how to recognize mental illness and the resources available to them as rabbis. Particular emphasis is placed on topics that rabbis regularly encounter: religious doubt and personal change; rites of passage; adolescence; substance abuse; marital and family problems; sexual function and dysfunction; homosexuality; domestic violence; loss, tragedy and bereavement; and response to catastrophe.
The first-year courses are organized around basic principles of counseling. The second-year courses follow the life cycle, giving an overview of normal development as well as addressing potential difficulties. In their third and fourth years, students take seminars in chaplaincy, marital and family therapy, and psychology and religion. Fieldwork with direct clinical supervision is an essential part of the curriculum. In their third and fourth years, students rotate through an intensive chaplaincy program and meet regularly with senior clinicians to discuss pastoral issues that arise during their internships. This intensive theoretical and practical course of study ensures that, by graduation, students will emerge as rabbis who are empathic, trained and knowledgeable pastoral counselors.
Each year of YCT students has a mental health professional who meets with that group 1 hour weekly for the full four years of the program. In this completely confidential setting, students are free to explore issues of faith, authority, training, personal situation, etc. We believe that by offering students this opportunity we create an atmosphere of trust and respect that will extend to their capacity for compassion and tolerance once they leave the yeshiva.
A certified social worker, who is herself married to a rabbi meets with students’ spouses monthly providing them the opportunity to discuss the role of being married to a rabbi – impact on family life, privacy, and religious expectations.
3. Academics
The goal of the Talmud curriculum is to produce Torah scholars (talmidei chakhamim) who are both fluent in Talmud and its medieval commentators (rishonim) and who can look at these texts from a variety of vantage points.
Our Halakha curriculum aims to create knowledgeable, empathic halakhic decisors (poskim), who are skilled in the science and art of halakhic decision-making and who use mature judgment in rendering halakhic rulings.
Survey courses examine a wide range of topics from a variety of perspectives: Biblical, rabbinic, medieval, kabbalistic, Hassidic, modern, postmodern and non-Orthodox. In-depth seminars focus both on specific areas of thought, such as prayer, Jewish ethics, and feminism, and on specific thinkers, such as Maimonides, Yehudah HaLevi and Rav Soloveitchik. All classes include readings of primary texts as well as relevant secondary sources. Two required classes of note are "The Rise and Development of Jewish Denominations" and "The Challenges of Modern Orthodoxy." The latter class addresses contemporary issues such as: dogma and doubt, academic Bible and Talmud study, the nature and scope of rabbinic authority, the role of values in halakhic decision making and gender issues.
Our entire curriculum is taught at the highest levels of academic excellence by leading talmidei chakhamim and scholars to an outstanding student body. All of our students who have taken the Israeli Rabbinate ordination exam, universally recognized as the most demanding in the world, passed on their first attempt.
Now, I ask you, how does a small institution maintain focus and present a consistent picture of itself when it wants to have everything. Personalities differ. Those interested in new directions and intellectual revolutions generally do not enjoy day-to-day involvement with interpresonal issues of congregants. Those committed to academics resent the time that exploration of poitical and communal issues takes away from study time. Those who want to do rabbinic social work are not often cut out for life of the mind and excellence in study.
YCT problem lies precisely in that it has not chosen its core mission. Therefore, it implements everything poorly. The students get an exciting hodgepodge of knowledge tidbits, commanding speakers, and a sense of destiny and purpose and they are pleased. However, they do not know better. It is the leadership's responsibility to give to them what they need, deserve and do not know they need.
How can YCT transition past this problem? There are, I believe two ways.
1. It can clarify its goals and focus on one primary mission. It would have to clean house of those who do not agree with this mission and change in ways that facilitate achieving its new goals. This is regrettable. It will be forced to compensate those who are forced to leave because leaders made mistakes but there is no way round it. Interests and abilities of new staff must be aligned directly with the newly defined goals.
It would do well to start with R. Broyde's suggestions. Whatever course it chooses to follow, it must be clear, well-argued and transparent. It must not be accused of hiding or trying to be all things to all people. Not responding is not "higher ground"; it is evasion of responsibility by a public institution. This is crucial for its ultimate survival.
2. The second option is Post-facto; and not the one I would recommend upfront. However, it can work. YCT can continue to try to bridge its distinct aspiration and this can only be done in a person. Only a human being can contain the incompatibles and make them reside together in apparent harmony.
YCT can bring in a Mashgiach, a rare personality who can in his persona bridge incompatible goals. Needless to say, such people are rare and far in between. This unusual individual will need to command the broad fields of Mussar/ Chassidus, Jewish Thought, secular learning, academic Jewish studies, rabbinics; possess a towering intellect and a multi-disciplinary sweep of many subjects, be a man of integrity, intellectual openness, and extraordinary interpersonal sensitivity and tact, possess excellent writing and speaking skills, and be personally a part of the right wing Orthodox world - known and respected within it. It goes without saying that such an individual will expect and must be given the credibility to impact and shape the yeshiva. The leadership of YCT must understand that to a man like that they cede some control and be prepared to co-operate and work collaboratively with a person of such stature, or he will be out in three months.
Know such people? I can think of a couple, but not more than that.
Even with this, it is tall order, as long as the strategic direction is not fully clarified.
All in all, the time is ripe for YCT to reassess. Commercial businesses often call in consultants when they cannot understand why something is going wrong. I hope that the leadership of YCT is prepared to do the same, "lehgdil Torah u'lehadirah".
Twenty thousand
We passed twenty thousand today. In all fairness, I must point out that several thousand hits were generated by a single post, to my great surprise. There is still a lot for me to learn about this medium.
Nevertheless, thank you and chazak!
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