Unity Brings Triumph as Mesivta Farher Reform Deemed a Success

 

By Reuvain Borchardt

 

 

The mesivta farher season has barely begun, but rebbe’im and menahelim are already touting what they say is the success of this year’s initiative—with the extensive involvement of the rosh yeshivah, Rav Yisroel Neuman—to ensure that the application season not occur before Shevat.

 

“I’ve been with this initiative since the beginning, and it’s something no one ever thought would succeed,” says Rabbi Shimon Landsberg, eighth-grade rebbi at Ohr Yehuda and a leader of the initiative. “Even I didn’t dream that it would work out this well.”

 

Sometimes the highest highs only come after the lowest lows, and last year was rather rough.

 

Mesivtas in Lakewood had for years operated under a sort of informal agreement that the farher season for eighth-grade bachurim begins in Shevat. This ensured that the eighth-grade boys learned b’hasmadah for months to prepare for their farhers and so that their rebbi would give a good report to their desired mesivta.

 

But as the years went by and new yeshivos began opening, Lakewood experienced the growing pains associated with a boomtown and things began fraying at the seams. Last year, everything fell apart, resulting in what was unanimously deemed a disaster.

 

With no agreement in place last year, the mesivta acceptance process began at the start of winter zman. This acceptance process began even before the application process, because there wasn’t much of an application process at all. Mesivtas began doling out acceptances almost as hastily as they got applications—if not before. Many mesivtas sought out bachurim with acceptances without even farhering them, based on a brief conversation between the mesivta menahel and the boy’s eighth-grade rebbi. There was no time for parents to visit mesivtos and for them and their boys to calmly make decisions as to which yeshivah would be the best fit.

 

Many ninth-grade rosters were set long before Shevat. And in some instances, the rush led to boys going to yeshivos that weren’t the correct fit. (A person active in the scene told The Voice that mesivtas this year have received more calls than usual from ninth grade parents looking to transfer their sons for tenth grade.)

 

But worst of all was the effect on limud haTorah.

 

With no farhers, eighth-grade boys didn’t feel the incentive to learn with the hasmadah typically seen leading up to the usual Shevat interview season. And once a boy was accepted into mesivta, the pressure was off, with some boys operating on cruise control for the rest of the year.

 

The eighth-grade rebbe’im and menahelim knew something had to change.

 

Rabbi Landsberg, along with Rabbi Yoni Raful, menahel at Or Hachaim, and Rabbi Aryeh Leib Smith, menahel of Toras Zev, knew something had to be done. And they also knew that the best way to make it happen would be to have it spearheaded by a gadol who commanded authority and whom no one would defy.

 

Rabbi Landsberg reached out to Rav Yisroel. Though the Rosh Yeshivah is lo pasak pumei m’girsa and typically doesn’t get deeply involved in communal matters, Rabbi Landsberg had been informed that Rav Yisroel was aware of and greatly pained by this issue.

 

What surprised Rabbi Landsberg wasn’t only that the Rosh Yeshivah agreed to participate in a solution but how completely he took achrayus for the initiative and ultimately put in dozens of his precious hours toward seeing it through.

 

Rav Yisroel, who gave The Voice a brief interview for this article, said that he chose to get involved “l’hagdil Torah ul’haadir.”

 

“The Rosh Yeshivah threw himself into this fully because it’s nogei’a the limud haTorah of gantz Lakewood and gantz Klal Yisrael,” says Rabbi Landsberg.

 

On Shivah Asar B’Tammuz, Rav Yisroel convened an asifah of eighth-grade rebbe’im and cheder menahelim. (Rabbi Landsberg recalls that at that first asifah, the Rosh Yeshivah “was trying to figure out if it would be mevatel his chavrusa, but he said it would be worth it anyway.”) The outlines of a new farher system were unveiled: The eighth-grade rebbe’im and menahelim would agree not to provide any information on bachurim to mesivta menahelim prior to Rosh Chodesh Shevat to ensure that application season doesn’t begin before then. And farhers themselves would only take place starting mid-Shevat.

 

Over the course of the subsequent months, several more asifos were convened, with Rav Yisroel at the helm.

 

At these asifos, the precise dates were hammered out: Boys could begin requesting applications on 26 Teves, inquiries by mesivta menahelim about talmidim could begin on Rosh Chodesh Shevat, and farhers could begin on 17 Shevat for most yeshivos, while new yeshivos and those that had 14 boys or fewer in their present ninth grade could begin on 16 Shevat. (Tu B’Shevat would be the more natural date to begin farhers, but as Tu B’Shevat this year fell on the Monday after the mid-winter off-Shabbos, the farher date was postponed to allow the boys to “get back into it” before the farhers.)

 

The mesivtas signed on to commit themselves to the plan as well, ensuring that the mesivtas and chadarim were working in unity for the sake of the chinuch of their talmidim.

 

“The kavod HaTorah in that we were all unified in doing what’s right even if it might be difficult was incredible,” says Rabbi Landsberg, “and made a big roshem on everyone in Lakewood and beyond.”

 

Rabbi Raful visited Eretz Yisrael recently and told Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch — who had encouraged the initiative early on — about its success. Rav Moshe Hillel grew excited. “He listened with great interest and gave brachos for those involved,” Rabbi Raful says. “And the person who brought me to Rav Moshe Hillel told me that Rav Moshe Hillel usually doesn’t have time to give anyone more than 30 seconds, and he rarely saw him give anyone as much time as he gave me — because he was just so amazed at the success of the initiative.”

 

 

Throughout the process, Rav Yisroel was intimately involved in even the most minute details, frequently calling Rabbi Landsberg to discuss aspects of the initiative.

 

All involved say that thanks to the Rosh Yeshivah’s engagement and the yeshivos’ commitment, this year’s eighth grade was an incredible success.

 

“More than a thousand children are learning very shtark these past few weeks,” Rav Yisroel tells The Voice. “The rebbe’im say they never had such a shtarke winter—learning b’hasmadah rabbah.”

 

“This year, all chazaros in all chadarim happened without any lachatz,” says Rabbi Yaakov Bogart, menahel at Tashbar. “There was proper chazarah with big bechinos and with calmness.”

 

“The eighth-grade talmidim had a phenomenal year, unequivocally, according to the many rebbe’im and menahelim I’ve spoken with throughout this process,” says Rabbi Landsberg. “They learned with their full capabilities, with a focus on the goal of being matzliach in getting into the mesivta of their choice. The sincerity and enthusiasm of the talmidim was off the charts and was felt all over town.”

 

A mesivta menahel who spoke to The Voice on condition of anonymity says that while the eighth-grade rebbe’im and menahelim were the primary drivers of the initiative, mesivtas benefited as well.

 

 

“We didn’t like what happened last year either,” the menahel says. “But it was nobody’s fault; things just sort of happened the way they did due to the explosive growth in Lakewood bli ayin hara, so we sort of had no choice. With no agreement in place and the mesivtas rushing to accept boys earlier, everyone else had to do the same or risk losing out. When the system is plotzing, there’s a panic.”

 

But this year, he says, was a different story.

 

“Without the behalah, things were more mesudar. Parents were able to do more research and come to a peaceful decision, and in many cases come down and visit the yeshivos. There was time for parents and boys, and the eighth-grade rebbe’im and mesivta menahelim, to have calm conversations and discuss which mesivta is the best fit for a particular bachur.

 

“I don’t think it will be very difficult to get mesivtas to commit to keeping it like this, because they see it benefits them as well.”

 

Rav Yisroel says that with the success of this year’s farher season, “hopefully, it should be” easier to get everyone on board in future years.

 

 

For those involved in this initiative to get all yeshivos on board with an agreement for a farher-season calendar, it was all worthwhile. The long nights, the endless phone calls, the many asifos and meetings, the numerous re-writes of the commitment letters the yeshivos signed onto to get the wording just right, and even the occasional missed learning were all relatively small prices to pay to ensure that our young bnei Torah, in this most formative period, are given the circumstances in which they’re most likely to succeed.

 

As one eighth-grade rebbi said, “There isn’t one boy in my class who isn’t on fire right now.”

 

On the eve of this farher season, Rav Yisroel wrote a letter to the menahelim and rebbe’im of this town, who had unanimously followed his guidance.

 

“Praiseworthy are we that we were zocheh to this circumstance of unity for the purpose of being marbeh kevod Shamayim,” the letter said [freely translated from Hebrew].

 

The Rosh Yeshivah gave a brachah that “in the merit of this unity that the holy yeshivos undertook with tremendous dedication, and the increased hasmadah in limud HaTorah of the dear talmidim,” may all be zocheh to see “unlimited success with menuchas hanefesh on the day of the farhers.”

—

[email protected]