Video: Why Go to Yeshiva? Mr. Dennis Prager

When Dennis Prager attended yeshiva as a child, he insisted on knowing the WHY when all he was taught was the HOW of Yiddishkeit. He introduces Mayanot Yeshiva in Israel as a place that tells WHY in addition to HOW.

Dennis relates some of the things that he has learned since his yeshiva days that insure the continuity of the Jewish people.

Prager relates his experience in 4th grade, when his Rebbe said it was time to daven Minchah and the young Dennis Prager stated that he is not in the mood. The European born Rebbe considered his feelings and responded, “so what?” These 2 words were pivotal in his future attitudes; behavior matters more than feeling.

How do you account for the preoccupation of the world with Israel a land the size of El Salvador? The Jews are the canary in the mine; they play a transcendent role in history. Evil concentrates on the Jews first, but non-Jews are foolish if they dismiss what happens to the Jews as not their problem.

On the second day G-d created separation. Prager delineates the following aspects which are all being confused today: The dilemma of Good vs. Evil leads to moral relativism; The disruption of the differentiation between Man and Woman as portrayed in a questionnaire giving a choice under gender: male, female, and other; The profane language that has overtaken our communications; Man and Animal being equated in the opinion that there is no difference in value between a chicken and a human.

Dennis Prager concludes that it is the power of happiness as displayed by Chabad rabbis that is the secret of their success.

My opinion - from a Shliach

I’ve been meaning to say this for a long time and now that I see this video being touted as a pitch for going to Yeshivah ( I can’t believe it) I feel forced to put my thoughts in writing.
Mr. Prager uses an analogy to help us understand the disproportionate attention the UN gives to Israel, which I agree with, and I agree with his conclusions.
I would like to use an analogy to make, my point.
Can you imagine for a second, some prestigious medical (or legal) institution using a student of theirs who continuously feels compelled to repeat and announce that fact, that he is a student of these very same schools but today he has chosen a path which is antithetical to the premise and very foundation that makes these schools what they represent???
Can you imagine Harvard Medical School taking a speaker who now openly says he is not committed to the whole wide ranging and entire agenda of his training and actually disagrees publicly with much that the school represents as a lecturer for their supporters or staff???
How about Yale or Cornell University taking one of its former students to lecture it’s supporters and law students ( as Mr. Prager said himself in this speech it’s action that counts) who today for the most part rejects in his personal life the basic premise and practices of law???
I think Mr. Prager is genuine and a good man. However the fact that he did go to Yeshivah as a boy and constantly repeats and everyone knows he is not committed to Halacha in his own words, should make any religious institution ask itself, “are we not giving the wrong and perhaps confusing message to all those that will see and hear this man?”
Mr. Prager makes some very good points in his speech, but members of other faiths and atheists will also make some very good life learning lessons and won’t be hypocritical to their own faith in this process. Mr. Prager himself is surprised (he said so in this speech) that he is invited to speak at Chabad knowing the contradiction inherent in his lifestyle and the principles Chabad (Chassidus and Halacha) stands for.
The Rebbe has said many times it’s better to have a non-Jewish teacher than a Jewish teacher who desecrates the principles of our Holy Torah, teach anything related to religion.
The Rebbe has said many times, better to send a child to no Jewish training than be taught by teachers who offer hypocritical at best, models to their students.
If Mr. Prager would speak on advertising or running a radio show to Chabad adherents I would not have a problem with him. However, when Mr. Prager who is a Yeshivah product and publicly flaunts his non adherence to Halacha ( and I believe remembering in the past he talked about his membership and support for other “streams” of Judaism) gets kovod at Chabad as someone to look up to and learn from Jewishly, I think we are giving a very wrong and confusing message to our children, as Mr. Prager himself said in his speech bain koidesh lechoil bain yisroel le’amim bain Chassidim and Yidden who remain committed to Halacha and those who have broken away from this tradition and still become acknowledged and successful and recognized within those same institutions of full commitment to the whole spectrum of Yiddishkeit as if nothing is amiss.

3 Comments

Larry Robins, Potomack

Interesting Mr. Prager mentions Mayanot. It’s an excellent all round yeshiva and it’s in the most hidden of places near the Kotel… You have to climb up hilly streets, then across, then down steep walkways to get to it… but the walking in the hot sun is worth every effort. Trust me. The feeling there is like “breathtaking”.

January 17, 2013 10:56am
My opinion - from a Shliach

I’ve been meaning to say this for a long time and now that I see this video being touted as a pitch for going to Yeshivah ( I can’t believe it) I feel forced to put my thoughts in writing.
Mr. Prager uses an analogy to help us understand the disproportionate attention the UN gives to Israel, which I agree with, and I agree with his conclusions.
I would like to use an analogy to make, my point.
Can you imagine for a second, some prestigious medical (or legal) institution using a student of theirs who continuously feels compelled to repeat and announce that fact, that he is a student of these very same schools but today he has chosen a path which is antithetical to the premise and very foundation that makes these schools what they represent???
Can you imagine Harvard Medical School taking a speaker who now openly says he is not committed to the whole wide ranging and entire agenda of his training and actually disagrees publicly with much that the school represents as a lecturer for their supporters or staff???
How about Yale or Cornell University taking one of its former students to lecture it’s supporters and law students ( as Mr. Prager said himself in this speech it’s action that counts) who today for the most part rejects in his personal life the basic premise and practices of law???
I think Mr. Prager is genuine and a good man. However the fact that he did go to Yeshivah as a boy and constantly repeats and everyone knows he is not committed to Halacha in his own words, should make any religious institution ask itself, “are we not giving the wrong and perhaps confusing message to all those that will see and hear this man?”
Mr. Prager makes some very good points in his speech, but members of other faiths and atheists will also make some very good life learning lessons and won’t be hypocritical to their own faith in this process. Mr. Prager himself is surprised (he said so in this speech) that he is invited to speak at Chabad knowing the contradiction inherent in his lifestyle and the principles Chabad (Chassidus and Halacha) stands for.
The Rebbe has said many times it’s better to have a non-Jewish teacher than a Jewish teacher who desecrates the principles of our Holy Torah, teach anything related to religion.
The Rebbe has said many times, better to send a child to no Jewish training than be taught by teachers who offer hypocritical at best, models to their students.
If Mr. Prager would speak on advertising or running a radio show to Chabad adherents I would not have a problem with him. However, when Mr. Prager who is a Yeshivah product and publicly flaunts his non adherence to Halacha ( and I believe remembering in the past he talked about his membership and support for other “streams” of Judaism) gets kovod at Chabad as someone to look up to and learn from Jewishly, I think we are giving a very wrong and confusing message to our children, as Mr. Prager himself said in his speech bain koidesh lechoil bain yisroel le’amim bain Chassidim and Yidden who remain committed to Halacha and those who have broken away from this tradition and still become acknowledged and successful and recognized within those same institutions of full commitment to the whole spectrum of Yiddishkeit as if nothing is amiss.

January 17, 2013 12:38pm
To number 2

My thoughts exactly. . .

January 17, 2013 1:45pm

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