Business as Usual?

I have alot to say on the American Yeshivas in Israel, and the society which surrounds them, but I want to make this note directed to a point. Forgive me if a ramble or digress. I recently read a note by someone I know who just started his year at Ner Yaakov, my old rompin' grounds 2001-2002. In his neophyte experience at said institution, he comments to the extent of: I don't understand why people say Ner Jake is so religious when only 2 or 3 people last year 'flipped out' (to use the parlance of our times). This is a popular myth, he says.

I responded: I'm not saying there's anything wrong with getting offensively observant, but if you think Ner Jake's well-accomplished goal of making crazy kids crazy frum is a myth, then you are in for a true surprise come the grand siyum (graduation dinner, basically).

I want to elaborate my opinion. When I went to Israel in that fateful September 01, I was all spit-shine and excitement with my new-found faith in Hashem Almighty. I was all set for a packed year of growth and fulfillment, of besting my parents' deviant lifestyles, of growing beyond my past, and becoming my own very religious man. Myriad reasons brought me to Ner Jake, but when I got there, I was shocked: Shlomo was breaking beer bottles in the hall, Michoel was asking me to lock his 3 cases of cigarettes ("stoges" I believe was the term he used) in my locker for the night, the air was filled with rap and smoke and "fuck that" and "motherfuck this." Needless to say, it was a tough first night,in fact it was a tough first week, and a downright depressing first month for a wet-behind-the-ears baal-teshuva like myself.

But a Yeshiva is devoted to learning, and how was it at Ner Yaakov? As part of finding God and His beautiful Judaism, I also clung to Zionism and related ideals which, I felt, were congruent and essential with my religious beliefs. I was confronted head-on at Ner Jake about these beliefs. One of the most-esteemed and learned Magid Shiur's went as far as to choke me over it. Hardly a beacon-head of free thought. So I spent many months sharpening my debating skills sparring head-to-head with my various teachers, who had no shortage of powerful logic and dull-headed obstinance. What I did learn was that in Ner Jake, it is the talmid, and never the teacher, who is expected to alter his beliefs. I feel that at Ner Jake--and what I have learned is a commonality among many other similar institutions--if you do not fit a mold of rebellion (you don't smoke, you don't get high, you don't drink heavily, you LIKE being frum), they do not entirely know how to approach you, but will nevertheless find some issue, no matter how menial, some issue upon which to berate, to fixate, to attack. There must be something wrong with you, after all! So much of my year was devoted to defending my right to believe that the State of Israel is legitimate in its own right. The Revolt indeed, Mr. Begin!

I wish someone had told me what Dr. Palefsky told his son before his voyage into Yeshivaland: Yeshiva's are a business, a business of keeping Jewish asses (no double entendre intended) in the Yeshiva. So I am left with a question of conflict-of-interest: Are these holymen, these rabbis, these supposed enlightened scholars with whom we entrust our minds, nay our futures, are they sincere in their pedagogical pursuits? Can we believe that the turning of a wild youth into a black-hatted talmudist bears no financial, or maybe just egotistic, influence on the Rabbinical staff? As the pressure grew in January, in April, for these boys to get their butts in Shiur (class), to get going with being frum, to start considering a second year in Ner Jake, was this pressure indeed altruistic? Or were they the pawns that bowed unwittingly to a swift check-mate on American Dollars? Is Ner Yaakov's pushy, hardline, results-driven process purely for the growth of the student, or is their something that makes a wealthy American-turned-kollelnik a little more financially rewarding for the venerated Rosh Yeshiva? Was it, in fact, business as usual?