In the year Tof-Shin-Yud-Ches, Chinuch in America was not the same as it is today. There were not as many Yeshivos as we have now, and people weren’t sure if Yeshivos were such a good idea at all.
What parents were worried about was that their children should have “tachlis,” that they would get good jobs and make money for their families. So getting the best Yiddishe Chinuch was not something they worried about so much.
Yes, learning Torah is also important, but they figured that their kids could do that later, once they got a good job for themselves. It was enough that they spent some time in Talmud Torah, or even a day school. It didn’t make any sense to them for their child to learn in a Yeshiva, where they would just learn Torah and Chassidus all day!
Since most people thought this way, it was very hard to get people to give money to a Yeshiva like Tomchei Temimim. And without money, how can you have a Yeshiva? You need money for the building, to pay the teachers, and to buy Seforim! The Askanim that were trying to help Tomchei Temimim were worried. Not only did they not have people ready to give money to the Yeshiva to keep it going, the Yeshiva already owed a lot of money!
Some of the Askanim wondered if it was so important to have a Yeshiva like this, where the students spend their day learning Gemara and Chassidus.
From time to time, the Rebbe would give a group Yechidus to the Askanim. They would come to the Rebbe’s room, and the Rebbe would say a sicha just for them.
On Thursday of Parshas Lech Lecha in Tof-Shin-Yud-Ches, the group of Askanim had one of these kinds of Yechidus.
When they came in, the Rebbe told them something the Frierdiker Rebbe taught: That we can find answers to problems we have in the parsha of the week. The Torah is not a history book, it is a book of horaos! We learn it again every year, because every year we have new issues, and every year the parsha gives us a new koach to know what to do. And this week’s parsha, Parshas Lech Lecha, has an important lesson about Yeshivos:
In this week’s parsha, Hashem tells Avraham Avinu that Yitzchak will be born, and that Yitzchak will be his true nachas.
Avraham doesn’t think he deserves such a neis, and tells Hashem, “Halevai that I should have nachas from Yishmael, that would be enough!”
Hashem tells Avraham, yes, you will have nachas from Yishmael. But your TRUE nachas can only come from Yitzchak.
Why?
Yishmael was born and grew up in a natural way. His connection to Hashem was also in a natural way — he learned about Hashem in the house of his father Avraham, and when he was 13 years old he understood that it was the right thing for him to have a Bris Milah like his father, and he agreed.
Yitzchak was born and raised in a way of nisim! It was a big neis that he was even born, when Avraham and Sarah were already so old. His connection to Hashem was also not in a natural way. Right away when he was just eight days old, too young to understand or even know what was happening, he was given a Bris Milah! This gave him a connection to Hashem that would last not just for a year or even for ten years, but FOREVER!
This is how Avraham Avinu would have true nachas: From a baby that had a connection to Hashem that was not based on sechel, but was higher than sechel.
And, the Rebbe told them, the same thing is for every Yid! If we want true nachas, to have children that will stay Yidden and pass it on to the next generation, we need to raise them like Yitzchak! We can’t spend time thinking about what makes sense in our sechel. We need to give them a connection to Hashem that is HIGHER than sechel!
If we are only teaching them a little bit of Torah when they are younger, and the main thing we are worried about is how they will get a job when they are older, we are doing it wrong!
Yidden are the oldest nation, and the Torah is older than any ideas in the world. Yidden have gone through many challenges over the years and always survived with Hashem’s nisim.
Is there enough money? Maybe they learned enough Torah for now, do we really need to teach them more? What can we teach them that will help their parnasa?
Those are not questions that a Yid should be asking! We need to be like Yitzchak, that our connection to Hashem is HIGHER than sechel!
We need to give children the FULLEST amount of Torah that we can right now, and not wait until they are older. And, the Rebbe told the Askanim, don’t worry about the money that the Yeshiva owes! It means they are growing and borrowing money to grow even more!
When the students in the Yeshiva grow up, they will have hatzlacha from Hashem. They will become gevirim and be able to give big donations, enough to pay back all of the money the Yeshiva owes!
Of course, we know the end of the story: Yeshivas Tomchei Temimim continued giving the highest quality Chinuch even to the youngest children. It grew and still is growing today — in a way of nisim, higher than sechel!
See sicha of Vov Cheshvan, Tof-Shin-Chai; part of it is also printed in Likutei Sichos chelek Alef, Parshas Lech Lecha
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