He sent Yehuda ahead of him to Yosef, to direct him to Goshen, and they came to the land of Goshen. (Breishis 46:28)
To direct him. Before he would arrive there. The Aggadic interpretation of [לְהוֹרֹת] is [that there should be teaching]: to establish for him a house of study, from which teaching would emanate. – Rashi
If there was ever an example of meaning being lost in translation, this is it. What was Yehuda sent in advance to do? L’HOROS – To establish a Yeshiva. That one quiet act that might just fly under the radar screen of our consciousness might just be the greatest strategic move that Yaakov in concert with Yehuda could possibly have made. It might also be the template and model of success for the Jewish People surviving in exile.
I remember hearing from Reb Nota Schiller ztl. the Dean and founder of Ohr Somayach in Israel about an exchange that took place between him and a college professor when he was a Yeshiva student taking evening classes at John Hopkins. The professor was taking attendance the first day matching names with faces. When he came to the name SCHILLER, noticing a young man with a Yarmulke planted firmly upon his head, the professor barked, “Schiller, what are you doing here?” Rabbi Schiller was taken aback. He had not challenged him or had a chance to yet. The professor continued, “Are you a student of the Talmud?” Unapologetically, Rabbi Schiller answered affirmatively, “Yes!”
Then amazingly the professor proclaimed, “The Rabbis of the Talmud were the greatest sociologists of all-time. If they could create a document that could unify a nation without a land across continents and cultural differences, under the most difficult circumstances, over thousands of years, I don’t know what’s written there, but they must have been the greatest sociologists of all-time and I have nothing to teach you.” Rabbi Schiller retorted, “Professor Waterman, I want to put your mind at ease. I came here for an easy “A” and I did not plan on learning anything.”
It’s no secret but it’s a great secret that wherever Jews have set up places to learn in the United States communities have remained and flourished and tragically where there was no Yeshiva the communities and future generations disappeared and melted into the American exile. At one time the Bronx had 500 orthodox synagogues and it’s hard to find viable remnants extant. In 1948 there were more Jews in the Bronx than there were in Israel. It’s not that way today. Synagogues and houses of worship are nice but insufficient to sustain and create a second and third and fourth generation of devoted children. They can’t produce enough heat and energy for tradition not to become just warmed up nostalgia. As they say, “Even nostalgia is not what it used to be!”
Pardon the crude analogy but having a Shul is like having a gas station in town. Cars stop there and fuel up. If there is a Mishne class between Mincha and Maariv then it’s like having a 15 minute lube job available. If the Rabbi is a Talmud Scholar then it’s like having a “mechanic on premises”. He can fix some things when they break.
However, when there is a Yeshiva in town then it’s being in a town where there’s a car factory and new cars are rolling off the assembly line. Young boys and girls are being prepared to bring up a new generation that will bring future generations of idealistic Torah observers.
I like to say that the goal of Torah education is to produce a KLI RISHON. In the laws of Shabbos, a KLI RISHON is a primary vessel on a primary source of heat, a pot on a fire. When the contents are boiling and poured into another vessel there is heat lost and many degrees of cooling. When those once boiling contents are spilled into another vessel then it cools down more and more, until it is room temperature. The task of one generation is to ignite a fire in the next so that the intensity and power of that original heat is never lost. That is what happens in a Yeshiva and what the Talmud has catalyzed for thousands of years. It’s the secret of our survival and the genius of that one quiet act.