Haahkafa With Rav Gershon Ribner shlita
The persistent struggle in ever present temptations – The battle and the war
Abstaining from sinning due to cultural or sociological considerations
Why would HG”R Shimon Shkop opt teaching in YU over Grodno
Why an insular sheltered youngerman joins an out of town Kollel
Ingratiating yourself with your in laws
First, the whole question is off. It wasn't YU until 1943. Was barely even YC in 1929.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, he held the future is going to have to be North America and he needed a base, any base..per R Zelig Epstein
Some names aforementioned for the latter era also a tad inaccurate
DeleteR Chaim Shmuelevitz learned under him earlier.
Botttom line is, there were people who disagred with his giving shiurim at YU, but he held his own. We all heard the
DeleteBottom line, there were thos who criticized him for giving shiur there but he wasn't faised. He felt it was the right hting to do and did it. He was very happy there. We all heard the "yeshivish schmooze" about how Rav Elchonon made a mach'oa. And they assumed that Rav Elchonon was right. No basis for that, Rav Shimon was the Rebbi and maintained fis position.
'yeshivish
Rav Moshe Soloveichik came in 1929. And he was suggested by Rav Baruch Ber.
Delete1208
DeleteOr he decided he had made a mistake by being there, and the consensus had been correct. He went back
Many of Reb Shimon's friends believed he was doing the wrong thing by teaching in YU. It was not a regular Yeshiva at the time, and he still didn't have a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteSee the letter Reb Yerucham Levovitz wrote to him at the time, as printed in the דעת חכמה ומוסר.
The anti-YU crusade lacks nuance and detail, ignoring what would have happened without them. Reb Shimon knew his strengths and YU was the best option for him.
Delete7:49pm,
He held had R Yisrael Salanter still been alive, he would have told him to stay in in America
6:17 am.,
Here's nuance.
What other "options"?New Haven?
A bare decade later there were other options.Considerably superior.Virtually every idealistic student of the '30s !
walked out of there sooner or later.
Furthermore, as referenced earlier, it wasn't YU yet. Wasn't even planned.
RGB Misses many points, but most glaringly was that in grodno The boys were starving and from all the other yeshivos Grodna was the worst off RS would personally go with his son-in-law to collect food in a sack from the surrounding areas!.... RS said he could not stand watching his boys starve and that was one of the reasons why he understood that Europe was not the future... It wasn't only the world economic situation but the lack of respect for yeshivos at the time so therefore he went to collect and since he was having a hard time he contemplated staying since he saw no purpose and pushing any further.
DeleteAnother note was that his son-in-law who helped him and RS relied on him to raise money through those very difficult times died of heart failure from stress of collecting. It was a tremendous blow to him and the Yeshiva.
ReplyDeleteFor context how bad America was for many then,the Machnovka rebbe couldn't take it and went back from America to his town in communist Russia in 1926. He felt more comfortable there. He passed away in 1940.
ReplyDeleteDid he become disillusioned and would come to regret his return?? Would love to told an answer
Many people left America back to Europe.
DeleteThe Torah Temima couldn't get a well paying job. Was a shul Rav, went back after two years
He was indeed also disenchanted with America and wrote about it
DeleteEven possibly was the one who discussed with Henry Ford -and was quoted by him without a clear name -on a ship, how the Jews frolicking in America with too much abandon.
But he would have considered going back to Communism worse, surely