Mortimer Zuckerman on Lakewood
It can make a grown (kollel) man blush.
Here's the aforementioned excerpt from the Mortimer Zuckerman interview in American Jewish Spirit mag. :
M. Zuckerman: "It was at the behest of a rabbi I study with that I went and visited the Lakewood Yeshiva. I had never been to a yeshiva before in my life and I sort of did this out of some degree of curiosity but more out of a sense of moral support for what had been such a central part of this rabbis life but I have to tell you when I got there I was absolutely knocked out by it. I will tell you that it was the single most intellectually active, energetic, fascinating environment I had ever witnessed. There was a sort of buzz and just sheer concentration and joy in the learning process and it was literally visible to somebody like myself.
"I mean, I said it afterwards, it made Harvard Law School, which I happen to have attended, look like a kindergarten. It was absolutely extraordinary to see so many people - from various walks of life - in there for the sheer joy of learning about their religious tradition. And the sheer intensity and intellectual demands of this place made it such a unique place to visit. So for me, it was absolutely a stunning experience and I wish everybody could have the chance not only to visit it but to have a guide like I did."
Here's the aforementioned excerpt from the Mortimer Zuckerman interview in American Jewish Spirit mag. :
M. Zuckerman: "It was at the behest of a rabbi I study with that I went and visited the Lakewood Yeshiva. I had never been to a yeshiva before in my life and I sort of did this out of some degree of curiosity but more out of a sense of moral support for what had been such a central part of this rabbis life but I have to tell you when I got there I was absolutely knocked out by it. I will tell you that it was the single most intellectually active, energetic, fascinating environment I had ever witnessed. There was a sort of buzz and just sheer concentration and joy in the learning process and it was literally visible to somebody like myself.
"I mean, I said it afterwards, it made Harvard Law School, which I happen to have attended, look like a kindergarten. It was absolutely extraordinary to see so many people - from various walks of life - in there for the sheer joy of learning about their religious tradition. And the sheer intensity and intellectual demands of this place made it such a unique place to visit. So for me, it was absolutely a stunning experience and I wish everybody could have the chance not only to visit it but to have a guide like I did."
posted by Yeshiva Orthodoxy
at 11:36 PM
5 Comments:
I guess I'll email him to enlighten him about the obscurantism that pervades that world. A world in which if an idea smacked them in the face would not recognize it
ishyhudi:
who elected/appointed you judge?!
"all walks of life"???
Yes, all walks of life. There are and have been many in yeshiva who did not begin as frum Jews, and many who do not come from black-hat backgrounds.
I know several ba'alei teshuva and even a few gerim who learn in the yeshiva full-time as well as numerous professionals who learn there either first or second seder. Factor in that there are bocchurim and yungerleit from five continents that I am persoanlly aware of, and I think that "all walks of life" is spot on accurate.
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