The Rebbe’s Letter Against Going to College

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story of Chabad in America," from the Mindel Archives. This is the second program of reading the Rebbe's letters inside. As I said, till after Tisha B'Av, for a few weeks I wanted to read the letters the way that answered, the way that [the Rebbe] answered, inside. So last week we read a letter about joining Kollel - a person was in chinuch and he wanted to go to Kollel. If you'd like, you can always listen to that program.

This week I want to read, to be accurate, the way that answered about a person going to college to get a degree, and about getting married - when the person should get married. But before I read this, I want to read you just a small letter, a few lines, where the Rebbe answered somebody who asked the Rebbe, "How do you know the answer? How do you know everything?"

So I just want to read you that before we go into the answer about college or marriage. So the Rebbe answers like this: "When people come to me for advice, I express my opinion and my views. In certain instances I am all the more confident that my views are correct, since in my many years associated with my father-in-law, the late Rebbe, of sainted memory, I have had the occasion to learn his views on similar problems, and my views correspond to this."

So that's why the Rebbe answered him - that this is, I mean, the nevius, you see, the nevius of the Rebbe, everything is because you heard it from the Frierdiker Rebbe, or he follows the Frierdiker Rebbe. He can't have it [any other way] - that's what the Rebbe says in that letter.

Now let's go back to the advice here, and I'm going to read again inside the advice about parnosa and marriage.

"Greeting and Blessing. This is in reply to your letter in which you write about the matter of parnosa. The thrust of your position is that nowadays a considerable schooling, a formal secular education, is indispensable in order to get on in business or employment. You also contend that we need Jewish doctors, we need Jewish lawyers, and other professionals, all of which poses a challenge to the primacy of Torah education and early marriage.

Although you begin your arguments with a quotation from the Shulchan Aruch, they are advanced primarily from the viewpoint of secular considerations, so I will address myself to this aspect of the problem - that is, from the secular viewpoint.

To begin with, you must surely know that statistics show that an overwhelming percentage of college graduates establish themselves economically in fields other than those in which they graduated. This is practical. You are no doubt also aware that in this country, at any rate, it has been the trend for many years, and more so recently, that economic opportunities have been related less to a college degree than to personal contacts and being fortunate enough to get a push. In other words, it is not so much what you know as who you know. And I have underlined that, for better or for worse. The fact is that the importance of a college degree has been underway - has been on the way down - in recent years.

A further point, again from the secular view, is basic to the so-called exact sciences, namely that the first thing is to know what the facts are, and only then can one try to explain them, for no amount of logic can alter the facts. This is the old philosophical rule that opinions follow reality and not vice versa.

In regard to marriage, psychologists will tell you that precisely in the materialistically oriented society of the United States of America, most marriages are entered into before the couple has attained economic security, and the acquisition of a home comes only later.

Now, for the problem itself, the Rebbe says: It is true that the rule of the Shulchan Aruch which you quote - first establishing oneself in a business or profession, then buying a house, then taking a bride - would be the ideal procedure. But it has also been explained that this rule applies only when it is practicable. In earlier times, when standards of living were modest, it was possible to establish oneself with a parnosa at a relatively early age. However, in recent generations, if a man were to postpone marriage until he was securely established with a parnosa and had bought a house, it is easy to imagine the consequences. Indeed, there is no need to leave anything to the imagination, nor is there any need to go into painful detail as to the state of morality in those circles where marriage is unduly postponed, compared with the high standards of morality and family stability in the frum circles where early marriage is the rule.

In recent years a further consideration has come into prominence: we Jews are survivors of the Holocaust, and everyone should do everything possible to counteract Hitler's plan of the Final Solution, which his heirs have not given up. Anything that tends to reduce our Jewish people, God forbid, either quantitatively or qualitatively through assimilation and the like, plays into the hands of the enemies. Therefore a Jew who sets up a home and family early, on the foundations of Torah and mitzvos in the fullest sense, deals a blow to Hitler's heirs and strengthens our people.

Finally, there are further points in favor of early marriage: parents are generally willing to help out their newlywed children until they become entirely self-sufficient. There are various relief agencies, federal, state and city, with various helpful programs, as well as job training facilities, trade schools, and so on, all designed to make life easier in the contemporary complex society.

In summary, from every viewpoint, not least from the viewpoint of a healthy moral society, it is not in the best interest of young people and of society at large to postpone marriage until they are fully independent economically, as you seem to advocate. You will surely understand why I cannot share your view.

With blessing."

And here we see again exactly the opinion of what that answer is.

Now one more last thing I will read to you. As I said, I will read you letters, just, you know, letters - answers from the Rebbe. And this is an answer that I found from the Rebbe. Somebody asked the Rebbe whether to live in a frum neighborhood or not. So here is the answer of the Rebbe:

"You are undoubtedly right in believing that every Jew, man or woman, young or old, must do everything possible in order to live in a frum environment." Because that person also asked about living in a frum environment, or going elsewhere, not in a frum environment.

"The importance of living in a frum environment may be seen from the Rambam, who was the Guide for the Perplexed of all time, and who included this in his famed code of Jewish law, Yad HaChazakah. The imperative need for a Jew to live in a frum environment is further underscored in his concluding remark that if this is not possible, the person should seek out a cave to live in, or the bush country, or the desert."

So it means that the Rebbe feels that when a person gets married, he should live in a frum environment. This is [why] the Jews always lived in the ghetto. But I can tell you why does the Rebbe send him out to places who-knows-where - because the Rebbe himself gives koach to that person. Otherwise, the person should not move to another neighborhood or environment. And the people that are not like Chabad, so they live together, like in the ghetto - they're right, because they should not live in places who-knows-where. A Chabad [chossid], if he's sent by the Rebbe, of course - only by the Rebbe. So the Rebbe puts his koach into that person, that's fine, that's okay. But otherwise, a person should live in a frum environment.

This is a lesson for everybody. So this is the lesson for today. Hadarn, next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.