Rabbi Hodakov’s Chinuch Plan For Tu B’Av

Welcome to our weekly Motzei Shabbos program.

Since now it's middle of summer vacation time, I want to share with you — in the early years there was a conversation that Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel had, and Rabbi Hodakov wrote this down in Hebrew, and I'll try to translate it into English.

They had a conversation — I think the Rebbe was also involved. You know that Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch was the Rebbe, Rabbi Hodakov, and Rabbi Nissan Mindel.

Now, by the way, I don't know why — when you open a siddur printed before Gimmel Tammuz, the Rebbe wanted that in the back there should be a page of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. The Rebbe wanted this to stay. Now, siddurim are printed without the page. I mean, if the Rebbe is not here, that doesn't mean you have to take out the page. Or if Rabbi Hodakov is not here, or Rabbi Nissan Mindel is not here, or the Frierdiker Rebbe — it doesn't mean you have to take it out. The Rebbe wanted this, I know. I know this is important to the Rebbe.

So, this is a page of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. It says here: the Frierdiker Rebbe — Nasi; Rabbi Hodakov — Menahel; and Nissan Mindel — Moscow, Russia. That's what it says here. I'm not in Merkos, but I think they should put it back in, because I think the Rebbe wanted that. You can't change things that the Rebbe wanted.

So anyway, Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel — they were Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch. They started it, and that's the way it is to this day — l'olam vo'ed. They are Merkos, the heads of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.

So they had a meeting, or they had a talk — this is what Rabbi Hodakov wrote: "Solving the Problem of Vacation in the Life of the Students."

So throughout the years there were guidelines that Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch established. Besides what's written in the back of the siddur, as I showed you — in the back of the siddur it's written over here, fifteen guidelines that Merkos has to do, and I mean, this is all approved by the Rebbe. Fifteen, but there's more than that. There are more guidelines than that — we're going to see over here what Merkos is supposed to do. So that's what they were discussing, these guidelines.

And the Rebbe wanted that Merkos should be involved, and also be on top of our yeshivas and chadorim and girls' schools. That's why Bais Rivkah is also under Merkos — to teach melamdim how to teach and be good teachers. This should be the responsibility of Merkos. Now, today, I don't know if Merkos is doing anything about it. And this is what the Rebbe wanted.

Now, since next week, or in two weeks — I'm not sure — there's going to be a convention, a gathering of teachers, and it's supposed to be for Merkos. So they should do what Merkos said, what Rabbi Hodakov wrote, because he was the head of Merkos, I think. At least do that, which I'm going to read to you today — I'm going to read it because Rabbi Hodakov wrote it.

And this was a discussion between Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Nissan Mindel, and the Rebbe was told about this. The Rebbe saw it. The Rebbe wanted that Merkos should always organize a follow-up when teachers get together — meetings or dinners — and decide to do something, always follow up. Sometimes you have a meeting, and yeah, it's very nice, and there were very beautiful speakers, but what is happening with the appeal? Everybody goes home. The mechanchim go home, and what does it have to do with follow-up? The Rebbe wanted a follow-up. If mechanchim get together — this is Rabbi Hodakov — and just decide to go home, it's a waste of time. It's a big responsibility.

And now I will read to you what Rabbi Hodakov wrote in Hebrew:

"The problem with summer vacation is mainly the long and extended summer vacation, well known to be a period of between ten and twelve weeks in the United States. Can you imagine? A quarter of a year is vacation. So the students of the schools are neglected. Some of them, the younger ones, manage by going to camp for the entire summer or part of the summer. And some of the older ones, he writes, manage with some sort of occupation, full-time or part-time, to make money, to have a job. But many students remain in the city and roam around in all sorts of places without [unclear: "tail and a beta"], without any supervision. And the danger is great.

"Idleness, as is well known, brings about various unwanted results in behavior and ethics. Removing the yoke (perikat ol) of school results in throwing off all discipline in general, and an extended break from studying. What does that do? That causes the learning to be forgotten. Transition from an active period to an idle one, and then back to an active one, causes a great disturbance in the state of mind of the student. And the main issue — wasting time for a quarter of each and every year — they cannot get it back."

Then he writes: "It's easy to understand that this is not the intention of the summer season and the purpose of vacation given to the students — that's not the intention. And if this is so regarding students in general, how much more so in regard to students in Jewish schools, especially Yeshiva Ketana. The problem of vacation time is especially acute in the United States, considering the harmful influences of the street in the United States, and also in other places.

"At the Rebbe's suggestion," he writes, "Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch has gone to correct the situation and has proposed a certain program for the summer days, which has found a good echo in the broad circles of religious education."

Now I will read the points that were made, and that's from the Rebbe. Rabbi Hodakov writes:

"First of all, it's incumbent upon the teachers to instill in the hearts of the students the correct understanding of the role of the summer season and its purpose, in order to evoke in the students the will to arrange their vacation in accordance with this understanding. To explain to the students the real reason why there is a summer vacation, which is surprisingly not discussed [unclear], and based on that, the students will arrange their vacation in a way that they could accomplish what the summer is meant to accomplish.

"In many sichos — [unclear: "Rebbe Maharashko"] — the Rebbe explains many different reasons for the summer vacation. The summer gives the children an opportunity to learn [unclear: "martial arts office"], whatever their heart desires, because there is no curriculum of what to learn. Another thing — being in summer camp gives the children an opportunity to be twenty-four hours a day in an environment of [unclear: "English guide, and in the Rebbe's dollar office"], whereas throughout the year they are only in school a few hours a day.

"It must be explained to the students with words coming from the heart: Yotzei b'chalav, nichnas b'chalav, u'poel b'chol adam. The problem here is not just time being wasted, even though this reason alone would be enough to evoke serious contemplation. Rather, it must also be stressed that such a long break without any mental academic preoccupation is bound to dumb the brain and the talent, so that much of what was learned in the past year will go to waste, because forgetfulness is always present, and especially in a time of wastefulness.

"The problem is not only during the summer months — they are wasting so much time — but that summer actually ruins the whole previous year. It's not just, he writes, that they are not going up, but they are going down. And this long break will also make the entry into the cycle of learning in the new year much more difficult, and it will destroy any possibility of greater advancement in the new year of learning, which could have been ensured had it been used in the summer in the proper way."

This is what he wrote — this is in Hebrew, I'm just doing it in English.

Another thing that he writes: it would be befitting that in every school there be at least one staff member — two or more, even more — who will take upon themselves the responsibility to stay in touch with the students, whether through meeting them or writing to them, to see how they are doing, what is going on with them throughout the whole summer. And the Rebbe is giving the teachers this work — it's not only in the winter, they have to be involved all the time.

They have to be involved all the time, he writes, with the students. And it would be good if the teacher who is in charge of each class or division acts as a guide or advisor of the class, or at least appoints someone who should take interest in the students of his class — to see where each student is, what he is doing, who his friends are, and so on. This will also let the students know that they have someone to turn to for advice or help if needed. And Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, he writes, should appoint or be involved with the schools. This is Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.

Another thing he writes — Rabbi Hodakov, point number three — it's advisable that there should be a few general meetings between the teachers and the students throughout the summer, whether in the city or in the summer camps. At least one meeting is absolutely necessary. Perhaps the best day to connect it with should be Tu B'Av — I mean Chamishah Asar, the fifteenth day of Av — to make a day-gathering for the teachers and the talmidim, not just teachers, with talmidim also. This is the responsibility of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.

And also, he says, it would be good to arrange that several schools should collaborate in this, to predetermine where the staff members and teachers would be spending their time during the summer, in a way that each one, in his place, will take interest in the supervision of the students in his surroundings, not necessarily his own students. And maybe it's possible to appoint a special coordinator for this cooperation. This supervisor also means to make sure that the talmidim will be reminded, until Tishrei, about learning Torah. And especially after Chamishah Asar B'Av, when the nights get longer, they should speak to them about learning Torah. In other words, this should be the work of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch.

And since there's an assembly or meeting around Chamishah Asar B'Av, I think, so I think this is the work — I think Merkos is doing this. So I want to remind everybody that this is what Rabbi Hodakov wrote. The Rebbe was involved together with Rabbi Hodakov and Rabbi Mindel.

So I think this should maybe be spoken about, or at least remind the hanhalah or the teachers what the Rebbe wanted then.

Mitchem [?], next week we'll continue our weekly program. Thank you.