תפילה וה׳ בבתי הספר הציבוריים

00:01 This is Igress, and as promised after yesterday when we discussed the Rebbe's sort of, I don't wanna say blind, but something like blind support for public schools. We talked about how the Rebbe, uh, supports public schools and supports funding public schools even though they are not perfect and not doing what he wants. Uh, today we said we were going to look at what the Rebbe wants out of public schools. And in addition to supporting them even before they are proper, uh, moral institutions, the Rebbe clearly wants public schools to be better and, uh, clearly is not satisfied with the state of public education. And we have something like a million sifras. I am exaggerating only slightly on this particular subject, so I had to pick, I had to pick favorites. But the first thing we're going to do is there is one big letter on this subject, and the way that I know that it is the big letter on the subject is that, uh, here's a pro tip of looking through Igress. If you ever wanna figure out what, uh, what letters are in a volume quickly and what might be interesting to you, you check the front for the table of contents, contact, contents, and the back for the index. And in the table of contents for this volume of Igress that I'm about to show you, it says that this letter's topic is the point and the outcomes of education in a public school. So this is the Rebbe's definitive letter on

01:07 the subject. It was written in Beis-Elul Taf Shin Chaf Gimel. The letter is labeled Ches, Taf Reish Samech Dalet. And it's a long letter, but I put little boxes around the parts we need to focus on, so we're not gonna read the entire letter, but you have the entire letter. And this was written to a Mr. Shalom Levin, who was in charge of the public school system in Eretz Yisrael. And while that might not sound entirely applicable to the public school system in America, the Rebbe makes it applicable. He specifically mentions the American public school system. So without further ado, this letter is to Mr. Shalom Shiechi Levin. It's on your screen. The Rebbe says, "Shalom Ubracha, it's been a while since we spoke," et cetera, et cetera. I'm not gonna read the whole letter inside because it's very long. We're going right to the second paragraph. The Rebbe says that, uh, "The reason why I'm writing to you is because you seem to have gotten some sort of promotion and that now you're more in charge of education in Israel than before, and therefore now we begin reading inside." There's now that there is now more opportunity because you have a higher position. There is now more opportunity or new opportunity, uh, that has fallen to your lot, uh, that you will be able to fulfill the true point of your entire career, which is that is the basis of Chinuch in all the proper Chinuch, proper education in all of the lands in

02:16 the world, and specifically in Eretz Yisrael. That is, the Rebbe is saying you now have more power to control Chinuch in your part of the world, which is Israel, but also in all, uh, in secular public education everywhere around the world. Because when a person gets a new position, he then takes upon himself additional he now has more responsibilities. And therefore, God also gives him the ability to carry it out. Why did I include this in the letter? It's not about our subject because it's cool and important for us. The Rebbe here is saying that every time somebody gets a new job or gets a new area of responsibility within their job, that's God himself saying that you have the ability to do more than you're doing right now. So this is how to view a promotion or how to view maybe not a promotion, just you being given more work. I'm not sure. But in any event, if you have more responsibilities, that's because God trusts you with more responsibilities. Moving on to the part of the letter we need, this next box. When we look at public schools in all places in the world, not just Israel, everywhere, that the main point of a school is to educate children in certain ways. There's two major areas in which schools have the goal of educating the children. Number one, Aleph, First of all, schools are supposed to convey information. And the Rebbe doesn't say they're not supposed to convey information. He's just about to

03:37 stress the other one a little more strongly. Beis, the second point, the, uh, second point is to educate the child and to set up his mind and set up his, uh, way of doing things so that he will have a successful life. That is to educate the, uh, personality of the child, the direction of the child's development. So information and also, uh, make him into a person. Certainly each of these areas, they're split into many categories. So there's-- Rebbe says even within the area of developing the child's, uh, personal abilities, not just his knowledge base, there's also two-- so there's multiple sections and also two specific sections. Two ways we look at educating a child's personality. Way number one is that we're, we're concerned with the child's interpersonal development, his social development, and the second one is his personal development, how he handles his own tavas. Now, the Rebbe says the public school system around the world has done a good job with one of these. This is an important note. I think the summary, um, from people who self-included, who had not read these letters and sifras carefully, is that the Rebbe is satisfied with how schools convey information and not satisfied with how schools are conveying morals. The Rebbe doesn't say this in this letter. The Rebbe says, actually, they're doing a pretty good job with conveying interpersonal morality. That when it comes to how to, uh, how to work within a system, how to work within a democracy, how to take on

04:58 the ideas of the system that you're in, he feels the schools do a pretty good job at that, as he's about to say in this letter. The problem is the schools are not doing a good job at personal development, that is teaching children to control themselves. So we're gonna read this inside. When we think about the outcomes of public schools in America. See, he's writing to an Israeli public school system, but speaking about American public schools. When we look at the outcomes for public schools in America, and also many that are going on in Europe, the Rebbe says, "I think it applies. I think whatever we're seeing in America and Isr-- and Europe in public schools should apply to public schools in Israel, too." You will come to the conclusion if you look at any of these systems, that when it comes to making people better at interacting with each other, interpersonal relationships, there is at least some progress being made. It's certainly sending kids to public schools does seem to make them get along better with others. It gets, uh-- It helps with interpersonal relationships. Uh, bringing people closer together. Democracy, when it comes to, uh, democracy nowadays, which w- the things that people call democracy in this time, the Rebbe says the things they call democracy, uh, this is also being taught well in the schools. There are exceptions to this, of course, that some schools are not good at teaching interpersonal relationships, and certainly some students who go through these schools don't

06:20 seem to figure it out. Sometimes schools, on purpose or accidentally, have been used to turn people in the other direction. But the Rebbe says, "If we're talking majority, we're talking in general." If you wanna teach a kid to get along with other kids and to exist in a democratic system, public school is more or less doing an okay job with exceptions. The problem is that I'm upset about something, says the Rebbe. This brings us to the painful point. Uh, the Rebbe says, "Unfortunately, when I look at that same data, what I'm getting out of this," and the Rebbe actually specifically is not looking at data, and we'll see in a second. "When I look at these reports," says the Rebbe, "I'm seeing that these schools, these primary schools, these primary public schools are good at teaching interpersonal skills, but not necessarily, uh, at the at personal development, at making the students themselves better and better able to control themselves." What I mean by this, when it comes to them conquering their own desires, a student says, a child says, "I want something," is the school teaching them to say no if it's bad for them? Uh, what is this word? Anybody wanna help? It's English. I don't know. It should be like a J sound, right? Jungle. How about jungle? Jungle. Jung-jungle. Jungle, jungle. Okay. So whenever it's in English, we have the most trouble. Uh, in any event, it hasn't turned the world from, uh, even, even the, uh, even the effect of people

07:46 at home and, uh, and Jewi-- and, uh, religious education has not gotten rid of the problem of people treating this entire world like a jungle and just taking whatever they want. When, uh, the, when the impact of parents in certain areas is not as strong, uh, we're seeing all sorts of juvenile delinquency. Great translation. More than in other countries. So the Rebbe's saying here that parenting and religion can sort of take that, can sort of take that responsibility on and take it off the shoulders of the schools. But in certain areas, we're seeing that we'll have, uh, we'll have two towns, and in one town, the parents are involved, and they have a, a kind of school. In another town, they'll have the same kind of school, and the parents aren't involved. And the schools, although they are the same, the one with the parents involved, the children are becoming better people and in the same quality school, but without the parents and their, uh, adding their own involvement to the story, the children are not becoming better. So we are seeing a problem, uh, that is that the schools are not teaching this sort of personal development. I don't have the statistics in my hands. Uh, I'm not able to put these Mascanas into numbers. I can't tell you definitively, uh, what I'm seeing. But the Rebbe says, "But since you are an expert in this, you don't need my statistics to know that I'm right." So what the Rebbe is saying here is

09:04 that, "I'm sure I'm right about this, and I'm sure the statistic would back me up. But, uh, a-as you know, 'cause you're the statistics guy, but I'm not gonna quote the numbers. I don't know the numbers." Uh, the Rebbe says that he's convinced that what schools, public schools are fairly good at is interpersonal relationships, and when it comes to people controlling themselves, not mu-- n-not so much. I wanna show you one more section of this letter, then I think we're done with this letter. We're going down to the next page. And also not, and also not in personal development, right? Yes, personal development. Did I say something else? That's what I meant. Yes, not-- They're not doing well in-- They're, they're doing well in interpersonal and not in personal development. The Rebbe says the only solution is to give-- is to instill in the students a fear or a love of a higher power that is higher than people themselves. What he said in the part of the letter we skipped is that it seems that the threat of disappointing their parents and teachers, and even the legal system, isn't actually changing them, so we're going to need them to fear or love God Himself. The only way to get people to conquer their taivas and to conquer their desires is to convince them of a higher power that they need to either love or fear. The fear of the government and fear of their teachers will help them maybe with interpersonal relationships, but not

10:15 with their personal development. All right. You can't wait until the child's eighteen in order to teach them this. You can't even wait till the child's thirteen to teach them this. And then say that until they're thirteen or eighteen, they can just do whatever they want. We can't hope the teachers are going to pus-push them in the right direction. Or excuse me, fear. That's mora with an alef. We can't hope that fear of normal human interventions like police officers and like the education system will convince a child to be good on their own. We're going to need to convince them that God exists very early on. I see no other advice, says the Rebbe. Says, I see no other way around this. From the time they are very young. The Rebbe says we need in the public school system to be teaching them that God exists. Asher Olam Higa Ga'at Av BePe'el, that, uh, he is not just the one who created the world, but he's also running the world right now. We're saying the Achmedozal, Sheish, Ayin, Reves, and Shemas, children need to be taught that there is an eye that sees, an ear that hears, BeChomas Ach, BeSefer Nechtavim, and that all of our actions that we do are written down in a book. BeSefer Shei, Iyev Sher Lizayfa, a sefer, a book that cannot be forged. Uh, the Ayin, the Ezen, Sheyev Sher Lashach, Damal, Alilicham, Desheilo, Alidei, Kalmine, Nemimis, Vesichakmos. This is an eye that sees, an ear that hears, that cannot

11:28 be bribed, and that it cannot be convinced that it didn't see what it saw or hear what it heard. Basically, that, uh, you can always get around your teachers, get around the police, and, and figure out a way around the system, but there is no way around God himself. So the only way to teach children, uh, in a way that's going to help their personal development, help them conquer their taivas, is to teach them about God. And this is one of the many places where the Rebbe says something that I know is not conventional Orthodox thinking. Uh, the Rebbe was against conventional Orthodox thinking in this regards. Uh, all the mo-- uh, almost every Orthodox Jewish organization in America was constantly pushing to get prayer out of public schools and to get God out of public schools because they didn't want Christianity in the public schools. And the Rebbe repeatedly, although he never says he wants God forbid Christianity in the public schools, the Rebbe doesn't seem concerned by this at all. The Rebbe wants public schools to be talking about God, teaching the Jews and the non-Jews that there is a God who's watching over them and who will hold them accountable if they do the wrong thing. So we see this very clearly in this letter, and now we're gonna look at a couple of sichas where the Rebbe says the same thing, although the truth is, I'm really cheating you of the total experience. Literally every year on Yud Aleph Nissan, from

12:26 around the year, um, from the late Lameds onward, every single year, the Rebbe has a major section of his sicha dedicated to Education Day USA, thanking the government for making Education Day USA, and then first of all saying support the public schools, and second of all saying the public schools are broken and these are the problems. And, uh, he does this literally every year, some years at more length than others. I picked one sicha from Mem Beis because I liked something that was here that I didn't see in other places. And then we're gonna look at really the foundational sicha of this entire thing, which is the sicha the Rebbe gave right after the attempted assa-assassination of Ronald Reagan, the president. So this is a sicha on Taf Shin Mem Beis. Again, you can find this every single year. This is from Yud Aleph Nissan, predictable place to find it, usually near the beginning. Here I just-- I, I highlighted a few sections of sicha to show you. So first of all, the, the Rebbe, uh, usually thanks, as I told you, in almost all these sichas, the Rebbe usually thanks the president and emphasizes that it's important that the United States rec-recognize Education Day USA as an official construct. So here we have, "Om ze movin gadolas chos, vechein hei ve'inakar et hateiv k'shetei tamiza." The Rebbe says we should understand the great merit and also the need for me to say thank you. "Ve'chakik hascheich hai rav, ve'negeia lechal in ya- inyanim tevim."

13:29 That there was a law passed about this, "miach sh'zeh nesinas cheich, mimichades l'chan shei medina," because this law, by, by, by passing a law formally emphasizing education, this gives a koach, this gives a power to all people who are living in the country, all citizens, "le'eseh b'chan yanim tevim," to increase in all good things, "nes v'hakabolas shi u'vea'avar," in addition to everything they've done in the past. So usually have a big thank you section where the Rebbe says it's important that the-- he usually thanks the n- the president for writing a letter to him and saying that letter is important. In this sicha, I believe, as well in many of the other ones, the Rebbe emphasizes the importance of renewing the commitment every single year. Every single year, the president puts out a new proclamation. The Rebbe talks about how the world changes when new proclamations come out, and we continue. "V'nei, devar kevich v'ach kam apam." We've spoken many times previously, the Rebbe says, "Shekedin achinuch, ein mespat b'achnias riva yidias," that the main part of education is not knowing more stuff, "yidias keves v'chulu. Al ikirin achinuchu," the most, the most important part of chinuch is not necessarily giving them more information. Rather, the most important part is, "mnigei leteva amidus," is a po-- uh, the ha- leteva amidus, is about the state of the midas of the person, their emotional, uh, attributes, who they are. "Hainu, ki shemechunach yihiye adam haray lishmai," when an educator is a person who is fit to

14:34 hold the title educator, that is a teacher who deserves to be called a teacher, "tal naga nushis v'chayim," this is also somebody who is a good person in their daily life, "v'deach meilei moven," therefore it should be understood automatically. "Shemechunach mnatsas kol yidias shulei, d'mataras tzedek v'yesh v'shalom." That a teacher should use all the things that he knows to, uh, all, all the yidias that he knows, all the things he knows, to a good end in a way of justice and uprightness and peace. So here the Rebbe is emphasizing the importance of having quality teachers, and the quality teachers doesn't just mean intelligent teachers, but also means teachers in the public schools who are moral people. "V'niyan zeh tzarch liyes v'ad gashi, zeh etzem mechanchem v'klal, tzanhala l'chol beis achinuch." We need to make sure that this is emphasized when it comes to teachers and to all of the administrators involved in schools. "Shtach l'taras achinachi," that they should all understand. We should remind them over and over again, you know, whenever they have these teachers in services. A teacher's in-service should remind them that the entire point of education, and again, he's talking about public education here, "sh'kal mechunach m-mechuneches," that all of the male and female teachers, "yigdilu anashim"-- Excuse me, I said that backwards 'cause I didn't conjugate right. "Sh'kal mechunach mechuneches," every one of the students, "yigdilu la'anashim mesaligim b'avein anushim musadi," that they should raise-- that the teachers should raise s-students who will, uh, who will be moral and, um,

15:42 and ethical. "V'tzach mataras zu," and in the needs of this outcome, "amtim la'am li'idias v'nianim sh'nim," we do teach them things in order to serve this end, "k'deshiych l'maley et tapkidav sh'lichasa v'adeiras v'even tevi-tev biesef." So the Rebbe says we need to have-- we need to explain to teachers that they should have a outlook of education. Their educational outlook should be, people ask, "What's your educational philosophy?" They should answer, "My educational philosophy is that the students need to be better people, and that I'm going to teach them information that will help them fulfill their purpose in this world toward the end of being better people, that all the information they learn actually serves the moral purpose and not the other way around." One more thing I wanted to show you before we move on to the big sicha. "Kenim giy sham l'kved et rachmei v'nechinuch, ein igen chinuch atzmi, v'egen chinuch ha'yaladav, k'del shebichaznu lashbia l'chinuch amar b'cheich b'lispendem et tachlis b'deiosei," says here that when we're doing this, everybody needs to also be thinking about the entire point of their creation. "Sheani nivrei s'lishamas geskeni," that I was created in order to serve my creator. "Hainu sh'mitziyus nivrei s'kedei shulis shliach sh'lach hashbarchu," that the entire point of our existence is to be a shliach hav Hashem. So the last point the Rebbe brings up that we're going to look at here is that the teachers need to have a philosophy of moral education for the child and that these knowledge-based education is really

16:46 only for the moral education, and also they need to remind themselves and remind the children that I was created to serve Hashem and that the entire point of our creation, of our existence, is to be a shliach hav Hashem. So this is bringing God into the classroom very specifically and also bringing a moral direction into the classroom. The thing that is the longest that we just don't have a lot of time to do, so we'll try to run around it a little bit, is the sicha that Rebbe gave right after the Reagan assassination. This isn't a history class. Um, some of you, as you told me yesterday, you actually remember the Reagan near assassination. He was not assassinated. This was on March thirtieth- Of, uh, what year was this? I didn't write down the year. March 30th of, uh, what was it '78? What-- No, it was-- What-- It had to be the '80s, right? It was '81? Wow. It was '81. '81. Yes, '81. Excuse me, '81. So this is March 30th of 1981. Uh, Reagan had delivered a speech at the Washington Hilton Hotel, which was considered super safe. It was built in Washington specifically with a safe area after the pre-- after the assassination of JFK, so that nobody could get shot there. Uh, the Secret Service made him wear a bulletproof vest generally, but Reagan didn't wear one that time because his only exposure was thirty feet between the hotel and his limo, and, uh, and it was also considered a

17:50 very safe location. Uh, this John Hinckley Jr., uh, Shamersham Yirkov, he, uh, he was standing there at two twenty-seven PM as Reagan exited the hotel through the area that was supposed to be impossible to assassinate someone through. Uh, he was nearly assassinated through it. Uh, he was-- shot the president, the president, uh, five times, I believe. The first five bullets hit staff and officers around the president, then the sixth bullet bounced off the armored side of the limousine and hit the president in his left underarm. So the president was hit by one bullet. All the staffers were hit by all the other bullets. I don't know how they did. In any event, he was not assassinated, but he was nearly assassinated. It was a real scare for the country. James Brady was shot in the head. There we go. Didn't go well for other people who were around him. Uh- Survived, though. Survived. Oh, went better than I expected when I heard shot in the head, but still not good. Um, anyway, right after this near assassination, the Rebbe gave a long sikha, um, about the assassination, about how this could happen. And to make a long story short, he blames public schools. He says public schools are why the assassination happened, and that if public schools were better, nobody would be trying to shoot the president. So I'm gonna show you some excerpts from this. You have the entire thing, uh, on the drive. And also, this is r-- this is recorded. They have

18:55 a video of it with, with captions. You can watch the whole thing. Watching the sikha is, is an experience. But anyway, the Rebbe says, "First of all, I wanna give a bracha for Refua Shlema for, uh, for the president." And then the Rebbe says in this paragraph here, I'm just summarizing, but it's really cool to read, that one of the reasons why the Rebbe cares about the president is because the president is democratically elected. He says, "Libi schnibchar al idei rabim." This is someone who was chosen by the majority. "Raboti dimshlim ba'amim rabim." This is a nation that has many different nations within it. The United States is full of different people from different places, and they chose by a majority that they wanted this president, and the minority, according to the rules of the country, has to accept the president once he's been chosen. So whether you voted for a president or not, the president has a special power in the Rebbe's eyes, specifically because they won an election, even if the minority didn't like them, because ultimately everybody agrees to accept him based on the fact that he won a free and fair election. So the Rebbe says, "I care about the president, want a Refua Shlema for him, specifically because he's democratically elected," which I just thought was really cool. Okay, now going into Ches, the Rebbe says you should know the term of the Baal Shem Tov, that when we see anything from-- when we say anything, we need to learn

19:52 something from it. And ad deraban demaisi is deika, the most important thing is the actual action that comes from the thing that we saw. So the Rebbe says, "Let's go back to this, uh, maisa mavhil, this, this astounding and horrific scenario." Tzadik hispanel sascha mikach shemispanen kfi yechelt benasa shari biflani ben flani. How could one person shoot another person? And more than that, how could somebody shoot the president of the-- uh, one of the, uh, one of the citizens of the country? The president is a citizen of the country. How could you, uh, how could one person shoot another person? We need to, uh, we need to hemimispanen on this. Ketsi yachlis na'at chila adim yasica ze daven shulagamen de limovon. It's entirely not understood why a person would try to shoot the president. Hu negena seichav hahergesh. It's against the intellect. It's against the feelings. It just makes no sense. V'nei sevat miya gufa mara lach hispanes ma'amar. The more we think about this, the more the as-- the more the astoundment. Uh, astoundment? The more, the more astounding it all becomes. Shevati tzadik lehed zeis mashina be'esav maisa peil leilach bizdazeim etzeitzav tachlis amaisa. This is so important. The Rebbe here says, "Your practical outcome cannot be, 'I'm so freaked out by this. How scary is that?'" The practical outcome needs to be that we come, that we, that we learn something we can do based on it, so we're gonna need to think about this, this horrible thing. The Rebbe says, first

20:57 of all, ki de laos veketzi tachin shekar deva kazem latfilah. I wanna explain how this happened, how somebody came to try to assassinate a president. Yodua hatanish charshmaizabil ti timhuanias. The Rebbe says, "I know that people are saying that the main reason why crime happens is because of poverty." I know people say that all the time. Mishum shikashi eshnanias. When there's poverty, zemevi limeridus, this makes people sad. V'shashi eshnimeridus. And when people are sad, zemevi leregesh al nakama. This makes people wanna take revenge against a system. Hu izem hagil nimaisabil ti retzuim. And this leads us to bad outcomes. The Rebbe goes, "I know what the world says." The world says poverty leads to upset. Upset leads to, uh, leads to a feeling of, um, leads to a feeling of, uh-- Let me just see this. Upset leads to a feeling of, not for us, of, uh, a need to take revenge or a need to get back at the system that harmed you, and that's why people do bad things. The Rebbe says, uh, that's not gonna work here. Rebbe peil. Shzal sesamaisa. We see who did this. We look at who did this. Eina omni. The person who did this, who tried to shoot the president, was not poor. El al rabo. Hu gadol b'tor ben osher. He was raised as the son of a very wealthy man. V'latzav miyamav. His father never, never, uh, never, never spared any sort of, uh, any sort of, uh-- Th-this was something that came from the,

21:59 uh-- Oh, that's from Malachim. But, uh, the-- this had come, come from news reports that his father had said that he gave him everything he wanted, always and never disciplined him. Nir shlema nimena shum dover. Nothing was kept from this individual ever. So this was not a poor person. Tash hesheshmaizabil ti tim k'shememanias. When we think that bad actions are tied to poverty, madgish merizash, uh, esa shereshan hagibil tidat tzadeach lafez v'makam acher gam l'duvanias. Uh, we s-- clearly need to look for some other cause for this, not poverty. And what the Rebbe goes on to say in the part that we're skipping here is that the Torah itself testifies that poor people are more moral than rich people, that Torah mainly comes from the children of poor people, that poverty is not going to be a cause for societal ills. The Rebbe simply doesn't buy it, and, uh, I would love to show you this some other time because it's just a really cool take on society at large, um, because I do, I do recognize this as a, as a major sociological view that, uh, that poverty causes crime. And here the Rebbe says poverty does not cause crime. It can't cause crime, and in this case, certainly didn't. The Rebbe says, "Now that we've emphasized that this was a rich kid and that clearly his poverty didn't cause his crime, what exactly went wrong?" He says, "First of all, l'chaleresh leatsu miyamav. His father never disciplined him." And the second thing, aveida

23:01 v'rashaini, kevshinu cholei haya chadim munike debais. These are two points the Rebbe's making, both important, neither of which we have time for. Super summary is coming right now, which is that, uh, l'chaleresh leatsu miyamav. There is a philosophy out there right now about this sort of, uh, free-range parenting, not, uh, disciplining your child. The Rebbe says many times that it's very important to discipline your child, not to hit them. We actually saw, um, uh, we had a whole shiur on not hitting your kids. But a strong discipline from a parent is necessary, and letting kids do whatever they want is toxic. So the Rebbe says reason number one why this guy tried to kill the president is because his father didn't discipline him properly. And reason number two, davar sheini, kevshinu cholei haya chadim munike debais. He had a public education, and this education was not instilled with faith in God. Munup sholti sheshne be'er elaman. He got-- He was never given the faith that there is a creator of the world who also runs the world. Mistakach al kol echad ve'echad. And he did not know. He, he wasn't given-- He wasn't instilled with this quality that there is a God who made the world, runs the world, and who looks at every single person. The Rebbe goes on to say this at considerable length, that the problem with Chinuch in America right now is that although it teaches information, all the things we saw in the previous letter, in the previous Sichas, although

24:02 it teaches information, and although it even teaches some things about personal devel-- about interpersonal development, it really doesn't teach a person to control themselves. And furthermore, the Rebbe says in this part of the Sicha over here, that, uh, that what it does do is it rewards you for amassing more knowledge, and it tells you that you're great and you should try to make yourself bigger and better. So it teaches a student implicitly that they should do whatever they need to do to get what they want. And if the implicit implication is that they need to do whatever they need to do to get what they want, then, uh, then it makes a lot of sense, says the Rebbe. It makes a lot of sense that the natural outcome of the way education is done in America right now is that a student who wants something and can't get it without a gun will go out and buy a gun and shoot their way to it. That it just makes sense that an education system built around Ani v'afsi, eh, that I'm all that matters, and that God doesn't matter, and that the world around me doesn't matter, and that I need to build my own, my own education and my own career path, naturally brings a person to a place where they could come to shoot another person. So, uh, based on these things we saw from the Rebbe's letter about, uh, public schools and how we need to, to have specifically a fear of

24:57 heaven in the public school system and an emphasis on morality. We saw the teachers need to emphasize this as we-- as well. And what we saw in the Sicha, we get a conclusion from the Rebbe that the public school system is not okay the way it is right now. The Rebbe specifically in the Sicha rails against the separation of church and state and says that there shouldn't be a separation of religion and, uh, of religion and education when it comes to public schools, and that public schools that do not instill students with a basic fear of heaven are producing students who shoot presidents, who kill each other, and that this is absolutely not the way that things need to be. This really, uh, I think gives us a background. This is how we're concluding. This really gives us a background for a better understanding of a lot of the Rebbe's mitzvahs surrounding the public school system, surrounding schools at large, the idea of prayer in public schools followed by a moment of silence, the Rebbe's push to not necessarily have God not in the classroom. Because on one hand, uh, the, the other, the other streams of thought, the other Orthodox streams of thought revolving around how, uh, we need to make sure that Christianity doesn't get into the public school system does have some merit. But on the other hand, look at what the Rebbe is worried about. The Rebbe is not worried about, about maybe a, uh, a Jewish kid in a public

25:57 school hearing an ideology that he's not familiar with. The Rebbe is worried about people literally shooting each other, people trying to assassinate the president. The Rebbe is saying that a societal ills from crime to juvenile delinquency to murder all come down to public schools not having God mentioned in them. So the Rebbe wants God mentioned in the public schools, prayer if he can get it, and moment of silence if he can't. And, uh, that's it for today.