On Shabbat night, the neighborhood synagogue for yeshiva students in Har Nof, and into the hall, a young man, about 21 years old, from the Hebron yeshiva, entered, smiling and full of self-satisfaction. It was just a few days after the struggle he led in the yeshiva was successful and he defeated the yeshiva administrators. He told the group that had gathered around him: "One of the administrators wanted to appoint his relative as the yeshiva's leader. We organized ourselves, and he gave in. In Hebron, that won't happen.".
A brief examination revealed that this was a tremendous scholar, with rare powers of persuasion and proven leadership ability, whose only 'sin' was his family connection to one of the yeshiva directors. "Don't you think you've gone too far?" asked the young Che Guevara.
"No," he replied firmly. "They won't tell us.".
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""What do you care?" I tried to understand with all my heart, "Aren't you getting married next year and leaving the building, and the appointment in itself is worthy," but my words fell on deaf and smug ears.
This unimpressive story stirred my episodic memories, after the Haredim 10 revealed the arrangement reached by the students and yeshiva heads this week at the Hebron yeshiva. Almost by chance, I met the same revolutionary again a few days ago, and he is about 33 years old.
""Well, what do you think about what's happening in the yeshiva?" I asked.
""Forget it," the worried old man waved his hand, "nonsense, who cares?".
""But thirteen years ago, you led a student uprising for an appointment that you considered illegal. Why are you disavowing it now?"
""Leave it," the bearded young man replied again, "low level," and hurried on his way.
The audacity has not changed.
The young boys refuse to acknowledge the fact that the yeshiva officials who offer them, for the most part in inadequate amounts - paid by their parents - a full scholarship, free lectures from the best shiurim preachers in the yeshiva world, and colorful events on holidays, also have a legitimate right to make decisions, even if they are not always popular.
The young boys, who have never been accustomed to physical labor or military discipline, manage to find enough courage in themselves to determine how the yeshiva will be run, who will be appointed, and when it is time for the rosh yeshiva to leave his post. They still have difficulty thinking about the disastrous consequences for them, such as the cessation of hot water in the communal showers on the day the rosh yeshiva ceases to fulfill his duties.
The fact that a yeshiva, so central to the Haredi yeshiva concept, is run like a huge hotel, visited by guests who stay there for a few years, who study seriously at best, or who use the boarding school as a convenient starting point for entertainment at worst, should keep us awake at night, not only for Rabbi Hevroni and the other yeshiva heads, but for us, the Haredim who are among the musters faced with the issue of recruiting yeshiva students.
