Is There a Disconnect between Torah Learning and ... - Hakirah.org

Is there a Disconnect between Torah Learning and Torah Living? : 37
We tell many stories of our gedolim (great and saintly leaders)
practicing good middos. A cursory review of those stories will
demonstrate that in most of them the greatness lay in the gadol’s
sensitivity to how another person felt in a given situation. We all know
the story of how Reb Yaakov Kaminetzky insisted on sitting in the
front seat of a car while Reb Moshe Feinstein sat alone in the back,
while a bachur drove them home from an event. Reb Yaakov did this
so that when Reb Moshe, whose home would be the first stop, would
get out of the car, the bachur would not be left with a passenger (Reb
Yaakov) in the back seat, and feel that he is merely a chauffer. If we
are to take these anecdotes seriously, we must teach our children
sensitivity to the feelings of others. This can be done by way of
stories, and by classroom discussions of anecdotes about people in
dire straits. However, it is best done if the discussions are
accompanied by actual experiences and activities in which our
children meet up with people in need and are involved in helping
them. Most of our schools for girls have such programs. Why not the
boys’ yeshivos as well?
Emotion:
But even sensitivity is not enough. We must go still further. We must
reach our children at the gut level. We must get them to have an
intuitive sense of right and wrong. They must feel it in the gut!! A
friend of mine who grew up with me in Montreal related the
following personal anecdote.
In Montreal where we grew up in the 50s and 60s, there was no
school bus transportation provided by yeshivos. We went to school
each morning using public transportation. Most of the passengers
that we traveled with were, of course, not Jewish, and we were told
and taught and made to feel very conscious of the fact that our
behavior on the bus could create a kiddush Hashem or chas veshalom a
chilul Hashem. We were taught to get up and give up our seats to any
older person who was standing, and to otherwise be courteous to
others. One winter evening, when I was about 11 years old, I was
coming home from yeshiva at 6:30 pm, extremely exhausted from a
long day at yeshiva, and I managed to get a seat on the bus. I
decided I was too tired to give up my seat, and when an elderly lady
got on the bus at the next stop, I put my head down, and closed
my eyes pretending not to see her. But, then sitting there, I felt my
face getting warmer and warmer and then getting hot. I was