Poorly Thought Out Rules and Their Consequences

Yeshivas Kol Torah (VIN)

I get following the rules. I am a big fan of following rules. And I get suffering the consequences of not doing so. I have been a victim of that myself in my youth - having had more than a few speeding tickets. One time having my drivers license suspended because I had three such violations in one year. I was 18. I have since learned to be more mindful of speed limits and have never had a suspension since - in all of my over 60 years of driving. 

But sometimes the consequences of violating rules are unreasonable. Even if they are made with the best of intentions. I find that this is often the case in the Charedi world. This does not mean they shouldn’t be followed. If one accepts the conditions of the institution they have been granted admission to, then suffering the consequences of violating them are known in advance and there should be no complaints about it. 

It does however beg the question, Why are rules made that are so unreasonable in the first place? Even if the intention was good, there are surely other things to consider when making such rules that should argue against making them at all. That was my reaction to a story in VIN: 

In a dramatic move at the end of the summer “zman”(yeshiva term), the venerable Kol Torah yeshiva in Jerusalem has expelled tens of bochurim, including some of its star students. The sudden decision is based on an old directive issued by Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach in 1994, prohibiting all yeshiva students from obtaining a driver’s license. The directive came in the wake of a number of serious road accidents involving yeshiva students. 

During that period, the Vaad Hayeshivos went as far as saying that yeshiva students who had licenses would not receive military deferments. Most of the yeshivas accepted the directive and forbade students from obtaining a license. In most yeshivos the directive has remained in place but usually is not enforced...

In the Kol Torah yeshiva there was no official policy against driving licenses until recent years, when it was decided to change and prohibit obtaining a license.

Really? Getting kicked out of a school for having a drivers license? And making no exception regardless of how exemplary a student otherwise is? How sad it is that a Yeshiva that was once headed by one of the greatest Gedolim of the 20^th century - Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, ZTL - has has been reduced to making kneejerk school policy decisions.

This is unfortunately typical of the way much of Charedi leadership reacts to things they see as harmful, even when the good outweighs the bad. Such as the ban on using the internet a few years ago. Which was mainly observed in the breach by the majority of the Charedi world. 

That ban was rescinded (at least in practice if not officially) in favor of using it with internet filters. The leadership finally realized what was obvious to the rest of the world. That the admittedly serious issues are outwieghd by the many benefits the internet can provide. Benefits so numerous that enforcing a ban  would deprive people of the myriad ways in which they could improve the quality of their lives both materially and spiritually. 

They also realized the  deleterious effect a ban would have upon the financial welfare of their people. One of which is the relatively new way of earning a decent living in places like Lakewood. By becoming a vender on internet platforms like Amazon, one can do quite well hawking their wares with the right kind of product and some decent marketing. 

Point being that rules need to make sense. Drastic measures to accomplish even a legitimate goal can easily backfire.  Expelling  otherwise exemplary students that have a drivers license is one of those. 

Sure there are accidents. Many of them serious resulting in permanent injuries or death. But the benefits of driving outweigh the risk. Besides, Not having a drivers license and being driven by others to the places they would have otherwise have driven to themselves - has the same chances of serious injury for a passenger as they do for a driver. This is a rule that makes little sense. As was the original ban against the internet. 

But this is how the Charedi world rolls. The leadership sees something they don’t like and they institute drastic measures to counter it. They do not consider the collateral damage that might result, considering it insignificant to the greater damage that would result without those drastic measures. Why must it take rebellion for Charedi leadership to realize they overreacted?

I also have to wonder why Roshei Yeshiva don’t take similar measures for far more serious matters. Like when their students participate in protests that sometimes turn violent. I realize that some Roshei Yeshiva do forbid their students from doing that. But I don't know that they all do. Or if there are any consequences for doing so even by those that do. How many students have been expelled for doing that? I don’t know - maybe I’m wrong and they have. But I haven’t heard anything about it.

Participating in protests that turn violent does far more damage to the participants and to reputation of their schools than does having a drivers license. One of the more serious ones being the increased hatred of the Charedi world by secular and Dati Jews when they see Charedi students doing things like that.-

Sometimes I think the ingredient most missing from some of the Charedi leadership is simple common sense when dealing with matters of public policy. It has been replaced by kneejerk edicts designed to quickly end a bad situation without fully thinking what the negative consequences might be. I think that characterizes much of what is called Daas Torah in that world.