PERSPECTIVES → PERSPECTIVE Issue 872 · August 4, 2021

Before You Send Your Son

If you want to take advantage of Eretz Yisrael, don’t bring America with you

Before You Send Your Son

As parents send off their sons for a year of learning, they often do so recalling their own idyllic memories of the year they spent in Israel. Has the scene for American bochurim in Israel changed since their fathers were there decades ago? Are there new challenges that need to be addressed? More opportunities to be taken advantage of?

Mishpacha asked leading mechanchim on both sides of the Atlantic what parents can tell their sons to help them have the most productive year possible. Timely and timeless, their advice can help parents give their sons the tools they need to have a year of growth in the city of Torah.

Unplug.

In no uncertain terms, and without exception, every mechanech we spoke to made it clear that bringing a smartphone to Eretz Yisrael is the single most effective way to make sure any aliyah in ruchniyus does not occur.

“When I went to Eretz Yisrael, we spoke to our parents once a week — and at a dollar fifty a minute, we kept our conversations short,” one mechanech remembered.

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