It’s a common phenomenon. A young man is about to leave elementary school and move on to the next step in becoming the finest ben Torah he can be. His father initiates a conversation with his rebbi. “I want my boy in an Ivy League yeshivah can you help get him in?”
“Why do you think he is best served in such a yeshivah” the boy’s rebbi responds. “I think he is better off in a smaller place or in one where the rebbeim are more suited to his strengths.”
“Because MY son has to go to a famous yeshivah” is the typical response.
In one such exchange the rebbi recommended a specific yeshivah but his advice was ignored. After a miserable ninth-grade year in Ivy League yeshivah #1 the boy was asked to move on and year later he was summarily dismissed from Ivy League yeshivah #2. By that time the only thing resembling ivy was the color he dyed his hair to go with the orange highlights and purple borders. He eventually wound up in the very institution the rebbi originally suggested. After pulling himself together he blossomed and found his way to Yerushalayim where he resides today with his beautiful family.
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