I t figured to be a seudas preidah like any other. A member of “the chaburah” was moving on leaving Lakewood to accept a coveted position in an established yeshivah. As per the protocol we filed into the host’s home noshed on pretzels and cake and waited for the derashos to begin. But what I heard that evening gave me a perspective on life that has stayed with me.
The venerated Rav Yehuda Jacobs shlita segan mashgiach in Beis Medrash Govoha at the time noted that this yungerman had spent his entire yeshivah career in Lakewood. No Brisk no Ponevezh no Mir — nowhere but 617 Sixth Street. Quoting the megillah of this season Koheles (7:29): “asher asah haElokim es ha’adam yashar v’heimah vikshu chishvonos rabim.” Hashem gave us all the capacity to live a straightforward “glatt” life but we have the tendency to complicate things with all sorts of mental gymnastics. The tendency to assume that the grass is greener on the other side can prevent us from recognizing how good we may have it right where we are. This budding talmid chacham the mashgiach said lives with this sense of yashar and found everything he needed in the one yeshivah he called home until Hashgachah sent him to bring his talents to his own talmidim. Fittingly over 30 years later this person is still in that same position continuing to mentor generations of talmidim.
This does not mean there is no place for a bochur to expand his horizons by moving on to a new yeshivah. The point is that that should not be a default knee-jerk decision because “everyone” else is going. There is no virtue in over-complicating our lives when we already have what we need readily available.
Now that I have experienced a little more of real life this message gives me pause. Do we live straight “glatteh” lives? What drives the choices we make in life: the careers we pursue how we raise our children the lifestyles we adopt or even our hashkafos how we think? Do we sometimes drift from the path that is yashar?
