Can someone who isn’t “cut-out” for learning learn a trade instead?

By Rabbi Noam Wagner

First of all, it’s very easy to come along and say “I’m not cut-out for learning.” But it may be just plain laziness. Honesty is not only towards others, it’s also towards yourself.

But there certainly are people who really are not “cut-out” for a rigorous Yeshuva schedule. And if you are one of those (and as always, you cannot decide this alone, you must consult a mashpia that knows you well) you still must take in account that being in Yeshiva and learning all day serve different purposes.

Nowadays Yeshiva serves a much different — and more crucial — purpose than it used to.

Back in the day, Yeshiva was a place for someone who wants to learn, and after a certain age if you’re not interested in becoming a rov, maggid shiur or the like, so then you had nothing left to do in Yeshiva.

In today’s day and age, however, because of what’s going on in the streets, a Yeshiva is not just a place for teaching a bochur how to learn, rather the Yeshiva (or high school and seminary for that matter) is a place which sets a bochur up on his feet and teaches him how to be a Jew.

In the olden days, a boy who wasn’t able to learn would be apprenticed to an older person who was a big Yerei Shamayim, and in addition to teaching him a trade, he would also instill in him Yiras Shamayim and teach him at least basic Yiddishkeit.

[You can read the Frierdiker Rebbe’s memoirs to gain an understanding of the environment of a shtetl back then and on what level of erlichkeit and eidelkeit a simple ba’al melacha was on.]

Today, we don’t have that. If you go out of the world of Yeshiva, you are going out into a world which is in many ways the total opposite of what Yiddishkeit espouses.

So if a person has already learned in Yeshiva enough time and has that foundation for his life and has acquired that Yiras Shamayim which the Yeshiva has to teach it, he may step out into the world and with Hashem’s help have a positive impact on the world, not G-d forbid the opposite.

But to step out into the world in that impressionable age of a teenager, without the proper preparation you can only get at a Yeshiva or equivalent mossad for young women, would be as good as sending a 5 year old to a 6 lane highway and expect that nothing terrible will happen!

If someone feels that his Yeshiva is not teaching that, he probably should find a Yeshiva that does give him that. Many times it’s a matter of style. Some connect to it and others don’t.

But a Yeshiva that is not teaching Yiras Shamayim, is not doing its job!

A yeshiva is not, l’havdil, a collage that teaches wisdom. A Yeshiva is a place that teaches a person how to be a Jew. Part of being a Jew is learning Torah, and every Jew can learn torah on his level but if someone can’t learn on the academic level of the Yeshiva, then you would hope that they give him other Chassidishe things to do when he is not able to learn.

But you must remain be in the atmosphere of learning, of Chassidishkeit and of Yiras Shamayim. And to be taught how to be a Jew, how to make brachos and how to serve Hashem. He won’t learn that on the street!

And once a person is strong enough to go out into the world, something that must be evaluated not alone, rather with the help of his parents and Mashpia, then he may proceed to the next stage of his life and obviously learnt the trade in an environment conducive to a Jewish way of life, not a college G-d forbid! There are plenty of options as such these days.

There’s nothing wrong with learning a trade and learning half-a-day. As long as there is that solid background.

You need to spend a few good years in Yeshiva not to become a talmid chacham, but to be a proper Jew! ■