Rav Yair Rosenthal is the acting Educational Director of the IDF Prep Academy in Bet El - an institution that prepares underprivileged youth in Israel - mentally, physically, and spiritually - for their army service and for success in life. In this interview Rav Yair discusses his inspirations for working in education and with youth-at-risk, the meaningful and painful parts of his job, and an amazing story about why he chose to live in Bet El.
[Interview conducted by Sharona eshet-Kohen and translated by Hillel Fendel]
[Interview conducted by Sharona eshet-Kohen and translated by Hillel Fendel]
Rav Yair Rosenthal (RYR): I was born into a religious-Zionist home that
was steeped in Torah. To understand my family a bit, I think that since I was a
boy barely a week ever went by without me learning Torah with my father. Even
now, he travels every week from Rehovot to Bet El to learn with me, with
my brother who lives here, with my children, and even with my wife.
One of my grandfathers was on the Exodus, the other was actually closer to Satmar in his ideology, but my parents were both religious-Zionist. Our home was warm, loving, and steeped in Torah and education. The path that my parents set for us is the way in which we all continue, and thank G-d all of the children – I am the oldest – are involved in Torah education.
SEK: Where did you learn to get smicha [rabbinic ordination] and what motivated you to become a Rabbi?
RYR: In my studies here in Yeshivat Bet El, I received rabbinic ordination and a teaching degree. Teaching, I believe, is the absolute most important thing in the world and an amazing privilege in the Land of Israel, in Bet El, at this time in history when the return to Zion is underway. All the more so at the IDF Prep Academy, where young students are getting to know Torah and getting to know themselves and their souls. Here they are taught how important and special they are, and then they go out into the world and share this, as soldiers and in society. To redeem each individual in a genuine endeavor, with overtones effecting the entire nation.
SEK: How many years have you been working at the IDF Prep Academy? What originally brought you to the Academy?
RYR: I am a rebbe at the Academy, serving in this capacity for 16 years now, and I am also a teacher at the ulpana [girl's religious high school] in Bet El and Kokhav Yaakov. Before that I taught at the Bet El Bnei Tzvi boys junior high school, and before that I taught in the elementary school here. So I have taught at all the different levels, including many of the same children in several different frameworks.
I grew up in Rehovot, and my aspiration was always to go out and be a part of a garin [religious-Zionist outreach group] and bring Torah to the People of Israel. But I consulted with the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Melamed, who told me that I don't have to leave Bet El to do that. He said they're building an IDF Prep Academy in Bet El, and that he plans to bring young Jews here and I can teach them without leaving! So we in fact opened the Academy, and the Rav sent us out to recruit them, and they began coming!
It's wonderful to see our students grow - both those who leave Bet El afterwards and build families with a Torah influence in neighborhoods all around the country, and those who remain and build families here in Bet El and nearby. There are students who started their path of tshuvah [return to Torah] at the Academy and then continue it in the Bet El Yeshiva, and now they themselves are teachers. There are even some who have taught my children. I remember they laughed when they first arrived and I told them that they shouldn't sell themselves short, and that one day my children would yet study under them – and thank G-d, that's exactly what happened.
A side passion of mine, outside the framework of the Academy, is running the Yeshiva's Pesach matza bakery here in Bet El. If your readers come to Israel next Pesach, they are all invited to visit and bake matzot for their Seder table!
SEK: What inspired you to work with underprivileged youth?
RYR: I believe that my inspiration came from two people in particular: First from Rav Avraham Remer zt"l, the first "mayor" of fledgling Bet El who was my teacher in 11th grade; in him I truly saw the faith he had in every student and in their essential goodness, such that the students could not help but realize that they had real value. Secondly, the saintly Rav Kook inspired me: He taught that all of creation and every Jew is all good, and that we just have to help this absolute good to be revealed, and thus the world will come to its rectification. And I began to see that this was true, and I began to try it, and I felt I learned how to do it - and I saw that it really works!
In practical terms, the one who gave me the push and direction was Bet El’s Rosh Yeshiva Rav Zalman Melamed. His vision is that there is no mission for the Nation of Israel that we are exempt from, and that we must have a part in every aspect of Israel's ongoing Redemption process, and that we can do it! His idea is to always initiate and to start things, and not to stop for a second, no matter how much there is to do or what age you are – it is always possible to create and add good to the world. And that's what Bet El is about; it's amazing.
SEK: What's your official role at the Academy? What do you do on a day-to-day basis there?
RYR: My official position at the Academy is rebbe, rabbi/teacher. This year I am teaching the second-year students, before their enlistment in the army. In their third year they return to the Academy for a month and a half break, and I study with them. And then I receive the fourth-year students, after they have completed their army service, and help prepare them for life both spiritually and also in finding jobs – some of them need to complete their high school diplomas, and almost all have to find a profession to study – and most importantly, I help them in preparation for marriage and family life.
My daily routine? It is made up of an infinite number of things… It starts with waking up the guys with a nice word in the morning, I then pray with them, learn with them Jewish law, Talmud, mussar, and hassidut, and answer their questions on all sorts of topics – going out on dates, families, friends from the army, overcoming hardships, whether to go for officers' training courses, when to push forward and when to lay off a bit, etc. I help those who have gotten engaged prepare for marriage and its laws and issues, and then I also accompany the couple afterwards, and even sometimes help in questions that arise in raising children… Wow, it's really something that never ends. It is very full, where you accompany a person from the end of his high school days up to his entry deep into his own family life.
SEK: What's the most meaningful aspect of your job?
RYR: I would say it is when I can help a student understand his great and unique value. I could sum it up in one sentence, as formulated by the Rebbe of Piaseczno: "Education begins when you see the diamond that the student is, and it ends when you cause him to see the diamond in himself; all the rest is just implementations." That's my job: to get him to see the light in himself and in others, the good and the mission that G-d implanted in him, and to arouse within him the inner desire to implement it.
SEK: What's the most difficult aspect of your job?
RYR: People who believe they are incorrigible or that the world is bad; they simply see the world incorrectly. It is hard for me to help them see the world as it really is, with its goodness and its challenges. This is the emotional part; I am greatly pained at meeting up with students who have not been able to rise above, who failed in something and still don’t forgive themselves, or who have lost their self-confidence and feel that they are failures. This part is hard for me, and it really tears my heart to see students who don’t believe in themselves and feel that they can't succeed….
Physically speaking, it really is a lot of hours, and also on Shabbat, and even on vacation we travel to the army and do Shabbatot there and the like; work at the Academy doesn’t stop. But it's not hard; it's challenging. This is the meaning of arichut yamim – not "old age," but rather "days that are long and full of content."
SEK: Tell me about your family. Where do you live? How did you meet your wife? How many children do you have? Grandchildren?
RYR: I met my wife here in Bet El when I was learning in the Yeshiva in my second year and she was the head counselor of the Ariel youth movement. I thought that she could be a good match for me, and to my great fortune she agreed, and we now are blessed with nine children from age 21 down, and one granddaughter, all of whom live right here in Bet El. My wife, Noyah, is a nursery school teacher in Bet El and in nearby Migron. Tiferet, our oldest, is married to a student at the Bet El Yeshiva. Yiskah is finishing National Service at an girls religious high school. Both Tiferet and Yiskah are graduates of Ulpanat Ra'ayah here in Bet El. Uziel is at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School in Bet El; Bnayahu is learning in a high school yeshiva in the north; Tuvia will study at Bnei Tzvi next year; and the other children are learning in the elementary school and kindergarten here in Bet El: Tzofia, Yaakov, Malachi and Ayalah. And we had a first granddaughter just three months ago, named Haleli.
I'll tell a little story: On my way back to Bet El for the first time when I came here to study, a Palestinian in Ramallah threw a rock at our bus. It smashed the windshield, and the driver asked the soldier who was accompanying us to "do something." But he refused, saying that he's just on reserve duty and he doesn't want any trouble. We just continued driving on, watching the Palestinian youth prepare to throw his next rock. I, of course, didn't like that, to put it mildly, and I decided that the Palestinians would pay for that rock – not in a destructive manner, but via building, the way that Jews know how. And thus, I live here with my sweet family; my brother lives here with his sweet family; my sister did National Service here and married someone from Bet El; my wife did the same, and so did her sister; my students are here; etc. – and so I believe that in exchange for that rock thrown by that Palestinian, we have here about 100 additional Jewish residents. I think that if that's how we would respond to each rock thrown at us, with more Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, the Palestinians would have long ago stopped throwing rocks at us.
SEK: What is the most important message you would like to give to our readers abroad?
RYR: What message can I give to my sweet brothers and friends who still live in the Diaspora? I say that they are precious brothers, and we miss them, and that I have apparently not seen many of them since we all stood together at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah. We would love to see you all here with us, and in the meantime while you're still there, we are very happy that your hearts are with us and that you are partners in what we are doing and building. We try to be worthy of your trust and fulfill the mission that Am Yisrael, including you, have assigned us, in building the Land and the Torah and bringing Jews closer. To each one of you who is our partner and who invests in our work, we are full of thanks and admiration. We would love if you would come here physically as well, as I'm sure that many of you can help us so very much in adding love of Torah and of Israel and in education and knowledge – so please come! We need you here and we miss you.
One of my grandfathers was on the Exodus, the other was actually closer to Satmar in his ideology, but my parents were both religious-Zionist. Our home was warm, loving, and steeped in Torah and education. The path that my parents set for us is the way in which we all continue, and thank G-d all of the children – I am the oldest – are involved in Torah education.
SEK: Where did you learn to get smicha [rabbinic ordination] and what motivated you to become a Rabbi?
RYR: In my studies here in Yeshivat Bet El, I received rabbinic ordination and a teaching degree. Teaching, I believe, is the absolute most important thing in the world and an amazing privilege in the Land of Israel, in Bet El, at this time in history when the return to Zion is underway. All the more so at the IDF Prep Academy, where young students are getting to know Torah and getting to know themselves and their souls. Here they are taught how important and special they are, and then they go out into the world and share this, as soldiers and in society. To redeem each individual in a genuine endeavor, with overtones effecting the entire nation.
SEK: How many years have you been working at the IDF Prep Academy? What originally brought you to the Academy?
RYR: I am a rebbe at the Academy, serving in this capacity for 16 years now, and I am also a teacher at the ulpana [girl's religious high school] in Bet El and Kokhav Yaakov. Before that I taught at the Bet El Bnei Tzvi boys junior high school, and before that I taught in the elementary school here. So I have taught at all the different levels, including many of the same children in several different frameworks.
I grew up in Rehovot, and my aspiration was always to go out and be a part of a garin [religious-Zionist outreach group] and bring Torah to the People of Israel. But I consulted with the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Melamed, who told me that I don't have to leave Bet El to do that. He said they're building an IDF Prep Academy in Bet El, and that he plans to bring young Jews here and I can teach them without leaving! So we in fact opened the Academy, and the Rav sent us out to recruit them, and they began coming!
It's wonderful to see our students grow - both those who leave Bet El afterwards and build families with a Torah influence in neighborhoods all around the country, and those who remain and build families here in Bet El and nearby. There are students who started their path of tshuvah [return to Torah] at the Academy and then continue it in the Bet El Yeshiva, and now they themselves are teachers. There are even some who have taught my children. I remember they laughed when they first arrived and I told them that they shouldn't sell themselves short, and that one day my children would yet study under them – and thank G-d, that's exactly what happened.
A side passion of mine, outside the framework of the Academy, is running the Yeshiva's Pesach matza bakery here in Bet El. If your readers come to Israel next Pesach, they are all invited to visit and bake matzot for their Seder table!
 |
| Rav Yair with the IDF Prep Academy cadets |
SEK: What inspired you to work with underprivileged youth?
RYR: I believe that my inspiration came from two people in particular: First from Rav Avraham Remer zt"l, the first "mayor" of fledgling Bet El who was my teacher in 11th grade; in him I truly saw the faith he had in every student and in their essential goodness, such that the students could not help but realize that they had real value. Secondly, the saintly Rav Kook inspired me: He taught that all of creation and every Jew is all good, and that we just have to help this absolute good to be revealed, and thus the world will come to its rectification. And I began to see that this was true, and I began to try it, and I felt I learned how to do it - and I saw that it really works!
In practical terms, the one who gave me the push and direction was Bet El’s Rosh Yeshiva Rav Zalman Melamed. His vision is that there is no mission for the Nation of Israel that we are exempt from, and that we must have a part in every aspect of Israel's ongoing Redemption process, and that we can do it! His idea is to always initiate and to start things, and not to stop for a second, no matter how much there is to do or what age you are – it is always possible to create and add good to the world. And that's what Bet El is about; it's amazing.
SEK: What's your official role at the Academy? What do you do on a day-to-day basis there?
RYR: My official position at the Academy is rebbe, rabbi/teacher. This year I am teaching the second-year students, before their enlistment in the army. In their third year they return to the Academy for a month and a half break, and I study with them. And then I receive the fourth-year students, after they have completed their army service, and help prepare them for life both spiritually and also in finding jobs – some of them need to complete their high school diplomas, and almost all have to find a profession to study – and most importantly, I help them in preparation for marriage and family life.
My daily routine? It is made up of an infinite number of things… It starts with waking up the guys with a nice word in the morning, I then pray with them, learn with them Jewish law, Talmud, mussar, and hassidut, and answer their questions on all sorts of topics – going out on dates, families, friends from the army, overcoming hardships, whether to go for officers' training courses, when to push forward and when to lay off a bit, etc. I help those who have gotten engaged prepare for marriage and its laws and issues, and then I also accompany the couple afterwards, and even sometimes help in questions that arise in raising children… Wow, it's really something that never ends. It is very full, where you accompany a person from the end of his high school days up to his entry deep into his own family life.
 |
| Rav Yair with IDF Prep Academy cadets |
SEK: What's the most meaningful aspect of your job?
RYR: I would say it is when I can help a student understand his great and unique value. I could sum it up in one sentence, as formulated by the Rebbe of Piaseczno: "Education begins when you see the diamond that the student is, and it ends when you cause him to see the diamond in himself; all the rest is just implementations." That's my job: to get him to see the light in himself and in others, the good and the mission that G-d implanted in him, and to arouse within him the inner desire to implement it.
SEK: What's the most difficult aspect of your job?
RYR: People who believe they are incorrigible or that the world is bad; they simply see the world incorrectly. It is hard for me to help them see the world as it really is, with its goodness and its challenges. This is the emotional part; I am greatly pained at meeting up with students who have not been able to rise above, who failed in something and still don’t forgive themselves, or who have lost their self-confidence and feel that they are failures. This part is hard for me, and it really tears my heart to see students who don’t believe in themselves and feel that they can't succeed….
Physically speaking, it really is a lot of hours, and also on Shabbat, and even on vacation we travel to the army and do Shabbatot there and the like; work at the Academy doesn’t stop. But it's not hard; it's challenging. This is the meaning of arichut yamim – not "old age," but rather "days that are long and full of content."
Intellectually speaking, there are two large challenges: one
is to enter the heart of each person and learn who he is, and as the years pass,
I see how involved and intricate each person is, and I get better at it; and
secondly, there are many challenges in the actual teaching. Many of the
students find it very difficult to study and concentrate for long periods, and
certainly when it comes to Talmud. But this is the challenge – to bring them to
learn and to be able to learn on their own, and to want to love knowledge and
to love Hashem.
 |
| Rav Yair with his wife and nine children |
SEK: Tell me about your family. Where do you live? How did you meet your wife? How many children do you have? Grandchildren?
RYR: I met my wife here in Bet El when I was learning in the Yeshiva in my second year and she was the head counselor of the Ariel youth movement. I thought that she could be a good match for me, and to my great fortune she agreed, and we now are blessed with nine children from age 21 down, and one granddaughter, all of whom live right here in Bet El. My wife, Noyah, is a nursery school teacher in Bet El and in nearby Migron. Tiferet, our oldest, is married to a student at the Bet El Yeshiva. Yiskah is finishing National Service at an girls religious high school. Both Tiferet and Yiskah are graduates of Ulpanat Ra'ayah here in Bet El. Uziel is at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva High School in Bet El; Bnayahu is learning in a high school yeshiva in the north; Tuvia will study at Bnei Tzvi next year; and the other children are learning in the elementary school and kindergarten here in Bet El: Tzofia, Yaakov, Malachi and Ayalah. And we had a first granddaughter just three months ago, named Haleli.
I'll tell a little story: On my way back to Bet El for the first time when I came here to study, a Palestinian in Ramallah threw a rock at our bus. It smashed the windshield, and the driver asked the soldier who was accompanying us to "do something." But he refused, saying that he's just on reserve duty and he doesn't want any trouble. We just continued driving on, watching the Palestinian youth prepare to throw his next rock. I, of course, didn't like that, to put it mildly, and I decided that the Palestinians would pay for that rock – not in a destructive manner, but via building, the way that Jews know how. And thus, I live here with my sweet family; my brother lives here with his sweet family; my sister did National Service here and married someone from Bet El; my wife did the same, and so did her sister; my students are here; etc. – and so I believe that in exchange for that rock thrown by that Palestinian, we have here about 100 additional Jewish residents. I think that if that's how we would respond to each rock thrown at us, with more Jews living in Eretz Yisrael, the Palestinians would have long ago stopped throwing rocks at us.
SEK: What is the most important message you would like to give to our readers abroad?
RYR: What message can I give to my sweet brothers and friends who still live in the Diaspora? I say that they are precious brothers, and we miss them, and that I have apparently not seen many of them since we all stood together at Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah. We would love to see you all here with us, and in the meantime while you're still there, we are very happy that your hearts are with us and that you are partners in what we are doing and building. We try to be worthy of your trust and fulfill the mission that Am Yisrael, including you, have assigned us, in building the Land and the Torah and bringing Jews closer. To each one of you who is our partner and who invests in our work, we are full of thanks and admiration. We would love if you would come here physically as well, as I'm sure that many of you can help us so very much in adding love of Torah and of Israel and in education and knowledge – so please come! We need you here and we miss you.