Local Learning Lures Lipa

Fascinating article that Lipa Schmetzer has enrolled in college. Yet what puzzles me is that Lipa notes how college is a ticket to Parnassa, yet he is making a fine Parnassa already without it.

Part of this Medina Shel Chessed conundrum is how we relate to the great Melting Pot. It is not easy to keep out unwanted influences, even in the secluded Chassidic areas as noted by R. AHARON HERSH FRIED in this landmark article in Hakirah.

Gerry Albarelli is a non-Jew who taught “English” (i.e.
secular studies) at the Satmar cheder in Williamsburg for five years and
wrote a book about his experiences. In the book, Albarelli talks
about his relationship with Mendy, the fifteen-year-old brother of a
boy he had undertaken to tutor at home. Mendy would come home
from yeshivah, often join in the tutorial sessions meant for his younger
brother, and always insist on walking the teacher to the subway.
Albarelli relates:

Then there are the questions that Mendy asks, walking me
to the subway, week after week. He asks these questions as
though everything depended on the answers:
“How they know the weather?”
“What means geology?”
“Who was Con Edison?”
“Thomas,” I say, “Thomas Edison.”
“No,” he insists, politely embarrassed by my ignorance.
“Con, Con Edison.”

Albarelli, Gerry, Teacha! Stories from a Yeshiva, Glad Day Books, 2000
(P.O. Box 112, Thetford, Vt. 05074)