I know this because I was a yeshiva student from the age of 5 until 19. To appreciate how much wisdom I was taught is to appreciate the root of our society's present crisis: Secular life doesn't teach wisdom (nor, it should be noted, do many schools that call themselves "Christian" or "Jewish"). Generations of Americans have not been taught wisdom; instead, they have been told that it is sufficient to rely on their feelings to understand life and to determine right from wrong.
Here are just three examples of basic insights into life that most 12-year-old yeshiva students know and that few secular students -- or, for that matter, secular professors -- know.
No. 1: I knew well before the age of 12 that people are not basically good. Any young person who studies the Bible -- and believes in it -- knows that God says, "The will of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Genesis 8:21).
Aside from the issue of God's existence, this is probably the most important issue in life. It might be said that wisdom begins with this realization about human nature. It is hard to imagine any person who believes human nature is good attaining wisdom.
To be clear, the message of the Bible is not that human nature is basically bad. What matters is that we acknowledge the reality, noted in the Bible and affirmed by all of human history, that human nature is not inherently good.
No. 2: Precisely because human nature isn't good, the preoccupation of my religious education was how to work on myself to make me a better person. Every yeshiva student in the world memorizes the Talmudic aphorism, "Who is the strong man? The one who conquers his urge(s)."
The great difference between a religious and secular education can be summarized thus: I was taught that the greatest problem in my life is me. In the secular world, students are taught that the greatest problems in their lives are others.
That is the genesis of the current American tragedy. Vast numbers of young people blame others -- and/or America generally -- for their problems and their overall unhappiness. Few are taught to struggle with their own nature. Blacks are told to struggle with whites, America and systemic racism. Women are not taught to first work on themselves but to blame men and fight misogyny, patriarchy and America for their unhappiness.
Here are just three examples of basic insights into life that most 12-year-old yeshiva students know and that few secular students -- or, for that matter, secular professors -- know.
No. 1: I knew well before the age of 12 that people are not basically good. Any young person who studies the Bible -- and believes in it -- knows that God says, "The will of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Genesis 8:21).
Aside from the issue of God's existence, this is probably the most important issue in life. It might be said that wisdom begins with this realization about human nature. It is hard to imagine any person who believes human nature is good attaining wisdom.
To be clear, the message of the Bible is not that human nature is basically bad. What matters is that we acknowledge the reality, noted in the Bible and affirmed by all of human history, that human nature is not inherently good.
No. 2: Precisely because human nature isn't good, the preoccupation of my religious education was how to work on myself to make me a better person. Every yeshiva student in the world memorizes the Talmudic aphorism, "Who is the strong man? The one who conquers his urge(s)."
The great difference between a religious and secular education can be summarized thus: I was taught that the greatest problem in my life is me. In the secular world, students are taught that the greatest problems in their lives are others.
That is the genesis of the current American tragedy. Vast numbers of young people blame others -- and/or America generally -- for their problems and their overall unhappiness. Few are taught to struggle with their own nature. Blacks are told to struggle with whites, America and systemic racism. Women are not taught to first work on themselves but to blame men and fight misogyny, patriarchy and America for their unhappiness.
