Because magazines like Mishpacha work with advance deadlines my friend Rabbi Aryeh Ginzberg’s piece on Yerushalayim shel Maalah appeared last week even though he was sitting shivah for his father Rabbi Avraham Ginzberg the menahel of Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim for nearly six decades. Rav Aryeh was unfortunately back in Yerushalayim far sooner than he could have imagined when he wrote last week’s piece for Mishpacha in order to accompany his father to his final resting place. I would like to share one of the stories Reb Aryeh told of his father as he sat shivah in Yerushalayim on Motzaei Shabbos before flying back to the United States.

Rabbi Avraham Ginzberg arrived alone in the United States before World War II and began learning in Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim. He was virtually penniless and worked nights in a bakery to support himself. While still single he managed to purchase the bakery almost entirely on credit. With the profits from the bakery he was able to bring his whole family to the United States and the bakery provided parnassah for Reb Avraham’s father for the rest of his life.

The business acumen of the young immigrant did not escape the attention of Rav Alter Chanoch Henoch Leibowitz Rosh Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim and he asked Reb Avraham to take over the day-to-day running of the yeshivah for a period of two years to help put the yeshivah on its feet financially. That dream of financial stability was never fully realized. The Chofetz Chaim educational network spread across America inspired by the Rosh Yeshivah’s educational vision but because a very high percentage of musmachim of Chofetz Chaim went into chinuch and few into business the yeshivah never developed a large donor pool of affluent alumni.

As a consequence Reb Avraham’s projected two years extended to well over half a century. Each penny the yeshivah raised was far dearer to him than his own money. Reb Aryeh Ginzberg related how classmates once directed him to the foyer of the yeshivah building to see what his father was doing. When he arrived only his father’s trademark worn blue straw hat with a red feather was visible above ground. The rest of him was below ground digging to uncover a burst pipe before the plumber arrived in order to save the yeshivah the expense of the digging. When the yeshivah honored Rabbi Ginzberg after more than half a century of service his son told the Rosh Yeshivah not to bother purchasing any kind of gift because his father would refuse to accept anything that depleted the yeshivah’s bank account in any way.

The story that made the biggest impression on me involved an older couple who had contributed to the yeshivah at one point. Their only son had passed away and they were alone in the world. When the husband too passed away Rabbi Ginzberg undertook to oversee all the wife’s needs which unfortunately included numerous calls in the middle of the night to rush to the hospital when she hovered on the verge of death. In her will she left $250 000 to Rabbi Ginzberg.

The older Rabbi Ginzberg told Reb Aryeh that the money belonged to the yeshivah as his original contact with the couple arose out of his position in the yeshivah. Reb Aryeh pointed out that the will specified Rabbi Avraham Ginzberg not Yeshivas Chofetz Chaim. But his father would not budge.

Reb Aryeh first went to Rav Leibowitz who told him that he should take the halachic sh’eilah to the posek hador Rav Moshe Feinstein. Reb Moshe ruled that the money belonged to Rabbi Ginzberg and added that he could certainly maaser to the yeshivah.

Reb Aryeh returned to his parents’ home to share Reb Moshe’s psak with his father. The senior Rabbi Ginzberg greeted the news with great joy and told his son that he had done him a great tovah. “How would someone in my financial situation ever hope to make a gift of a quarter of a million dollars to the yeshivah?” he explained. “You have made that possible.” And he proceeded to write out a check for the full $250000 to the yeshivah even though he was then carrying a couple of mortgages on his own home the proceeds of which had also gone to help pay off the yeshivah’s debts.

That story characterized a whole life of thinking nothing of one’s own needs only those of others particularly the yeshivah and the Rosh Yeshivah. That model deserves to be widely known especially now that the hero of the story is no longer here to be embarrassed by its publication.

Justified Chutzpah

When one thinks about it Yisro’s advice to Moshe Rabbeinu at the beginning of last week’s parshah is quite remarkable. Here is Yisro the newest member of Klal Yisrael a recent ger offering instruction without the slightest hesitation to the greatest man who ever lived the one person who ever spoke to Hashem as one person speaks to another.

And yet far from being critical of Yisro the Torah adds an entirely new parshah to record the event and Yisro earns another name as a consequence of that addition. Furthermore Moshe Rabbeinu immediately recognizes that his father-in-law is correct and implements his advice upon Hashem’s approval.

Were there nothing for future generations to learn from the extra parshah the Torah would not have included it. Something in Yisro’s action is meant for emulation.

Oftentimes we see things around us that strike us as wrong. Or we perceive a need that is not being met. Rather than figuring out how we can remedy the problem we often tell ourselves that there are others much more talented than we who will surely have better ideas about what to do. Or if we see someone who appears to us to be in pain we convince ourselves that there are others closer to that person who are better positioned to address the problem or that our perception must be mistaken for otherwise those closer friends would already have acted. If the matter is of public concern we assure ourselves that our reading of the situation must be wrong or else the gedolim would have already initiated action.

Yisro teaches us that if you see a problem then there is a reason that Hashem has caused you to note what others may have not. You may have erred in your analysis of the problem; your proposed solution may not work. When you speak to those in a position of authority to deal with the issue they may reject your solution. But you cannot shirk responsibility with excuses of how little you are. Nor should you be embarrassed to point out a need or even to offer solutions.

A Double Loss

Mrs. Chaya Newman director of the women’s division of Torah Umesorah’s National Council of Yeshiva Principals relates in the current issue ofKlal Perspectives that she once requested to address the students in an American seminary in Israel on teaching as a career. The response was negative: “If you pay peanuts you get monkeys ” the principal told her. The proof for that acerbic comment was supplied by Mrs. Newman’s own article. She describes a female relative who after 14 years as a very highly regarded teacher reached a salary plateau at $20 000 per year. Her husband by contrast began teaching at $35 000 (not exactly “1-percenter” wages either).

Mrs. Newman’s point is not to lament the unfairness but to explain why fewer and fewer of our young women are drawn to careers in teaching. Twenty years ago the situation was far different in Israel and I would guess in the United States as well. Teaching was the most respected profession and the competition for every position was intense. Today many young men who aspire to learn many years will not even consider marrying a young woman who wants to teach because as Rabbi Shneur Aisenstark principal emeritus of the Bais Yaakov of Montreal points out in the same issue it is impossible to support even the most frugal kollel lifestyle on a teacher’s salary.

The old system was not perfect. There were never enough jobs for all who sought them and protektzia (connections) often played a not insignificant role in the allocation of those positions. But when the position of teaching was at the top of the hierarchy of job options it meant that a very high percentage of the most talented Bais Yaakov alumnae went into teaching. That was one of the great strengths of the Bais Yaakov system compared to the secular education system in both Israel and America in which education majors and graduates of teachers colleges are near the bottom rung of the education ladder. Bais Yaakov-trained teachers took their dedication beyond the Bais Yaakov system itself into SHUVU schools or other school systems for girls from less religious backgrounds and made a profound impact on their students.

The incentives for young women today to pursue careers outside of teaching can only harm the quality of our own educational systems. And the lack of financial incentive harms many families where the mother would have preferred to teach in other ways as well. Teaching is by no means an easy profession. The teacher’s day does not end when the last school bell rings. There are lessons to prepare tests to grade parents to speak to. But generally the school year is only 180 to 190 days long and the hours in school are fewer than in more lucrative jobs which means that teachers often have much more time for their children than their peers.

Thus we pay a price at both the communal and personal level as a consequence of the minimal salaries paid to female teachers.