Torah Students With Dignity
Rav Meir built Chachmei Lublin so that yeshivah students would no longer live in squalor or be looked down on.
A teaching ofRav Yehuda Meir Shapiro of Lublinהרב יהודה מאיר בן יעקב שמשון שפיראProfile ›
Rav Meir pictured a yeshivah where the talmidim would no longer sleep in dark, damp cellars or look for food like beggars. He imagined a place like a palace, with proper beds and a dining room, and he wanted to end the contempt that a yeshivah bochur so often met. At the opening of Chachmei Lublin he said that the real novelty and revolution of the yeshivah was that it raised the social and emotional standing of its students. He also hoped it would add to the honor of Torah and its scholars throughout Poland and beyond, and become a center of learning like Nehardea and Pumbedisa. The dignity of Torah, he taught, shows itself in the way those who learn it are treated.
Source: His opening-day address and earlier vision as quoted in F. Avrohom, 'The Lubliner Rov, Reb Meir Shapiro and his mentor the Rebbe of Chortkov', Part II, Dei'ah veDibur, 21 Adar I 5765.
Today, find one concrete way to support a person who is learning or teaching Torah: a bochur at your shul, a rebbi, a kollel family, a local yeshivah. Give a meal, a ride, a donation or a note of thanks, and do it in a way that leaves them feeling honored, not dependent. If you are able, set a small regular amount aside each week. Torah grows where its students are treated with dignity.