By the Grace of G-d[Kislev] 5737

Blessing and Greeting:

I am in receipt of your letter. To begin with the conclusion of your letter, where you write that the thought had occurred to you to take out your son from Yeshivah and transfer him to public school.

G-d forbid to entertain such a thought. Even if - for the sake of argument - all your complaints about the Yeshivah were justified, they would not warrant in the least to put your son in jeopardy considering the situation in P.S. in the present day and age. It is not my nature to find fault, hence I do not wish to elaborate on it. But this is not necessary in your case, in view of the fact that you have been teaching for many years.

Suffice it to add that even if the particular school is above average, one cannot be sure what kind of children will enroll the next day, or next term. And with children, one juvenile delinquent could infect a whole class. Of course, not all Jewish children are perfect, but attendance at a Yeshivah precludes many ills by virtue of the atmosphere itself.

A further point, and again assuming that your complaints are fully justified, surely you should consider it your duty and privilege to rectify the situation as much as possible for the benefit of all the children there, rather than running away from it, saying, “as long as I have saved myself, I don’t care,” even if it is indeed a “saving.”

Granted that you have tried, in a friendly effective way, to improve the situation, there is the well-known rule of our Sages or blessed memory in such a case, as in all matters of the mitzvos, a rule that is actually applied in halachah, namely, “even up to 100 times.” This is not a figure of speech or exaggeration, but means literally that having tried and failed 99 times, it is the duty to try for the 100th time.

I trust you will accept all the above in the right spirit, and will, moreover, endeavor, together with your husband, use your good influence to strengthen Torah-chinuch in your environment. This will also widen the channels to receive G-d’s blessings, particularly to enjoy much Yiddish Torah-Nachas from all your children and bring them up - in accordance with the traditional blessing - to a life of Torah, chuppah and good deeds, Wishing you and yours a bright and inspiring Chanukah,

With blessing,