כ״ו תשרי ה׳תשפ״ז | October 7, 2026
The Ignored Crisis in Our Yeshivos
“Every year, hundreds of Lubavitche bochrim finish three years of Mesivta and move on to Yeshivah Gedola. It’s supposed to be a major step forward. But there’s a massive problem standing in the way, and almost no one is talking about it.”
By a Worried Bochur
Every year, hundreds of Lubavitche bochrim finish three years of Mesivta and move on to Yeshivah Gedola. It’s supposed to be a major step forward. Yeshivah Gedolah is where a bochur is expected to start learning how to really think—how to analyze a sugya, break down a ma’amar, and think deeply on his own.
But there’s a massive problem standing in the way, and almost no one is talking about it.
A shocking number of bochrim enter Yeshivah Gedola without basic Hebrew reading skills or the ability to read a blatt Gemara. They struggle with basic kriyah, get stuck on standard Aramaic words, and can’t decode an unpointed text or a simple Rashi without constant stumbling.
Try to put yourself in their shoes. Imagine sitting in the zal for eight to ten hours a day, staring at a sefer you literally cannot read.
It’s completely exhausting. While the bochur next to him glides through the sefer, a struggling bochur is in a constant state of stress. Just finding the place on the page takes work. Being asked to read out loud fills him with panic, dreading the moment his chavrusa or classmates realize he’s tripping over simple words.
How in the world can we expect a bochur to learn how to think when he’s still struggling just to read?
You can’t. Deep thinking and real analysis only happen once reading becomes automatic. When a bochur uses up all his mental energy just trying to sound out the words, there’s nothing left over to process the actual logic of the Gemara. Instead of feeling the excitement and warmth of Torah, he sits there feeling stupid, hopeless, and totally out of place.
When a bochur goes through that kind of frustration day after day, it completely ruins his relationship with learning. Torah isn’t meant to feel like an endless, painful struggle. But when every single line is a fight, there’s just no way for him to enjoy it or feel any real connection to what he’s doing. If opening a sefer only reminds him that he’s failing, he’s going to hate going to seder. And honestly, you can’t expect a boy to love Yiddishkeit when the main thing he does all day just makes him feel bad about himself. Eventually, that frustration spreads to everything else—his davening, his Chassidishkeit, and his whole outlook. When the main focus of his life feels like a burden he can’t handle, it’s only a matter of time before he starts checking out, leaving him to struggle with his Yiddishkeit in ways that are hard to predict.
And instead of fixing this, many Mesivtas end up enabling the issue.
Rather than addressing reading skills head-on, schools quietly let bochrim rely on ArtScrolls or translated sefarim as a permanent crutch. When they test Bochrim, the hanhalah tests whether a student memorized the translation, not whether he can actually open a Gemara and read the text on his own. As long as a bochur can repeat back the explanation, he gets a good mark—even if he couldn’t read three words of the actual text by himself.
So for three full years in Yeshivah Ketana, the issue gets swept under the rug. The focus is strictly on keeping up with the sedorim and covering pages. Then he moves on to Yeshivah Gedolah, and everyone acts surprised when he isn’t thriving or when he completely tunes out.
This isn’t the bochrim’s fault. They want to learn. But we are setting them up to fail by dropping them into the zal without the absolute most basic tool they need.
Something has to change here. We can’t keep looking the other way and passing the buck while our boys sit there suffering in silence.
How much longer are we going to let this slide, and how are we finally going to fix this problem?
COMMENTS
the importance of kriah practice cannot be understated, and besides the schools doing what they can, parents MUST invest very very strongly in their childrens kriah, making sure they keep on practicing again and again, and not just when theyre 5, even at 10/11. they should be able to read the piyutim on rh and yk and hoftoros without slipping and messing up, fluently and confidently. this is the foundation of their relationship with yiddishkeit, and is an extrememly high priority, and unfortunately ignored by too many
Where are the parents do they pay attention what their sons are learning do they review with them to the teachers actually care what are they just in it for the money that paycheck? So let’s come up parents aren’t teaching their kids basic behavior they are making sure the kids know how to read Etc so what are they doing? Are the Yeshivos just babysitting places for during the day?
Maybe I’m wrong, but most people start learning Gemara at 5th grade (or even before that). And at that age you’re getting drilled with translations and tools to learn Gemara. Shouldn’t you at Mesivta – which is your 5th year learning Gemara – be able to do a lot on your own? And even if not, shouldn’t something from those 4 years help you out to now learn how to?
I’m glad that worked for you. That said, I think it’s important to remember that not every boy develops the ability to read and translate Gemara and Rashi at the same pace. For some boys, it takes considerably longer, and simply expecting them to pick it up quickly doesn’t necessarily reflect where they are developmentally.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that the level of translation required from Years 5–8 is significantly lower than what is expected in Mesivta. So being able to manage the translation requirements at that age doesn’t necessarily mean a boy is properly prepared for the much higher demands that come later.
I’m struggling to understand the purpose of this article.
There are many “Issues” with our system and there are some incredibe and amazing things happening in our system.
Is the purpose to bash our Mechanchem? I just don’t see what you are trying to accomplish. will this article solve anything or make people hate yeshivos more?
There’s a problem here.
How can we fix it?
you’re so right, let’s brush under the carpet, keep our head in the sand, and surely this will bring Moshiach
Sorry, but I think you missed the point; The purpose of this is not to criticise anyone or try to randomly state the problems of our system. It is to bring greater awareness to the general public and, in particular, to those working in chinuch, so that we can acknowledge the issue and start thinking seriously about how it can be fixed.
The intention is so that people can realize the situaution and think about what can realistically be done to improve the situation, rather than simply dismissing the issue and accepting it the way it is.
Mesivta’s and zals need to start taking bochurim at their level (instead of turning a blind eye and blaming the previous mechanchim…) and teach them skills of how to read and really understand a line of Gemara/break down a Maamar… so they can start doing it on their own and feel accomplished!
P.s. RCSA/rabbi zevi Wineberg does a great job at this…
Its simple. The yeshivos don’t demand from students, because parents push back against any academic pressure. The Hanholas give in. The kids lose.
Every article bashing the old fashioned cookie cutter system has contributed, and has succeeded! We now have flat incompetent products. Enjoy the results…
💯
As the article says, the solution is for yeshivas to evaluate/ teach/ test on reading and translating from day one.
This Kriah issue is widespread in my generation (low 30′) with pretty much the only exception being ppl coming out of OT elementary.
It’s not a crazy solution, it’s fully within the Hanholas responsibility to know where Bochurim are holding and advance them from their.
but if this is the situation – then parents and mechanchim need to see how to resolve this, there can be a means to hire a private tutor for those bochurim in each yeshiva
How about the parents and teachers trying to reach the students, instead of just sitting at the front of the classroom and talking (In my experience when students don’t listen its because they aren’t interested in whats being taught – and that is usually because they don’t understand it). It’s literally the teacher’s job. and parents should make sure to learn with their children , and “not having time” is not an excuse”. If they have time to go on their phones and check the news they have time to learn with their child..
Parents should teach their children basics and just leave everyone to “the system”. when the bochurim get up to mesivta the parents complain that the school didnt teach their son how to read… its very hard for the teachers to “make everyone know it”. its hard to teach so many children without the parents helping.
(And this is not written by a teacher..)
I meant to say: “Parents should teach their children basics and NOT just leave everyone to “the system”.
from heart to heart, no one cares about your success. you got to figure your life out yourself dont come here kvetching cuz no one really cares about you. they are busy feeling chushuv how chassidsh they are or aren’t and you got to be your own teacher and advocate and career coach… Hatzlacha Rbbah!
I very much agree with this article though i don’t have any ideas how to fix it i can personally attest that R”L there are MANY Bochurim currently (or even worse R”L not…) in the Yeshivah system and i don’t know if this can take the blame but it might be a very small cog in giving some of them a real hard time in their growing years…
Kuddos to whoever is in Chinuch. NO way blaming them, it’s not like its even in the same dictionary as the word easy….
also, another problem, is that you confuse kids with gemara, instead of introducing them to stories and easily understandable concept, you teach them about thinks like (this is just a non existent example) running through a public domain carrying someone’s pitchers you borrowed and then you get gored by a bull and that causes the bull to fall into a pit.
Another problem, is switching schools, when i was younger, from like 7 to 12, i was in one school, by that first school, i was able to decently read hebrew, not speeding fast, but not turtle slow, but then, by the second school, instead of seeing where i was holding, they were just like, forget it, we are gonna teach him from the pre 1 a level, and they used these cards, with random mushcaboble of hebrew letters, in non existent words, that instead of making me read better, it made my whole kirah knowledge go out the window, now i cant read a word of hebrew, the only thing i can do is recognize hebrew letters, and say their names, i cant even remember their sounds!
The gemaras that are taught to students first starting their Gemara learning were chosen by gedolei Yisroel, and are a (afaik) universal minhag Yisroel and should not be tampered with. There are good reasons why we start with those ones.
I heard in the name of Reb Moshe Feinstein that the reason we start with Bava Metzia and Bava Kama is to touch young bochurim starting out in life that they need to be responsible for their actions, to make sure it doesnt hurt someone else
One of the problems is because, unlike an other communities, the people who excel in Gemara are not admired so there’s less motivation for a young man to push himself to do well in this area. He’ll satisfy himself instead with Mivtzoim or Davenning at length because those are the things that people admire, relate stories about, etc.
Years ago, a Cheder Class had 15 Kids,
with zero pressure from the principal, nor from the Menahel acting as a “back seat driver” to dictate the the Melamed, how many pages of genara, the Melamed must cover, by X amount of days or weeks.
Smaller Classes allowed for individual attention!
And the teacher didn’t move to the next page, any faster, than the entire class was able to keep up with, i.e. only after the entire class knows the previous page.
But nowadays “for profit reasons” Yeshivas are run like “industrial assembly line, production factories” where each Yeshiva tries to “outdo” the competitor yeshiva to show off, that they covered “more ground” “in record time”,…more pages turned, regardless if only half the class Really knows it, or not.
Bottom Line:
We need to Cut all classes, to half size
And No Menahel should EVER push any teacher, as to how fast to go.
INSTEAD
Each teacher will decide himself, based on his actual results, when class knows it, good enough, to preceded further.
….and if not, then the teacher hoes over it again before ignoring the kids who can’t keep up with assembly line speed
Principals always push teachers to move to the next page of Gemoro etc. regardless if all kids in the vlass can keep up, or not.
Because principals only agenda is the Kovod of fhe Yeshiva_Name, as a whole…to “look good, compared to the competitors Yeshiva.”
It seems that this article was written by a real learner
yasher koach.