“Try to Give as Little Break as Possible”

The Rebbe’s displeasure with the closure of yeshivos and chadorim during the summer is well known, saying that it ruined bochurim’s “entire character.” Instead, the Rebbe suggested a 9-day break.

The Rebbe’s displeasure with the closure of yeshivos and chadorim during the summer is well known.

One year, as summer approached, the Rebbe expressed his discontent in a handwritten note to the father of a bochur studying in New York:

“…and now, as the month of Tammuz begins, the ‘vacation’ time approaches; when the time of the bochurim, and their entire character as bochurim, are ruined…”

In a 5716 (1966) yechidus, the Rebbe shared his view on yeshiva vacation with the administrator of Tomchei Temimim in Eretz Yisroel, Reb Efraim Wolf:

“If it would be just nine days, which would include two Shabbasos and Tisha B’Av in the middle, it wouldn’t be that terrible.

“As a rule, try to give as little break as possible, and make sure that on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur the bochurim are at yeshiva.”

(Teshura 3 Tammuz 5766; Halperin Teshura, Tammuz 5762)

From The Weekly Farbrengen by Merkaz Anash