כ״ח תשרי ה׳תשפ״ז | October 9, 2026
‘Vildkeit’ Is Not Chinuch
When Rabbi Chaim Binyamini began to wonder whether his disciplined approach to education was too demanding for a changing world, the Rebbe encouraged him not to compromise, insisting that seder and eidelkeit were precisely the path he should continue.
In 5726, Reb Chaim Binyamini founded the very first yeshiva in Brazil. Over the years, he merited to educate over one thousand students, many of whom went on to serve as rabbonim in communities throughout Latin America.
His yeshivah was known for its highly structured schedule, with a strong emphasis on seder, discipline, and eidelkeit. After visiting Eretz Yisroel and the United States, and seeing the educational standards there, Rabbi Binyamini wondered whether his approach had become outdated. He wrote to the Rebbe asking if he should adapt to the educational methods that had become more widely accepted.
“Perhaps I should instead be educating them with ‘vildkeit‘ – wildness – so that they will be able to survive, in the natural course of things, in this physical world,” he wrote.
“Of course you should continue in your way,” the Rebbe responded, referring to Rabbi Binyamini’s emphasis on seder and eidelkeit. “For it’s evident that educating toward vildkeit (disorder) and the like – is simply vildkeit.”
The Rebbe added that a loose approach is “the opposite of what I request, urge, and demand, based on the directives of my father-in-law, the Rebbe.”
(Yeshivah Shel Maalah, pp. 414–415)
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