The Torah recounts the construction of two “structures” the Ark and the Mishkan. In a lecture to a group of students, Horav Yitzchak Hutner, zl, commented that these two structures can serve as metaphors to describe the disparity between Jewish education during pre-World War II Europe and its parallel in contemporary society. The Mishkan was an edifice dedicated to spiritual ascendancy. All the people who resided in proximity of the Mishkan were “spiritually correct.” They were not exposed to harmful environmental influences which were antithetical to their faith in Hashem and His Torah. Their commitment to the Almighty was not tested every time that they walked out of the shelter of their home. The Mishkan, therefore, served as a place where people could assemble and ascend to greater spiritual heights, to establish a closer bond with holiness.
The Ark served an alternative purpose. It was a vehicle of rescue unto which to save a select group of humans, animals and fowl from certain destruction. While the Mishkan was a medium for enhancing one’s individual spiritual level, the Ark was a structure without which humanity would have been decimated.
In previous generations, the institutions of Torah education served to further develop the students’ knowledge of Torah. The spiritual climate outside of the school was not adverse to a child’s continuing observance. In today’s society, however, Jewish Day Schools serve as a means for protecting a Jewish child from the various ills of contemporary society to which he is routinely exposed. Indeed, our Torah institutions are similar to the Ark that transported Noach to safety amidst the waves of destruction.
