Mortimer Zuckerman, known most famously as the editor-in-chief of US News and World Report, recently visited the Lakewood Yeshivah and had this to say (via S):
It was at the behest of a rabbi I study with that I went and visited the Lakewood Yeshiva. I had never been to a yeshiva before in my life and I sort of did this out of some degree of curiosity but more out of a sense of moral support for what had been such a central part of this rabbi’s life but I have to tell you when I got there I was absolutely knocked out by it. I will tell you that it was the single most intellectually active, energetic, fascinating environment I had ever witnessed. There was a sort of buzz and just sheer concentration and joy in the learning process and it was literally visible to somebody like myself.
I mean, I said it afterwards, it made Harvard Law School, which I happen to have attended, look like a kindergarten.
I really hope he’s right about the kindergarten part as I’m planning to start law school in the fall.
I agree that the love of (some) learning in Orthodoxy is incredibly inspirational.
Comment by JewishAtheist — February 23, 2006 @ 1:09 pm