Ponevitch Brawls

The timing of yesterday's brawl at the Ponavirch yeshiva could not have been more delicious.

Here in America we Torah True Jews were being told to avoid the superbowl because it promotes violence and hastens the deterioration of our character and at the exact same moment a brawl was underway among the ideological bedfellows of the rabbis who delivered that warning. A brawl. In the Ponevitch yeshiva.

So let's learn our lessons:

1) The claim that Torah perfects the personality appears falsified. Guys who learn all day all still guys and even guys who learn all day are prone to stupid, violent behavior.

2) The selection of the Ponevitch rosh yeshiva seems as political as any other succession fight. Yesterday's brawl was between supporters of the two leading candidates to take over the yeshiva. Obviously the final choice won't be made purely based on piety and scholarship. The guy with the best army might win.

3) Sorry Yair Lapid,  but giving these thugs additional military training may not be the idea. If they take to the streets and go around pounding each other over the choice of a rosh yeshiva what might they do with a prime minister ship at stake?