The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, wrote the following in a letter printed as a preface to a Chassidic tract on prayer:[1]
There are those that fool themselves saying: “In order to bring the youth closer to Torah and Mitzvot, we need to compliment and praise them profusely and refrain from reproach, admonitions and demands.”
However, the truth is the opposite. The listener is sentient that he is being spoken to with guileful lips and words of flattery. Not with lies will they be brought close to our true Torah and the Mitzvot of the true G-d.
The day will come when the young generation will come before its leaders—especially those that run its Yeshivot—with a soulful demand:
“Why did you not rebuke us concerning our chosen path?”
“Why did you not tell us the truth—the truth of the Torah of our Living G-d—in full?”
“Why did you not direct us concerning the living path of daily living, such as:
“How are we able to pray each day before our father, the king of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He?”
“How are we able to study the Torah as we are directed ‘with dread, fear, trembling and quaking’?”
“How are we able to do the Mitzvot properly as directed “with joy and a glad heart,” which as Maimonides (Laws of Lulav Ch. 5) states that it is a great service?”
The Previous Rebbe concluded that in order for the leaders to have what to answer when that day arrives, they must ensure that Yeshivot be a place that not only does a person study Torah so that they can be a Rabbi or the like, but more importantly they must be a place to learn how to be a complete Jew—in body, in soul and in Torah. It should be apparent on each Jew that G-d, Torah and a Jew are essentially one.
[1] Kuntras HaAvoda, Pg. 3
