Pashuteh Yid:
I have heard that they require Bible courses and I don’t know exactly what goes on there. I would think and hope that if Biblical criticism is mentioned, that the teacher uses it to defend the Torah against apikursim, but I do not have knowledge of the subject matter or course structure.
Indeed nothing could be further from the truth. The professors are promulgating the apikursus to the best of their ability.
My point is that gedolim shried eish lehava against college. They always stressed full time learning and bitachon for parnasa.
Here is where your perspective comes across as very narrow. Replace “gedolim” with “Litvishe Roshei Yeshivos” and you are more accurate (of course, kal vachomer Chassidim). Plenty of Gedolim have themselves matriculated and even graduated from college.
While one might have thought they would be maskim to YU, many were not, and since just about nobody would be able to find fault with a school which is separate, shomer shabbos, kosher food and half a day learning, and seemed to be a great way to get around all the problems of college, they went overboard to try to find any fault possible and constantly put it down so nobody would go.
Strike two. This is ridiculous, and shows that you don’t understand the inherent problems related to the YU hashkafa. Perhaps you could apply this statement to Touro, instead. But YU is an abomination of truth and a denial of the dominance of the Torah. Why couldn’t I find fault in a school that is separate, shomer shabbos, has kosher food, learns half a day, but teaches that science and human thought is on par with the Torah (CH”V) and therefore allows all types of abominations to take place within its walls? Anyone could.
However, today, people have become so confused about things, because of all the harsh words, that there are many yeshivishe people who actually believe YU is worse than a goyishe college.
You sir, are the one who is confused. You know only one side. Let me make it clear: YU IS worse than a goyishe college. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And they don’t bother to button the clothing, either. While we are on the subject of discussing how it could be preferrable to go to a goyishe college than to a Jewish one, let me mention that I have heard personally from R’ Nosson Tzvi Finkel (Mir Yerushalayim) that he will not grant a talmid yeshiva credits if he is going to Touro. Shocked? Let that be an indication of the limits of your understanding. Admittedly this episode was a while ago, but I have not heard that he changed his mind. And this was about Touro – which is completely aside to this conversation as Touro does not have “Torah U’Madda” as its mantra – YU would be worse.
I don’t think there is more to be gained by drilling into the rest of your post word by word, so I’ll conclude here. YU is founded in an ideology that is, at best, a twisted version of the Hirschian Torah Im Derech Eretz. Torah U’Madda is not a Torahdik hashkafa.
A word about RIETS: Many learned and choshuva Jewish laymen and leaders are graduates of this institution. I cannot ever disparage a person who went through YU (and certainly not RIETS). What I have said applies to the University and the philosphy.