In a nutshell

For a yeshiva's mission statement, a writer wrote Ahavas and Yiras HaShem and the Rosh Yeshiva changed it to Ahavas Hatorah and Yiras Shemayim.

What he did was strip the word Hashem from the statement and replace it first of all with Torah. Love of Torah comes first for him. You don't love God, you love Torah. And of course by that he means Brisker Lomdus on a few chapters of the Talmud. Then Shemayim replaces God and for that you only feel fear. 

What does he mean by Shemayim? Isn't that a bit impersonal? Sounds like a committee. Is it the beis din in the sky that judges and decrees death for this or that? Is it actually the rabbis themselves? Is that what he has in mind? 

Let us remember that the Rosh Yeshiva is the highest in the yeshiva world echelon. He's better than the shul Rav, better even than the posek. He's the final authority on everything, even the question of whether you should take the COVID shot. "And today, he's a Rosh Yeshiva," is the best ending to any story in that world. I remember once walking down the street and a local rav told me to quit my job and become a rosh yeshiva. That's the ultimate. It's worth quitting your job for.

Is this person going to lead you to Hashem? Well to him and the people in his world, learning Gemara is the most religious experience you can have. It's the only religious experience that you can have. You can have it without ever mentioning God Himself. 

Yet, the Bible references God how many times? "In the Authorized King James version the word 'God' occurs 4,370 times. The word 'Lord', 6,855 times." That's over 11,000 times by the accounting of one of our Christian friends. Moses is referenced 803 times. So going by that, who is more important God or the biggest Rosh Yeshiva of all time? I know what Moses would say. 

Yet somehow the mission statement of a yeshiva isn't going to reference God. They'll even go as far as removing his name from the page. It's not just that they don't think of including it. They want it removed. 

And here’s some irony. From where did I get this phrase of “Ahavas and Yiras Hashem”? It’s from Rav Meshulem Dovid Soloveitchik’s approbation to a biography on his father the Brisker Rav. Rav Dovid wrote that Ahavas and Yiras Hashem was man’s purpose in this world. Rov Dovid wasn’t exactly a chosid. He was quite the Litvack, but the old kind, the real kind. What we have seen is a degradation. It’s like in the times of Enosh, they turned the intermediaries of God – the stars – into deities. That’s what’s been done in our generation with Torah and rabbis. 

So if you are wondering why you are weak in faith, now you know why. If you are wondering why you are a nervous wreck, now you know why. There's no God in the picture. “There’s no God in this place.” And the only reference to anything resembling Him is drenched in fear. The only time these people talk about bitachon is to make you feel guilty that you don't have it, that and to connive you to stay in kollel or move to Israel and best yet to be in kollel in Israel. The Rosh Yeshiva has bitachon, that's why he's a Rosh Yeshiva -- that's how they look at it. Meanwhile, he's living off of your donations, off of your terror of shemayim. It's like tithes to the old Church, buying your way into heaven -- heaven being that place to fear. 

A student of R' Yaakov Kamenetsky told me that Reb Yaakov told him in on the Shabbos of Slichos in 1983 that in Lithuania they spoke about 'aymas hadin', ie fear of divine punishment, but it was preceded by YEARS of teaching Ahavas Hashem. However, today people first teach fear before anything and this is "terrible."

Reb Yaakov added that when they spoke about 'aymas hadin' it was spoken about in general as faith in the reality of reward and punishment - not that on this and this specific aveira one will suffer eternal pain.

Reb Yaakov repeated this idea numerous times over the years.

A quote from the conversation: "Before people are taught about why they should love Hashem they are taught why they should be frightened of him...I don't understand why they do that".

I can tell you why. It’s because they want to dominate people, so they fill them with terror. And why do they want to dominate people? It’s because they removed God from the picture. They have replaced Him with pilpul of which they are the relative experts – much more than you. Thus, they replaced God with themselves.