Fear

What was the main message and harm of yeshiva - to be filled with fear. That's what the whole place was about. Fear the gentiles because they are a terrible influence and want to kill us. Fear the world, even trees, because it tempts you to waste your life. Fear the next world because it will consist of horrible punishments and regret. Fear god because he is out to get you and knows where you are. (I use lower case because that's not the real God.) Fear the torah because it's so big and complicated and you'll never understand it. Fear yourself because you are nothing but an evil inclination. Fear your own mind, your own feelings, your own body. Fear shiduchim and marriage because it can so easily lead to ruin. Fear that person on the date. He/she is not good, will tear your life apart. And fear rabbis because they scream at you and humiliate you at every turn and they destroy every dream you ever had when you go to them for the advice that you are told to go to them for.

Then they tell you nothing matters but Torah study for which you need lots of money, but they won't let you learn a trade. So you become fearful about money.

They turn you into a cripple of fear. It takes decades to undo it and that's only if you try very hard. You become paralyzed. Other religions give you comfort. Judaism, as it is practiced in the yeshiva world, gives you fear, tons of fear.

The Modern O. world is no better. They do much of the same since they have been so yeshivitized. But they make you fear that even studying Torah and being yeshivish is no good if it's not done in Israel, which they tell you is surrounded by enemies that want to kill you. 

Then comes the seder and the megillah, fear and more fear. You don't have to read them that way, but since you are already shaking, you do read them that way.

Fear and fear and fear. That's modern Judaism.