Don’t You Know What Happens At College?

The Rebbe’s handwritten response to a girl who asked about attending college:

ידועה דעתי בנוגע לקאלעדז’ בכלל (שאפילו צדיק גמור מתפלל בכל יום בבוקר: אל תביאני לידי ניסיון) – ובזמן האחרון עאכו”כ. ופשוט אשר סקאלארשיפ אינה הכשר כלל וכלל לדבר שאינו רצוי.

ולפלא גדול: האומנם אין אמה תחי’ יודעת כלל מהנעשה בקאלעדזש (שנתפרסם – והרבה יותר שמשתדלים שלא יתפרסם. וק”ל.

My opinion* regarding college, in general, is well known — (that even a complete Tzaddik who doesn’t even have a Yetzer Hara and challenges prays every day in the morning Brachos: “do not bring me close to a challenge”) – and how much more so in recent times. And it’s obvious that receiving a scholarship isn’t at all a hechsher for an unwanted thing.

It is a great wonder: does your mother indeed not know at all what happens at college (I mean that which has already been publicized – and it is much worse than that because great efforts are made that this information should not be publicized… וק”ל. ■

* See Lekkutei Sichos vol. 15 page 43-44.