R’ Chaim Brisker, Bialik’s HaMasmid, and Moshe Dayan’s Support for Bnei Yeshivah
When Moshe Dayan was asked why he supported allowing bnei yeshivah to remain with their learning, he pointed to Bialik’s HaMasmid—a poem whose story may have begun with a remarkable conversation between Bialik and R’ Chaim Brisker.
According to an account preserved in the Brisker tradition, when Chaim Nachman Bialik was sent away from the Volozhin Yeshivah, R’ Chaim Brisker accompanied him toward the railway station.
R’ Chaim recognized that Bialik possessed an unusual gift for writing. He was concerned that Bialik might leave the yeshivah embittered and later use that gift against the world he was leaving behind.
As they walked, R’ Chaim spoke with him and obtained a promise: Whatever direction his life might take, Bialik would not use his pen to attack the yeshivos or their students.
Years later, Bialik wrote HaMasmid, his lengthy poem portraying the extraordinary attachment of a yeshivah student to his learning. Bialik had himself experienced life in Volozhin, and his description of the masmid left a strong impression even upon readers who had never entered a beis midrash.
R’ Yitzchok Hutner related that, many years later, Moshe Dayan attended a gathering at the home of R’ Moshe Feinstein. R’ Moshe asked Dayan how someone so removed from the yeshivah world had come to appreciate that bnei yeshivah should be permitted to remain with their learning.
Dayan answered that when he was a student, he had been assigned to write about Bialik’s HaMasmid. The poem’s description of the yeshivah student and his inseparable connection to his Gemara had remained with him. Through those words, Dayan said, he had understood that a ben yeshivah could not simply be torn away from his learning.
A separate published account records Dayan offering a similar explanation when questioned by reporters. He said that he had never studied in a yeshivah and did not personally know what Torah learning was. But Bialik’s description of the masmid stood before him, and it was enough for him not to want to interrupt bnei yeshivah from their learning.
When the entire chain was later discussed, Harav Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik remarked that R’ Chaim had understood what he was doing. He had recognized the power of Bialik’s abilities and had acted accordingly.
The sources do not tell us that R’ Chaim could have foreseen where that conversation would lead. But those who related the story saw a remarkable chain: a departing student was not simply dismissed; a promise was secured; a poem was written; and decades later, that poem helped someone far from the beis midrash understand the bond between a ben Torah and his Gemara.