Dec 9, 2015
calling an avreich a batlan - good or bad?
One of the challenges of learning in kollel full-time is when you get thrown off schedule. Such as when the kids are sick or have vacation from school. Your wife is working and can't take off every time this happens, and sometimes you have to.
The situation is so prevalent that it even has now made it to being discussed in a Knesset committee - the committee for public inquiries, headed by MK Yisroel Eichler (UTJ).
The problem stems from the fact that the State has not recognized learning in kollel as working, thus the working mother is considered the sole breadwinner and not granting her days off as sick days for children.
Because of the committee's request, the Civil Service Commission has decided change the status of avreichim to the status of working fathers. Now, with both parents considered to be working parents, the mother will legally be granted 8 sick days for sick children.
Obviously this status affects and applies to kollel wives working in the public sector, not the private sector.
In the words of Eichler, avrechei kollel will no longer be considered as a "batlan" - a bum, a loafer, a good for nothing - available for babysitting. "Torah learning is holy work, far more important than any work being done as a State employee..."
source: Bechadrei
Eichler is not the first to call avrechei kollel and yeshiva students batlanim - loafers. The mishna and Gemara did so close to two thousand years ago. And while Eichler is using it more in the context of current vernacular, as a negative, as people see kollel guys as loafers, the Mishna calls people who are available for learning torah and making minyanim and are thus supported by the community, "batlanim" and considers it a positive name, The mishna in Megilla says a town that has ten "batlanim" is considered a big city rather than a village (for determining the day the megilla can be read on). The gemara says that a city with the batlanim is considered large enough for a sanhedrin of 23 judges. Another gemara says a talmid chochom should not live in a city without ten batlanim.
The meaning of the usage of the name is all a matter of context.
Giving these women the extra 8 days due to the change in status will be very helpful to both the mother and the father...
The situation is so prevalent that it even has now made it to being discussed in a Knesset committee - the committee for public inquiries, headed by MK Yisroel Eichler (UTJ).
The problem stems from the fact that the State has not recognized learning in kollel as working, thus the working mother is considered the sole breadwinner and not granting her days off as sick days for children.
Because of the committee's request, the Civil Service Commission has decided change the status of avreichim to the status of working fathers. Now, with both parents considered to be working parents, the mother will legally be granted 8 sick days for sick children.
Obviously this status affects and applies to kollel wives working in the public sector, not the private sector.
In the words of Eichler, avrechei kollel will no longer be considered as a "batlan" - a bum, a loafer, a good for nothing - available for babysitting. "Torah learning is holy work, far more important than any work being done as a State employee..."
source: Bechadrei
Eichler is not the first to call avrechei kollel and yeshiva students batlanim - loafers. The mishna and Gemara did so close to two thousand years ago. And while Eichler is using it more in the context of current vernacular, as a negative, as people see kollel guys as loafers, the Mishna calls people who are available for learning torah and making minyanim and are thus supported by the community, "batlanim" and considers it a positive name, The mishna in Megilla says a town that has ten "batlanim" is considered a big city rather than a village (for determining the day the megilla can be read on). The gemara says that a city with the batlanim is considered large enough for a sanhedrin of 23 judges. Another gemara says a talmid chochom should not live in a city without ten batlanim.
The meaning of the usage of the name is all a matter of context.
Giving these women the extra 8 days due to the change in status will be very helpful to both the mother and the father...
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I don't understand the issue here. How is changing the man's status going to improve things? Would not it be better (for the entire economy) to give the avrech 'sick days' so that he could be a batlan (positive meaning) and be able to take care of the sick kids, take to appointments at kupat holim, etc...? Do avrechim have sick days? Can they risk not being in the yeshiva if the government comes to count them?
ReplyDeleteI think eichlers point is not that avreichim should get sick days and be able to take kids to the doctor, but the opposite. Avreichim shouldn't have to leave kollel to take care of the kids, as they often do now because the wife can't leave work. This change in status will allow the wife to leave work to take care of the kids when they are sick and the husband can stay in kollel
ReplyDeleteI'm curious how does the obligatory attendance enforced. Can avreichim merely leave the kollel when kids need assistance? Do they need bring sick notes if they do not show up to learn? Do they get to use sick days if a child has a sick note? I recall the reports of issues that occur during the surprise and untolerant visits of clerks who come to count heads.
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