The crash of SVB, Silicon Valley Bank, has sent shock waves throughout the financial and hi-tech worlds, and that includes Israel. PLenty of Israeli hi-tech companies, and investment funds, surely held some money in SVB, not even including the few companies that recently spoke about moving their money out of Israel, and lost some, or a lot of, money in the crash. Maybe some will be recouped in the near future when the bank will be bailed out, but surely some will remain lost, and nothing can really make up for the anguish they are all going through over the fear and uncertainty.

this clip went online first on Baruch Levine's Instagram page and generated hundreds of angry and cynical comments. Most comments seemed to be angry about this video about honoring the wives of kollel yungerleit but not featuring any. The two main issues in the comments seem to be 1. that it doesnt actually show any kollel wives and 2. that it makes it seem they are more like housekeepers, maids and nannies. not to say that choosing to be a a housewife is a bad thing, but that is all it shows and it seems, based on many of the comments, that these kollel husbands are grateful mostly for having married maids.

A while back some Rosh Kollels requested the Ministry of Education give them permission to allow distance learning for kollel members who have not qualified for the Green Passport (ie they are neither fully vaccinated nor recovered from Coronavirus). The request was made in light of the similar allowance given to other academic institutions. 

I learned something new today.

According to Calcalist, avreichim get a full exemption form the army when they hit 25. They only need the yeshiva bochur deferment until they hit the age of 25. So, base don what we have always thought, that avreichim don't join the workforce because of their situation with the army preventing them from doing so, is not relevant after 25. So far so good.

The new fact is that only 22% of avreichim over the age of 25 leave kollel and join the workforce. 78% of avreichim stay in yeshiva long term, not because they are stuck there because of the army or in order to avoid the army, but because they choose to be there.

Since the national debate over shivyon bnetel, sharing the burden of equal army service, seems to mostly accept, and therefore allow, yeshiva bochurim to learn for at least a few years before they might be required to serve in the army under any plan that might be accepted into law, it seems that this age 25 cutoff for avreichim is probably the most important barometer.

It seems likely that lowering or raising the cutoff age will do little to help, or hurt, anyone. Unless you think that after 25 they are not leaving kollel because at that point they feel stuck with no other realistic options, they are not leaving because they, for the most part, don't want to. They likely wont leave at a younger age either.

If you think they should be encouraged to leave, then you can come up with other programs to try to change the balance, to increase the 22% leaving to join the workforce, but that is already trying to manipulate someone's chosen lifestyle. The debate has always been about pulling out the issue that prevents them from doing what they want, but these numbers indicate they mostly are doing what they want.

The one thing missing that I would like to know from this is if after 25 only 22% leave the yeshiva world - that is between 25 and what age? Is it as soon as they hit 25? Maybe when they hit 28 or 30 or 35 more leave? 25 is still reasonably young enough to go out, join a program to learn a profession or trade and start working, yet they are largely choosing not to. If they are leaving but only at 30 or 35, that would be very different, as starting to learn a profession at that age is already far more difficult.

It is common for kollels to make all sorts of rules and conditions to which any potential member must agree to adhere to in order to be accepted to learn there and to receive a stipend. One of the common rules nowadays is that neither he nor his family members may have a non-kosher cellphone. Having such a phone and being discovered would put the avreich at risk of losing his stipend and being asked to leave the kollel.

An avreich sent the question to Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, rav of Ramar Elchonon neighborhood in Bnei Braq, asking if a Rosh Kollel halachically is allowed to make the stipend he gives to the avreichim conditional on not having a non-kosher phone, and if he has one and it gets discovered if the stipend can be withheld or lessened as punishment.

Rav Zilbershtein responded that any avreich having such a device is not worthy of being called an avreich and does not qualify for the kollel stipend.

Rav Zilbershtein adds that this is also the case even if the Rosh Kollel did not make this a rule or condition of the kollel. Someone with a treif phone cannot be considered an avreich. An avreich, Rav Zilbershtein explains, is a ben torah whose entire day is focused on torah - someone with such a device does not have the ability to focus even for a moment on Torah and the beis medrash will not help him.

Further, the Rosh Kollel has the ability to ensure that the money he works hard and sweats to raise will go to the hands of talmidei chachomim and not to houses with this plague of non-kosher phones, so even if he does not use one but his wife does, the Rosh Kollel can withhold the stipend. If there is a real reason why she must have one, they can tell the Rosh Kollel and if he thinks it is justified, they will find a solution that will be acceptable to everyone involved.
source: Kikar

A Rosh Kollel sent a question to Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, saying that he runs a respected kolel with about 15 serious and God fearing avreichim who are studious and diligent in their learning. One of the avreichim had a troubled and difficult childhood that deeply affected him and baruch hashem he was able to overcome it and establish a beautiful family, with a wife from a similar background. Today they have 4 young children.

This avreich has special character traits and is God fearing, but because of issues and disturbances with his family, he misses learning sessions in kollel and sometimes when he comes he comes late, and often falls asleep during the learning sessions.

The rosh kollel says he spoke to the avreich about it and the avreich explained that he is mentally worn out and even going to sleep early at night has not helped and he is always tired - which is why he misses so often, comes late and falls asleep while learning. The family gets no financial help from their families and whenever the wife has to go out, he has to stay home to watch the children. He trusts the avreich completely and mentions that all the problems are due to this "oness" - extenuating circumstances.

The Rosh Kollel then asks Rav Zilbershtein what to do  on the one hand it is a small kollel and one avreich coming late, missing, sleeping, etc can have a detrimental effect on the others. As well, other avreichim are trying to get into the kollel but he cannot accept them due to funding, but this avreich is using up a spot that can be better used by others. On the other hand, this avreich is God fearing and likely won't be able to find another kollel to learn in. So, the Rosh Kollel asks, can I throw this avreich out of my kollel and send him to look for another place?

Rav Zilbershtein responded that he should definitely have the avreich leave the kollel, but the stipend should continue to be given to him, though not at the expense of the kollel. If an avreich comeslate or misses learning in kollel and it can cause a weakening in other members of the kollel, he must be removed from the kollel, but the rosh kollel should try to arrange a stipend for him.

I would guess that means if there is some extra money or if the rosh kollel can persuade a local tzedaka organization to sponsor a stipend or find funding from elsewhere outside the kollel's bank account...
source: Kikar

I wonder if he was sent to a doctor to be tested for Mono, or to a psychologist to see if he needs medication for depression - uppers or whatever. Maybe he has problems that need to be dealt with before they get much worse...

Menachem Toker, a modern Haredi (or whatever you to call his style) radio broadcaster and "presenter", has come up with a new initiative. Toker plans to open a kollel for musicians in Bnei Braq.

This musicians kollel will not be intended to have musicians learning half a day and singing or making their albums the other half of the day, though perhaps that would be welcomed as well. The idea is this would be a kollel of avreichim learning entirely supported by the music industry - each musician, singer, etc participating would help support the kollel. According to Toker's plan, each musician participating would get his own avreich that he will support financially - and he can visit him and come to the kollel and see how things are going. The arrangement will be some sort of "Yissachar Zevulun" arrangement with the goal set at a kollel of 40 avreichim supported by 40 musicians.

Toker went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to get a bracha for the initiative. According to Behadrei, Rav Chaim Kanievsky loved the idea and commented that this would be as if each musician himself was learning Torah for half the day.

According to the article a few musicians/performers have already signed up.

They were so impressed by the initiative that not only did Toker get a bracha from Rav Chaim, he even got a tour of the house with his kids!

Yissachar Zevulun arrangements have always been a part of the Torah and tzedaka landscape and such an arrangement is blessed and the people involved should all be blessed.

Mishpacha Magazine (Hebrew edition) has been running an initiative recently promoting new young couples in the Haredi community take on their own mortgages instead of burdening their parents with the mortgage. This would allow the current system of the parents chipping in for the down payment, but instead of the parents also then paying the mortgage, the couple would, Parents in the Haredi community are struggling in debt as they take in 3, 4, 5 or more mortgages to pay for their kids apartments. This would put the burden of 1 partial apartment on the couple owning the apartment and living in it, and less of the burden on the parents.

This past week's edition of Mishpacha had several interesting letters, three letters out of many, to the editor in response to this initiative, and I thought it was worth sharing these three letters with you. The three are from three different perspectives and sides of the issue.

Letter 1:

I'll begin with introductions, out of courtesy.
I am married, BH, to a talented and learned husband. We are both in our 50s. We have married off 5 children and have 2 more still at home.
When we married, there was money. It is not pleasant to say, but we had money from the German reparations. That money helped our parents get us on our feet. We got an apartment near my parents, I found a job as a teacher and my husband learned for some years in kollel and then became a "Ram" (ie a rebbi/teacher) in a known yeshiva.
For 20 years we lived in a cloud. In a dream. We earned some nice money. It was enough to save a little bit. We thought we were smart and successful.
Then we married off one daughter.
Then the second.
Then the third child, a son. Then the fourth, another daughter.
They were all loved, successful and smart. Each one came with a mountain of debt and obligations.
The money we had saved was barely enough for the down payment of our eldest daughter. For the second daughter we had to borrow money, a horrible thing and something not recommended to do. This concluded with us selling our beautiful apartment. We have moved between small rental apartments since then. The third child was a son, but he had some health problems so we had to take on ourselves more obligations than normally done. Today, with the fourth, there is no more money. It is all gone.There are no more sources of funding for us. That's it.
We are paying 4 mortgages, plus rent. We start each month about 20,000nis in overdraft.
I work at 3 jobs. If the students I teach in the morning would know that in the evening I am working a shift at a far away nursing home, they would faint.
My husband is broken. He learns privately with students from morning to night. He has no satisfaction. He is embittered and grumpy. He feels no self-worth  and also feels that he cannot support his children as others supported him. Our marriage has gotten very shaky. When we are alone for Shabbos we do not buy fish and meat, though when our children come we buy 2 types of fish and 3 types of meat!
And I am frightened of the day when we will start talking about shidduchim for our next child!
Forgive me Hashem, but I fear that moment!
I am writing in tears. My husband is a tzaddik, he knows I am writing this and he is praying that someone will read it and do something about it. Do something!
Why in Belz is it legitimate to buy an apartment in har Yona for 600,000nis, in Zanz to buy an apartment in Tzfat for 500k, and Gur in Arad for 300k, and Vizshnitz in Afula for I dont know how much? Why by the sefardim is it ok to get married and live in Netivot and in Yerucham, and only by us, the "quality", if you buy an apartment in Bet Shemesh and Modiin Ilit - for 1.1 million shekels - you feel like you are compromising??!
I am certain that by the hassidim they also have problems with this issue, but by us it is a catastrophe!
Yasher Koach for bringing the issue to the forefront, and Hashem should help all of us.

a truly heartfelt letter, and I felt bad for the situation they find themselves in due to community and societal norms


Letter 2:

It is very easy for you to write that the children should take the mortgage payments upon themselves. But forgive us for asking: how exactly are to pay these payments? Why do you think that a young couple getting married at the age of twenty-something and the system sends them to learn in kollel and his wife to work at a tiny salaried job, can possibly consider paying mortgage payments?
If there are stories about people earning a good living, and they still let the shver pay the mortgage, they should be ashamed! but the rest of us - what is even the suggestion that we should pay?
I ask for forgiveness and will be a bit extreme: who educated us in this way that we just want to learn and go to kollel? Was it not our father? Of course it was! Our entire lives our fathers have put into our heads that their desire is just that we should build houses of torah. And now suddenly you are sending us to pay mortgages? Maybe it is difficult for the parents, but this is what they want! That we should sit and learn! Not that we should be looking for other things! This is a complete disconnect! This is not connected at all to our lives!
I am not saying this is ok in relation to our parents. But what at all is the thought that these young people will be able to pay? How exactly? Do we have some secret parnassa that brings us money? No, not at all. We sit in kollel exactly as our parents dreamed for us. As they educated us. We are the good results of our education. For the ones that left, nobody pays their mortgage.  So now that we have done everything they wanted from us, people are coming with complaints.
I dont understand it!

wow. talk about entitled! this hurt to read, but a different type of hurt than the way the first letter hurt. In the first letter they are suffering for everything they have tried to do for their kids. It hurt to see how much they are suffering because of it. In the second letter he is saying that this is their fault, this is what they want, and leave me alone. This hurt from the chutzpah and lack of care for the predicament the parents find themselves in - on their behalf! It is their problem, let them deal with it!

This is clearly the result of a bad system. Young people getting married with no plans for parnassa demanding or needing apartments, expensive no matter how much or little it might cost, with having to do this for multiple children - as each family has 5-8 children, or more, and God forbid talk about having less kids or having kids despite not being able to afford food for them let alone apartments and weddings. God forbid letting them build houses of torah while also having a way to support his/her own family. Maybe they should not get married so young with no ability to pay rent or a mortgage, or at least a plan to be able to do so soon.

It is not really the kids fault. This is the way he was raised. This is the way the system he grew up in works. The system failed him, and the system failed his parents, just as the system fails thousands of other people. Systems were not put in place to help individuals or to solve the problems of individuals, but to sustain the systems and the people and ideals behind them. The people who suffer from these systems are causalities of war. This young man isnt wrong - he and his wife are barely earning enough for the electricity bill, the phones, and the food, so from where should he suddenly be able to pay a mortgage? But he also is not right. And he should have some compassion for his struggling parents. He should recognize what they are going through - for him.

Letter 3:

I am the person you are writing about. I am one like this that makes a little bit of money but still my father pays my mortgage.
Maybe it is not right, but I want to explain myself.
I started out dealing with being agents and things like that. Thank God I had some success here and there. Nothing major but some money was coming in.
I save a bit, I invested a bit in my home by doing some critical and necessary renovations and fixes. Today, thank God, I have some income from this work.
I could go to my father and tell him that I am taking the 2500nis mortgage payments upon myself and I could tell my shver that he no longer needs to give us the 500nis monthly for food. And then I'll be in a situation in which all my income is being spent on day to day expenses.
And then I will not have any great chances.
I very much want to take the burden off of my parents.But before I do I need to earn enough that in another 15 years when my children want to get married I will be able to give them.
I think this is the hishtadlus I am obligated in.

I am not even sure what to say about this letter. Do their parents think they are supporting someone in kollel? Do they know they are supporting someone who is working but wants to save in addition to what he is earning? Are his parents capable of paying the mortgage and monthly expenses and ok with it? Are they being swindled thinking they are paying for a child learning in kollel? It seems unclear, though it leans, in my mind, to him supposedly being in kollel. Otherwise what is the relevance? If he is working and his parents want to help him out anyway, that has nothing to do with the situation being discussed by Mishpacha Magazine and the various writers on the subject. His parents are welcome to help him as much or as little as they want and are not part of the peer pressure system. If they help beyond their means, they have nobody to blame but themselves and can feel free to stop at any time. If they can afford it and want to, that is their business. So I suspect he is swindling his parents working, taking their money for learning, and using it to save for the future. And because he is writing on the topic, I suspect they are struggling with these payments, but he has justified them as necessary for his future. He might be shrewd but if that is what he is doing, I rue the day when his scam will be uncovered. Or maybe it is all innocent and they are simply trying to help out their kids and help them for the long term with their future and grandchildren in mind, and there is nothing wrong with that.

As I wrote above, the system is failing. It is failing itself and it is failing the people in it. The parents can't handle the struggle and burden of buying apartments for 5, 8, 10 kids and then also helping support them. The kids have become entitled and have no plan for themselves, getting married young with no financial options other than to take from the parents for the long term. The Mishpacha initiative is good to lessen the load somewhat from the struggling parents, but the ship is sinking. Having 6, 7, 8 or 10 kids in this generation when the parents and grandparents also spent their entire lives in kollel or teaching is not the same as the previous generations when people had 2 or 4 kids and the parents were working people. The ship is sinking.

I just received the following letter in the mail:


very few people call me rabbi, even less use the "shlita" when mentioning my name, but many spell my name wrong.

So, this kollel was opened about a year ago, maybe a bit more. I am sure it is a wonderful kollel with the most studious of avreichim, and if anyone wishes to donate to them, the details for donations are at the bottom of the letter, though I know nothing about them personally.

As the opening sentences of the letter state, "...I would like to bring forth an urgent situation in our town." During the first few weeks we were here, the kollel situation proved to be quite impossible. Many young men simply could not find a kollel to learn in. From those who were fortunate enough, many needed to travel to other cities on a daily basis, costing them precious time and hard earned money."

If this letter taught me anything it is that Bet Shemesh has a shortage of decent kollels. That was not the impression I had prior to receiving this letter.

The chain of kollels in Israel led by Rabbi Weissbord has been in big trouble for a long time. They have not paid their avreichim for 10 months. Some kollels have closed, some avreichim have started to leave their kollels for other places.

I have no idea how [most] avriechim can manage to live without getting their meager salaries for so long. I don't think I could survive with my salary not being paid for ten months.

A week or so ago it was announced that Rav Shteinman helped bail Weissbord out and helped find a donor to cover all his debt and pay the avreichim what he owes. it was hailed in the Haredi media as a tremendous salvation and a miracle. There is even one story about how the donor pledged a million shekels but Rav Shteinman had them refuse it because someone on his level should be donating much more, so he upped his donation to 18 million.

My friend who is involved with this chain of kollels tells me that they were all expecting their money as they were told it was on the way. A day or two later they were told the money has been held up in the USA on suspicion of money laundering. This guy wired all the money (about $4,500,000) in one shot and it was stopped. With the US and money laundering, one never knows when, or if, it will ever be released. I have not seen this in the news anywhere - only praise for finding the donor.

Sure enough, it is only the avreichim who suffer over this.

My friend also tells me that the kollel is still in trouble because while this, even if the money ever gets released and comes through, will cover the debts from the past, they have no idea how he will pay their stipends in the coming months. He might go another ten months without paying and then have Rav Shteinman bail him out again, or maybe nobody will bail him out next time.

I don't have the answer as to what should be done. Maybe he should not be operating a chain of kollels if he cannot pay his avreichim. Maybe he should because the avreichim know the difficulty and are accepting that reality upon themselves. I am just bringing to light more of the story and giving the struggles of the avreichim some publicity.

I am not sure why someone starting a kollel is something newsworthy, but once it is, I feel like commenting.

Behadrei is announcing that Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz of Los Angeles is starting a new kollel. This will be a high end kollel and he is sifting through the avreichim of Eretz Yisrael looking for the best of the best, creme de la creme.

Rechnitz is doing this to strengthen the Haredi community of Los Angeles, and he will be paying each avreich $50,000 per year, in addition to paying their housing expenses, child education expenses and other communal expenses they will incur. In addition to their learning, they will be involved in giving shiurim in the community, learning with baalei batim and kids and other communal Torah-projects.

I think Rechnitz  is doing a wonderful thing, especially as he is, once again, putting his money where his mouth is and not making demands of others. It is his money and he can spend it how he likes. It is commendable that he spends nice amounts of it on "divrei kedusha" and supporting projects he believes in.

I feel bad that he is taking avreichim out of Eretz Yisrael for this, rather than finding avreichim in the USA, of which there are plenty, but perhaps these are avreichim that were only planning to stay short-term in Eretz Yisrael anyway and were already planning to leave.

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...

I wonder what took so long for someone to come up with this idea...



Someone has figured out that he can turn davening into a money-maker. It has already become a classic that someone might get paid to say kaddish for someone deceased with no relatives who might do it for him/her. But just to turn the entire minyan into a paying kollel? I have not heard of that. Until now.

As the pashkevil above says, while Jewish blood is being spilled we must strengthen ourselves in prayer, and specifically in saying Amen Yehei Shmei Rabba.. with our full strength and energy.

To that end, someone has opened a "Kollel Tefillas Shacharis" that will daven at 8am daily, beginning with a short study session learnign the laws relevant to responding to kaddish and answering amen yehei...

Each 'Avreich that joins will be paid 500nis (per month, I assume). Only avreichim 30  years and older can join.

I wonder why they do not meet at the optimum time for prayer - sunrise - if they are looking to maximize their prayer and its effectiveness, rather than going to the late minyan at 8am.

This could also be the solution for anyone who has a difficult time going to daven - pay them 500nis per month, and maybe that will make it easier.

When they come collecting for Kollel Tefillas Shacharis, pleas eopen your heart, and your wallet, and pay them for something they are already doing anyway. Jewish blood is being spilled, and they can prevent it.

I was planning on writing about a letter to the editor I had seen in the Mishpacha magazine, but my magazine disappeared, so I did not have the original letter to quote. Thankfully The Jewish Worker quoted and wrote about the same letter, so now I have it..

The letter and its translation:

מיהו אברך

רבקה ח ירושלים

אני לא קוראת קבועה של העיתון, אבל קניתי אותו בגלל הכתבה על אנשים שתורתם אומנותם במובן שגם הם לומדים שעות וגם עובדים

אני נשואה לאברך חשוב - אנחנו חיים, שורדים, ומתחתנים ילדים, והכתבה הזה השאיר אצלי טעם חמוץ. אינני יודעת למה, אבל אולי כי הרגשתי שיש בה משום זלזול בתלמידי חכמים אמיתיים כמו בעלי שמוסרים את הנפש לתורה,שלומדים כל החיים, שנשארים בכולל והם אברכים אמיתיים

אני לא יודעת להסביר בדיוק, כי מובן שזה תופעה מבורכת אבל לא על חשבון אנשים כמו בעלי וחביריו

אני כותבת לכם בסערת נפש. אני מורה בסימנר מספר שעות בשבוע, ואני תוהה מה לומר לתלמידות בעקבות כתבה כזו אם השאלה תעלה 

אשמח לשמוע דעות בעניין הזה ומה אומרת דעת תורה על זה

I am not a regular reader of the magazine but I bought it because of the article about the people who "their profession is torah", in the sense that they learn hours a day while also working.

I am married to an important Avreich - we live, we survive, we are marrying off children, and this article left a bitter taste in my mouth. I don't know why, but maybe because I felt that there was disrespect for real Talmidei Chachamim like my husband who gives his soul to Torah, learns his whole life, and stays in kollel and these are the real Avreichim. I don't know how to explain this exactly, because it is clear that this a good phenomenon but not on the backs of people like my husband and his friends.
I am writing to you with a lot of trepidation. I am a teacher in a high school a few hours a week and I don't know what to tell the girls about this article if the subject comes up. 
I would be happy to hear other opinions on this subject as well as what "Daas Torah" has to say about this.

I do not know why she thinks that if they write respectfully about one type of person it means nobody else is deserving of respect. They write non-stop about the yeshivot, the kollels, the avreichim, and how important they are. They constantly write against the attempts to change the system.

Is it so bad that they write once about people who work and make time to learn regularly? Does it mean this is the only way? Does it mean these people deserve respect and nobody else does?

Regarding her problem with what to tell her students - maybe she should tell the students that men who go to work to support their families should make time to learn Torah, and that is just fine, if not better than "fine", at least for people who are not going to be learning full time..

She says she thinks it is good, but "not on the backs of people like my husband". Who is doing anything on the backs of her husband and his friends? Because the people working and learning deserve some respect means it is coming on the back of her husband? Is there a limited amount of respect in the world that if one shows respect to one person it takes away respect earned by and showed to another?

Earners-Learners deserve respect to, and granting it takes away nothing from anybody else.

I don't know what qualifies something to be considered a landmark case, but this case sounds like it might be one.. This is the first time I am hearing of such an incident..

Basically, the State looked into an avreich who declared his status as "Torato Umanuto" - full-time Torah learning - yet every time they checked into him, they never found him in kollel. Rather, he was voluntarily running some girls school and was Director of the NGO.

The State imposed financial sanctions on the kollel this avreich was supposedly learning in, and sued the avreich. The State argued that the stipend paid to kollel people is is order to assist those people who really live the life of torato umanuto, where the focus of his entire life is his torah learning. The State therefore sued to receive back all the monies paid in stipends to this fellow - 7 years worth of stipends, totaling about 84,000NIS.

The avreich's response was that he was caught out of kollel on a spot check, but the rest of the time he was in kollel and they can't know otherwise.

The State responded to that saying they cannot be expected to attach a "personal bodyguard" to every person in kollel to track when he is there learning and when he is not. It should be enough for them to show via spot-checking a number of times that he was not in kollel, and from that it can reasonably be extrapolated that he regularly was not learning in the kollel.

The court accepted the States argument saying the State is not able to attach an investigator to each person who receives "havtachat hachnasa", and a reasonable sampling is enough for an investigation. The State proved that his lack of attendance was not a one-time thing or a chance encounter being caught out of kollel, rather he regularly was not in kollel.

The court decided the avreich would have to pay the State 84,000NIS to return all the stipends, and another 8000NIS in court costs.
source: NRG

This video was shown recently at the Agudah Convention in America.. my thoughts and comments after the video..



1. you will notice more females in this video (and there are not all that many) than in any video or ad or newspaper by the haredi community in Eretz Yisrael..

2. they could have made a possibly even stronger point by not making it a haredi issue. there is poverty all around, and the recent budget cuts hurt a lot of people, haredim included but not limited to that community. The first half of the video seems more anti-government than sympathetic to the haredim. They could have, or should have, shown images of general poor, not just haredim. The second half focused on haredi poverty and the images there are compatible with that.

3. the video itself was well-done, in my opinion. I thought it told the story well and created a sense of sympathy and a desire to help

4. It is a shame the only solution offered is give, more money, and more giving. Maybe it is time to be creative and find solutions from within. Without ascribing blame. If the poverty is so bad, maybe throwing money at it is not the best solution.

5. They don't seem to be asking for more vocational training programs, for better wages (even though they talk about the discrepancy of wages between men and women), for more job creation (even though it is mentioned how even working people are having a hard time making ends meet) - only for more subsidies and welfare payments. Teach a man to fish? While some individuals may want that over the fish itself, as a community they are not interested.

6. and yes, it would be negligent to not mention that this problem is self-inflicted. They are saying  - we insist on being poor, and the government is still at fault for not giving us enough money to get by with. As well, they don't see it as a problem - they are normally proud of being poor, of being moser nefesh for Torah. if they want to be poor, why is it so bad that the government cut the various welfare payments?

7. Despite all that, how can one not sympathize with them, show empathy, want to find a way to help? To help the kids that don't have food to take to school for lunch? To help the families that are learning Torah, no matter how much I think maybe they should reevaluate?

With the new "thought police" it is no longer enough for rabbonim to say who to vote for and expect the vast majority of followers to listen. In order to quash some rebellion in the ranks - growing numbers of people who decide to make their own decisions for whom to vote - they have to come up with new methods of ensuring obedience. Particularly upsetting was the new political party founded by supporters of Rav Shmuel Auerbach, and the many people who voted for them.

Avreichim in kollels are now going to be required to sign a form, or risk being thrown out of the kollel, by which they attest to regretting opposing the gedolim and not listening to their words, committing to listening in the future, and to not being a subscriber to the HaPeles newspaper...




A group of rabbonim created the form and text, and it seems they showed it to Rav Shteinman and Rav Kanievsky who debated whether to approve such a tactic or not, and supposedly decided to approve it...
(sources: Bechadrei, Kikar, Ladaat)

Minister of Education Rabbi Shai Piron responded to the news of this new requirement in kollel, and to complaints by affected avreichim, by instructing the department of yeshivot in the Ministry of Education to act immediately against any kollels that suspend or relieve students based on political affiliation, being that it is illegal.

Any kollel found to be violating the law and throwing out students for not signing this form (or I guess for signing it but buying HaPeles anyway and voting for alternate haredi parties) will be deprived of their subsidies. Piron said he will not allow askanim to turn educational institutions into their political fields.. The haredi public deserves, just like every other sector, educational institutions that are professional and equitable, and whoever cannot come to terms with that will have his funding rejected.
(source: Ladaat)

And, nothing to do with this specifically, but just to show how important Rav Shteinman considers it to vote for UTJ, he related a story of the Chazon Ish - the Chazon Ish considered it so important that he sent his wife in a taxi to vote, and he also gave her his teudat zehut so that she would vote for him as well. Nowadays that would not work, as each person can only vote for himself or herself, and one cannot have someone else vote for them.




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Donate to the Schneider Hospital so I can run the Schneider benefit marathon..

I am shocked and astounded that this could happen.

According to Kikar, the "Kollel Hi-Tech" which was recently established in Bnei Braq for avreichim who had chosen to study a trade but wanted to continue to learn Torah for part of the day, has been forced to shut down.

[some of] the avreichim who will no longer be.. photo credit: Kikar

After some rabbonim opposed it, and after some hafganot against it in Bnei Braq, the Rosh Kollel yesterday announced its closure. Both Rav Shmuel Auerbach and Rav Nissim Karelitz recently published articles, each in how own affiliated newspaper, against such an integration of learnign Torah and studying for a profession together. Rav Dovid Leibel, the founder, was forced to close the kollel, though he says it is only temporary while he goes around to the rabbonim to explain the kollel and consult with them about it.

Rav Leibel, it seems, has two separate institutions - a few years ago he opened a vocational school to teach computer programming and other computer studies to haredim who have chosen to integrate into the workplace and pursue a career in hi-tech. In addition to that, Rav Leibel now opened the kollel so that young men studying these hi-tech trades could also spend part of the day continuing to learn Torah. Rav Leibel is very strict about the learning schedule, and everyone in the program has to commit to adhering to the schedule very carefully.

The rabbonim and other opponents are looking at it from a different perspective - instead of seeing that these students looking for work are being kept for a few hours a day n the beis medrash, they see avreichim being given legitimacy and encouragement to stop learning in the afternoons in order to learn a trade.

Truth is, I am not sure either of those perspectives are really all that bad...

Anyways, when Rav Leibel realized he had to close down, he said someone is going to pay the price for this that now tens of haredi students are going to stop learning Torah daily.

I am astounded that some people think it is a bad thing for working people, or students, to dedicate a few hours a day to torah study. It seems so short-sighted to force such a kollel to shut down. One cannot integrate work and Torah study? Since when is that true? And, if anything, I would have thought they would get the training school shut down rather than the kollel...