Should Kollel Have Term Limits?
The debate surrounding instituting term limits is not only for politicians, but for kollel yungerleit as well. Should kollel yungerleit receiving a check from their kollel also be subject to a specific time limit, say 5 or more years?
In Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens, the kollel program is a 6 year program, during which the yungerleit actively engage in preparing for a career in rabbanus or chinuch either by taking courses in teaching and / or focusing on practical halacha.
The Gruss kollel in Eretz Yisroel is a 2 year program as well. The goal is that after 2 (or sometimes 3) years, the kollel member should move on to assume a position of leadership back in the states.
However, most kollelim have no limit. Once someone is accepted into a kollel, they can stay as long as the kollel functions, with no chance of every being asked to leave.
On the one hand, a kollel is designed to allow someone to devote himself to learning while providing a small stipend. Torah should not have limits placed upon it, and if the yungerman feels that his still able to devote himself to full time learning, why put a stop to it?
On the other hand, if there is no real accountability there is a tendency to underperform. Imagine if politicians didn’t have to get reelected ever. Ever walk into a post office or a motor vehicles office and wonder why the service is so poor? Because they have no fear of ever getting fired, there is no need to provide good service. If kollel would be for a limited time only, the members would perhaps use their time more carefully than if kollel is “endless”.
Lakewood yeshiva floated this idea many years ago, in an effort to both save money as well as to provide a stimulus for those “older yungerleit” to make their exit while they still could. Rav Shach ZT”L ruled that Torah cannot have any limits placed on it, and kollel checks should not stop after 5 years.
What do you think should be done today? Should kollel stipends have limits on the length of time they are given, or should there be no restrictions?
Feel free to add your comments below.
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When Supporting Kids Just Never Stops
Reading Mishapacha’s article about the late philanthropist Moshe Saba of Mexico City, I came across something which is sure to be a controversial issue among many of you.
Moshe Saba, who was worth in the hundreds of millions, insisted that his son Alberto work part time. Here is the quote from Mishpacha magazine:
“Last Elul, Alberto [the son] cried to me,” Rav Dovid Yosef says. “He begged me to persuade his father to let him sit in kollel. I don’t need the money that I earn. I want to learn,” he told me.” This wasn’t a new discussion between Alberto and his father, when the issue would come up, the two of them would go to Rav Ovadia, who knew how to carefully dissipate the tension. Moshe wanted his son to be a ben torah, and therefore encouraged him to spend half a day learning. But on the other hand, he didn’t want him to be completely pampered and dependent on his parents.
Money buys many things. But a rich man who became rich through hard work, sweat, and tears, knows that true success is not just being financially well off. He wanted his son to be strong, independent, and courageous. Money is one thing, but being a successful person cannot be bought with dollars.
But what is wrong with learning in kollel for a few years? Surely, someone like Moshe Saba who himself was a talmid chochom of note, would appreciate the value of learning. Why did he not allow his son to learn for a few years and then bring him in to the business?
There are too many well to do families that are supporting their children longer than they anticipated, all in the name of “helping their kids in learning.” It creates a culture of dependency that never stops. How many families are there where they are in their 30s and even 40s, marrying off their kids, that are still dependent on their parent’s support? Moshe felt that while learning is very important, teaching his son “to fish” is even more important.
Is he wrong?
Administrator of Bais Yakov Tells Father to Leave Kollel
In these difficult economic times, yeshivos and schools are feeling the pain of no money, and are doing everything they can to raise sorely needed funds. In other words, that translates to them being tougher on tuition collection.
But nothing can excuse the behavior of one Bais Yaakov administrator. In the course of discussing tuition for one family who’s father learns full time in kollel, and the negotiations were getting intense. So the adminstrator tells the father, “It’s time for you to leave kollel, get a job, and pay tuition just like anyone else.”
Although the administrator is under an unbearable burden of managing the budget, we have to examine carefully what he said. He legitimately feels that all parents should do their utmost to pay for their share in their child’s tuition. However, a school’s success is largely dependent on the makeup of the parent’s that choose to send to that school. Kollel families generally are of a higher caliber, and raise the overall standard of the school.
Schools need fathers who learn in kollel just as they need families who are well off. The wealthy families, who could afford to send their children just about anywhere, will send to the school they perceive as being the best. “Best schools” are not created in a vacuum. It requires good teachers, attentive yet unintrusive management, but the most meaningful element is dependent on the makeup of the families who send their children to that school. Kollel families tend to have higher standards of chinuch, don’t allow their children to do things the schools don’t want them to do (going to ball games, watch TV, internet, etc.). Another huge plus that kollel families offer is that they don’t cause jealousy with the other kids by going to fancy hotels for Pesach and mid winter vacations to Florida.
Kollel families may not be able to pay the tuition he wants, but he still needs to appreciate the value that they add to his school.
The “Glitter” of Parshas HaMon (Tuesday Parshas Beshalach)
(The following is a guest post from a talmid chochom in Lakewood who I share many views with.)We would like to remind everyone about the words of the Rambam in the ninth perek of hilchos teshuva that we have a PROMISE from the Torah (and not merely a segula) that if we learn his Torah and keep his mitzvos with joy, then Hashem will remove from us everything that takes away from keeping his Torah like sickness, war, and starvation; and instead will bless us with all the good in the world so we can fulfill his Torah like satiation, peace, and much gold and silver.
רמב”ם יד החזקה – הלכות תשובה פרק ט “והבטיחנו בתורה שאם נעשה אותה בשמחה ובטובת נפש ונהגה בחכמתה תמיד שיסיר ממנו כל הדברים המונעים אותנו מלעשותה כגון חולי ומלחמה ורעב וכיוצא בהן וישפיע לנו כל הטובות המחזיקות את ידינו לעשות התורה כגון שובע ושלום ורבוי כסף וזהב“.
So the next time you receive the segula of parshas ha’mon in an email from a friend, send them back the PROMISE of the Torah……
