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Should Kollel Have Term Limits?

term limits kollel stipendsThe 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.

Should Kollel Have Term Limits?

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?

When Supporting Kids Just Never Stops

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.

Administrator of Bais Yakov Tells Father to Leave Kollel

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.)
Undoubtedly, we will all receive emails today regarding the segula of parshas hamon which has become a yearly ritual religiously kept by yidden all over the world (even by those who are otherwise lax in observing mitzvos) in keeping with the words of Reb Menachem Mendel M’Riminov zt”l that saying parshas ha’mon on Tuesday of Parshas Be’Shalach, is a segulah for parnasah.

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……

The “Glitter” of Parshas HaMon (Tuesday Parshas Beshalach)

Help Others Without Giving Money

This week, 2 incidents proved to me how helping poeple can be easily achieved without costing you a penny.

A friend of mine who is going through a “career change”, is looking to get involved in a business that provides services to very specific kinds of businesses. Because the program is only of use to very specific kinds of businesses, he doesn’t have too many leads to approach. He asked me to call a relative of mine who works in the medical field to see if he could get some contacts from him. I called the relative, and after just 2 phone calls, I put them in touch with each other, probably resulting in a lucrative deal for my friend. This cost me nothing, and it gave my friend a great boost to his fledgling business.

In a similar story, a friend of mine connected me to a person who agreed to meet with me and offer me valuable business advice. This person runs a multi million dollar business, and I would never have been able to sit down with him and hear his ideas, until the friend of mine made the connection. Funny thing is – he was actually very happy to give me the time, and even offered to be of help whenever I need.

It’s hard to give someone your hard earned money. After all, there are so many things that you could be doing with that money, and giving it to someone else is probably not high on your list. But there are so many people who you could be helping without having to part with money.

Everyone is connected to someone who can help someone else. Networking, the life and blood of all business deals, is very easily accomplished in our community. Who doesn’t know someone who works in the medical supply field, the banking industry, real estate, etc.

Business is constantly evolving, and opportunities are always arising. Chances are, there is someone who you know that can be a great source of help for someone that you know who is trying to get a business started, or a deal through. Instead of shying away, help them by picking up the phone and calling that person for them.

You’ll be doing a tremendous chessed, and the person you are asking will likely be very glad to be of help. And best of all, it won’t cost you a dime.

Help Others Without Giving Money

Twice as Much in Half the Time

As frum people, we have to accomplish twice as much is half the time.

Compared with the average family in the US, a frum family has at least double (most likely 3x) the expenses. Tuition, kosher food, clothing, summer camps, etc. Earning that extra money means having to work harder. But we also have much less time than the average person in the US. Between learning, davening, Shabbos & Yom Tov, family obligations, etc. much of the time is simply not available for work.

That leaves us with having to accomplish twice as much in half the time. Nevertheless, we somehow manage to do so.

The reason we are able to do 4x as much as the average person is because we have to. Its amazing what gets done when there is no other choice. Under pressure, a person accomplishes more than otherwise would be reasonable to expect.

The problem most kollel guys face is the lack of pressure. Why bother accomplishing, when there is nothing forcing them to do so? Of course they are dedicating their lives to Torah, but as long as there are no specific goals to accomplish, they are satisfied with the fact that they are simply learning.

If kollel would be a job with real goals and deadlines, how much more could be accomplished? Certainly, a lot more than is being done now. The real challenge of a kollel yungerman today is to treat his years in kollel like a true job, by setting challenging goals for himself. That way, he really comes out of kollel with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Nothing is like the real world with its actual challenges and demands. However, a kollel yungerman can go a long way by artifically making it hard for himself. Pressure can be a good thing, for it makes us do things we otherwise would think are just not possible.

Twice as Much in Half the Time

If Everything is Made in China…

…Then how do we make our money?

Everything is made in China. From cars to chairs, computers to pianos. Boats arrive to our docks full of pallets of merchandise, and return to China empty. If everything is being made by the Chinese people, where do we make our money from?

The US economy is powered not by goods, but by ideas. Steel mills have closed down years ago, car companies are going broke, factories are a thing of the past. Those have all been sent overseas, where cheap labor is plentiful. But smart people, with ideas, cannot be outsourced.

B&H Photo sells billions of dollars of camera and other electronics every year, and they make a ton of money doing so. There is nothing unique about the products they sell. 90% of what they sell is easily found in other stores, both online and off. So what is so unique about their business that causes pro photographers and amateurs alike to flock to them with religious zeal for their gear?

The answer is the “shopping experience.” The camera is not unique, but their ideas on how to sell the camera are. And that alone is worth billions in annual sales, allowing them to employ 1,600 people in the process.

Ideas are the currency of today’s marketplace. Don’t invest in products, they can be found anywhere. Instead, invest in creating a sales process that is unique. It may be more difficult to create a new idea than a new product, but ultimately, it is the only way to make money in today’s marketplace.

Because good ideas are the only things not being Made in China.

If Everything is Made in China…

Charting Your Own Course

The economic situation of today is starkly different than 50 years ago, or even 20 years ago. You cannot be making serious money today by just working for someone else. In order to make “good money” in today’s economy, you have to be directly operating a profit center of your own, without anyone else standing between the money and you.

This does not mean that you have to be running your own multi million dollar enterprise in order to make money. On the contrary, bigger does not necessarily mean better. Even while working in someone else’s business can this be achieved.

Let’s take doctors as an example. The average salary of a general practitioner doctor is around $150,000. That is nice money, but nothing exceptional. However, if the doctor opens his own practice and brings in other doctors to work under him, he can be making upwards of $400,000. Now these doctors are doing the same kind of work and seeing the same amount of patients each. Why the difference in pay? Because the doctor who has his own practice is running his own business, while the doctor who works for someone else has to be satisfied with what the “boss” is willing to pay.

Everyone has a choice in how they bring in their income. You may think it is more secure and stable to just get paid, and let someone else worry how that money should come in. But at the end of the day, no one is worrying about your family’s financial situation more than you are. Ultimately, it will come down to your ability to bring in the income needed to sustain your family.

We will explore creative ways to “be your own boss” even without operating a business in the traditional sense, in upcoming posts.

Charting Your Own Course

Its All About the (first 5 minutes of the) Interview

According to survey of hiring managers in small and large businesses alike, the decision to consider a candidate for a position comes within the first 5 minutes of the interview. Things like:

  • Did the person appear presentable (clean, put together, professional looking)
  • Is he/she confident of their capabilities?
  • Can they express themselves and their thoughts clearly?
  • Do they have anything about them that makes others nervous?

You don’t really have time to make a good impression. As soon as you enter the room for the interview, its already being decided if you are going to be a serious contender for the job.

Therefore, do the obvious:

  • Dress neatly
  • Look the interviewer directly in the eye
  • Shake their hand firmly
  • Prepare your thoughts in advance
  • Make sure you can answer in a confident voice, without stammering or showing your underlying neverousness

Getting up to the interview means you had the right connections or resume. But getting past the interview, that’s entirely up to you. Nothing will help you after this point if you don’t come across as the right person for the job.

This is you chance to impress, and it has to be for real. If you got what it takes to do the job right, here’s your chance.

Its All About the (first 5 minutes of the) Interview

Persistance Pays

When looking for a job, being nudgy can pay off…if it’s done right.

The attitude of many job seekers is to be meek and timid, as if the person supplying the job is doing him a favor by granting him the time of day. Really, they both need each other equally. The employer is looking to make 3-5 times the cost of hiring the new employee from the work that he provides, so who is doing whom the favor?

If you are timid in your job seeking, you are likely to get passed over or just plain ignored. However, if you are confident in your ability to really add value to the organization, be firm and let your voice be heard!

Send a letter to the decison maker describing yourself and your accomplishments. Be specific to the organization you are targeting, because then the words will have an effect on the decison maker. After a few days, call the decision maker and follow up on your letter. If he did read the letter (and you’d be surprised how often they actually will), they will be more willing to talk with you and even grant you an interview.

At the end of the day, a job search involves selling oneself to the person making the hiring decision. In order to get a job, you need to convince the person making the hiring decision on your ability to provide value to his/her oragnization. They have a need that needs to be filled, all they need to know is if you are the person that fills that need.

Being timid and meek doesn’t go very far to convince the person on your abilities. But if you exedue confidence, strength of character, and a pleasant persistence, that will get you far in your success on the job search.

Persistance Pays