Lost in Kollel » Chinuch/Shtelers

So Many Candidates but No One to Choose

aaron — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:52:57 +0000

I just heard about a well established yeshiva looking for a high school rebbe. The current rebbe is set to leave next year after many years of teaching, and there is a lot of pressure to find a suitable replacement in time to calm the parents and the talmidim who are choosing mesivtas for the coming year. You can imagine that with 6,000 yungerleit in Lakewood looking for shtelers, this would be the opportunity of the century, and the yeshiva would have a long line of suitable candidates to choose from.

But sadly, that is not the case. The yeshiva has already been struggling for over a month with no obvious choice in sight. Even though there are thousands of people who want the position, the yeshiva doesn’t want them. The opposite is true as well. There are qualified candidates whom the yeshiva wants for them to take the job, but they don’t want the yeshiva. This leads to the obvious question – with so many talmidei chachamim waiting for positions, why is it so difficult to find someone? Surely from the thousands of kollel yungerleit it should be no big deal to come up with the right person?

The answer is that the person being sought needs to have qualifications that none of those vying for the job actually have. If all the yeshiva needed was someone capable of saying a high school level shiur, that would be no big deal to find. But the yeshiva is looking for something else – a successful rebbe. They are looking for someoen to fill in the void left by the previous rebbe who was considered a success. To find a maggid shiur, that is easy. To find a successful maggid shiur, that is impossible. So impossible, that the yeshiva would be willing to pay an outrageous salary to the “right” person. (And this is while others are willing to work for free just to get a shteler.)

Keep this in mind when looking for a shteler. Even the few positions a year that do open up, are not looking for someone who knows how to say a shiur. Those people are in great supply. The challenge is to become someone who will be a “guaranteed” success. That is a much more difficult accomplishment to achieve. And it is those people who are getting wooed with all the good offers that are out there.

bookmark this post

The Riverdale Rosh Yeshiva Sets an Example

aaron — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:39:15 +0000

This point was already made a way back, but is so powerful that it must be repeated.

A week ago, the Telshe Alumni of Riverdale yeshiva held its 30^th Anniversary dinner at the Tarrytown Hilton. There are many yeshivas that hold annual dinners, and there are quite a few that have made it to 30 years. But only a handful of them have had the amazing success that Riverdale has experienced throughout their entire history. Often, a yeshiva has its good times and bad, as many mainstay yeshivas in America can attest to. Even those that have been the prime yeshivas of the 50s and 60s have seen their glory fade over time. But Riverdale’s success defies all the trends, and is one of the top yeshivas in America today.

Everyone points to the Rosh Yeshiva, R’ Avremel Ausband, as the prime reason of the yeshiva’s success. His lomdus, charisma, leadership, and personality, are what attract scores of talmidim and donors to flock towards him. But the point that often gets unnoticed is that these very qualities could have easily been the cause of his downfall, and it was only due to his diligence and courage that allowed him to become the success he is today.

Let’s explain.

R’ Avremel is the eldest son of Rav Isaac Ausband shlita, the Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe. His father is the son-in-law of the late Rav and Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe D’Lita, Rav Avrohom Yitzchok Bloch HY”D, who was killed by the Nazis in World War II. The present day yeshiva is a continuation of the yeshiva that was led by R’ Avremel’s grandfather, whose name he bears. He is also a son-in-law of Rav Binyomin Tzeilberger ZT”L, the Rosh Yeshiva of Beis HaTalmud, another yeshiva with a rich history that traces itself back to the Mir Yeshiva in Poland.

Most people in this situation would sit tight and wait for the shteleh to come right along, especially such a rising star. It was a natural that he would get a coveted spot somewhere in the family tree, as soon as the opportunity would present itself. But he wanted no part in that. He realized that at the end of the day, even with a “secure” and “comfortable” job, he would just be following orders, while someone else would be calling the shots. Such a job was not appealing to him.

Instead, he went out in the cold and frightening world of starting his own yeshiva. It was, and still is, very tough. He gave up the security of a job waiting for him, for the unchartered territory of starting what was probably the first “Turnpike Yeshiva”. First in Westfield NJ, where he had to deal with vicious anti-semitism, and then over to Riverdale, where he had to deal with hostility from the local community, besides all the headaches and tremendous pressure that opening a yeshiva requires. But today, 30 years later, he has a crown jewel of a yeshiva that is entirely his own, while both Telshe and Beis HaTalmud are but shells of their former glory.

This lesson applies to all of us. We may feel deserving of a position – be it a shtele, a job, money, a house, an inheritance, a rabbanus – but at the end of the day none of these are really worth waiting for. Don’t squander the opportunity of today for the hope that tomorrow will bring something good. Instead, use your talents and energy to build something worthwhile that will be all yours. In 30 years from now, you will look like a genius – while everyone else will have to make do with whatever opportunity wandered into their hands.

bookmark this post

Do We Really Need Another Yeshiva on the Garden State Parkway?

aaron — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:20:49 +0000

A friend of mine told of a story that happened with his younger brother-in-law who was learning in a yeshiva high school in Lakewood that did not have a beis medrash. These bochurim were the target of the dozens of “wannabe rosh yeshivas” who saw them as prime candidates for their “yeshiva”. This bochur was hassled endlessly to “just be fahered” by a visiting rosh yeshiva. After finally agreeing to just “meet him”, the rosh yeshiva spoke to him in learning for a few minutes, and in the middle of the conversation whispered something to his son who ran out of the room. A few minutes later, his son returned with a well-known Torah personality, who was brought there to “describe” to this bochur the great ma’alos of this rosh yeshiva and his yeshiva. Mind you – this yeshiva had less than 10 bochurim at the time, and closed down a short while later with well over $1,000,000 of debts.

It seems that everyone who feels deserving of a shteler but for one reason or another was not awarded with one goes and opens a yeshiva for themselves. They do so with no money, no bochurim, no financial backing, no building, and yet they go ahead with their plans all in the name of “building Torah”.

Rav Chaim Kanievsky famously said on the Rosh who allows the purchase of seforim with ma’aser money, that today with the widespread availability of seofrim, the ruling of the Rosh no longer applies. Since the purchase of additional seforim will not increase their use, it is no longer an appropriate use of ma’aser money.

The same should be said with regards to new yeshivos. There are so many yeshivos gedolos around today, and even those struggle financially. When some enterprising fellow attempts to open another yeshiva, he is draining the available pool of both bochurim and money from the existing ones. If there were thousands of yeshiva bochurim without a yeshiva to go to, or if every yeshiva was as jammed as Passaic, there would be reason to open new ones. But with hundreds of choices, perhaps the best way to build Torah is by NOT starting a new yeshiva.

So what should these people who truly want to build Torah do? The opportunities for building Torah are endless. They can open a yeshiva for those kids not accepted to any school in Lakewood, they can go into kiruv, and they can go to work and earn money to support the existing yeshivas. There are plenty of opportunities out there, they just aren’t necessarily where they were looking for them.

bookmark this post

Where is the Shortage Exactly? (It’s not what you’d think…)

aaron — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:02:26 +0000

There are probably no official statistics, but if someone were to calculate a total of all new chinuch positions that were created this year and subtract the positions that were eliminated, there is most likely a net loss this year. For the first time in decades, there were more chinuch positions lost due to firings and school closings than positions created due to natural growth of our communities.

Each year, more and more kollel members join the ranks of those who are “looking” for a job in chinuch. Add to that all the Rabbeim who were fired or their jobs were eliminated, and we have a huge glut of qualified, top notch mechanchim, with no place to go.

Actually, to put it this way – if you are looking to be moiser nefesh for Torah, don’t go into chinuch. That is not where the need is now. Instead, go get a job. Open a business. Make a ton of money. It is clear that the recent financial crisis was the hiccup that is causing us to experience the harsh reality that Torah, just like anything else, costs money. Every year for the past 2 decades, less and less people were out earning money to support the ever growing population of mechanchim and kollel members.

We need a few good men out there to realize the need we have for Torah supporters, instead of adding yet another person to the oversaturated field of Torah teachers. Yes, even going to work can be for a noble cause, and it may very well be the highest calling.

There is definitely no shortage of qualified rebbeim for our sons. However, there is a severe shortage of qualified business people to support Torah. If you are looking to be moiser nefesh for Torah, it may be that going to work or making out in business is actually the best way to do so. We need more people who are courageous, honest, and capable to make a ton of money. That money will make its way back to our yeshivos ketanos, girls’ schools, kolleim, and shuls.

Is anyone out there really willing to be moiser nefesh? Sometimes doing the uncomfortable and unpopular thing is what is needed most. If you truly love Torah, if you are really concerned about the future of Torah for our coming generations, go out there and make some money for the Torah’s sake. Yes, even business can (and must) have a higher calling.

bookmark this post

Reality Check for Maggid Shiur Wannabes

aaron — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 03:39:33 +0000

As the summer bein hazmanim winds down into its final few days, and Elul is just around the corner, many are thinking about returning to yet another year of kollel without a shteler. Yes, there were the lucky few who managed to secure a job of some kind, be it a morning mesivta maggid shiur, or at the very least a second seder sho’el u’maishev, but the majority of those who were really hoping for a job find themselves sadly returning to another year of sitting in kollel.

Those of you who are holding out in kollel just in the hopes of getting a mesivta shtleler need to get a reality check. I have heard of many Roshei Yeshiva advising their talmidim against just waiting for a shteler. The math simply doesn’t work. There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of qualified lamdonim and talmidei chachomim in Lakewood. Every year more and more qualified candidates are added to the pool. And yet, there are maybe 3-5 mesivta shtelers that open each year in the entire country!!

Don’t confuse what I am saying here. If your intention is to stay in kollel because you decided to devote your life exclusively to Torah and you are willing to sweat it out without having a chashuva shteler, that is wonderful. But if you are only staying in kollel in order to get that shteler, you have a long & lonely wait ahead of you.

Life is too short to wait for dreams to come true.

bookmark this post

Yes! I Got a Shteler for Next Year

aaron — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:35:06 +0000

Much if not all of success stories are attributable to a lucky break. This is true in business, but if you are in chinuch, this is so very true. Many of the newly ordained rabbeim that will be teaching our children next year in classrooms all over the country, are first finidng out the good news in August. Many of them will not find out for another week or two.

Why are so many rebbeim jobs given out so late in the summer?

The are a number of reasons given for the delay. Most people think that principals, who are for the most part way overworked during the school year, stagger into the end of June barely catching their breath. They take their well deserved 3 week breather, and then first get around to looking ahead to the coming school year.

However, I would just as well attribute it to mazal. Most successful businesses got things off to a roll while catching a lucky break. Either it was a well paying customer who appeared from nowhere, or it was a great deal that came just when it was least expected. These are the siyata dishmayas referred to in the Gemara (Megilla 5b) that is said with regards to business.

The same applies to chinuch jobs as well. Now, when the many prospective candidates for the very few jobs have all but given up hope for having a job in the coming year, is when the siyata dishmaya appears. When they have all resigned themselves to another year of sticking it out in kollel which they can’t stand, comes the salvation in the form of a “respectable” job (i.e. chinuch).

A word of caution: To all those who recently found out their good luck – Don’t think this is a way of life. From now on, you will have to prove yourself to deserve what you have. The siyata dishmaya was there to get you started. Now its up to you to do a great job that will serve you well in the future.

bookmark this post

Rabbeim, Stick to What You Are Good At

aaron — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 04:04:06 +0000

As the economy trails along, many schools are forced to cut back on their staff of Rebbeim, leaving many of them out of a job.

The only thing more devastating for a Rebbe that is out of a job, is a Rebbe who then takes a job he is not well suited for just because he needs a job.

A Rebbe who is given the pink slip is in an unusually desperate situation. Often times, they are not eligible for unemployment, as their salaries are mainly “off the books”. Most Rebbeim do not have much in the way of retirement savings to cushion them.

Desperation leads a person to act recklessly. How so? A Rebbe, finding himself out of work, will try to get himself a teaching job for what he is really not suited for. A friend of mine recently was laid off from his 2nd Grade Rebbe job. He moved heaven and earth to get a 5th Grade job in another school. Not because he would do well there, and not because he wanted to teach 5th grade. It was simply a means of bringing home a paycheck. Thankfully, he didn’t get the job.

Imagine if a pediatrician lost his job, and the only job available for him was to be a brain surgeon. Would you want this person operating on your brain?

Is your child’s chinuch any different?

bookmark this post

Out Of Town May Be the Answer If…

aaron — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:37:27 +0000

It comes a point in many kollel yungerleit’s lives that they consider the choice of “going out of town”. Surely, they think, there are kollelim out of town that are dying to get “solid guys” who are willing to pay “good money” just to have the privilege of me learning in their midst.

Wrong.

Having recently visited an out of town community, there can be nothing further than the truth. In fact, many out of town communities struggle financially to support their kollelim. Some of the people in the community may not appreciate the need for a kollel. The yungerleit in the kollel are not all treated with respect. Life is not prettier out of town.

Unless…

There is a way that works. When you live out of town, you have an opportunity like no where else to give of yourself. You can learn with appreciative baalei batim. You can invite people for Shabbos meals and inspire them to grow in their yiddishkeit. You can give special shiurim to the community. You can be a friendly face in shul, making people feel recognized and special. Your wife can befriend the women in the community and be an inspiration to them.

Almost none of these things can be done in Lakewood. These are the true opportunities of out of town Jewish communities.

Are you still interested? Then choose a place on this map. I look forward to hearing about all the good you are doing there soon!

bookmark this post

Looking for a “Shteler” = Not an Escape

aaron — Mon, 25 May 2009 04:19:29 +0000

If you are sincerley looking to be a Rebbe in a yeshiva, and that the mere thought of teaching talmidim Torah makes you want to smile, this post is not for you. Go for it – our children need Rebbeim like that.

But when people who are looking to escape from kollel seek a “shteler” and that somehow includes becoming a Rebbe, run away from them. You see, many kollel yungerleit are under the false impression that the world looks down at those who leave kollel to earn a livelihood, except if you become a Rebbe. That creates an artificial oversupply of Rebbeim in the world, many of them who have no interest or lack the basic skills to be a teacher of children.

Next time you think about becoming a Rebbe, whether its a 3rd Grade job or a 10th grade “shteler”, think to yourself – “What group do I belong to?” Do you really want to teach, or are you looking for a “kosher” escape. If its the latter, you will be doing no one a favor. Instead you will destroy your life, your poor talmidims’ lives, and the poor person whose job you stole.

Every person has their designated role to fill. Make sure you are standing in the right pair of shoes.

bookmark this post