All Entries in the "Deciding to Leave" Category
If You Want to Stay in Learning…
There are many who learn in kollel that put aside learning for a few weeks (or months) to do seasonal jobs, such as lifeguarding or head counseloring in the summers. Some yungerleit are involved in selling esrogim, and others become a mashgiach for pesach in a hotel. Why is this kind of activity permitted and [...]
An Abundance of Torah Options
In the olden days of 20-30 years ago, learning in kollel “long term” offered very few options. Historically, a kollel was formed an extension of a yeshiva, which is geared primarily towards the lomdus of noshim & nezikin. After a few years, one would begin to feel a lack of satisfaction in continuing to learn [...]
Is Kollel Holding You Back From Leaving?
“Started with nothing and became a multi millionaire.” You’ve heard this phrase many times, and often it is said about people that you are intimately familiar with. So many holocaust survivors came to this country with less than nothing – no family, no money, totally unfamiliar with the new country and its language – yet [...]
Aaron Kotler Lakewood Interview
Recently, Mishpacha magazine interviewed Rabbi Aaron Kotler, the CEO of Lakewood yeshiva. He discussed how the Jewish (frum) community of Lakewood has grown drastically over the past 25 years, which he credited much of it to the work of his father Rav Shneur Kotler. He also spoke about the current economic environment, how former talmidim [...]
Don’t Fight the System
Some of my readers consider the topic of this site controversial. As such, I tend to get lots of email that is critical of my viewpoints. As is typical with anonymous emails, many of them are written without much intelligence, and as such I don’t even bother replying to them. However, I do occasionally get [...]
When You Feel Old…
Feeling old is a real phenomenon, and it is a sure sign that you’ve got to get out. I’ve heard from people who stayed in kollel many years, all the time learning with great diligence, but once they realized how “old” they were, they decided to leave kollel and change their lives. On top of [...]
Burn Your Bridges – And Win
Aish shows in this video the concept of “burning your bridges” – a guaranteed way to get you motivated in doing things that you always have the ability to do, but just never get around to doing them. Ever wonder why there are deadlines? Because if there wouldn’t be any, nothing would get done. Imagine [...]
What to Do (and not to do) When Asking to Leave Kollel
Many people feel that leaving kollel is something that needs to be discussed first with a Rov, Rosh Yeshiva or the like. And they should, especially since this is a major decision in their life. No one should be in the position of making such an important decision without first seeking proper guidance. However, one [...]
Day # 8 (and beyond): Back to Routine?
Every year it seems that we go through the same routine. Cry our heads off during viduy, promise to do better, and then life comes back to routine. Is there any meaning to all of it, if on Tuesday morning we all go back to our old selves? The truth is that there is hardly [...]
How to Leave Kollel Without Fear
Are you stuck? Not sure how to proceed forward once the time has come to leave the confines of full time kollel? When its time to move forward, people tend to be stuck in their comfort zone – which is not that all comfortable as much as it is just familiar. Instead of the unknown, [...]
