All Entries in the "Deciding to Leave" Category
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, [...]
Waiting for the Job Offers to Come
Today I had a short conversation with Rabbi Gordon, a longtime fundraiser for Chinuch Atzmai. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned how today in Lakewood so many people think that they are worthy of the greatest shtelers (rebbe jobs), and the negative consequences that arise from it. After thinking about what he said, [...]
Fending for Yourself When Times are Hard
For years now, kollel has been indirectly funded primarily by the boom in real estate that so many of our bretheren had investments in. Now that the economy has dried up and real estate prices have gone south, funding for kollel has taken a big hit. This affects both the kollel stipends themselves, forcing them [...]
The New Reality for Kollel Support
Our parents’ generation, when kollel was a novelty, a kollel family could manage to get by with the meager kollel salary, the wife’s meager earnings, and a very simple lifestyle. Parental support, either from the husband’s or the wife’s parents, was unheard of, aside from occasional gifts. Today, the situation is vastly changed. A kollel [...]
The OU Out of Town Community Shmorg
On Sunday 6/14, the OU is holding their “Emerging Jewish Communities Fair” at Lander College for Women in Manhattan. Should you go? I attended last years’ event in the Grand Hyatt and was somewhat disappointed. If communities are really looking to grow, you’d think they would at least have some real reasons why their communities [...]
You Too Can Lead
The most given reason for not leaving kollel is the fear of not being able to “do anything’ after leaving. While this fear is mostly unfounded, nevertheless, it must be addressed. Seth Godin is a master author who has spread his ideas far and wide, always in his own signature style of uniquness and non-conformity. [...]
The Lesson of Brisk – Recognizing the Real Truth
When we were young, we were all hyped up about learning in Brisk – as if that was the only place one can learn in Eretz Yisroel. I must admit that I too suffered from that disease, may it quickly be eradicated from our midst. Although generally I regret my time spent there, there was [...]
