Lost in Kollel » Kollel Finances

True Bitachon vs. The Government

aaron — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:35:18 +0000

Those in kollel are used to hearing the speech how those who rely on Hashem and devote themselves exclusively to Torah will have all their needs provided for without any need for hishtadlus or to go work. More often than not, the words of the Rambam at the end of Shmitta V’Yovel are used to drive home this point, how not only Shevet Levi but anyone who devotes themselves….

Relying on Hashem exclusively to provide for your needs is fine, but the sad truth is that not many are capable of doing so. That means not worrying at all on where the next meal will come from, and training not only yourself but your wife and children to think along those lines.

Many are under the allusion that they have true bitachon, but sadly they do not. The gemara says that one who relies on the baker for his next meal is not a true ba’al bitachon. Surely, someone who relies on government programs to cover a part of their budget are not living exclusively on the Ribbono Shel Olam.

As we have seen recently, the government is no friend of Torah. In the U.S., the recent Rubashkin trial has shown how even a rural Iowa judge can harbor such hatred towards frum yidden by putting Sholom Rubashkin in jail for an even longer term than requested by the prosecution. In Israel, the Emanual case shows clearly how when you take government funding for anything, you have to put up with the Israeli government calling the shots, and everyone knows they are no friends of Torah.

We have become somewhat comfortable these past 20 years of getting by in kollel with the government as our savior. I think that those times are coming to an end. Government deficits are at all time highs, and the trend in politics it to vote in candidates who promote less government and less spending. Even where programs will not be cut, the scrutiny of the applicants’ eligibility will be greatly increased, and the punishment for falsifying one’s status will become harsh enough to think twice about applying.

It’s time to stop placing our faith in the U.S. government for help. Instead, let us look to the back of the dollar where it says “In G-d we Trust.”

Bookmark and Share

A Better Way than Kollel Checks

aaron — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 03:35:43 +0000

After devoting many posts to the problems with the current system of kollel checks, its time to come up with some suggestions. Many would just say, “Let’s abolish the whole check in its entirety.” However, its usually a far better suggestion to come up with creative new ways of doing things instead of just abolishing them outright.

The problems with kollel checks is that there is no accountability, no standards, and they are just simply not efficient.

Here is a suggestion that is exclusive to the Lakewood kollel. The current system of learning in Bais Medrash Govoha is known as the “chaburah” system. For those unfamiliar with the term, it means that the learning is done in groups of men learning the same topic, and the chaburah is headed by someone who brought the group together initially, establishes the curriculum, and sets the overall tone for the group. The leader, referred to as the “Rosh Chaburah” is not paid extra for his duties, all he gets is a regular kollel check (if that).

Since the Rosh Chaburah is in effect running his own “mini-yeshiva” it would make sense for him to receive a mini salary in return for his efforts. The amount of compensation should be dependent on a number of criteria, each which would serve to enhance the status and image of both the chaburah and the yeshiva as a whole. He could be compensated based on a number of varying factors, such as: chaburah longevity, number of members, its desirability, the frequency of shiurim from within the chaburah, satisfaction of its members, and its successful completion of set milestones – such as entire mesechtos or topics.

In effect, the new kollel check would serve a dual purpose – it will drive those with leadership qualities to the top, and those without it out the door. It would create mini yeshivas within the greater Lakewood yeshiva – which is what the Chaburah system is in effect. A portion of the Rosh Chaburah’s responsibility could involve fund raising for the members of his chaburah, which would ensure that his chaburah would not be overrun by thrill seekers and those seeking just to get a good name for themselves.

Take the current money that is being spent on the kollel budget, cut it down to 1/5th, and use that to fund salaries for the Roshei Chaburah. These Roshei Chaburah would in turn go out and independently raise funds to pay the members of their “mini-yeshiva”, branding it as their own yeshiva and not just as generic “Lakewood”.

This would free up so much money that is needed to be raised every year for the yeshiva, while at the same time prepare the future leaders of the next generation for their eventual roles. It’s a win win for everyone – except for those who rely on the $300 a month they automatically get just for breathing, without any accountability or responsibility.

Which way do you prefer? Leave your comments below – make your voice heard!

Bookmark and Share

Redefining the Kollel Check

aaron — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:16:59 +0000

A friend once remarked, “A yeshiva is ironic in that at first you have to pay to attend it, but then it suddenly turns around and pays you.”

Why do we pay to attend yeshiva as a bochur? Because running a yeshiva costs money. Food, salaries, maintenance, seforim, insurance, and administration costs money. Tuition is what provides the means for a yeshiva – and the Torah it disseminates – to operate.

However, there is no economic sense to the distribution of kollel checks. The members of a kollel are usually not working for anyone, and they are not providing any service that generates economic value. Therefore, the very essence of a kollel check is at best a gift, which is bestowed upon the members of the kollel by its supporters.

Gifts are the first thing to be curtailed in a down economy. That is why we are witnessing an unprecedented number kollel closings, because the supporters of the kollel no longer have the means or the will to continue bestowing these “gifts”. If businesses are being forced to lay off employees who are generating economic value, it goes without saying that kollelim will have to stop paying kollel checks which don’t return any economic value.

Now is the opportunity to redefine the kollel check. If the system could be changed to where the kollel check is no longer an unconditional gift with nothing expected in return, but a means of extracting value from the kollel member, it would accomplish two very worthy goals.

First, it would reinvigorate the donor base. Those who have lost interest in providing these unconditional gifts would likely be interested in contributing to a redefined notion of a kollel payroll. Second, it would be a great boon to the kollel itself, which would be strengthened and energized by the market forces which would now be present.

These thoughts come to mind as Lakewood Yeshiva counts down to its annual “Evening of Chizzuk” on behalf of the BMG kollel. The greatest portion of BMG’s budget is the kollel payroll, currently estimated to be over $10 million annually. Besides the inefficient use of such massive sums, there is an even greater question to ask – why are we giving away our hard-earned money as a gift?

Should we do away with kollel checks? Yes & no. The way Lakewood does it – yes. But there is a better way. Let’s explore some ideas in future posts and in the comments.

Bookmark and Share

BMG Kollel Check – How Much Longer?

aaron — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:00:28 +0000

photo credit: The Lakewood Scoop

The problems with the kollel check given by Lakewood yeshiva can be summed up in 3 short sentences:

It’s a small amount of money (not enough to make a difference)
It’s given to too many people (it costs too much)
It produces no return (the money doesn’t grow)

The first two points have already been discussed in an earlier post. The third point is one that is likely to be misunderstood by many, so let me explain. Obviously, the intention of the supporters of Lakewood Yeshiva are to increase limud hatorah, with the understanding that by giving yungeleit some form of stipend they are able to learn more.

The problem is, the investment being made in each stipend given doesn’t extend beyond the person receiving it. He gets his stipend, learns, and it ends there. The money that was invested was for that particular person at that particular time only. Further learning will require additional funds, and the cycle continues. More money, more learning; less money, less learning.

Instead of just paying for the yungerman’s time learned, which doesn’t produce any “growth”, we can imagine a situation where money is paid for the effectiveness of the yungerman, which does produce growth. This greatly increases the value of the stipend paid, and is a much more effective use of tzedaka money than just paying for time alone, which cannot be measured and doesn’t grow.

Many people will misunderstand this. They will take it to mean that supporting someone who is just learning for the sake of learning is a waste of money. Obviously, as someone who spent many years in kollel myself, and who continues to devote much time to learning, I don’t believe that. Of course, paying for someone to sit and learn – not in order to say a shiur, become a great rav, or author scholarly tomes – is still a noble cause. Sitting and learning Torah L’ishma is not something to put down, chas v’shalom.

But when it comes to allocating the use of very limited funds, it makes most sense to direct those resources towards where they produce the greatest return. This is both for the sake of Torah itself, as the buying power of those dollars is able to reach further, and for the sake of the donors, who are stretched thin with all their obligations.

There are many ideas, some of them quite good, on how to best appropriate these “kollel check” funds in the most effective manner. Most likely, these ideas will never see the light of day. Instead, the kollel system, and Lakewood yeshiva, will continue resisting change, and eventually the money for kollel checks – which are already greatly rationed and limited – will come to an end.

P.S. Some of these alternative ideas will be shared in later posts – however, it is most important to realize what is wrong with the current distribution system than to raise alternative plans. Only once the problem is recognize can we really move forward towards a successful resolution.

Bookmark and Share

Beis Medrash Govoha Kollel Check: Time to Say Goodbye?

aaron — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:01:00 +0000

The largest kollel in America is without a doubt is Lakewood’s Beis Medrash Govoha. According to the official numbers, there are over 6,000 kollel yungerleit who spend their days learning there. Some, but not all of the chavrei hakollel, receive a kollel check in return for their learning in the yeshiva. This costs the yeshiva millions of dollars a year, but adds up to a paltry $3,000 a year for each person “lucky” enough to be granted a kollel check.

Say, for example Mayor Bloomberg would wake up one morning in a generous mood and decide to give a gift of $80,000,000.00 to his subjects in New York City. He would distribute the money by giving everyone in the city $10. Would that be a good use of his money?

In the same manner, Beis Medrash Govoha’s kollel check is neither an effective nor an efficient use of the yeshiva’s money. The $3,000 a year is not changing anyone’s life, nor is anyone living off the money. It is highly doubtful that the existence of the kollel check is causing anyone to stay in learning longer than if they would not be receiving one. And on the other hand, the pressure of raising the money to cover the kollel checks are a huge strain on the roshei yeshiva and fundraisers.

Eliminating the kollel check would be a wise decision for Lakewood yeshiva. It would cut $6-8 million dollars a year from the budget, and hardly change anyone’s life in the process. The money that was going to fund kollel checks, could be put to use in much more efficient ways, as will be explored in future posts.

Editor’s note: I know this post will elicit some very passionate responses from my readers. Please feel free to write your intelligent and respectful comments, which will enhance this discussion.

Bookmark and Share

Administrator of Bais Yakov Tells Father to Leave Kollel

aaron — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:23:17 +0000

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.

Bookmark and Share

Response to Mishpacha Magazine’s Goldmines Story

aaron — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:48:16 +0000

Mishpacha magazine (order a copy by clicking here) just ran a story called Goldmines that got many people all fired up.

The story is almost predictable. A mother of 3 “top” boys wants only the best for her sons, after all, they are great masmidim and budding talmidei chachamim. She marries them all off to girls who have professions, so they can provide their families with material needs while their husbands toil in Torah.

Years go on, the wives work very hard on their businesses while neglecting their families, leaving their husbands to take their place. After a few years, the wives are fully involved in their successful enterprises, while the husbands’ learning all have taken second place to their primary roles of being surrogate mothers to their children.

The story ends with the mother expressing regret for choosing career women for her sons. And if people will ask, “How will they be able to marry off their children?” she replies, “What is wrong with having a little emunah?”

Mishpacha’s readers fired off their angry replies, which were harshly critical of the mother and her expectations. If the wife is busy working, they feel, certainly the husband must take upon himself the responsibility of running the house, even if his learning would suffer as a result. What about the husband’s learning? The consensus of the (woman) writers were – “So be it, as long as he helps his hard working wife.”

Stop and think for a minute. If the husband is not able to learn properly because of his obligation to help his wife, why is the wife working in the first place? Only to support her family so her husband can learn. But if he is not learning due to his “obligation” to help his wife, there is no reason in the world why he should be helping and she should be working.

The truth really is, that the mother’s insistince on “income-producing” wives for her sons had nothing to do with learning, and everything to do with money. Her main concern was that her sons should be “taken care” of financially, without having to worry about parnossa. Oh, and on the side they may as well learn, since they won’t be doing anything else.

Had she really worried about her sons’ learning, she would not have insisted on a career woman for her prized sons. Instead, she would seek a woman who appreciates the true value of Torah. A girl who understands what Torah really is would make sure her husband is able to learn throughout all situations. Instead, the mother chose to run after money, and that is what she ended up with – money, but no Torah.

Bookmark and Share

(AUDIO) Succos: Leave Your (Fancy) House for a More Realistic Home

aaron — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:04:56 +0000

For seven days, we are to leave our permanent homes and make residence in flimsy little succahs, with no roof over our heads. As the meforshim all explain, the essence of the mitzvah is to remind us how flimsy our very existence is. Our lives are wholly dependent on Hashem’s protection and care. During these seven days, we reflect on how he provided for the needs of the Jews in the desert for 40 years, from food and shelter to clothing and protection. Now, when we are under the illusion that we are self-reliant, we take these 7 days in the flimsy shack to remind ourselves that everything really does come from Him.

Perhaps its time to think about our obsessiveness with fancy homes. Today, its not uncommon to find even “kollel families” living in very expensive homes, especially in Lakewood. The social pressure that we are faced with is surely a large contributer to this phenomenon. However, the negative consequences are getting worse. Most kollel families can barely afford these high mortgage payments. Add to that the growing cost of raising children today, the decline of financial support from parents, and you have a serious crisis which can lead to foreclosure, bankrupcy, and of course, shalom bayis disasters.

Did you know that most million dollar homes are not even owned by millionaires? How is that possible, you ask? Looking around Lakewood, you can answer that question pretty quickly. When a home is mortgaged to the max, the family occupying the home doesn’t “own” their home. Rather, their home owns them.

In this interview, Dr. Tom Stanley describes the finidngs of his study that he did with people who appeared rich and with those who were actually rich. It is a very eye opening interview, and it will change your thinking about money and stuff after you listen to it.

Dr. Tom Stanely Millionaire Interview

Bookmark and Share

Watching the Money You Make

aaron — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:46:36 +0000

Being successful at business requires not just the knowledge of how to make money, but also how not to lose it. There are countless opportunities at making money, and there are ten times more ways to easily lose your money to scams, pranks, and just plain stupidity.

Did you ever receive the following email from a “friend”?

Dear Friends; Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates sharing his fortune. If you ignore this, You will repent later. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.

When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it ( If you are a Microsoft Windows user) For a two weeks time period.

For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, You will be paid $241.00. Within two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.

You may have even forwarded this email on to others. Not that you really believed that it was true, but maybe just in case…

G-d gave us brains, and he commanded us to use them. He gave us ways to figure how to make money, and ways to ensure that the money doesn’t leave you. Money gets lost in so many ways: accidents, financial collapse, divorce, death, taxes, theft, dishonest partners, bad business deals, overspending, and of course – scams.

Its not anyone else’s job to safeguard your money. Not your parents, spouse, friend, or the government. Just as when you figure out a way to creatively bring in money its your credit, so too when the money is taken away from you because you were swindled out of it is due to your stupidity.

How many stories are there of people who lost everything due to a scam? Bernie Madoff is the most recent and famous one, but thieves just like him have preyed on naive and greedy frum people for decades. Especially on young kollel couples with their chassuna money. And each time the story happens, it wasn’t anyone eles’s fault.Yes, you do get punished for not being prudent with your money – it will go away.

Bookmark and Share

How Gov’t Programs Don’t Help You

aaron — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:07:32 +0000

Kollel families usually cannot provide entirely for their needs. So they rely on various forms of support, either from their parents, or the government.

The US government, as they get more and more deeply sunk in debt, feels that those living in poverty will dig themselves out of it if given the chance. Of course, that almost never happens.

However, one “benefit” of all these programs, such as Medicaid, Section 8, Pell grants, Food Stamps, and the many others, is that many kollel students are able to use these programs to get by while in kollel, which they might not have been able to do so otherwise.

It is estimated that a family of 4 children can get upwards of $35,000 a year in beneifts. However, there is a major expense that most frum homes come across, which none of these programs help provide for. Paying for your children is an expense not covered by the government. Yes, you can get some food for them, but the cost of your teenage children shopping along 13th Avenue or the mall will not be convered by any program.

Kollel families and those who support themselves with the government need to keep aware of this fact. While the children are yet young, you can possibly squeeze by on programs. But once they grow up and clamor for money to go shopping, you will not be able to help them.

Take heed, and prepare yourself for the inevitable future. By starting out now, you will have a chance at covering that fearsome expense that we all are bound to face.

Bookmark and Share