All Entries Tagged With: "lakewood"
Working Longer & Harder to Support the Family
To provide for their family’s needs, a woman whose husband is learning in kollel almost always needs to work outside the home, even if they are being supported. Unless they are fabulously wealthy, even the most generous parents cannot afford to contribute more than $10-15,000 a year. Assuming the husband can bring home a kollel [...]
Shavuos – What Does Kabbolas HaTorah Really Mean?
Back when I learned in Lakewood Yeshiva, I remember how much was said about Shavuos being a “Kabbolas HaTorah,” up to the joyous dancing at the end of Yom Tov that lasts well into the late hours of the night. As a kollel yungerman, I was able to connect with the feeling, being able to [...]
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 [...]
Beis Medrash Govoha Kollel Check: Time to Say Goodbye?
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 [...]
Don’t Even Know Where to Begin
I received a letter from a concerned aunt of a 30 year old Lakewood yungerman. She wrote: How is a young man of 30 to leave kollel when all he can do is work in a very menial job, when he has little English skills, a bit of arithmetic, and no experience in dealing with [...]
The Power of the “Little Guy”
Sometimes its hard to believe that the little guy wields any power. There are the “important people” who seem to control everything that happens, and no one gives any heed to the little guy. But when the little guys band together, their force is unstoppable. Take for example General Motors. They were the biggest car [...]
(AUDIO) Succos: Leave Your (Fancy) House for a More Realistic Home
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 [...]
Lesson From the Parsha: Ki Seitzei
The ben sorer u’moreh never was. But its lesson remains clear. A 13 year old boy gets dragged into court to be sentenced to death – by none other than his parents. If one of them refused to bring him, he would not get killed. The punishment is only given if both of his parents [...]
Who Pays the Rent?
Overheard at a recent (out of town) simcha: You know what’s crazy? I pay more for my daughter’s rent of a basement apartment in Lakewood than I pay for my own mortgage! If she’s writing the check to support you in kollel, she’s paying the rent. And yes, that makes you (who live there) a [...]
Chutzpah Really Works!
Children are taught both at home and in school to follow the rules. You have to do this, you cannot do that. Adults want their children to be easy – so they teach them that disobeying parents, teachers, principals, and even any adult is considered to be “chutzpah”. And acting with chutzpah – they are [...]
