Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Transition? or an attack on the Kolell youngeleit

A recent article in Binah magazine this past week had a cover story about couples transitioning from the husband being in kollel to the husband going out to work and the difficulties in this transition.
The article it seems took swipes at the current Kolell sytem instead of factually reporting on the youngeleit who leave the koslei Bais hamedrash for parnassah. The writer points out how the kolell life is great and fun, compared to that of a husband who works full time.
 I was always taught to feel like it's something special to sacrifice for Torah. Well, you leave kollel and you realise that almost EVERYONE has to make sacrifices for life. It is a fact of life that the world is set up for hard work, its the way God made it, but somehow in the kollel mentality you forget that .
One might even start to look with cynicism at the yeshiva families who are so proud of their sacrifices, now that you realise that they actually have it pretty good. ... compared to the life of the person working up from the bottom tier, kollel life is nice .
Of course the objective is that after a few years of clawing our way through college and entry level, we will end up in a more relaxed life, please God. My husband will still be working full time hours with none of the sweet family schedule stuff , but hopefully money will be less tight  

Sorry, but sacrificing for Torah IS special. Torah keeps up the world. Most people today are not in Kolell. Those that are there are sacrificing for hashem. If your husband were a millionaire and a workaholic would you also complain?  Kolell life is not measured by how often your husband was around to help you. Its the Torah that he learned giving everything up just for Hashem.

 
 

8 comments:

  1. And your point is?

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  2. Superintendant ChalmersJune 17, 2015 at 11:03 AM

    "I was always taught to feel like it's something special to sacrifice for Torah."

    I think you can understand this more favorably, that it was just a poor word choice, with the real intention being "I was always taught that Kollel is the only lifestyle choice that entails sacrifice." In other words not meaning to minimize the "specialness" of sacrificing for Torah, but to minimize the uniqueness of the sacrifice itself (unrelated to the importance of the result and goal underlying the sacrifice.)

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  3. I heard a supermarket in Lakewood stopped selling the Bina because of the content in it.

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  4. TPV, I usually agree wholehardetly with your point of view. I did not read the article, but based on the quote you posted, I do not see what is so offensive.

    No one is saying that sacrificing for Torah is not special. I think that in today's world most Yungeleit don't know what true sacrifice is. What many think is sacrifice is no different than the sacrifices many make. Those who truly sacrifice are today far and few between (in America at least, in Eretz Yisroel you still see true sacrifice for Torah.)

    There are many of us, myself included, that miss not only the Ruchinos of our Kollel days, but the Gashmios as well.

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  5. Do you know what an ess tog is? Back in Europe, where only the elite few were allowed to be in Kollel (so yes, today's system is a novelty!) the boys weren't supplied with anything. No stipends, welfare, or even apartments in Warsaw. Nothing. So if they wanted to eat they had to find a family or families willing to feed them. That meant Fishel ate at the Goldbergs on Mondays, the Goldsteins on Tuesdays, the Goldhars on Wednesday and on Thursday if he had nobody he made a personal ta'anis for his sins. THAT was sacrificing for Torah, not what goes on today.

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    Replies
    1. Superintendant ChalmersJune 19, 2015 at 7:55 AM

      Garnel, you seem to be confusing "kollel", which usually connotes full-time learning post-marriage, with "yeshiva", which generally refers to learning before marriage.

      The eating teg system was the norm for yeshiva boys, pre-marriage. "Kollel" in Europe was somewhat different, in that post-marriage, the aspiring talmid chochom would generally eat "kest", meaning live with and be supported by the in-laws.

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  6. Very surprised at the article. It was just a bunch of anti kollel propaganda. I didn't see any helpful tips for the transition.

    Which blog did they plagiarize it from?

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