As is so often the case the confluence of a number e-mails and blogposts I have read yesterday and today motivates me to express once again my sadness and disappointment with the way things are developing in the Torah world. While one must be grateful and give due credit for the unprecedented amount of Torah learning and the growing numbers of Bnei Torah we have in the world today, the cost of achieving our current successes is at an unsustainable high. We have reached at a critical mass. The numbers of poor young Bnei Torah capable of earning a Parnassa yet living in dire poverty has reached an all time high and is growing exponentially.
We now have an unprecedented number of poverty stricken Avreichim. The numbers are so large that there has been a clarion call on the part of the rabbinic leadership in Israel and the United States to increase the amounts of Tzedaka to young able bodied Avreichim who are none-the-less unable to provide for the basic needs of their families. Massive charities like Kupat Ha’ir widely supported by Gedolim, have been created to help relieve their plight. And indeed their approbations appear on advertisement brochures. The needs are great. These young men have sacrificed much of their material well being as well as that of their large and growing families so they could all become Talmidei Chachamim. But many can no longer sustain themesleves without the help of charity.
It doesn’t end there. My dear friend Rabbi Shael Siegel discusses a letter he saw in the Jewish Press. It is indeed a very sad tale: A young man has apparently written an open begging for funds to help pay for his own upcoming wedding. It is heart rending to read his words. His father is ill. Shael writes: "In his open letter he claims desperation and the “lack of other options…” He continues to write in his letter that raising sufficient money for the wedding will be comforting for his sick father: “I hope that when I tell my dear father of this, his stress of the financial burden will decrease in intensity...” He concludes his letter with “Please rush your tax deductible contribution to...” and this letter, Shael point out is “Endorsed by these Gedolei Hatorah( Torah Sages): Moshe Wolfson, Yaakov Perlow, Aryeh Kutler and Yechezchel Ratah." Shael’s take on this is quite right.
It is quite disturbing to see an able bodied young man begging for charity to make his own wedding. And it is even more disturbing when such efforts are endorsed by rabbinic leadership. Don’t get me wrong. I do not say one shouldn’t contribute. They need our help and we ought to give it. But, it so obvious to me that many if not all of these scenarios could have been avoided. The fact that young people in Israel are forbidden to prepare for Parnassa and forbidden to study secular subjects is in part, a major cause of the problem. And American Yeshivos are trending away from secular study too, probably looking to the Israeli model as the deal. Earning a living is the very last thing a Right Wing Ben Torah is taught to value. The message is: better to stay in learning and accept charity if need be.
Most Right Wing Bnei Torah will admit that secular studies in their Yeshivas, should they exist at all, are considered a joke and never treated seriously. A poster on Areivim admitted in an e-mail today that this was his experience in high school and that is generally how it is treated by the right.
There already exist Yeshiva high schools in New York that offer no secular subjects. It is my understanding that even those that do, like “Philly” do not allow the teachers to assign homework anymore. And let’s not forget Ner Israel Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Feldman belittling the importance of secular studies by saying schools should allow their "best and brightest" to be exempt from studying them. What respectable father would consider his son anything less than “the best and brightest”? So the trend is away from secular subjects even in the US. And Bnei Torah descend rapidly into a “dark age” of ignorance and lack of training for the workforce.
And we end up with a desperate situation requiring huge Tzedaka funds and letters endorsed by rabbinic leaders.
Because of the desperation, a desperation that could have been reduced, if not avoided entirely, it doesn’t just end with general appeals. Mr. Joey Fried has sent me via his e-mail list the following which just furthers my irritation over the tactics of an otherwise honorable Tzedaka organization, Kupat Ha’ir.
From that e-mail:
"The current issue of The Jewish Press contains a 12 page, four color brochure which solicits charity for Agudas Beis Avrohom. The cover of the brochure purports that this charity has the support of HaRov C. Kanievsky, HaRov N. Karelitz and HoRav Y. Adelstein. An envelope stapled into the middle of the brochure for your convenience is addressed to American Friends of Agudas Bais Avrohom, C/o Rabbi Moshe Wolfson. Within the brochure under a header of “And I will POUR OUT for you blessing…” is the following story: “Nachum E. flew to America to Israel. He arrived in Israel with an amount of cash significantly greater than customs authorities permitted. Nachum tried to walk through but no luck; they called him over. “In a situation like this, there is absolutely nothing a person can do-except for pledging a sum of money to Beis Avrohom and offering a quick, silent prayer to our Father in Heaven. That is what Nachum did. He pledged $100 to Beis Avrohom as they were opening one zipper after another, somehow missing one small compartment where the money happened to be.“The customs official closed up Nachum’s handbag, and he proceeded on his way with a faint smile on his face."
I echo Mr. Fried’s reaction: "I cringe with embarrassment every time I see the flyers for Kupat Haa'ir."
Let us put our house in order. Let us change a system that is unsustainable. Let us urge out rabbinic leaders both here and in Israel to change course. To allow secular studies into the Yeshivos and allow Bnei Torah to value them. Allow the young Bnei Torah prepare for their financial well being for their future, before they get married.
It’s time to make a u-turn back to the time where secular studies were treated more seriously and where even Right Wing Yeshivos had truly great secular studies programs. There is no reason we can’t have Torah U’Parnasa taught in our schools both here and in Israel. And once and for all eliminate the need for a Kupat Ha’ir and their embarrassing tactics.
