|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
BS"D
Shalom uvrachah! Thank
you for responding to my enquiry last night!
I received your
follow-up e-mails. As I was going through your blogspot I saw it necessary to
add the following comment, and the computer gives me problems trying to upload
it directly:
"Someone in
Yeshiva could go for a few years on the sums of support demanded for marrying a
Kollel fellow, and people were found who would pay it."
FUNDAMENTAL ERROR
HERE!!!
The Shulchan Aruch
(Even Ha'ezer 2) says clearly in the name of the Rem"a that one should not
bicker over money in regards to this - as it is not "properly
earned money". See the Biur HaGr"a 7 [regarding the apparant
internal contradiction upon face glance in the Rem"a] that "if
he would marry her anyway (without money) then he need not worry".
This is not a
"technical issue" - it is fundamental! All of the raving and ranting
against fraudulent Ra-bannim distorting Torah and divrei chaza"l - the
"quiet defection" all began years ago when these "top
talmidim" sold themselves to materialistic families in marriage; with the
"holy" ideal of being able to "live and learn in peace and
comfort without financial worries". It was ultimately this "peace and
comfort" which caused them to slip and slacken from the duty and authority
that the Torah will demand of them as recognized Rabbanim - aside from the obvious
fact that there is nothing more lethal to a person's Yiras Shamayim than living
together with a materialistic woman. This type of defection did not begin in
America either - it was tragically prevalent in Europe as well.
The Chafetz Chaim told
his son in his old age that all of his Torah is credited to his wife - from a
poor and simple upbringing. He said, "What would have been with me now,
had I not married your mother?". What would have become of me had I
accepted then the offer of 10,000 rubles from a distinguished tycoon in
Vilna?"
Yes - the Chafeitz
Chaim worked for a living - writing and selling books. And this certainly
did not detract from his Torah in any way!
END QUOTE FROM CHAIM
LEVIN
Comment from Rav Dovid Eidensohn – [The Vollozhner Yeshiva
had the world’s leading Torah scholars but they learned and did not earn. Top
students there could eventually find rabbinical positions, some that paid well,
and some found wealthy families that supported their learning in Kollel for
some years. Some had little support but lived with little and relied on HaShem’s
help. When I learned in Lakewood under Reb Aharon we stayed in Yeshiva because
of Reb Aharon’s influence, and I don’t know how many people had big backing,
but it was generally limited. There was a top student who learned by Reb Aharon
but his father said if you learn in Lakewood you are not my son. Those were
difficult times. When Reb Shneur took over Lakewood he realized he could not
support the influx of students and was worried about taking over the Yeshiva
which under his father had very little money especially for the students when
they married. But Rav Yosher Ber Soloveitchik saw that Lakewood was at risk
that it may close down, and he ordered his students, the YU rabbis, to support
Lakewood. Other factors such as President Johnson’s war on poverty where huge
sums were disbursed for the poor, and who is poorer than a Lakewood Kollel
person? made a difference. There were various American Kollel students, and I
don’t think it is fair to lump them all together. Some I know were worried that
the influx of money was detrimental to the Yeshiva, and some welcomed it. But
still some where tsaddikim and not interested in money per se, and some were
interested. But I don’t think there is a rule to just dismiss everyone who had
some money to be considered a spiritual failure.]
