Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Charedi education dominos have started to fall

Kikar Shabbat is reporting that 2 Chassidish high schools, "חידושי הרי"מ" in Tel Aviv and ישיבת נדבורנה in Bnei Brak have agreed to teach the core curriculum in exchange for full funding.

Now we will see if this creates a domino effect and who else decides to take government money.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Is a Yeshiva boy/Kollel Avreich חייב in Parshas זכור?

This is quite amusing


Yated Neeman - Secular studies aren't for Jewish kids

In yesterday's Hebrew Yated Neeman the following was published as part of an editorial.


My translation (starting from end of the first line):
The Mashgiach R' Yechezkel Levenstein wrote the following in a letter to one of his close students: "My wish is to see the children growing in Torah and fear of Heaven, secular studies are not for Jewish children when our wish is that they became God fearing. Hashem gives bread to everyone and there is no one who is starving to death because Hashem gives food to all the animals of the Earth, "famine" kills in the next world, and regarding parnassa (income) in this world we have faith in Hashem. The main thing is the next world, praised be those who merit Torah and fear of heaven".

Is this really the Torah perspective? What happened to the Gemara in Kiddushin about teaching your son a trade? What happened to the Gemara in Bava Basra "“A person should hire himself out for any work rather than requiring assistance from others”? What about the Gemara in Berachos that many did like R' Shimon Bar Yochai (learned all day and didn't work), ולא עלתה בידם, they failed? Is there no chiyuv hishtadlus to make a living?

What really struck me was that a few pages earlier they had the following ad:


This is but one of the many ads found in the newspaper and in my mailbox and in shul every day about people who have no money for basic necessities. Yes, no one is starving to death, but there are many many Charedim who are in very bad financial shape and it has a very bad effect on both the kids and shalom bayis.