Q&A: Why should yeshivot be funded, and why study in a yeshiva at all?
Why should yeshivot be funded, and why study in a yeshiva at all?
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
I wrote a post on the above topic:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1906501776161383&set=a.110825832395662&type=3
I’d be happy to hear your opinion on the matter.
Thank you
Answer
I very much disagree.
First, a yeshiva is no worse than other fields of knowledge, creativity, and leisure that are also funded. One can discuss how much to fund and whom to fund, but I don’t see why a priestess should not be like an innkeeper.
Beyond that, yeshivot most definitely make a very major contribution, as you yourself wrote. That is where Talmudic and halakhic ways of thinking are learned, even if one does not acquire a very broad scope of knowledge. This is the infrastructure on which the knowledge is built. In addition, that is where the scholarly modes of thinking are formed, just as in academia with respect to other fields of knowledge. Torah creativity takes place there. In addition, the study has value for the Judaism of the Jewish people and for Jewish society. Thanks to this we have survived until now, and therefore in my view it is definitely important and proper to fund these institutions. And again, regarding the extent, there is certainly room for discussion. Clearly, not everyone who wants to be a kollel scholar justifies funding. And last but not least, study is the goal, so it does not need to prove that it is a means that is useful for something outside itself. On the contrary, all the other things on which money is spent require justification: to what extent do they contribute to Torah study? I have seen an upside-down world. See on this matter my article:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%A9%D7%AA%D7%99-%D7%93%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%AA%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%93-%D7%97%D7%9B%D7%9D-%D7%90%D7%95-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%91-%D7%A2%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A8-%D7%94
On the matter of supporting Torah, see also Column 34 (and a bit of 139):
Discussion on Answer
First, university students are very heavily subsidized. Second, for students this is short-term professional training that they later use to earn money. Study in a yeshiva is not like that. And third, it’s more important, and there is value in supporting and encouraging something important.
Would the Rabbi agree that if a religious person lacks the outlook the Rabbi wrote here but claims to hold a classic Jewish outlook, then in fact he is missing a very basic piece of knowledge in Judaism?
No. I don’t see this as “knowledge” but as an opinion. Even if someone is mistaken in my view, that doesn’t put him outside the bounds of legitimacy or present him as ignorant or foolish. He has a different opinion.
Granted. What I meant concerns a public that is interested in acquiring knowledge of the outlook of that opinion.
I didn’t understand.
Example: in a “yeshiva” of physicists, the physicists are not at all aware of the existence of the theory of relativity. They aspire to know physical theories, but they lack the very important opinion of A.A. (let’s call relativity an opinion; let’s assume we’re talking about a yeshiva for physicists before the empirical confirmation of relativity).
Have a blessed weekend, and an Eid al-Fitr full of free cans of Coke.
There’s also a follow-up post to this story.
Yeshivot are supposed to make a person good, for the Torah is called good, as it says, “For I have given you a good teaching,” and Moses our rabbi was called good. And even whatever a veteran student will one day teach before his rabbi was already said to Moses at Sinai. Every single day, a heavenly voice goes forth from Mount Horeb and proclaims: Woe to people for the insult to the Torah, for anyone who does not engage in Torah study is called rebuked. Therefore it is said that Torah study is equal to them all.
Jacob our forefather, “a wholesome man, dwelling in tents,” first of all studied Torah and only afterward earned a livelihood, and this is a paradigm for the generations.
From time immemorial, the main teaching of Torah was in study halls and yeshivot. “And he sent Judah before him” (Genesis 46:28) — Rabbi Hanina son of Rabbi Aha and Rabbi Hanina: one said to prepare him a dwelling place, and one said to prepare him a house of assembly where he would teach words of Torah and where the tribes would study. Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu of blessed memory explained that there is no disagreement between the interpretations; rather, in order to open a yeshiva you need a budget to provide for the livelihood and welfare of the young men, and then they will come and study Torah.
Why shouldn’t yeshiva students pay for their studies themselves, like university students?