What, for example, is defined as a “significant contribution to its students and to the world”?

In these troubled times, wouldn’t it be preferable to donate to a yeshiva that brings a daughter’s laughter of a smile onto the face, a smile that could be seen even through a mask?

Best regards, Samson Latz, president of the “Mount Humor” institutions, a seat of scoffers

Thank you for your help, Shadow, I don’t know what we would do without you.
Want to donate?

To Serious — hello,

A fundraising campaign for an anonymous yeshiva really is funny. Do you really expect someone to donate without knowing to whom he is donating?

From my experience with such campaigns, someone who wants people to donate to his institution approaches potential donors — first and foremost the institution’s alumni, and afterward the general public. The approach is made personally by phone or email, or by sending a brochure, and the recipient of the request decides whether to comply or not.

Haven’t they heard by you of a person’s right to privacy?

Best regards, Shin Ratzin

No, I expect to arouse interest; if I see such interest I will give more details. When I find that there isn’t even a drop of interest, I understand that salvation will not come from here.
But seriously, the question was mainly A + B, see there. C was asked jokingly, and my response to your helpful reply was written sarcastically.

Thanks,
R-Serious.

With God’s help, 13 Tevet 5781

To Ratz’ — hello,

Let me wise you up with a few facts of life:

The average person in the Religious Zionist sector receives requests to support Torah institutions and needy people, many times every single day — by mail, by phone, by email, and through communication channels. All of them explain and justify their great need, and back it up with recommendations.

From the daily abundance of requests, the Religious Zionist person — who is generally himself burdened with a thousand and one expenses weighing on him — has to choose the few requests he is able to meet, and not infrequently his financial situation does not allow him to respond generously, or even at all.

What follows from these facts is:

A. An anonymous appeal is not worth relating to at all. Let them present who they are, and then perhaps they will jump to the top of the donor’s priorities.

B. A public appeal to a person is embarrassing. I do not need to detail to the whole world what my financial means are or what my preferences are.

Therefore the recommended advice is to do like everyone else. Either make a general appeal to a broad public in the hope that some of them will respond, or approach a person personally in a discreet and non-public way. The best thing is to approach alumni of the yeshiva or people known to be close to its spirit.

As for your yeshiva — you can send me a brochure by email, and perhaps I will send a check (I don’t have a credit card). A significant sum is not expected to come from me, but perhaps an idea will occur to me of an acquaintance who would be a “redeemer closer than I,” and “your friend has a friend.”

My email is: [email protected]

Best regards, S. Tz. Loevinger

Dear prayer leader, I understood your words; that is indeed how we operate, even if it seemed otherwise.

Thank you for your very detailed response above, but I repeat that the purpose of the question absolutely was not to raise money but to ask about the degree of value in this matter, if there is any.

I’m just waiting for an answer from the Rabbi to my question, “What, for example, is defined as a ‘significant contribution to its students and to the world’?” Then perhaps I will be able to enlist more effectively in the campaign. At the moment I am still doubtful about how much I should get involved in it, since I do not see any value in giving money to married students who chose to live this way and not work. Maybe the Rabbi will offer something new.

With God’s help, 13 Tevet 5781

To the owner of the fundamental question — hello,

First of all, you succeeded in your mission of getting me to donate. From the moment I gave my email, I expected your appeal to arrive. It did not arrive, but instead I received by email a request to participate in a fundraising campaign for the “Or MeOfir” preparatory program near “Or Etzion Yeshiva,” which trains young people from the Ethiopian community for Torah leadership.

Since the matter is close to my heart — for my son-in-law, Rabbi Erez Aitegav, studied for some time at “Or Etzion Yeshiva,” and went on and continues in similar frameworks that train Torah leadership from among the members of Beta Israel — I wrote out a check payable to “Or MeOfir Preparatory Program” and put it in a stamped envelope in order to send it to them by mail.

However, not only the Ethiopian community needs Torah leadership. Every Jewish community needs Torah scholars who will serve as rabbis and judges, Torah researchers, teachers and educators, and perhaps most importantly, laymen who are Torah scholars, who will conduct their professional lives in the spirit of Torah and will also be able to enrich their community with Torah classes at a high level, and shape the character of the community as a “place of Torah.”

Not only in order to be a “city rabbi” does one, in my humble opinion, need to “lodge in the depth of Jewish law” for several good years. No less than that, there is a need for several good years of deep Torah study after the hesder track in order to be a teacher and educator, a researcher and lecturer in Judaism, and also for someone who wants to be a “layman” — a lawyer, economist, medical professional, or high-tech person with a high Torah level — it is good for him and for the public that he invest several good years in deep Torah study. The entire public will benefit from the in-depth classes that same “layman who is a Torah scholar” will give over the coming decades.

So an investment in the study of married students today will bear fruit for decades: raising the Torah level of the Religious Zionist public.

With the blessing of friends in Torah and work, S. Tz. Loevinger

Regarding Rabbi Michael Abraham’s position on the matter and value of married students devoted to Torah, see his column calling for a “new social covenant.” He sees the importance in married students who are capable of creating and innovating in Torah. In my comments there I also discussed the value of married students who may not be great innovators, but who will spread Torah among the people.

It is brought (apparently in “Great Is Its Use” by Rabbi A. Romer) that they asked Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda: “Why are the stipends for married students at Merkaz HaRav Yeshiva so low?” And Rabbi Tzvi Yehuda answered: “By us there is no kollel. The goal is that a married student should learn and train himself to become a rabbi or educator. We help him study for a few years, but the purpose is that he should go out into life to spread Torah.” (The words are not given as an exact quotation, because the booklet is not currently at hand.)

And in practice this is the approach in the entire world of Religious Zionist yeshivot. Apparently a married student today receives a bit more than the 300 shekels that used to be given at “Merkaz,” but broadly speaking the goal is to go out into life and illuminate it with the light of Torah, and not to remain a “married student” for life. And indeed, from the married students who learned at “Merkaz” in straitened circumstances grew a considerable portion of today’s Torah leadership in its various forms, with many of those married students now serving as city rabbis, judges, heads of yeshivot, and authors of Torah books.

Best regards, Shtz”l

About how cramped life was in the old “Merkaz,” they used to joke that there were two friends: one went to study at “Merkaz” and one went to “Gush.” The student from “Merkaz” sent a letter to his friend and wrote on the address: “Hotel Shevut.” His friend answered him and wrote on the address: “Center of Hunger” 🙂

Dear one who needs interpretation, I fear that once again I did not sharpen my messages properly, and therefore I will copy and paste them again with emphasis: *Thank you for your very detailed response above, but I repeat that the purpose of the question absolutely was not to raise money but to ask about the degree of value in this matter, if there is any.*

Good for you for your donation to this preparatory program, but I cannot go to my friends, family members, and acquaintances — alumni of the yeshiva and those who esteem it — and ask them for money when I myself do not understand the degree of need in the matter, and the benefit that the donor is supposed to derive from this donation.

Regarding the stipends at Merkaz, are you basically claiming that there is no point in expanding the married students’ stipends?
And regarding that vague national need for homes of Torah, a donation to a five-year track with a year and a half of army service in the middle is absolutely not the right way to reach that goal.

Line seven… to this preparatory program…

With God’s help, 13 Tevet 5781

To T.B. — hello,

Indeed, your words are correct (in the last paragraph) that three and a half years of Torah study, including within them a break of a year and a half for army service, are not enough to train Torah scholars who will enlighten the public with their Torah — as rabbis, judges, Torah researchers, yeshiva lecturers, teachers and educators, and lecturers to the broader public.

To train Torah scholars with knowledge and broad Torah scope requires several years of intensive and deep study after the end of the hesder track. And since a young couple has quite a few essential expenses — food and clothing, housing, water and electricity, diapers, etc. — it is important that the yeshiva assist the married student who is diligently engaged in his study during the few years of ascent that remain to him and will not return amidst the storms of life.

That tiny stipend that the yeshiva gives the married student during his years of study returns to the public with “compound interest,” when in the future the student enriches the public with his Torah.

Best regards, S. Tz.

Dear young silence, you wrote very nicely, but reality is slapping you in the face and you insist on ignoring it. Few married students will give anything back to the public from that money they received, and I’m not even talking about the national cash-flow cycle.

With the blessing of get your head out the window

With God’s help, 13 Tevet 5781

To Noah — hello,

Aside from the future benefit in rabbis, judges, heads of yeshivot and yeshiva lecturers, Torah researchers and book editors, teachers and educators, and Torah lecturers (as I mentioned in paragraph 1),

married students bring benefit already during their years of study in the yeshiva as examples to the younger students of diligence in Torah study, and they also help the younger students progress in their learning by serving them as tutors and “mentors” (what in yeshiva-speak is called: an “older study partner”).

Best regards, S. Tz.

By way of humor I will relate that I entered Merkaz HaRav in second-year shiur, and therefore I did not merit an “older study partner” attached to the first-year students. But when I was in fifth-year shiur, I had a study partner younger than I who was then in third-year shiur. I said to him: since you are a student in third-year shiur, you are now my “older study partner” 🙂