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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 08:43:26 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE: Kollel

Some historical information might supplement the thread on Kollenicks
nicely

I have heard that the early Chasiddishe Rebbeim when they came to
America had as one of their priorities finding descent jobs for their
followers where 'decent' means avoiding chillul shabbos, relatively
tzniuthdik, a good living etc.

There are still such searches today--for example computer programmers
make a good salary and can eg work from home via telnet. Another example
might be the newspaper article I saw on Lakewood a decade or so ago that
the Rashay Yeshiva there were looking into real estate jobs for their
students (in passing I don't know whatever happened to that approach).

My point is that it is not for us to judge the past. Even if kollelism
was a reasonable way of life in certain european societies (where Jews
were prohibited from jobs) still, today, in America, with its wealth of
jobs, I would think that it is possible for a person to
---make a good living
---avoid chillul shabbos
---keep standards of tzniuth
---have adequate time for many hours of learning a day.

In light of the above I would suggest switching the topic to "SHOULD
KOLLELISM CONTINUE IN AMERICA vs A MOVEMENT TO FIND JOBS THAT WOULD
ALLOW MASS AMOUNTS OF TIME TO LEARN TORAH"

Russell Hendel; Ph.d, ASA; Towson Univ; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/