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.
4 comments:
Charedim won't change. Instead, they will die out.
Charedim believe that everything which is provided to them is their just due. When they find out that no one wants to pay for useless free-loaders, they will simply cease to exist. Those that can't work will die off and their descendants will learn something useful. The end.
Addendum:
As a rule, I refuse to give anything to Charedi beggars. Let them wait for their Manna from Heaven.
I refuse to help those who refuse, on principle, to help themselves.
Some will adapt, some will leave Torah entirely. I don't think many in our generation have the willpower to starve though.
The Haradi community has gone all in on the bet that the rest of the country, which they have spend a generation pissing on, will step in to feed them when the crash comes.
Considering how much of the non haradi community in Israel feels right now it does not feel like a safe bet.
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