EIN KEMACH EIN TORAH

Ever since the mailing list went dormant (shortly before the holidays), I have not seen or heard much from Rabbi Jeremy Rosen. So today I browsed into his blog.

Here: http://www.jeremyrosen.com/blog/

One particular post caught my attention. Entitled "Yeshivas and Money", it was in fact precisely what Dovbear (a fellow blogger, here: http://dovbear.blogspot.com/) would seize upon as something that highlights a major blister on the body Talmudic.

Yeshivas And Money:
http://www.jeremyrosen.com/blog/2007/08/yeshivas-and-money_24.html


Rabbi Rosen first details the precarious financial state of yeshivos back in the fifties and sixties, when he was still talmid. In that day, qualified and able students were accepted, and allowances were made for those lacking funds. Many yeshivos at that time were "run down", and conditions were primitive.
He contrast that with the modern day, when several of the more well-known yeshivos are drenched in shekalim. Awash in moolah. It is a striking contrast.

Quote:
"Thanks to the power of political parties, yeshivas in Israel nowadays get all kinds of subsidies, capitations, and building grants. Yeshivas are flourishing and expanding exponentially, both in numbers and facilities..."

Then follows the bomb-shell. Yeshivos engage in extortion.

Quote:
"... methods that, alas, are commonplace in American high schools, particularly in New York, are now transferring to Israel. Only a large donation up front will often get your child in to your place of first choice. "

And:
"Almost all yeshivas are family businesses in which birth usually plays a greater part in promotion than scholarship....

---[CUT]---
 

...it is one thing to ask for funds. It is another to reject a student, regardless of how good or studious he is, simply as a bargaining tool of pressure."

Now for the clincher:
"I bet the guilty parties will be praying away with fake piety during Yom Kippur as if their hands and souls were clean."


He's right, you know. Not everybody pretending piety truly embodies it. Some people have made their pretence quite profitable. You yourself, dear reader, can probably name quite a few such.

Today, Hosanna Rabah, is the last day on which one can be inscribed for good for the coming year. It is also the end of the introspection which customarily accompanies this time.
It is not a good time to point fingers.
Not yet.

Generally speaking, however, I'm actually not at all sure there is ever a bad time.

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NOTE:
Rabbi Jeremy Rosen is the oldest son of Rabbi Kopul Rosen, and the brother of Rabbi Michael Rosen and Rabbi David Rosen. In addition to having been a pulpit rabbi, Jeremy Rosen is the director of Yakar in London, and professor of comparative religion in Antwerp. He is also the author of several books.

Rabbi Rosen can be found here: http://www.jeremyrosen.com/
Browse through his blog. You'll be glad you did.