Marriage or Meal Ticket?
If anyone hasn’t seen the Ami article which will be appearing below, you should probably read that before you read my reaction. If you really can’t be bothered, the short of it is that Isaac the ingrate wanted to be a life time learner, and was really and truly upset that his growing family, wife’s students loans, and life in general put a crimp in his style. When his wife’s wealthy parents wouldn’t pony up, he kicked her to the curb and now grumbles about his child support.
The article actually raises several questions for me. If he really was such a top learner why wouldn’t his kollel pay him more? I’m a B”T learner and could easily make rent in a pricey Jerusalem apartment with what Kollelim are offering me. Where were his father’s connections(you know the popular magid shiur) ect to help him get a better dole from the Yeshiva? Why couldn’t he learn something like Shechitta(which is always in demand) to make cash around his learning schedule(there are those long times of Bein HaZamanim after all)?
Really those are questions for me, not more than in the rhetorical sense. The answer is simply found in the words of the article, you have an entitled bochur who expects others to hand the world to him. Even male lions(who’s only job is eat, sleep and make more lions) have to work for their initial position. This young man, didn’t quite get that memo apparently. Nor did he seem to understand the realities of the job market. By that I mean, that Stern and every other school is churning out “Occupational Therapists” at an alarming rate, and there aren’t that many occupations that need therapy(yes I do know that occupational therapists actually do). I’m not saying that their work isn’t important or needed, I’m just saying with every third B”Y graduate going on to an Occupational Therapy degree, and then wanting to live in the Greater NY area, the market is simply saturated. Further it doesn’t matter so much what caliber of school one went to, as much as it does what rank your class, and what professional networking you have going for you(I have a story about that, but it will have to wait).
I could make lot’s of comments about what the young man said, but my main problem with this is simply that we now are looking at yet another article that will be used to attack Kollel Avreichim. Far too many people are going to assume that this is the mindset of the standard Kollel Avereich(whereas the truth is most that I know are the primary bread winners of their families). Sad though it is, that is what Ami has given us.
