Rebbe In Telzstone: State Should Fund 2000 Yeshiva Students, The Rest Must Serve Community

 An unusual position regarding funding yeshiva students and the contentious issue of army exemptions was presented by Rabbi Avraham Mordechai Gottlieb, a Chasidic rabbi who serves as the leader of the Ashlag community in Telzstone.

Rabbi Gottlieb described the demonstrations by secularists, demanding that charedim help them and “get under the stretcher” for military service.

He wrote that “In a time of war, even a groom must leave his chuppah and go to help. Although other rabbis insist that we must not stop Torah study, this is not the issue. Nobody wants to stop Torah study, but it is “a time to do for Hashem and to ‘transgress’ the Torah.”

Rabbi Gottlieb suggests that yeshivos be established on the borders in the north south and where required and study half day while spending the other half on patrols and guard duty , in order to “take away from the terrible burden on the general community in Israel.” He warns that “The Israeli public will not forget if the yeshiva students won’t join the war effort.”

He also admits that the yeshiva students are not all sitting and studying day and night. “Not everyone has the strength for this, only a small amount. Near my house there are all kinds of bakeries with food, restaurants and eateries. I see the whole day long that there are quite a few yeshiva students eating with great relish baked foods and other items.” Rabbi Gottlieb concludes: “Do they have no shame?”

In another post Rabbi Gottlieb decries the funding of yeshiva students, stating that it is a “custom whose time has passed”. From the age of 18, he claims that “everyone must contribute their part for the people of Israel and study in their “free time”. He adds that this was the view of the Baal Hasulam, that people should work, should enlist and take part of the burden on themselves. He was even against kollelim, believing that Toraso U’Manuso is meant for a person’s free time, and should not be for remuneration.

Rabbi Gottlieb concedes that the state should fund “some 2000 people every year” as it is in the interest of the Jewish nation to have Dayanim, Poskim, rabbis and Talmidei Chachamim. He believes this number is enough to produce the requisite number of Torah leaders.