Role models are huuuge!! We all need them. It is not enough to hear IDEAS about living a virtuous life - we need to hear about and see people who actually live such a life.
The ideal life [from a Torah perspective] is one where the person is completely G-d centered "בכל דרכיך דעהו" - In all of his or her ways s/he knows Hashem.
I was reading one of the frum publication that has weekly features of people who are very far from that ideal [on the surface - one can never know what is in someone elses heart] but have a different quality - they are very rich. Usually it is a start-up. These people had a good idea, work their tails off [that is why if they are male and thus have their picture in the article, it is never with a tail], merited Divine assistance and are making a mint.
That is fine. Nobody is perfect and there is no aveirah in making money. I never sat in Bernie Sander's shiur so I don't accept his position that there is something wrong with people making a lot of money [either does he by the way - the Socialist multi millionaire gave ONE PERCENT of his salary to charity in 2016 and less than 4 percent last year, none of it to the the Mir Yeshiva - or even a Torah Umadda place like YU or the Gush!!. He also owns 3 homes. 3 more than many Americans... רוממות א-ל בגרונם וחרב פיפיות בידם. He should open a deli and sell lots of baloney because he is full of it😀 ]. All the power to them. I am not jealous. I try not to be jealous but if the middah ever overcomes me it is only of people who learn and teach Torah full time. I envy zero people in the world of commerce and finance. I just don't know one person from that world who is calm, relaxed and really enjoys what he does [maybe one]. I DO KNOW people who are stressed out and almost never stop working, save sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. I DO envy myself. I sit and learn in Eretz Yisrael. Have no college debt [never went], have no mortgage on the apartment I rent [although I am kindly helping my landlord pay his if there is anything left after all these years] and try to get the most out of each moment knowing that my stay on earth is limited and can end any second, with great gratitude for all of my blessings. I have my share of challenges but the only people without challenges are dead. I'll take the challenges.
The problem is with many other people who read this and similar publications. This week they featured a bachur from a very Yeshivish family in Lakewood who dropped out of Yeshiva and learning [he is still kovea ittim for a relatively short time every day] in order to start his own company. For him this may be GREAT! Maybe he is not cut out to sit and learn full time. It is certainly not for everybody. But most [all?] Torah-dik families want their sons to be immersed all day in Torah [and maybe learning for a degree] at least until marriage. That is what builds a strong spiritual foundation for life. Today's world is so fast paced and pressured that it is critical to have that strong foundation. This boy lacks it. So again - for him maybe it is fine and he just can't do it. Maybe he will support Torah and chesed and in his zchus thosands will be helped in a significant way. הלוואי!! But what about all the young impressionable people reading this. The message is - this is GREAT! You can be frum and be a multi millionaire by the age of 22.
What about טוב לי תורת פיך מאלפי זהב וכסף - Greater is Torah, says the psalmist [love that word], than all of the gold and silver in the world!! Do we believe that? Do we want our children to believe that? Do our schools teach that? Do we want our children to trade the next world for a [false and imaginary] sense of bli$$ in this world. The reality is that the people I know who learn and teach Torah generally seem to have a lot more satisfaction in this world than those who work. And people who work usually have more money but are not only more worried and consumed by financial issues but [in my experience of 25 plus years as a gabbai tzdaka] are usually much tighter with their money than people learning. If one wants a donation he is often much more likely to get one from an avreich in kollel than from a person who works full time [of course there are also many great Baalei Tzdaka who work].
Those who work are doing a mitzva!! The Gemara [Bava Metzia 30] expounds the pasuk
"והודעת להם - זה בית חייהם"
Rashi says "ללמוד להם אומנות להתפרנס בו".
Earning a Parnassa is a pasuk in Chumash!! Living off tzadaka stinks!!!
There are many statements of Chazal that laud people who work, make an honest living and contribute to society.
But as long as one doesn't have to work because he is single and is supported by his parents - ideally he should learn and develop spiritually. To use the imagery of Gedolei Yisroel - he has to stay safe in the תיבת נח of the Yeshiva before he goes out to the world where there is a spiritual מבול.
When in Yeshiva he doesn't have to go to conventions in Las Vegas. I mean, the s'סיטרא אחרא main address is in Vegas [from what I hear - I have thankfully never been] and thousands of frum Jews [have to?] go there yearly.
When in Yeshiva he doesn't have to go to non-kosher restaurants.
When in Yeshiva he doesn't have to hear coworkers telling off color [i.e. lewd] jokes and relate their sexual escapades over the weekend.
When in Yeshiva he doesn't have to work with woman whose matter of dress and comportment is very far from the way a kosher Bas Yisroel is taught to be and this changes his perceptions of what is attractive [being around women all day who are described in modern parlance with the same word as summer weather and then coming home to a woman wearing a snood on her head, a long skirt, long sleeves etc. etc. who says Baruch Hashem a lot and asks us to take out the garbage and to go shopping at the supermarket ("is that tuna on the list in oil or water??") can negatively affect Shalom Bayis. Don't get me wrong - frum women are the HOLIEST but the נפש הבהמית that dwells within all of us guys sometimes wants something else than what we have. A חסרון in us - not in our beautiful, holy נשות חיל. See the end of parshas Balak....] and arouses the lower parts of himself וד"ל.
When he is in Yeshiva he doesn't have to walk around all day with an I-phone being connected not only to work but potentially to all of the shtus and filth that mankind has to offer. Some people believe that we evolved from monkeys. Today we are going in the opposite direction. Reverse evolution. "Devolution" I call it. We are evolving back into animals considering the way that people speak and act. This is all on one's I-phone. Thanks Steve J. You rest [in peace??] in your grave but you helped facilitate the pollution of the minds of tens of millions.
So there is a LOT to say for staying in Yeshiva as long as one can both financially and emotionally. Featuring people week after week who represent the opposite lesson might [just might?] have a negative affect on the minds and souls of our children [and I daresay ourselves].
I hope I don't come across as overly extreme but we have a 5000 year tradition to preserve and IT AIN'T EASY!!
