Kollel

A kollel (, pl. כוללים, kollelim, a "gathering" or "collection" [of scholars]) is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kollel features shiurim (lectures) and learning sedarim (learning sessions); unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kollel are all married men. Kollels generally pay a regular monthly stipend to their members.

Beginning in the last third of the 20th century, the kollel concept expanded with the introduction of community kollels. Community kollels are a kiruv (Jewish outreach) tool which aims to increase Jewish knowledge and identity as a hedge against assimilation. Community kollels are typically composed of a minyan of students who engage in advanced Torah study with their own rabbis and shiurim for part of the day, and then conduct one-on-one learning sessions, free classes, and holiday activities for the Jewish community at large during the other part of the day.

History

Original sense

Originally, the word was used in the sense of "community". Each new group of settlers who came from various European countries to settle in Palestine established their own separate community with their own support system. Each community was referred to as the Kollel of... to identify the specific community of the Yishuv haYashan. The overwhelming majority of these settlers were scholars who left their homelands to devote themselves to study Torah and serve G-d for the rest of their lives. The Kollel was the umbrella organization for all their needs.

The first examples were Kolel Perushim who were the students of the Vilna Gaon, and who established the first Ashkenaz settlement in Jerusalem, Colel Chabad for the Russian Hasidim. The Polish Jews were divided into many Kollelim; Kollel Warschau, headed by Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax; Kollel Vilna Zamutch was under different leadership; and the Galicians were incorporated under Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim. The last initially included the entire Austro-Hungarian Kingdom, but as each subparty looking for more courteous distribution, the Hungarians separated into Kolel Shomrei HaChomos.

Modern sense

The first "kollel" in the Jewish diaspora was the Kovno Kollel, the modern sense of the term, the "Kollel Perushim" founded in Kovno in 1877. It was founded by Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, and directed by Rabbi Isaac Blaser. The ten students were required to separate from their families, except for the Sabbath, and devote themselves to studying for the Rabbinate. There was a four year limit on one's membership in the kollel.

Two people can be considered to have spearheaded the kollel philosophy and outgrowth in today's world - Rabbi Aharon Kotler, the founder of Beth Medrash Govoha, America's largest yeshiva located in Lakewood, NJ, and Rabbi Elazar Shach, one of the most prominent leaders of the jewish community in Israel until his death in 2001. The community kollel movement was also fostered by Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools.

Currently, the term is applied in America to any stipend given for yeshiva study and is now a general term for the yeshivah approach to life. Even those engaged in outreach work, teaching, or administration can be said to be "in kollel" as long as they are financially dependent on a yeshivah.

With the rise of the kollel movement, members spending increased time on adult education, the term is increasingly becoming a generic synonym, in popular usage, for Torah classes.

Philosophy

The unique philosophy of the kollel, in which members are subsisting entirely on support from others, is part of an overall philosophy of Orthodox Judaism, that G-d meant Jews to primarily occupy themselves in this world with the study of Torah, and gave certain Jews more of a propensity to work with the intention that they should support the 'learners'. In orthodox Judaism this has become known as the 'Issachar-Zebulun' partership, after the first recorded relationship of this sort in the Bible, where Jacob on his deathbed instructs a more business-inclined brother to support his studious sibling Issachar. The reward of the supporter is seen to be proportionate, for example in an ideal partnership (50/50 division of the money) the business partner is considered to have an equal portion in the learner's World-To-Come earned by his studying.

Reform and Conservative Judaism

A minute number of kollelim have been opened by those affiliated with Reform Judaism and Conservative Judaism. In the non-Orthodox Jewish community a kollel is an adult-education program or center that has courses available on Talmud, Midrash, learning Hebrew, Jewish ethics and related topics; less emphasis is given to Talmud.

Community kollels

In the early 1970s "community" kollelim were functioning in Los Angeles, California; Toronto, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan In 1986, a kollel was established in Montreal, Quebec. Other examples of successful community kollelim include kollelim in Dallas, Texas;St. Louis, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia; Seattle, Washington; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;and Phoenix, Arizona.

In the past 30 years about 50 Haredi "community kollelim" in North America have been opened by yeshiva-trained scholars as centers for adult education and outreach to the Jewish communities in which they located themselves. Topics include everything from basic Hebrew to advanced Talmud. In addition to imparting Torah knowledge, such kollels function to impart technical skills required for self-study.

Most Kollels have a scholar as a Rosh Kollel who is the head of the Kollel. He decides on the subject matter studied by the Kollel. In many cases he spends a lot of time fund-raising to support the Kollel.

Many Orthodox Jewish yeshiva students study in kollel for a year or two after they get married, whether or not they will pursue a rabbinic career. Modest stipends or the salaries of their wives and the increased wealth of many families have made kollel study commonplace for yeshiva graduates. The largest U.S. kollel is at Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, with over 1500 kollel scholars attached to the yeshiva which is 4700 strong in total, large kollels also exist in Ner Israel Rabbinical College numbering 180 scholars and in Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin of over 100 scholars. In the Israeli Haredi Jewish community thousands of men study full-time for many years in hundreds of kollelim.

Kollel has been known at times to cause a great deal of friction with the secular Israeli public at large, and garnering criticism from the Modern Orthodox, non-Orthodox and secular Jewish community. The Haredi community defends this practice with the argument that Judaism must cultivate Torah scholarship in the same way that the secular academic world does, no matter how high the costs may be financially in the short run, in the long run the Jewish people will benefit from the large number of learned laymen, scholars, and rabbis.

Yeshiva students who learn in Kollel often go on to become rabbis, poskim ("decisors" of Jewish law), or teachers of Talmud and Judaism.

Notes

Sources

The World of the Yeshiva: An Intimate Portrait of Orthodox Jewry William B. Helmreich, KTAV Publishing House; ISBN 0-88125-641-2; Augmented edition (February 2000)

The way we were before our destruction: Lives of Jewish students from Vilna who perished during the Holocaust Yulian I. Rafes, VIA Press ; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; ISBN 1-885563-06-X; (July 1, 1998)

Category:Hebrew words and phrases Category:Old Yishuv Category:Orthodox yeshivas