Click here to donate to Echad l’Echad and help support a family’s upcoming holiday
This year, with the coronavirus affecting all of us, the financial situation for avreichim (married yeshiva students) before Pesach (Passover) is especially difficult. Over one million people in Israel have suddenly found themselves unemployed, among them wives of avreichim and many parents who normally help their children’s families financially. Yeshivas are not receiving the usual donations thus making them unable to give out their regular monthly stipends. As a result, there is a greater need this year from the outside.
We asked Rav Yitzchak Neriya, head of the Echad l’Echad Foundation, to share his thoughts on the current situation and the implications for avreichim.
Can you explain to us how the Torah world in general has been affected financially by the coronavirus crisis, and specifically how it has affected the Religious Zionist community?
The entire world is found in uncertainty, many people have lost their jobs. In Israel, the numbers are over 20%. In the Diaspora the numbers are similar. No one knows if all of the yeshiva students who in the past came in droves to learn for a year will come to Israel this coming Elul. This is not only a financial question, it is a very significant spiritual question. The year in Israel is their spiritual anchor. This loss can have very significant ramifications. Naturally, because of this, donors have stopped donating.
Can you share with us an example of a family dealing with the crisis?
I can give you an example of yeshivas who gave their staff unpaid vacation, yeshivas who cut avreichims’ stipends, yeshivas who don’t know what will be after Pesach. This is certainly a difficult situation. Imagine a person with eight children who is fired, not because he is not a good teacher, he is an excellent teacher, rather because his yeshiva has no money.
As head of the Echad l’Echad Foundation, what are you doing to address the situation?
We have decided to turn to all those capable of donating. In a regular year we receive approximately 1,000 requests before the chagim (holidays). Before the corona crisis we thought we would be able to distribute 1,000 shekel to each family, a total of one million shekel. Now, it seems that we will be able to distribute half that amount, a total of half a million shekel. This will make families very happy yet it does not solve the need. Generally, at such a time, everyone tends to think of himself and his own immediate family, yet it is incumbent upon us to think of the needy around us as well.
Do you have any words of inspiration to share with us?
While we can no longer daven (pray) in a minyan (quorum of ten), and therefore cannot recite devarim shebikedusha (holy things), we do have the opportunity to increase in kedusha (holiness) in other ways. Holiness in speech, in thought and in sight. This time period sharpens our desire to become holy, awakens within us the holiness found in every Jew, and the incredible commandment to all of Israel “Kedushim tehiyu”, be holy. Rav Shimon Shkop, in his introduction to Shaarei Yosher, explains that holiness is to do for the klal, the public. The current restrictions placed upon us are the greatest actions we can take for the sake of the general public.
This plague is changing the entire world order. Nobody knows how the world will look when this is over. If these are the current instructions then I am convinced that this is a Divine command because our holy Torah commands us ‘v’chai bahem,’ and you shall live by them. And while almost everything is restricted to us, the gates of tears are not locked: On the contrary, let us shed some tears.
Help Echad l'Echad:
The Echad l’Echad Foundation, founded and headed by Rav Yitzchak Neriya, supports those dedicated to Torah learning in national religious institutions throughout Israel as well as assists needy families within the Religious Zionist community. This support is provided to thousands of avreichim twice a year, before Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) and before Pesach, and is not only financial help, but also a warm hug from the community at large to those dedicated to Torah learning, for their toil is for the sake of all of us.
Click here to donate to Echad l’Echad and help support a family’s upcoming holiday