Shemittah Rediscovered: Fwd: Is it Mutar for Yeshivos to Accept Government Funding?

Bsd

Lichvod Rabbonim and Spiritual Leaders:

Urgent SOS

We, the Nation of Israel and our Spiritual Leaders are Hashem's spokespeople to the world as what is considered moral and ethical as per G-d's teachings. When we are silent the void is being filled with "values' antithetical to G-d's commandments and violate and reject the 7 Noahide laws.

The 7 Noahide Laws: Universal Morality

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/62221/jewish/The-7-Noahide-Laws-Universal-Morality.htm

"These laws were communicated by G‑d to Adam and Noah, ancestors of all human beings. That is what makes these rules universal, for all times, places and people:"

We don't want our kids brainwashed by a value system that defies the Almighty G-d. We also don't want society to be brainwashed with G-dless "values".

G-d fearing secular non Jews are also now advising parents not to send their kids to public schools which is run by G-dless political operatives.

"TAKE YOUR KIDS OUT OF SCHOOLS NOW" -PSYCHIATRIST DR. MARC MCDONALD author of 'United States of Fear' How America Fell Victim to

a Mass Delusional Psychosis

https://www.bitchute.com/video/a8HhQiryVlvb/

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Boruch Weiss from Agudas Anshei Emes <netzachyisrael@substack.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 4, 2022, 6:59 PM
Subject: Is it Mutar for Yeshivos to Accept Government Funding?
To: <faigerayzel@gmail.com>

https://netzachyisrael.substack.com/p/is-it-mutar-for-yeshivos-to-accept

Is it Mutar for Yeshivos to Accept Government Funding?

A fresh look

Boruch Weiss

Jul 4

BS"D

IS IT HALACHICALLY ALLOWED FOR YESHIVOS TO ACCEPT GOVERNMENT FUNDING? A FRESH LOOK

Did the title surprise you? If you are thinking "Why on earth should we not accept government help?", then you should know that this question was seriously debated by the Gedolim, including Rav Aharon Kotler Zatzal, back in the 1961.

What would the potential issurim be? The most obvious is the prohibition against putting the chinuch of our children into the hands of kofrim. In general, the rule in life is that whoever pays the bills calls the shots, and there's no way that we could allow the government to have a dei'a in our Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs, which are run according to a sacred, untouchable, mesora.

So how did the heter to take money come about? Some history is in order. The poverty in the community decades ago was a huge issue, and many children would have gone to public school, had there been no loophole to allow acceptance of outside funding.

Even with the specter of Jewish children going to public school for no other reason than lack of funds to sustain the yeshivas, the allowance to accept assistance from the government was still not simple. The book "A Fire in his Soul" details how in 1961, Rav Aharon Kotler Zatzal and other Gedolim deliberated for months, and received input from lawyers and other experts. The Gedolim were assured that government interference in the schools was impossible, based on 1) the history of American democracy, 2) the US Constitution, Bill of Rights, and American law, 3) the tolerance and democratic bent of the American people, who would not permit the violation of Jewish religious liberty or the Jews' right to trannsmit Torah teachings to their children.

Additionally, the Rabbonim based their decision on the fact that the federal aid would give the yeshivos the opportunity to expand and help thousands more children access a Torah education, and that the money to be paid to the yeshivos was not a gift, but rather a payment of a debt owed by the govenment, for the schools having maintained secular studies departments for decades while receiving zero funding, at the same time as Jewish parents paid property taxes which went towards the funding of public schools.

Only with the firm guarantee that the government would have absolutely no say in the running of the yeshivas, and for the above additional reasons, was the heter given to accept the money. It is critical to remember this.

Subsequent to Rav Aaharon Kotler's petira in 1962, the inaugral issue of The Jewish Observer in 1963 contained a long article by Rabbi Moshe Sherer z"l explaining the importance of accepting the government assistance, in order to avoid Jewish children ending up in public school.

Baruch Hashem, there is enough money within the community nowadays, that our own philanthropists and community members are capable of providing for the needs of our yeshivos, and Rabbi Sherer's reason does not apply.

Even more compelling, though, is the fact that it seems clear that the three foundations to the guarantee of governmental non-interference in our mesora of chinuch, on which Rav Aharon based his heter, have evaporated.

The government is currently interfering in the most egregious of ways in the very fundamentals of our Yiddishkeit, right in the hallowed halls of the yeshiva. For example, they mandate a certain amount of hours of secular subjects, which topics, and how they are taught. Not only that, but currently they are seeking to mandate that to'eiva be taught in our schools.

The question begs asking: Would Rav Aharon have given his heter to accept government money if he would be looking at our current situation in 2022?

I will leave it to the reader to use his imagination.

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