Wednesday, June 28, 2006

I say: ''Why not Rabbonim and Roshei Yeshiva?''



Neo Tzig, I fail to see why you single out Shluchim for retirement.

Shluchim are no different than Rabbonim who must find a speech to say on the same 53 Parshiyos every single week for 50 years. They're no different than a Rosh Yeshivah or Mashgiach who has the same few Mesechtos to compose Shiurim on or needs to give Shmuessen the same times of the year every year for 50 years.

We can even go as far as ''forgetting'' the fact that they're sent for life and only the Rebbe can change that, we can forget that there is no retirement age in Shlichus. The mere fact that people get burned out never deterred any Rosh Yeshivah from carrying on in Yeshivah even at a very advanced age, so why should Shluchim be different?

If abuse of power is an issue there are or should be other means to deal with it, retirement doesn't seem to cut it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not true at all. The shaliach OWNS a territory. He can and frequently does ban the opening of shuls and mosdos that he does like or that compete with his mosdos. Not so RY's and Rabonim.

The very power that he has over peoples lives is the reason why he must be accountable.

Anonymous said...

Tzig,

I don't want to name any Shluchim, but here are just a couple of the problems I'm talking about:

1. Sheliach does nothing constructive anymore – at the same time, he has turned off most of his community, and he doesn’t allow anyone else to do anything constructive either.

2. Shliach has taken advantage of people (financial, emotional, whatever). He gets into petty fights with others for no reason other than his own humanness. This doesnet help promote the Rebbe’s idea.

3. Shliach is not a very Chassidishe yid…

4. Shliach cares about money and power above all else.

5. Shliach is well meaning but completely inept.

The Roshei Yeshiva don’t matter nearly as much, and it is much simpler to change yeshiveis. Shluchim, however, are in complete control of their area, and it aint always so simple to move (although, it does happen).

Anonymous said...

I agree. In fact shluchim should have a no term limit tenure. If not for the fact that many are in places where it is not possible to raise Chassidic "deyres".
Witness the need for special summer camps and othr insturments to try to solve this problem.
Until recently shluchim were in towns with at least 1 orthodox shul, some level of religious life. Now they are in places where there are no minyonim, no other Orthodox Jews or frum kids,n o tahara, no kehilla life. Is this a lechatchilla manner of raising frum kids ?
Did the rebbe desire to send people away in a midbar kepeshuto like Idaho, Alaska China, etc etc.
Morocco, Australia Tunisia were a gan eden compared to these places.
For that reason alone some shluchim must be rotated .
If you look closely at the first set of shluchim of the Rayaatz you will see that people like Fogelman, Hecht, Edelman etc etc all were in different places until they found their makom menucha.
There is no excuse for a shliach to spend 20 years in a midbar, where there is not a hava amina of ever doing bettr than preventing assimilation and having some Jews do a few Mitzvoth, but building a true jewish life, not to speak of a chassidishe life --- man dekore shmaih ?

Anonymous said...

NEO, RAT THIS GUY OUT. CALL KOTLARSKY...

Anonymous said...

Thanks N. I shoulds known you weren't taking this seriously at all.
(For the record, I'm not talking about one guy.)

Anonymous said...

i am taking the post very seriously though I don't agree with your premise and forgone conlcusion of mass corruption and see that there is a problem that needs solving. Life is about gradations. If the entire body is gangerous a revolution is in order. Fire all the doctors, get new medications, etc. If its isolated gangerine, lets examine it. and if a shliach is a real louse, its not so hard to prove and his plug could be yanked. and also his market will determine his success. if he is a stinker he will generally fail. also when enough shluchim fill the entire world where there are yidden and we still have new shluchim types looking for a place the town of the stinker will be under review and the stinker will get edged out. this is a market trend....

Anonymous said...

N,

I start with the premise that the vast majority of Sheluchim are very good people.

There is also a minority of Sheluchim that aren't good people - they aren't the Sheluchim that I am targeting, but my plan deals with them as well.

My plan was more directed to good people that should be moved on - and I suspect this type is very commonly found. For example:

1. Sheluchim that worked hard in the past, but those days were long ago.
2. Sheluchim that are good people, but they just arent good at Shelichus.
3. Sheluchim that are generally well-meaning, but the human side gets the better of them too often.
4. Sheluchim that their Shelichus has gone to their head.

Then their are two other goals:

1. To help quality young Sheluchim, and give them an opportunity that is often virtually impossible to find.

2. To find a way to rebuild CH, and the Yeshiveis in general, by bring quality chassidishe Yidden into the tug-tegleche daled amos of unzer future Chassidim.

The idea was to find a way that deals with all these cases effectively, and resolve all the scenarios.

So, The "stinker" sheliach is adressed as well, but that's not what I'm focused on. I hope that clarified the purpose of my idea...

Anonymous said...

I'm happy that you are not in charge. fixing CH takes simple leadership amongst a few rabbonim. no shliach rotation is gonna do anything for CH.
also, a shliach position is not something that is rotateble like a job in the communist party. who pays the shliach?...each one builds up his own cash flow. Once he leaves its over. the community doesn't pay him a salary. He raises and pays himself a livelyhood. How can the rotated shliach ever establish himself, buy a house (thats his pension) because he is going to get old someday and lubavitch central ins't kicking in. So maybe a shliach should have less financial security, take a vow of poverty, keep rotating the world over till ? Why should a shliach even get married? he could have a lot more time to do the rebbes work with out the responsiblity/drag of a wife and kids? can you imagine rotating kids in and out of yeshivas in and out of friends, etc? revolution within something that is largely good is fatalistic. WHy not work within the system and advocate a review of shluchim in place, with disciplinary action, etc.?