Joseph, I had the zechus to learn in kollel. It was one of the most wonderful periods of my life. It starts off the family on the right foot, and imbues the home with a sense of ruchnius. When a person dies, a person isn’t asked how much money he made or how many initials followed his last name. I actually agree with most of the article. the problem, however, is that it includes a few krumkeits which ruin the entire article.
1. MOST people aren’t on the level of Rabbi Shimon Bar yochai. Putting pressure on everybody to attempt to be this is one of things causing kids to go off the derech. The kiymu vekiblu of Bayis sheini caused more learning than the kafal aleihem har kegigis by Har Sinai. This pressure is causing kids to feel that if they can’t learn all day, they can’t be frum yidden.
2. It’s a mitzvah to support Torah scholars. However, the article comes across with an “es kumt mir” attitude which has been deletorious to the Torah community. People in shidduchim make excessive demands of the prospective in-laws because “es kumt mir”- we’re learnign we deserve the best. Like you said, Torah comes from the bei aniyim, which the Maharal explains (IIRC) because aniyim aren’t established in this world due to their lack of gashmius, and Torah is the opposite of gashmius. Many of today’s kollel yungeleit live a fancier lifestyle than is necessary, putting an undue burden both on their parents and in-laws and on those who married a bas talmid chacham instead of a bas am ha’aretz with money.
3. the article implies that the chiyuv is to learn, but there’s no chiyuv to impart that knowledge. Yet, The gedolim of the past felt completely differently. One way you know a hashkafah that isn’t 100% correct is its lack of sustainability. Both TIDE and Torah Umadda have their best and brightest go out to the working field, and the mechanchim and rabbonim come from more yeshivish circles, making it hard to continue the derech another generation. A derech where one learns but doesn’t teach is unsustainable as well. We say in shemonah esrei, “Ata chonen… umelamed”. As Rav Baruch Ber ZT”L said, Hashem is a melamed. This is the biggest thing. The act of giving over Torah to the next generation. The chazon Ish said one can be selfish until he’s 30, because until then his torah is like a cistern (limited) instead of a fountain (unlimited). After 30, one has a chiyuv to teach.
Someone I know suggested that you were no longer in yeshiva. I disagreed with him, but you admitted it when you say you hadn’t the zechus of learning in kollel. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as not everyone has the support or zitzfleish to learn. That doesn’t mean there is no chiyuv to learn what he can now, and I do thanl you for bringing it up. We will all be learning in kollel when moshiach comes, but it will be the “yomim asher ein bahem cheifetz”. Learning Torah and doing mitzvos now is like buying stocks on March 8, 2009. Everyone laughs at you, but you have the last laugh some months later.