The letter and its translation:
מיהו אברך רבקה ח ירושלים אני לא קוראת קבועה של העיתון, אבל קניתי אותו בגלל הכתבה על אנשים שתורתם אומנותם במובן שגם הם לומדים שעות וגם עובדים אני נשואה לאברך חשוב - אנחנו חיים, שורדים, ומתחתנים ילדים, והכתבה הזה השאיר אצלי טעם חמוץ. אינני יודעת למה, אבל אולי כי הרגשתי שיש בה משום זלזול בתלמידי חכמים אמיתיים כמו בעלי שמוסרים את הנפש לתורה,שלומדים כל החיים, שנשארים בכולל והם אברכים אמיתיים אני לא יודעת להסביר בדיוק, כי מובן שזה תופעה מבורכת אבל לא על חשבון אנשים כמו בעלי וחביריו אני כותבת לכם בסערת נפש. אני מורה בסימנר מספר שעות בשבוע, ואני תוהה מה לומר לתלמידות בעקבות כתבה כזו אם השאלה תעלה
אשמח לשמוע דעות בעניין הזה ומה אומרת דעת תורה על זה
I am not a regular reader of the magazine but I bought it because of the article about the people who "their profession is torah", in the sense that they learn hours a day while also working. I am married to an important Avreich - we live, we survive, we are marrying off children, and this article left a bitter taste in my mouth. I don't know why, but maybe because I felt that there was disrespect for real Talmidei Chachamim like my husband who gives his soul to Torah, learns his whole life, and stays in kollel and these are the real Avreichim. I don't know how to explain this exactly, because it is clear that this a good phenomenon but not on the backs of people like my husband and his friends.
I am writing to you with a lot of trepidation. I am a teacher in a high school a few hours a week and I don't know what to tell the girls about this article if the subject comes up.
I would be happy to hear other opinions on this subject as well as what "Daas Torah" has to say about this.
I do not know why she thinks that if they write respectfully about one type of person it means nobody else is deserving of respect. They write non-stop about the yeshivot, the kollels, the avreichim, and how important they are. They constantly write against the attempts to change the system.
Is it so bad that they write once about people who work and make time to learn regularly? Does it mean this is the only way? Does it mean these people deserve respect and nobody else does?
Regarding her problem with what to tell her students - maybe she should tell the students that men who go to work to support their families should make time to learn Torah, and that is just fine, if not better than "fine", at least for people who are not going to be learning full time..
She says she thinks it is good, but "not on the backs of people like my husband". Who is doing anything on the backs of her husband and his friends? Because the people working and learning deserve some respect means it is coming on the back of her husband? Is there a limited amount of respect in the world that if one shows respect to one person it takes away respect earned by and showed to another?
Earners-Learners deserve respect to, and granting it takes away nothing from anybody else.
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