A Conversation During Shalosh Seudos.

As of June 12, 2009, analog television broadcast ended in the United States and was replaced with digital mode broadcast. If you had an analog television and didn't attach a digital-to-analog converter, you would turn on the television and all you would see would be a boiling jumble of white dots and all you would hear would be static. Even though broadcasts of fine television programs filled the air, and even though you had a high quality television, you would see and hear nothing but garbled nonsense.

Our neighborhood has been lucky to host a new Kollel. The impetus to bring in the Kollel (even while established mosdos are suffering for lack of donations) was the fact that in the past three years, not one Orthodox family had settled in this neighborhood, while other neighborhoods have been growing. While some new families had moved in, they have all been Arab, or Assyrian, or Oriental. I'm sure they are all fine people, but the Orthodox Jewish presence in our neighborhood was definitely in a downward spiral. Several wealthy individuals decided that they would fund the new Kollel for three years. Hopefully, by the end of the three years, the Kollel will be self-supporting. A great deal of money and planning went into the effort: Fifteen houses were purchased, jobs were found for the Kollel wives, and a very nice hall was rented and furnished for a beis medrash.

Even within the few weeks since the opening of the Kollel, the influx of these yungeleit has had a discernible impact; simply seeing these new young families has invigorated the kehilla, and the presence of young men whose entire day is dedicated to limud hatorah, and not to more mundane pursuits, has inspired many of us baalei batim. Many people have been drawn to the Kollel for davenning, because they daven exactly as they did in the Brisker Kollel in Yerushalayim-- not a baalebatishe minyan that caters to bnei Torah, but an unabashed yeshiva minyan. (In fact, I suspect that they daven longer when Baalei Batim are there in order to scare them off, but I, of course, have no way to test the hypothesis.)  The Rosh Kollel was the sho'el umeishiv in the Brisker Kollel for many years, so he obviousy is among the great young talmidei chachamim of our time. Inquiries about house purchases from people moving to the city have begun to focus on this neighborhood, and it appears that the Kollel is a davar be'ito mah tov. Even though the Roshei Yeshiva and Roshei Kollel of the older mosdos in the city were very vexed with the founding of the new Kollel, as it will draw away both sorely needed money and focus, ahl korchom ya'anu amein, since the founders of the Kollel are also their supporters.

Another advantage: there is a nearby shul that has been having trouble dealing with the rightward-trend of the past few years, and there has been a considerable amount of friction in the shul between the more modern and the more yeshiva-oriented elements ("Who needs all these black hatters? They're a bunch of freeloaders!) With the founding of the kollel, the bnei torah will most likely spend more and more time at the kollel minyan, and the shul will remain with the more modern people, and everyone will be happy. Im hayemin ve'asme'ila and so forth.

And here is the story that motivates this post. Yesterday, I was sitting at Shalosh Seudos, and a man said, almost verbatim: "They brought in fifteen Kollel families to the neighborhood, and not one of them ever lived in a house before. You think they're going to take care of their houses? You think any of them is going to mow his lawn? It's going to drive down the price of houses in the neighborhood!"

The most elementary level of being a member of civilized society is the inclination toward compromise instead of conflict, to seek accommodation instead of confrontation, to be open-minded enough to appreciate that not everyone is exactly like you are, and to not pre-judge others on the basis of superficial differences. But from where I was sitting at Shalosh Seudos yesterday, it seemed that we haven't risen to that first step yet. To witness the rejuvenation of a neighborhood, to see the influx of young men and women dedicated to Jewish scholarship, and to focus your tunnel vision exclusively on the fact that 'THESE PEOPLE' ARE NOT GOING TO MOW THEIR LAWNS, DAMMIT! seems to me to be akin to having that great widescreen analog LCD after the switch has been made to digital. The signal is there, the receiver is powered up, and nebach, nebach, all you can see is static.