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April 27, 2001/Iyar 4, 5761, Vol. 53, No.30
Get a job, boychik
FLO ECKSTEIN
Publisher
An excellent thing is the study of the Torah combined with some worldly occupation.... All study of the Torah without work, must in the end be futile and become the cause of sin. - Sayings of the Fathers II:2
Isaac Leibowitz and Zev Lieberman were convicted this month of defrauding voters to win election to the town council in 1998 in the London borough of Hackney.
Observers say the men were seeking access to government subsidies for their fervently Orthodox community, including subsidized housing, food stamps and education. "They have huge financial needs," said Samuel Heilman, a professor at Queens College, City University of New York. "There is a growing tendency to study Torah as a full-time profession. Yeshivas have to provide stipends not only for students, but for their families."
In imposing brief prison sentences, the judge described the men as of "good character," saying they broke the law out of "enthusiasm for public office in order to do good things."
Well, OK.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District in Manhattan is investigating possible wrongdoing by former President Clinton in pardoning four residents of New Square, a Hasidic village in Rockland County. The four had been convicted of defrauding the state and federal governments of tens of millions of dollars, ostensibly to provide support for residents of their impoverished community.
(The current inquiry is into whether in exchange for the pardons, New Square delivered votes to Hillary Clinton in her successful race for the U.S. Senate from New York - and if so, is it illegal or politics as usual?)
In a recent interview with the Forward, Modern Orthodox educator Rabbi Mayer Schiller, who once lived and studied in New Square, explained the crimes as stemming from the failure of the enclave's private yeshiva system to provide its youth with secular and vocational education. Many men forsake gainful employment in order to immerse themselves full time in religious learning.
"If I was running New Square, I'd be much more concerned with trying to find ways and means for people to earn a living," Schiller said. "Almost all the troubles are attributable to that problem."
Schiller's comment harkens to the words of our forebears: Religious study that precludes making an honest living leads to sin. No matter how diligently the student may pore over the texts, he and his family require shelter, food, health care, clothing and furniture. Able-bodied, able-minded adults are responsible for providing for their own financial security and that of their family and community, including the children they bring into the world, their elderly relatives and those who are disabled. Shame on those who decline to do so and turn instead to handouts, public welfare or even breaking the law.
The Brits, like their New York counterparts, failed to heed our ancestors' admonition when they perpetrated a crime in hopes of improving their community's economic well being. Perhaps in prison they'll find time to study Jewish law more carefully, and master the full ethical imperative of living a truly holy life.
For starters, get a job.
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