The Sages' Yellow Pages
Many of you are aware of the distress of so many in Israel over the fact that not only do the vast majority of Haredim not serve in the IDF or do national service, but more than ten thousand of them have been receiving government stipends for their yeshiva study. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that these stipends were not permissible and now Shas and its allies in the government have been working to find ways to circumvent or overturn the court ruling.
Historically, the great sages and rabbis did have gainful employment in addition to their Torah study. To dramatize this, the Masorti movement created a “yellow pages” listing showing the occupations of these sages. Some, such as Rambam as a physician, are relatively well known to us. Others are less well known. All of the listings, however, have specific support in the Talmud or Mishnah, with chapter and/or page numbers indicated.
Masorti's “yellow pages” almost immediately made it onto television news and otherwise attracted much favorable attention. In fact, the effort was so well received that a decision was made to print posters and purchase bus ads featuring the “yellow pages.”
If you scroll down, you will see both the Hebrew version of the “yellow pages” and an English version created for our use. You are more than welcome to distribute these posters either in hard copy or via the internet. In fact, we encourage you to do so. It would be great if Jews throughout the United States saw these posters and were presented with an opportunity to learn about these developments in Israel.
Also below you will see photographs of the posters as they appear in Jerusalem.
In producing and distributing the “yellow pages,” Masorti is attacking a crisis that is every bit as significant for Israel. Putting it bluntly, we cannot do this without your financial support. Please also consider making a contribution via the following link: DonateNow.
Click here for a downloadable copy of the "yellow pages": ENGLISH HEBREW In case your congregation wishes to include images for its newsletters or Shabbat handouts, please feel free to download them. We have made the images available to you in a high resolution format (300 pixels per inch) and in large (9" x 6"), medium (6" x 4 "), and small (3" x 2") sizes. Please note that the pictures will appear larger than the stated sizes on your monitor than they will when inserted into a printed page. To download the images, click on the size you need. It will open in a new page. Right-click on the images to download the image. |
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