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For at least 50 years that I am aware of, the Israeli branches of Hashuv American Yeshivot have offered English speaking Yungerlite jobs tutoring the Bocherim who need extra help. It sounds like a Win/Win idea. Your son gets a private tutor who is mature, highly motivated and knowledgeable to help him advance his learning. For an entire Seder the “Avrech” walks the boy through the “Shakal ve Taria”, reviews his Sheur and makes sure to fill in any gaps in his understanding of the Sugya. This way the Yeshivot can bring weaker boys up to the level of their class without hiring (or paying) for more staff. “LeChora”..
However in fact it is a Lose/Lose arrangement for the Yungerman. The Yeshiva generally tells the Avrech: “You are being hired directly by the Bocher and being paid directly by his parents. We are only Shadchanim, we take no responsibility.” Frequently the boy is not overly motivated and will find any excuse he can to wake up late, finish early, skip, or leave in the middle of the Zman for a friend’s Simcha. Similarly, the parents who are already paying close to full tuition of 25K a year, balk at paying an extra $700-800 monthly to the tutor and the money dries up after a couple of months. In either case his Avrech/Tutor after a month or so is left to learn by himself without even a Kollel salary. He has no position or status in the Yeshiva and when his wife asks him who did you learn with today? Sometimes he answers: “Well maybe tomorrow Yanky will come on time, or they promised they”ll find a new Bocher for me next week. Or he has to admit that he simply carried on a monologue with his own Gemara until he got sleepy and picked up a Humash to Hozer the Sidra.
Occasionally tutoring works for one Zman, but generally it becomes a sad story or even pathetic. Like most of my friends (whose father or uncle doesn’t own a Yeshiva) I gave up tutoring after a couple of years. Recently I came back after I retired from my morning job. This time I lasted two years teaching mostly poor kids for free. Once in a while I got a kid who was very appreciative so I felt it was all worth it. Last Zman I actually got a very smart Bocher from an obviously wealthy family. He took advantage of my enthusiasm to teach him and at the end of the Zman offered me 50 shekels. I felt so denigrated that I finished the Zman and ran away. My “career” in American Israeli Yeshivas is over for good. Baruch Hashem I found a good Kollel.
I am sorry to present such a depressing picture of the situation and I”d be happy to hear from others that had better experiences. In my opinion the present arrangement operates under false pretenses. The Yeshivot and parents knowingly exploit enthusiastic Yungerlite to sit with their kids until they realize no one is responsible for their remuneration or work satisfaction. In the end the majority of parents, students, Yeshivot and tutors walk away angry and disappointed. Maybe somebody can suggest a better way to do things ?
Why wasn’t the wealthy bochor paying you per session (rather than a small one time tip at the end of the zman)?
I am sorry to hear that you experienced hardships as a tutor.
I have experience tutoring secular subjects, and my students
attended around 50% of the time, which made it
very hard to make any money from tutoring.I have not tutored in many years; I just gave up.
Teaching Torah without pay seems to be the best way of teaching. As you already show great level of bitachon, being in kollel and such – why do you find this a problem. And I do not understand why you got offended by the student who offered you shekalim. You could have simply showed him to the pushka or suggest to give it someone who needs it, giving him one more lesson in Torah-appropriate behavior.
when I was a bachur in an american yeshiva a specific older talmid chochom would learn chavrusa with bochrim for free for a zman or half a zman before changing I personally wanted to give him a bracha in my sheva brachus at my wedding but because of presure to give others I didn’t I explained to him that I figured he wasn’t expecting it and won’t get offended whilst the other one who I think desered it less than him might get offended because he expected it… in any case I I was a tutor in an Israeli yeshiva for a very short time (couple of months) I was told I would get paid as you said the yeshiva is only shadchan not that I did for the money but I needed it and lemaase never got paid never got the phone number of the parents and never was I even told that the parents know that the boy learns with me because the one in charge first wanted to see that it is works (meaning to say that the boy comes all the time keilu before we started learing he would come maximum half an hour to seder alef and not every day when we learnt we learnt every day an hour but lemaise he only comes an hour a day so ho said it is matim… but the problem doesn’t mean other options are better some talmidim need it and some yungerlait need it the problem is the money which is always the problem since saro’ shel eisav was nogeah bekaf yerech shel Yaakov…
Whats the chiddush? I’m sure many people remember the Germorah that basically says: “Someone who has… a lot of money and wants to lose them… should hire workers without supervising them.” Bava Metzia 29b
I don’t think it’s the parent who knowingly exploits. Often what happens if the parents are told that the tuition costs $25k/$30k(and even that won’t cover all the trips) and then during the sman the Yeshiva will tell the parent their son should learn with an avrech and it’ll cost xx a month(without this possibility explained beforehand). For you the choice should be maybe learn in a full Israeli Kollel if it’s that bad.
If the bochurim don’t want to learn and the parents are paying 25K for a year in yeshiva, sounds like it’s also a lose-lose deal from the parents’ and bochurims’ perspective.
Parents because they’ve thrown out money.
Bochurim because they’re wasting their lives doing something they don’t want to and from which they’ll get no benefit.
Could be that the time/money could be invested in somehting the bochurim would benefit from.The issue isn’t about wanting to learn. It’s about avrechim the style of yeshiva and quality of bochurim
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