But even if Marty was right and large families wouldn’t be much better off if their men worked instead of learned, that doesn’t mean we just give up. Even if it just increases the tax base and reduces the need to rely on government hand-outs, that alone makes it is worth doing. Except for the most elite Torah scholars among us who should be learning full time and communally supported with a living wage – working for a living is the way of the world since the time of Adam. This is what God requires of mankind. We cannot therefore abandon it.
The wave of the future for Orthodoxy in Israel is indeed Jewish education. Just as it is in the US. But if Charedim do not modify it to include preparation for the work place with an attendant de-vilification of working for a living, their future is in my view – uncertain.
