Amid growing financial pressures on the Torah world and continued cuts to funding for yeshivos and kollelim, Rav Don Segal offered a thought-provoking perspective this week, suggesting that the economic hardships may ultimately serve a higher purpose.

Speaking to dozens of roshei kollelim who visited his home to thank him for his dedication and efforts on behalf of Keren Olam HaTorah’s recent fundraising campaign in the United States, Rav Segal urged them to view the current challenges through the lens of emunah.

“They are squeezing us from every direction—through money and all these other things,” he said. “Their intentions are clear, but aliba d’emes, from Heaven it is so that our means of support should remain pure, that they should be clean.”

To illustrate his point, Rav Segal shared a rare personal story from the early years of his leadership of a kollel.

“Many years ago, the kollel was in very difficult financial condition,” he recalled. “A man approached me and offered to finance the entire kollel on condition that it be named after him. I thought to myself, what difference does the name make? The main thing is that the avreichim should have what they need. But the man was a member of the Knesset, and I was concerned that perhaps the money was not truly his own but had come from other sources. I did not want to decide such a matter on my own, especially when the livelihood of avreichim was involved.”

Rav Segal said he brought the question to Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman zt”l for guidance.

“He told me in the name of the Vilna Gaon regarding the statement of Chazal: If Torah were to be forgotten from Israel, one would plant flax, make nets, trap deer, process the hides, and write Torah scrolls. The Vilna Gaon asked: Why go through such a long process? One could simply buy prepared parchment and write. Rather, if the beginning is not pure, the Torah itself is not complete. Everything must be clean from the very beginning.”

Rav Segal concluded with a powerful observation that left a deep impression on those present.

“Who knows whether the reason yeshivos are not succeeding as they should is because they are accepting money from sources that are not worthy.”

{Matzav.com}