I just got a call from my friend at Shuvu Banim’s Kollel Chatzot in the Old City

She told me that the Kollel is hitting some hard times again, as a lot of the donations that were coming in seem to have dried up.

I was thinking out loud with her about all this, when it struck me that in today’s world, most people don’t give ‘for nothing back’. 

There are some idealists, poets and dreamers who are probably still in that box, but how many of those are there in today’s world? Two? Three?

Let me go and see how other people are doing their fundraising, I told her. I’ll come back to you.

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That’s when I remembered, l’havdil a million, billion times over, how Rbzn Kolodetsky and her husband pop-up every Elul on the YWN mass-fundraising website-masquerading-as-news, to tell everyone about this poor ‘rosh kollel’ they know personally, who has serious debts that he can’t manage, and is about to have a heart attack, or something, because of them.

I’ve seen them do this same pitch in a different video at least the last four years running – I even have some of them screen-recorded and saved, to make sure it really is the exact same ‘poor rosh kollel with massive debts’ that they know personally, and are fundraising for, each year.

I honestly can’t tell you how much money they’ve raised for this ‘poor rosh kollel’ – but I can tell you, it’s a heck of a lot.

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Trouble is, for me personally, and many of the people who are more ‘Shuvu’ types, this type of slick, YWN marketing is actually mildly nauseating.

That’s why the Rav’s Kollel Chatzot is caught in the bind they are with their fundraising efforts, because you need to be putting Sponsored Content fronted by ‘tzaddikim’ from Bnei Brak (or at least, their close family members) to really get the donations, it seems.

Tatty, isn’t there some tznius, nice way of fundraising a little more successfully for the Kollel that wouldn’t induce nausea?

That’s when I got the idea that the Kollel could offer sponsored days of learning and praying tikkun chatzot for a loved one’s yahrtzeit.

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I asked my contact at the Kollel if this sounded like an acceptable plan, and she came back with the green light.

Then, I asked her how much they want to ask for, to sponsor a whole night of learning and praying specifically for an ilui neshama, and she came back with this amount:

395 shekels – because 395 is the gematria of ‘neshama’, or soul.

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Then, she told me a crazy story.

There was a lady whose father kept appearing to her in dreams, looking really he was in a really bad way. She went to the Rav, who suggested she sponsor his yahrtzeit at the Shuvu Banim Kollel Chatzot, so she did.

The man stopped appearing in dreams.

When they went back to the Rav to check what was going on, Rav Berland told this lady that the man’s soul had now been lifted up to the Heichal of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov… and that he was in a very good place spiritually, and didn’t need to keep appearing in dreams now.

I asked my contact to give me the woman’s number, I want to interview her first-hand about what happened.

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Point is, 395 shekels apparently does a lot of tremendous ‘good’ to the departed soul, if its spent on sponsoring a night of learning and tikkun chatzot in their merit at the Shuvu Kollel Chatzot, in the Old City, right next to Har HaBayit, literally.

You can donate HERE – write in the comments section that it’s 395 shekels to sponsor a yahrtzeit, and give the name, and if possible, date, when you want the learning to happen.

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I told my contact at the Kollel Chatzot, that for all that we find all this fundraising stuff mildly nauseating, right now, this is how God is fixing the world to work.

It’s still a gashmi world, there are still ‘rules of marketing’ that work, mostly, if followed appropriately.

It would be great if a million people would wake up tomorrow and spontaneously decide to start donating more of their trumah to Shuvu and the Kollel, but until and unless that happens, we have to do our bit.

If it’s not below the likes of Rbzn Kolodetsky and her husband to fundraise for that same ‘rosh kollel’ year in, year out, every Rosh Hashana, on YWN, than I guess the Kollel Chatzot can also hold its nose, a little, and do a little marketing.

It’s a win-win situation for them, and the people who choose to donate to them.

BH, I will get on with trying to track down more of the first-hand stories that show that.

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In the meantime:

Go HERE, if you want the Kollel Chatzot to learn ilui neshama for someone you love, who passed away.

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Just to be clear, I don’t get a penny for writing this, and in fact, I am also giving a large trunk of my own trumah to the Kollel Chatzot.

If it doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, that’s totally fine. I’m sure YWN will have more ‘poor rosh kollels in debt’ to tempt  you with instead, very soon.