Kolel

A kolel or kollel (Hebrew: כולל‎, pl. כוללים, kolelim, a "gathering" or "collection" [of scholars]) is an institute for full-time, advanced study of the Talmud and rabbinic literature. Like a yeshiva, a kolel features shiurim (lectures) and learning sedarim (learning sessions); unlike a yeshiva, the student body of a kolel are virtually all married men. Kolels generally pay a regular monthly stipend to their members.

History

Original sense

Originally, the word was used in the sense of "community". Each new group of Jews, who came from various European countries to settle in Palestine, established their own separate community with their own support system. Each community was referred to as the kolel of ... to identify the specific community of the Old Yishuv. The overwhelming majority of these Jews were scholars, who left their homelands to devote themselves to study Torah and serve God for the rest of their lives. The kolel was the umbrella organization for all their needs.

The first examples were Kolel Perushim who were the students of the Vilna Gaon, and who established the first Ashkenasi Jewish settlement in Jerusalem, Colel Chabad for the Russian Hasidim. The Polish Jews were divided into many Kolelim; Kolel Polen(Poland) headed by Rabbi Chaim Elozor Wax; Kolel Vilna Zamość was under different leadership; and the Galicians were incorporated under Kolel Chibas Yerushalayim. The last initially included the entire Austro-Hungarian Kingdom, but as each subparty looking for more courteous distribution, the Hungarians separated into Kolel Shomrei HaChomos.