[Avodah] Tzvei dinim to bitel torah

[A & C Walters]

Reb Boruch Ber ztvkl"a explains that in bitel torah there are tzvei (two)
dinim; one being shev ve'al taaseh (when one could learn but isn't) and one
being kum v'asay (learning something else actively instead of learning). He
also klers - is the heter to work a d'chiye (dehaynu, there is bitel torah,
but it is mutar in this case) or is there no bitel torah at all. (He holds
the second tzad)

He also brings the Reb Chaim tzvkl"a that Reb Chaim was asked during the war
if he could work in an office to avoid the draft, even though it would
require writing on shabbos. Reb Chaim mattird because pekuach nefesh is
docheh shabbos. A second person asked if he could go to university to avoid
the draft. Reb Chaim paskened that yehareg ve'al yovo (it's minus).

However, to learn secular subjects, not bekevius, by oneself is mutar (as
per the Ram"o YD 246)

> As for the person who took time off his learning in order to earn  
> parnassah,
> my rav says that working for a living is a mitzva and that the time a
person 
> spends working is not considered batala.  However, he is very strict
about 
> every non-working minute -- every minute not working should be spent
learning 
> -- and he would highly disapprove of reading secular literature --  or 
> spending time on the 'net.  (He does glance at the NY Times, probably in
the room 
> the Gra used to study math, probably because he holds there is to'eles  in
being 
> an informed person, or possibly because he could not otherwise distract  
> himself from having hirhurim of Torah in an inappropriate place.)

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