[Avodah] Torah Study vs. other contributions to soCIETY

[Moshe Yehuda Gluck]

R' David Riceman:
*Consider the (not uncommon) case of someone who has been studying in
*Yeshiva full time for several years, and one semester takes a course in
*some money making skill.  So, for example, on Tuesday and Thursday
*afternoons he no longer studies in Yeshiva, instead he studies plumbing
*in a trade school.  He is not being m'vatel a seder kavua of talmud
*Torah on those days; instead he is changing his ittim k'vuim so they
*don't include Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
*
*I think it's very hard to find any realistic example of training which
*is prohibited by this halacha.


A pertinent Mareh Makom is in Even Ha'ezel Hilchos Melachim 3:5-6: "...this
is only regarding a king; but a commoner is permitted to have pleasure even
though that this necessarily causes Bittul Torah through drunkenness or
intimacy. For a commoner, the only prohibition is to perform Bittul Torah
without any cause; then, if he removes himself from the Torah he
transgresses U'pen yasuru m'lvav'cha kol yemei chayecha, and many other
verses that obligate one to learn Torah..."

I was once told that at one point someone wanted to republish Even Haezel
without this "offensive" passage. R' Aharon Kotler objected, and had it
published as is.

KT,
MYG