I have not been able to see why the State of Israel should give money to yeshivot, nor to religious judges. I think the main reason for this fact is that one of the first tractates I ever learned was Ketuboth. So when I got to the last chapter [page 105B], I got the idea that paying people to learn Torah, or to teach Torah, or to judge according to the law of the Torah was all against the Torah. [Even though that Gemara deals with judges, I was aware of other places where the prohibition of learning or teaching for pay is forbidden. bava batra chap. 1] If you look at that Gemara in ketuboth ,you will see that even taking money from public funds is forbidden. The only two cases of permission are payment for taking time off one' regular work. The first kind of permission is when it is payment for work that is not obvious,- and the second is payment for work that is obvious. But in both cases, it has to be a case where one has some other kind of work, and then people come and want him to judge a case. [It can not be for hypothetical work.]The obvious type is when one has a fixed salary. The non obvious type is for example one its in a store, and the amount he would get per hour is not clear.
There is a Rambam [Shekalim] which brings that there can be judges that receive money from the temple funds [לישכת הגזית] to judge cases of robbery, but that has to be understood in accord with the other place where the Rambam says a person that receives money to judge--all his judgements are null and void. There [in laws of shekalim] the Rambam is only dealing with the question from where their payment would come from -in a case where paying them would be permitted--ie שכר בטלה הניכר.
I admit I was part of the kollel system until I got to Israel and then the contradiction between what the Torah says and the kollel system became too much for me so I dropped out and depended on trust in God. Then my trust in God ran out, and I decided to work, and then things went south. But getting back to trust in God never worked again, so that is when I decided that I already needed to find a decent wholesome way of making a living and that is when I went to the Polytechnic Institute of NYU. so i feel at this point that it makes sense to dispose of a system that claims to be learning and teaching Torah in direct contradiction to what the torah says
Thus I think if people need charity because of being poor, that is fine. But not if they say, ''It is because of learning Torah.'' That just makes Torah into a mode of making money If people lie about Torah, can they really have any respect for Torah? Or rather perhaps they have found it a convenient way to get money?
00ךשאקר later note, someone showed to me a beit yoseph that does bring a wider sense of שכר בטלה for people learning torah--that is if you look inside the tur and beit yoseph it does look that payment for not doing one's regular work, might have a wider sense for people sitting a learning torah than for a judge. i mean for a judge it i clear that any kind of a salary is totally forbidden. he has to have a different occupation. but for learning torah it could be that restrictin might be lessened.
