Paying people to learn Torah, or to teach Torah, or to judge according to the law of the Torah is all against the Torah

 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. 

[The trouble I see with people that accept money to learn or teach Torah is that once they ignore an open halacha, how can you believe after they say anything else? Even in secular courts in America, any witness that has been found to lie, (even in the most insignificant detail) is considered to be of no account in anything. We know that to accept money from learning Torah or teaching it is forbidden by the Torah itself as the law is stated clearly in the Rambam, Tur, and shulchn aruch. [Of course, people will always find ways around this since the real money is in religion. You can make an easy dollar by seeming to be holy. Religion is the most easy and simple way to make money for anyone that is too lazy to work at an honest job. And when asked about an open halacha people lie their teeth off. They try to claim that Torah is their profession. Obviously, that is a lie because that law means one does not have to do the three major prayers each day when all he does is to learn Torah. But the halacha has nothing relevant to the prohibition of using Torah to make money. [שבר בטלה means שכר ניכר. ] And "All the decisions of any judge that receives money in order to judge, are null and void.[The policy of getting money to be a teacher in religion became accepted among Ashkenazim because it is the Christian practice until this very day based on a letter of Paul who allows this practice. But it has no source in Torah Law.] People that learn Torah are not priests or Levites [who are to receive Truman an masaar]. Priest are descendent of Aaron and Levite are from that tribe. There is an idea of the Rambam that there will be lifted from people that accept on themselves the yoke of Torah, the yoke of making money by the Divine intervention of God who will send to them their needs. But this has nothing to do with the law in the Rambam that to receive money from learning Torah has no potion in the next world]

 One of the major points of the Gra that I think is important to emphasize is that every word of Torah weighs a much as all the other commandments.  Mainly that means the Old Testament the two Talmuds plus the Midrash. But in a certain sense it would include commentaries in so far as the commentaries   help in understanding even if they are not in fact part of the Oral and Written Law.

But this category of what explains the Law comes the Gemara itself according to the Rambam in  Laws of Learning Torah chapter 3 and that includes Physics and Metaphysics as he explains in the introduction of the Guide for the Perplexed.

I would to bring here the importance of a great book I have been looking at recently,-- the Even ha'Azel by Rav Isar Meltzer --a friend of Rav Shach. So when I say to get through the two Talmuds I mean with Tosphot [and Rashi when needed] Maharasha and the basic Litvak sages that bring to light very important aspects in the Gemara. [I do not mean just to run through it, except in the afternoon period which should be set aside for ''bekiut''. Fast learning is important as Rav Nahman of Breslov said in the Conversations of Rav Nahman 76 and which Rav Shick made a whole booklet out of. Fast learning is mentioned in the gemara Avoda Zara page 19.But that is for the afternoon period. The morning hours ought to go for preparation for the class of the Rosh Yeshiva your own study in the Avi Ezri, or the Hidushei HaRambam by Reb Haim of Brisk ]

i would like to mention here a subject i saw in the even haazel. let us say an ox gores a cow. there is paid 1/2 the ox and 1/2 the cow as it says somewhere in exodus. if the owner of the ox raises the value of the ox all the increase goes to him. but if the owner of the cow increased the value of the ox or it went upin value by itself, the tur writes the increase goes to him. but the rambam writes the owner of the cow gets only 1/2 damages from the cow even if it went up in value.  i have not written about this for a while because rav shach doe not bring up this issue and r. isar meltzer has a very long and difficult section on it which i am barely scratching the surface of. rav isar melzar says the reason for the rambam i that to r. akiva [whom we poskin like] the damaged person does not gain possession of the ox until after standing in court. this of course is a perfect answer however i seem to recall that rav shach said somewhere that the damaged person gains possession right away--but that might have been where he was explaining the raavad, so i am not sure if there is any difficulty, untili can recallwhat rav shach wrote. 

   When the Rambam mentions learning physics and metaphysics my feeling is that even though he says he is referring to how these subjects were understood in ancient Greece, I think you have to expand the definition to refer to Modern Physics and Metaphysics. But the later is harder to know. When the Rambam refers to Metaphysics that refers to the collected lectures in the book of Aristotle by that title. But nowadays I think you would have to include Kant and Leonard Nelson. Nelson started the new  Friesian-.SCHOOL; but even that needs modification as Bernays [one of his disciples] pointed out. 

[personally, I think it is a tragedy that Leonard Nelson is unknown.]

  Nelson was ignored, not from lack of quality, but from academic philosophy falling into the mud of analytic philosophy. They ignored real quality. 

  The fallacy of Analytic Philosophy is that analyzing language can not tell us anything about reality. It is hard to know smart people could fall into that. Analytic Philosophy is about as deep as a mud puddle. some people think that there are other approaches in philosophy after Kant that can replace Kant but i do not think that is right. 

I know there are people that think one ought to learn Torah alone, but that is more along the lines of the rishonim who held that way. But that is not the opinion of the Rambam or the Chovot Levavot.

[In Physics I suggest trying to get through every basic step from Newton until Einstein, Heisenberg, Feynman, and Susskind in the sense of "Bekiut" i.e. saying the words in order until you finish each book at least four times, and also listen to the lectures.

 my basic idea  about learning is different than that of universities in the USA. in the USA and the west in general there is an emphasis on finding what you are good at and have natural talent towards. and while i can see the justification in that approach, i have to say  that it does not seem very much geared towards the kind of goals that is have in mind in learning. to me there are things that one must learn whether he is talented or not. and there are things one must not learn whether talented or not.

 for example pseudo sciences like psychology, one must not learn even if they draw one in by their poison's sweetness. one the other hand there are things one must learn whether they appeal to one or not, like learning Torah. that is the old testament and the two talmuds with tosphot maharsha and the basic achronim like rav shach, rav isar meltzer, and the other gedolai Lita. plus two things the rambam emphasized--physics and metaphysics as you can see he mentions in the mishna torah and the guide. but since these are hard to understand i recommend the fast kind of learning  brought in the talmud--always one should be  גורס i.e. just say the words in order even if one forgets and even if one does not even know what one is saying.

I am sure my grandparents were relived that my dad was working on the  ultra secretive B-29in the USA rather than going over with the ground troops on D-Day. Even so I am sure their prayers for his safety never ceased until the end of the war. At least i can be proud that the B-29 Enola Gay is the airplane that ended the war. He remained in top secret  USA projects until around the 1970,s--like the U-2 and SDI  

''All who add to the mitzvot subtracts from them.'' ''כל המוסיף גורע''

 Even though there is some reason for a woman to wait seven  clean days, but that this depends on a  custom  brought in the Gemara that ''the daughters of Israel wait seven clean days even for a drop like a mustard seed'' is not really a good reason-- because to the Bach that means the color of mustard. A different reason would be like the  the Rambam that  straight nida blood [mentral cycle] and ziva [blood seen not at the regular time of seeing.]blood depend on an order of days that starts from the first time she sees blood-i.e. 7-11, 7--11,etc. But that  is not the way most Rishonim count the days. To most Rishonim each time a woman sees blood starts the start of day of nida. [That means the way to count is thus. Seeing blood on one day after a regular time since the last time is the start of days of nida. And days of nida are only seven days. If she see once or twice or the whole seven days makes no difference; she goes into a natural body of water the night after the seventh day. But if she sees on the eight day, that is a small zava-- i.e., she waits one day and goes into a natural body of water. If she sees again, that is still a small zava. But if she see three times during the 11 day  stretch of time after that seven starting time means she is a large zava and needs to count seven clean days.] And my general approach is that there is no reason to look for extra restrictions. If someone wants to be extra strict, that is fine. But they ought not make that seem like an obligation for everyone. [See the Ramban quoted in the Tur who counts the days in this way..] 

boys are made of snips, snails and puppy dog tails

For a man to call himself a woman can not change his molecular structure.  Since boys are made of snips, snails etc., while girls are made of sucrose and spice, that that DNA molecular structure can not be changed by calling it a different name. It would take a great deal of effort to turn a snail into sugar or spice. Even the basic elements are different.

reference: What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?
  Snips, snails
  And puppy-dogs' tails
That's what little boys are made of

What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
  Sugar and spice
  And everything nice [or "all things nice"]
That's what little girls are made of