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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2000 21:33:43 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Difference between Univ Research and Kollel support

The discussion on Kollel continues. Someone asked the difference between
'getting paid for doing university research' and 'getting paid for
learning torah'. Isn't this a legitimate business activity these days.

I actually asked this question once during shiur to Rabbi Soloveitchick.
His response was that University research has 'no Kedusha' and therefore
it is permissable to take money for Torah.

I have tried to understand the underlying prohibitions in more basic
categories. Perhaps the following has some value. In a profession there
are 'standards' 'hierarchies' and 'ways of doing things'. I for example
cannot train people to be electrical engineers--I am not qualified. If I
did so train them and something happened I could be sued. Furthermore
the professional leaders may have set 'quotas' on how many engineers
they want per year--this would then inhibit certain people from coming
after the threshold.

But these 3 things---standards, lawsuits, quotas--are exactly what we
DON'T want in Talmud Torah. Let us go over each of them separately

STANDARDS: Of course we want standards in halachah. But not in Talmud
Torah. If a person loves Gematrias, or a certain Midrash or an obscure
seder of Mishnah then he should feel free to learn it, teach it, or
enter into chevrutha. We do NOT want him attacked because he is not
using the 'standard' learning tools. We want to encourage all learning.

QUOTAS: We never want a situation where the Rabbonim say 'we have too
may people in the Rabbinate--let us upgrade standards to lower the flow
in'

LAWSUITS: Of course, we want posayks to be responsible for what they are
doing. But we want the general public to be able to learn without fear
of reprisal. The goal of talmud torah is the PROCESS of learning not the
RESULT. If a person wants to add a chumash and rashi shiur then whether
that person is Dr Leibowitz or John Doe (and not explaining every Rashi
properly) we want to encourage the learning process and activity itself.

I feel that it is for this reason that it is prohibited to take money
for Torah---it discourages an atmosphere of 'standards', 'quotas' and
'lawsuits'--it encourages an atmosphere where anyone can set up a shiur
and pursue things according to their own understanding. (Again: Psak
halachah is an exception). I hope this insight helps

Russell Hendel; Phd ASA; Math; Towson Univ
Moderator Rashi iS Simple; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/