1. today the ideal pushed on every young man is full time yeshiva learning for years and years, and for a large part of the frum world it goes on for a decade or more. is that what chazal pictured for everyone?
2. the gemara in kiddushin 29a to 29b puts the duty on the father to teach his son torah and a trade, and rambam in hilchos de’os 5:11 sets the wise man’s own schedule as working three hours a day and learning nine. that is a working man who learns, not the other way around. where did the switch happen?
3. and on the other side there is torah lishmah and real talmidei chachamim need years of nothing but learning. so is the real question who should be in full time learning and for how long?
4. and the gemara in shabbos 6a says a person should see the world the way people actually are. how does that apply to a whole generation in yeshiva?
bottom line: is the everyone in yeshiva forever model the torah’s ideal, or the exception that became the rule?
Thank you Rabbi, thank you very much.
I do not believe Chazal envisioned every Jewish man sitting in full-time yeshiva for ten or fifteen years.
There is certainly a place for intensive Torah learning. We need serious talmidei chachamim, rabbanim, poskim, teachers, and leaders. Those people may need many years devoted almost entirely to learning. That is training for a profession and a responsibility, much like someone spending years becoming a doctor.
But that is very different from saying that every young man is supposed to remain in full-time learning indefinitely.
Kiddushin 29a says that a father has obligations both to teach his son Torah and to teach him a trade. Chazal clearly expected a person to know Torah and also know how to function and support himself.
The Rambam also describes a serious Torah scholar as somebody who works and learns. And even more sharply, in Hilchot Talmud Torah 3:10 he criticizes someone who decides that he will learn Torah, not work, and support himself from communal funds.
That does not mean nobody should ever be supported while learning. A community should absolutely support talented people who are being developed into rabbanim, poskim, teachers, and Torah leaders. We need them, and producing them takes time.
But then the learning should actually train them for that job. They should know Shas, Halachah, Rishonim, Poskim, practical questions, and how to pasken. Spending years becoming extraordinarily skilled at a narrow style of abstract Gemara analysis, while barely learning practical Halachah, is not necessarily training somebody to lead a Jewish community.
For most people, the healthier model is Torah together with life. Learn seriously. Establish real daily learning. Know Halachah. Continue growing throughout your life. But also work, support a family, raise children, and participate in the world.
Full-time learning for many years is valuable for the people who are suited for it and who are going somewhere with it.
It should not automatically be treated as the universal Torah ideal for every young man.
The exception became the expectation, and I do not think Chazal required that.
Also see the following regarding the proper way to learn which is sadly lost in our generations: https://kashrut.org/project/torah-study-its-purpose-and-its-order/