“Bein Hazmanim is not vacation”
Call it what you will. It’s effectively the same thing. (I don’t think it’s less torah-dik to call it “vacation” because of course a Jewish vacation includes torah, tefillah, adherence to halacha etc. It’s really more of a semantic thing).
“Real Yeshiva ketanas and Mesivtas don’t have any midwinter vacation”
I take offence at that. It’s simply not true. (And I don’t mean only for modern schools)
“A yeshiva bochur is supposed to be learning yomam valaila
Vacation by definition is the exact opposite of that therefore the concept of vacation cant be al pi torah
By saying that yeshivas give vacation is not a proof to the argument rather ha gufa kasha.”
1) No he isn’t, at least not if you mean without breaks (which is what you seem to be saying). Even Moshe Rabbeinu had breaks. Even in Volozhin where they had learning 24/7 – they had *one person* learning 24/7, not the whole yeshiva. The chafetz chaim used to tell bachurim that “the desire for (excessive) hasmada is the yetzer hara.”
2) Meiheicha teisi? First of all the concept of breaks is a torah concept. Rav Yaakov Kamenetsky ran a learning-focused summer camp which had a few hours break. A visiting RY wanted to give a shiur then and Rav Yaakov didn’t let him – he said it’s very important not to push people too hard. Obviously it’s slightly different for each person which is why people’s learning schedules during bein hazmanim/vacation will differ and that’s totally fine.
3) When institutions with talmidei chachamim at their head do things, we can say ma’aseh rav, your personal kasha notwithstanding.