Always_Ask_Questions,
“There seems to be 3 hoops you need to jump thru: 1) learn by taking someone else’s money. You say, we are not machmir like Rambam, Shoin, be meikel. Even as Lakewood Vaad tries to use Rambam. But this is just 1 step”
As I said in a previous post, the Lakewood vaad cites the Rambam as a rebuke to those who try and turn the Rambam into a sword against Torah learning. And you can repeat over and over “machmir like Rambam” and “be meikel”, but the repetition does not make it true. Your position is the meikel one. There seems to be no hoop here at all. Next.
“2) … YD has a more general statement about not relying on people. Here I am more curious about halachic process rather than the end result. It seems like a reasonable sevora that as we live in the state that provides equal access to these services to everyone and we pay equal taxes, we should be able to use those services.”
We’re not discussing relying on people, but on government programs that the citizens pay into with their taxes. You should avoid utilizing public roads, as that is also “relying on people”. No hoop here either. Next.
“3) and this is my biggest difficulty – can we use those public sources for poor in order to support learning.”
If you qualify for the programs, absolutely. See it rather as supporting healthy and stable families and children.
So far the hotdog is pretty tasty.
“I checked SNAP in a couple of states and it seems to require actually looking for work.”
And I responded many posts ago that there are exceptions to this requirement that are quite apropos to most Jewish families, and you ignored it.
“[ that is not in the times or places where we need to protect our society from shmad and such]”
That is certainly this time and place.