“cantoresq made the reasonable assumption that what MM was saying was that a woman who is waiting for a husband to come home from the Bais Hamidrash is waiting for a full-time learner, ergo, waiting for someone to come home from work won’t warrant a place in the Olam Haboh”
Oy. Reasonable? It’s a wild assumption. Why on earth would cantoresq think that MM believes coming home from the Bais Medrash means full time learning? What shaychus? Do you live in a community in which most observant men are full time learners (because most observant men attend a shiur a couple of times during the week, or have a chavrusah/learn by themselves at designated times)? Even Lakewood doesn’t have such a large ratio of full-time learners to working shiur-goers (at least 25% are working, or so I’m told), such that someone would automatically assume a man coming home from a Bais Hamedrash must be a full-time learner. It’s a v-e-r-y strange assumption.
“Second, you insist that there are scholars and non-scholars who go to the Bais HaMedrash. Why make this distinction? If you have a husband who works and then learns after work, call him a scholar? He’s engaged in scholarship isn’t he? If he was also a part-time plumber, would you say, how dare you call him a plumber, he’s only plumbing when he’s not learning.”
Uh, it’s about semantics, not feelings. Scholar has a few definitions. According to Random House Dictionary, scholar is defined as follows:
1. a learned or erudite person, esp. one who has profound knowledge of a particular subject.
2. a student; pupil.
3. a student who has been awarded a scholarship.
Many wonderful and observant men don’t consider themselves learned or erudite, and being learned and erudite is not a prerequisite to being dedicated to a shiur or learning seder. The Torah is open to all, and every Jew has the right and privilege to learn Torah, regardless of erudition.
The second definition might apply, if the term is used conventionally to apply to men who go to a shiur or have a set learning time. I haven’t heard it used that way; feel free to disagree though.
Cantoresq’s comment was a mistake, you seem to be willfully misunderstanding my comments, and all’s well that ends well.
Have a good Shabbos.