Leyzer: I’ve been in a number of kollelim in E’Y and you are right, there are those that spend more time in the coffee room then in the beis medrish.
The question is, what’s the cut-off point? Let’s say it’s difficult for someone to learn 8 hours a day, but he can do 6 or 4. Is his 4 hours of Torah learning worthy enough in your eyes to keep him in kollel? How about someone who can get 2 hours of learning? Is the zchus of two strong hours of learning b’ritzifus adequate to keep him in kollel? How about the guy who can do 8 hours but he constantly needs breaks every 15 min or half an hour. How can you quantify or qualify the amount of learning a person does to judge whether he should be given the opportunity to learn Torah?
And let’s say you make the cut-off at 4 hours – someone who can’t learn for 1 full seder should go to the army. Now what happens to the guy who can plug away for 3 hours? How will he make up that time every day while he’s training in the army or while he’s sitting in Gaza? Do you imagine that he will be able to maintain a strong 3 hours under those conditions even if he did have the time?
So do you throw out 70% of the kolleleit so that you make sure you catch all the serious non-learners, or do you keep them all in so that maybe even they will pick up a sefer once in a while.
Which is more important: an hour of Torah study or 3 years of army service?