mdd: “bemechilas kevod toroscho”- with respect to your knowledge: No one is disputing that Torah can protect (see Dovid hamelech). So are mitzvos (“sheluchei mitzvah einon nizokin”). What is being debated today is not learning per se, but how to structure a society. As you can see from other gemoros that I quoted (berochos, kidushin,etc..), society cannot live on learning alone. We still live in the real world. Financially and societally, it is impossible for a country to have tens of thousands of people without working in some kind of profession. And, as I said many times, no one is disputing that a number of talmidim should be exempt (even the present plan envisions this).It is the blanket exemption that people object to and this is what is new and never was part of the klal.
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