RICHARD RHEINS charity had it been offered them."?

Rambam reiterated his opposition to communal support for Rabbis :

"Anyone, however, who makes up his mind to study Torah and not work but live on charity(tzedaqah), profanes the name of God , brings the Torah into contempt, extinguishes the light of religion, brings evil upon himself and deprives himself of life hereafter. For it is forbidden to derive any temporal advantage from the words of the Torah . The sages said:‘Whoever derives a profit from use of the teachings of the Torah is helping to remove his life from the world.” They have further charged us:

‘Do not make it[the Torah ] a crown by which to magnify yourself, nor a spade with which to dig.” They, likewise, exhorted us:‘Love work, hate lordship.®‘All study of the Torah , not conjoined with work, must, in the end, be futile and become a

cause of sin.”” The end of such a person will be that he will rob his fellow men."

Rambam '’s intention was that rabbis must support themselves by their‘worldly occupation.” Their free time must be devoted to the study of Torah . Maimonides disapproved of those who received charity in order to devote themselves solely to the study of Torah . Furthermore, he warned against spending too much time in “worldly occupations,” lest the study of Torah be neglected. Thus, it appeared that Rambam offered Torah scholars two options: either be independently wealthy, or mortify yourself. Indeed, he championed the life of mortification in the next passage:

"The words of the Torah do not abide with one who studies listlessly, nor with those who learn amidst luxury and high living, but only with one who mortifies himself for the sake of the Torah , constantly enduring physical discomfort, and not permitting sleep

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