Torah lishma from a contemporary perspective

Torah lishma refers to the study of the Bible, Talmud, and other Jewish sacred texts for its own sake.

In my opinion, this is the "money quote" from XGH's "The Real Problem with Lakewood":

"2. No Pressure

In academia, there is a lot of pressure to do research, to get your PhD, to publish, to get tenure. Maybe after getting tenure you can coast a bit, but at least during your most productive years (20s and 30s) you are actually being productive. In the Yeshivah / Kollel world, all you have to do is show up."

Ezzie and his commenters, taking off from XGH's post, have plenty to say--both for and against--on the subject of full-time Torah learning. I strongly recommend that you read all the comments here.