Editing Torah Materials During Chol HaMoed
Question
Greetings and blessings! I am an editor of Torah books, and I receive my salary for each hour of work. I would like to know if I can work on editing also during the intermediate days of a festival (Chol HaMoed), and whether there is a difference if I receive payment for this work or do it for free. It should be noted that there is 'technical' Torah editing, meaning, dividing the portion into sections and the like, and there is 'analytical' Torah editing, meaning, studying the content and editing it from a linguistic perspective, ordering it and so on, which is more like Torah study. Thank you in advance!
Answer
Greetings,
It is forbidden to write Torah matters during Chol HaMoed unless the writing is needed so as not to forget what has been learned.
When a person sits down especially to edit and to write, for any part of his editing work this permission does not exist.
Source
Heard from our teacher Rabbi Fried, shlit”a