I don't understand why when eliyahu hanavi is asked who is a ben olam habo, he says the badhanim who are making people happy. Torah is misamach so much that you cant even learn on tisha bav, so why didn't he point to the roshei yeshivas and magidei shiur?
Mendy kaplowitz
The Etz Yosef cites a Toras Chayim (see also Gilyon ha'Shas) who explains that many people earn their portion in Olam ha'Ba, but only after they have gone through the various punishments that are in store for a person after death, to atone for the sins that prevent him from going straight to Gan Eden.
Rabbi Beruka Chuza'a wanted to meet somebody who would go to Olam ha'Ba without having to suffer those punishments first. So Eliyahu showed him two people who had attained that reward.
It seems to me that had they been standing in the Beis ha'Midrash, Rabbi Beruka would not have asked Eliyahu the question, because as you say, there were probably many such people there, and he would have had no reason to pose it.
Now to answer your question. It was only because they were standing in the Shuk, where there were unlikely to be any Rabbanim and Roshei Yeshivos around, that he wanted to know whether there was anybody there who would merit such a reward.
And Eliyahu in turn, replied that one can earn that reward even by merely preventing others from sinning (like the prison warden), or by cheering others up (like the Badchan).
be'Virchas Kol Tuv,
Eliezer Chrysler