This is one of the amazing essays that Dr. Kelley Ross has on his web site, and I think that I ought to highly recommend it even though I never got a chance to get through this theory as thoroughly as I would have liked. This approach of Dr. Ross has never taken hold is because it has a terrible pedigree. First, it starts with Jacob Fries who was an anti semitic. But he had one important insight that corrected a lot in Kant’s Philosophy. That is you need to start from somewhere. Logical forms alone cannot provide a starting basis for a a-prior knowledge. Then, it gets up to Leonard Nelson who improved this approach a lot Finally this gets up to Kelley Ross who has the insight that you have to add the insight of Karl Poper that any theory to be true, needs to be able to be refuted by evidence. That means, that even though knowledge start with immediate non-intuitive knowledge, it can be refuted by further investigation. Just like Newton’ Gravity and Maxwell’ Electrodynamics conflicted, until Einstein decided that Maxwell was right and Newton was an approximation.

There is something odd going on with the international date line. I saw that the Radvaz deals with this question. He first was asked if it is one period in time everywhere, - and he says no. Because the first shabat was in the Sinai desert. Therefore, it is to each individual according to his place. And then he brings the question of where the day starts, and he brings the same sources as the Chazon Ish, the Kuzari and the seder Olam who say it starts in the far east ( after the end of the continent, not in the middle). so everything is clear. It does not start in the exact opposite of Jerusalem, but rather somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean . To me this means everything is clear. But the Chazon Ish held a different day that what is set by the international date line. He starts the day exactly opposite Jerusalem and he says he based this on the Kuzari and seder Olam. To me it seems that if the middle of longitude is in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), then the date line is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and that the day starts at the very far end of the far east (Just like the Goyim say). But take a look at a map. If you assume Jerusalem is in the middle, and the day starts on the exact opposite side, then the date line is in the middle of Asia and then yom kipur comes out a different day. Then, Rav Isar Zalman Metlzar said, “The Chazon Ish was wrong.” The complaint that the Chazon Ish said about this was that Rav Izar Meltzar did not write this in his book on the Rambam. But if you look at the introduction to his book, the Even HaAzael, you will see that Rav Meltzar said openly that he did not include in his book the ideas that he said the yeshiva. The book is focused only on the Rambam. The fact that an important decision was left out means nothing

My sex is XY.

My sex is XY. I have no gender. Gender is what nouns have. some are masculine and some are feminine and some are neutral. But I am not a noun. I do not know why some people think they have a gender unless they think that they are a noun? In Hebrew all nouns are masculine or feminine. But English is different. You can tell by the word itelf, not by its ending. An example: "Man" is a maculine word. Woman is a feminine word. But there are many examples. [Father, son, uncle, boy, waiter, rooster... and wife, daughter, sister, hen... ]

When your own free will can (and probably will lead you astray), that is the time when you need strong principles that you will not break

We dream on, as destiny take us in directions we could never have imagined. But destiny take us onward, but it does so only half way. At some point, free will kicks in, and then (as can you might expect), things go terribly wrong. However, during the period in one’s life that destiny is in control, even if you sin and do dumb things, generally destiny ignores it. After all, “There is a purpose to everything under the sun” (Ecclesiastes) even you. But when destiny stops, and has done what it set out to do, that is when you need to watch out. That is when your own free will can (and probably will lead you astray). That is the time when you need strong principles that you will not break. I have thought long and hard about these principles and I would like to share some of them. First of all is to speak the truth at all cost. Lying has to be as hard as pulling teeth. Not to speak lashon hara (i.e., not to speak negatively about anyone). There is however an argument about lashon hara between Rabbainu Yona and the Rambam. To the approach of Rabbainu Yona there are times and circumstance outside of the court of law that allows one to speak negativity about someone for the need of some benefit. To the Rambam, no such circumstances exist. If you have to critique someone, it has to be in a court of law or not at all. (Otherwise it is straight forward lashon hara.) I tend to see the point of Rabbainu Yona when it comes to warning someone. I have thought long and hard about these principles and I would like to share some of them. First of all is to speak the truth at all cost. Lying has to be as hard as pulling teeth. Not to speak lashon hara (i.e., not to speak negatively about anyone). There is however an argument about lashon hara between Rabbainu Yona and the Rambam. To the approach of Rabbainu Yona there are times and circumstance outside of the court of law that allows one to speak negativity about someone for the need of some benefit. To the Rambam, no such circumstances exist. If you have to critique someone, it has to be in a court of law or not at all. (Otherwise it is straight forward lashon hara.) I tend to see the point of Rabbainu Yona when it comes to warning someone. There are other principles that I think are important but not to the degree of thee first two. Some are to stick with the basic path of the Gra as much as possible in terms of learning Torah, both by bekiut (fast) and beiyun (in depth) [however, I think that using Torah to make money is not exactly along the line of the Gra. people nowadays assume it is ok to use Torah to make a living but to me it seems that this is improbable]

Beverly Hills High School was different than Soviet Education. At Beverly Hills High School, you had to take all kinds of requirements that had no relation to your future goals. In the Soviet Union, things were almost the complete reverse. You had to choose a direction when you just started out, [and it showed]. I recall walking by a music school over there, and was astounded at the quality of some violinist that I heard as I was walking by the open windows. Someone over there told me that Jasha Heifetz [by all accounts, the greatest violinist in the world during his time] came from that area [and maybe that same school],-- and I totally believe it. I forget the tracks for students in the USSR that they had. There was music and math and physics, and I imagine a biology track. But for me, having to divide my attention between chemistry, language, world history, English lit.,etc.. wore me out. I certainly did not like it at all. To my mind, it was taking away time and effort from things I wanted to pursue. At the beginning, I wanted the physics route, but physics (I discovered) needs a lot of time and effort unless you are among the blessed few that have 150 I.Q. and higher. [I am by the way - way, way, way…. below. English literature etc. and etc. was not my cup of tea. Over the yearS, I have begun to appreciate the balanced approach of my high school,] but I think I might have made it in physics if I had the time. Being forced to learn some foreign language and a mediocre existentialist novel in English literature and not even getting home until 6:15 every day drained all my energy. [I could have walked home but have gotten there anyway tired until 7 PM.] (However, I think it I also had a tremendous love for the orchestra and music. {Mr. Smart was a tremendous conductor, and also my teacher in violin, Mr. Chassman was a great violinist. He taught in the Valley, at that univerity there. I forget the name.} I think I must had inherited this from father who obviously had a tremendous love and respect for the great classical composers. Clearly, he would have become a professional violinist if not for his other love-- invention. He got a bachelor’s degree at Michigan university [somewhat close to home where his parents lived in N.J., not walking distance but at least closer than California where he eventually went to.] then he got a master’s degree in mechanical engineering at Caltech. at that point, I have no idea what he might have done, but WWII began and he joined the Airforce and never returned to university. still the USA government was hungry for his kind of talent. he created the first infrared telescope and camera and a second camera for the U-2 and then laser communication between satellite [] now that tuff has become the basis for fiber optics an and the Elon Musk satellite e array and that use that technology of laser communication. [the idea I really similar to telephone. You modulate the signal in order to end a message. But the time my dad developed this it had one goal alone. To keep the soviets from being able to monitor our communications. {radio signals spread out and can be intercepted. Not lasers.}}]. But, I still believe that all that was simply for the sake of making a living and supporting his wife and children. I believe his real love was the great classical composers. maybe Mozart. but it is hard to tell. but my best guess is Mozart. [As for me, I think the emphasis of my mom of marrying a “nice Jewish girl” and to be a mensch got me interested in gemara. (“Nice Jewish girl” were synonyms to the mind of my mom. However, I believe these are two separate requirements) I still have a tremendous love and thrill for Gemara, Tosphot and Maharsha]-- Eventually I went to the Polytechnic Institute of NYU for Physics.

The religious world has found a way to make Torah into a tremendous source of profit. I doubt if Moses would be happy about that

The approach of the Gra is important from many angles. But much of it the Litvak world has missed a few of the most important points. The main thing is learning Torah for its own sake not for money. Nowadays Torah is big business. Why not serve in Zahal, The Army of Defense of Israel? The reason is that that would dig into the status of the religious fanatics. It has nothing to do with what the Torah requires.("You will sit here, while your brothers go up to war?" That is from the book of Numbers.) It is a major characteristic of the religious world to make big deal about minor details while ignoring direct un-mistakeable commandments of the Torah .[the law about charity is brought at the end of the first chapter of bava kama in the rosh. it is derived from the general law about presents to the poor in the torah, the forgotten sheaves, etc. The rule is one who has 200 zuz is not allowed to receive charity. So then for people that are getting paid to learn torah, is it charity or is it payment for services rendered? If charity if one has the amount of a ketubah then it is forbidden to receive charity. if it is payment for, that also is forbidden because of the prohibition of using torah as a shovel to dig with]

You cannot eat an egg, or drink a glass of water without Faith.Religious fanaticism and secular fanaticism just do not work. But to find the middle ground is just as hard.

Georg Hamann quoted Hume that one cannot eat an egg, or drink a glass of water without faith. [You have to believe it is of benefit before actually trying it. Maybe it was tampered with?] {He tried to wean Kant away from the Enlightenment. ) This failed to convince Kant, but it does show that all experience starts with faith. Kant was not convinced. Hegel tried to reconcile faith and reasoning in the Phenomenology {and later in all subsequent writings which are a reformulation of Plotinus ‘approach to Plato with Aristotle integrated in the system.}. Hegel in the meantime struggling even for a loaf of bread eventually rose up to super stardom, until that was cancelled by Schelling. In the meantime, the importance of faith and reason has never been diminished and still remains a vital point in any balanced and sane human being.However, Leonard Nelson and Kelley Ross developed an idea of non-intuitive immediate knowledge. All reason has to start with unproven faith, axioms that cannot be proven (but can be refuted if enough evidence shows them to be flawed. Religious fanaticism and secular fanaticism just do not work. But to find the middle ground is just as hard. Just to take a middle approach without reason is just as ridiculous as the extremes. You need a valid criterion for the middle