Even though I am critical of most yeshivas nowadays, there were two great yeshivas that I was at in NY, Shar Yashuv and the Mir. At Shar Yashuv I was there sometime and the Rosh Yeshiva [Rav Freifeld] probably saw that I was frustrated in not making much progress. He made a promise to me that after a year and a half I would be able to learn. It occurred to me today that (if I do not have the time-line mixed up) that his promise came true. I think the first year we were doing Chulin. The next year, I think, was Ketubot. If this time line is correct, then it was when doing Ketubot that I started asking questions from his son-in-law, Rav Naphtali Yeager, and that is when I discovered what it means "to learn."
I think I must have described this elsewhere,- but mainly the idea was that I would come up to him with a question, and instead of answering it, he would have me recite the whole Tosphot. Within that context he would not accept the adding or subtracting words from Tosphot to make it make sense. And there would be no whitewashing problems in Tosphot. Nor would he accept making up principles. These thing that most yeshivas do were considered completely "traif"--pseudo intellectualism, and simply dishonest. Then he would how Tosphot by some turn of phrase was attempting to answer some deep question. It is hard to explain but in the two books I have links to in this blog I have tried to show what it means to learn Torah.
But the yeshivas in Israel and in other places in the USA were pretty bad. The Lakewood Kollel in LA did their best to break up my marriage after returning to the US from Israel. The other religious people there were if anything even worse. I discovered that when Reb Nachman called religious teachers "Jewish demons" he was not exaggerating. [LM Volume I: 8, 12, 28.] [That however, might be considered as "lashon hara"[disparagement ] and an insult to demons.]
These were the same people making a whole song and dance around me as if we were all one big happy family when they were trying to get a donation from my parents.
[No offence intended towards the great gaon, Reb Aaron Kotler.] I would rather not go into this in detail, but I did mention a few times that the signature of the Gra on the second excommunication ought to be considered valid, and if I had accepted it in that way, I would not have gone through this problem.
In any case, I have said it before, and I will say it again. In LA the only kosher places I know about are Temple Israel in Hollywood [Reform] and Mount Sinai Synagogue [conservative]. I think the religious mainly use rituals to cover up un-kosher insides [like the sages of the Talmud said about the pig. It shows itself to be kosher by stretching out its split hooves, but covers the fact that it does not chew the cud.]
The most basic assumption of the religious is that only their version is Kosher. I think it can be shown from the Oral and Written Law that only their version is treif (not kosher). little of what they do or say has any connection to the holy Torah at all except in appearances. It is all one big act to get money from secular Jews.
I think I must have described this elsewhere,- but mainly the idea was that I would come up to him with a question, and instead of answering it, he would have me recite the whole Tosphot. Within that context he would not accept the adding or subtracting words from Tosphot to make it make sense. And there would be no whitewashing problems in Tosphot. Nor would he accept making up principles. These thing that most yeshivas do were considered completely "traif"--pseudo intellectualism, and simply dishonest. Then he would how Tosphot by some turn of phrase was attempting to answer some deep question. It is hard to explain but in the two books I have links to in this blog I have tried to show what it means to learn Torah.
But the yeshivas in Israel and in other places in the USA were pretty bad. The Lakewood Kollel in LA did their best to break up my marriage after returning to the US from Israel. The other religious people there were if anything even worse. I discovered that when Reb Nachman called religious teachers "Jewish demons" he was not exaggerating. [LM Volume I: 8, 12, 28.] [That however, might be considered as "lashon hara"[disparagement ] and an insult to demons.]
These were the same people making a whole song and dance around me as if we were all one big happy family when they were trying to get a donation from my parents.
[No offence intended towards the great gaon, Reb Aaron Kotler.] I would rather not go into this in detail, but I did mention a few times that the signature of the Gra on the second excommunication ought to be considered valid, and if I had accepted it in that way, I would not have gone through this problem.
In any case, I have said it before, and I will say it again. In LA the only kosher places I know about are Temple Israel in Hollywood [Reform] and Mount Sinai Synagogue [conservative]. I think the religious mainly use rituals to cover up un-kosher insides [like the sages of the Talmud said about the pig. It shows itself to be kosher by stretching out its split hooves, but covers the fact that it does not chew the cud.]
The most basic assumption of the religious is that only their version is Kosher. I think it can be shown from the Oral and Written Law that only their version is treif (not kosher). little of what they do or say has any connection to the holy Torah at all except in appearances. It is all one big act to get money from secular Jews.
