The idea of the Divine light shining on me and my family while we were in Israel in Safed, I admit implies a certain degree of responsibility on my part. I thought I could escape from the presence of God, and that would absolve me of my responsibilities. Kind of like Jonah. But it did not exactly work that way. In any case, apparently from what I can see, that not only was it wrong to run from God's presence, but even though I did so, that did not absolve me of my responsibilities.
The trouble is I have a hard time trying to figure out how keep my obligations. In theory it ought to be simple. Call people to keep the Law of Moses, the Oral and Written Law. It could not be more simple. But in practice it is hard because the world that makes a show of keeping the Torah are just about as far from the holy Torah as a human being could possibly be-- with all the cults and idolatry that they cover up by means of Torah rituals. For one who really wants to keep the Torah in an authentic way, the worst possible idea is to have anything to do with the religious Jewish world. The only exception I can think of is the Lithuanian yeshivas which are great,- except for the problem that the boundary between them and the religious is fluid.
Therefore, what I can do is to recommend the basic Litvak yeshiva approach with a caveat (condition). That is,- this recommendation comes with conditions. While the basic approach is true to Torah to some degree, it still has problems since the border between it and the insane religious world is porous, and also the kollels are simply using Torah as a way of making an income.
The trouble is I have a hard time trying to figure out how keep my obligations. In theory it ought to be simple. Call people to keep the Law of Moses, the Oral and Written Law. It could not be more simple. But in practice it is hard because the world that makes a show of keeping the Torah are just about as far from the holy Torah as a human being could possibly be-- with all the cults and idolatry that they cover up by means of Torah rituals. For one who really wants to keep the Torah in an authentic way, the worst possible idea is to have anything to do with the religious Jewish world. The only exception I can think of is the Lithuanian yeshivas which are great,- except for the problem that the boundary between them and the religious is fluid.
Therefore, what I can do is to recommend the basic Litvak yeshiva approach with a caveat (condition). That is,- this recommendation comes with conditions. While the basic approach is true to Torah to some degree, it still has problems since the border between it and the insane religious world is porous, and also the kollels are simply using Torah as a way of making an income.
