Here is a link to some ideas called חידושי הש''ס

some ideas called חידושי הש''ס

I have to mention that this little booklet was not edited as much as  booklet on Bava Metzia.Which I think is obvious but still I think I should mention it because I hope that God will grant to me to go over it and do whatever corrections it probably needs 

But one thing hit home for me--the idea of finding the good in the bad days. He says that it is possible to find God everywhere. But what covers up the presence of God? Kelipot and evil. So how can one find God. By the Torah and by tzadikim.
But he mentions that that the Torah itself can be covered in kelipot.
He mentions a lot of themes in that chapter only briefly.

But this idea that the Torah itself can be covered in kelipot seems to me to make a lot of sense. Just because people are learning Torah one should not take that as proof that they are learning Torah. They might be learning the kelipot that the Torah has fallen into. Also there is the Torah of the Dark Side that I think might be confused with the real Torah.

The reason I say this is I have noticed a good number of people that


 have I think problems with דתיים--religious Jews. I think you could say I have had my own share of difficulties with them but I try to keep that to myself but when I hear or see others that seem to have had similar problems it strikes a chord in me. I think at one point to me everything was simple. Torah is Torah. The Oral and the Written Law and everyone should keep Torah and that is that. Now I think things are as simple. And it does not seem to me to be a matter of tweaking the variables. I know some people would like to do that, and say well you need to emphasis this thing or that etc. They come up with pat answers to what I think does not have pat answers.

The Muslim Dilemma.

The Muslim Dilemma. When good people are born into an evil religion what can they do?

I see this problem manifested in other ways. Sometimes it is not a religion as a whole that is bad but some aspects of it. Or political beliefs. The Democrats and Communists are  not bad hearted, but simply in their collage years got infatuated with Rousseau and Marx and after that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.

http://www.owl232.net/irrationality.htm

 God's Divinity is in everything. That is it is possible to find God everywhere.
This is subtle and some people get confused and think that this is pantheism. It is not that everything is Divine. Rather it is that God's Divinity is in everything. It  like if I say, "This cup contains water." That is not the same as, "This cup is water."

So  to find the divinity in things is by subduing ones evil inclination.
And when one does that, the Divinity in things and in ones own life start to shine.
The reason for this is that usually the Divinity in things is hidden. There are good days and bad days. And the evil in bad days covers up the good. But by subduing ones evil inclination that good that is hidden in the bad days becomes revealed.

And what is the evil inclination? Delusions. The evil inclination used to be in physical desires. and then there was a time it was not physical but manifested itself in anti Torah thoughts. Nowadays the evil inclination has abandoned those fields and is wholly in delusions.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/update-kentucky-10-mom-fights-back-against-bullies-criticizing-her-off-grid-life/


In home schooling I suggest in each subject to have  a fast session--just read the words and go on. And then an "in depth" session.

This is the official and established routine of every Lithuanian yeshiva from the day they were founded by Reb Chaim from Voloshin (the disciple of the Gra). It is not just my personal opinion.
The morning at the Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn was devoted to in depth learning from 10 A.M. until the Rosh yeshiva's class which was an hour before the afternoon prayer. And then the afternoon was devoted to fast learning--Gemara, Rashi, Tosphot,--  not to spend too much time on any one thing, but just to read and go on.


Now every subject seems to have its own set of rules.When I was starting out in Talmud I read the paragraph of  Talmud and Rashi.--I just said the words without understanding a thing. Then I read the exact same paragraph in English with the Soncino translation. Again I understood nothing. And then I read again the same passage in the Talmud with Rashi and it all became clear.

This three step method when one is beginning seems to be helpful also in Mathematics. I would read the whole page forwards. And again I would understand nothing. Then I would read the page backwards. And again understand nothing. But then the third time I would read it again from the beginning and it would become clear.


So I think home schooling could be modeled on this method. And at least on Shabat I think people should stay home and learn Torah--if not the whole week. [There are two reasons to learn Torah at home on Shabbat. One is driving is forbidden on Shabat. The other is that often synagogues present more problems than they solve.]

Also I think home schooling is important in the USA where the schools have value until university.
I mean when I went to school in the USA things were different. The teachers were great and the system was great. But today home schooling is to be preferred.

[In the Ukraine and Russia I think thing are just the opposite. The schools up until collage seem to me to be  excellent. Then at the university levels things go haywire. Even when you try to fight corruption it seems to make things worse. They send in from the capital some inspector who does not know anything but looks at paper trails. And the most corrupt professor that openly takes bribes is the one professor who has taken the trouble to make sure his paper trail is clean. So the good professors get thrown out and the corrupt one becomes the director.


!

In the Holy Bible you sometimes have a punishment that is stated openly but it is hard to find the prohibition. One place this comes up is the case of the rebellious son.
The law of the rebellious son [age 13 until 13 and three months] is a little vague to me right now but mainly the idea is that he is not listening to his parents and he eats a specified amount of raw meat and wine. He is given a warning. "If you do that, you will get lashes." And he says, "I understand and even so I do it." He gets the lashes.
Then later  he does not listen, and before he eats the same amount of meat and wine he is given the same warning, but this time it is said, "If you do that, you will get the death penalty." And he says, "I understands and  even so I do this". Then he is taken out and stoned.
The question is here, "Where is the prohibition?" We have a general principle, "There is no punishment without a prohibition." The 'Rambam says that principle does not apply when the punishment is stated explicitly. [I don't remember the actual proper usage of this principle. I think it came up in Ketubot and Yevamot ]which I learned long time ago and completely forgot.. The Ramban' disagrees and says even here we need an open verse to forbid.
And this idea of the Ramban seem to be the basis for the Tosphot I am about to discuss here.







The Talmud brings a baraita that gives different things for which the verse that forbids them is ''Don't eat on the blood.'' לא תאכלו על הדם  R. Yochanan says it also forbids the rebellious son. Then some person [Rav Avin bar Kahana] says one does not get lashes for them because there are no lashes for anything in which the same verse forbids several different things.

Tosphot [Sanhedrin 63 the second to the bottom Tosphot.] asks: "But it can't get lashes anyway because it is a prohibition that could lead to the death penalty. And also in fact it does have lashes."

You can ask on the first question: The verse, "Don't eat on the blood"לא תאכלו על הדם does not exempt the rebellious son from lashes,  so it can't exempt anyone from lashes. So to find an exemption is only by what the לאו שבכללות a prohibition that includes many things.
But you could defend the question of Tosphot in this way:
 It does exempt from lashes because the rebellious son does not get lashes from that verse, but from the verse that is said in its own place. ויסרו אותו. The point of Tosphot is the reason not to get ashes from our verse is from two reasons and the Talmud only mentions one.



 But then we moved on to the second question of Tosphot where it looks like he is in fact saying that the lashes do come from that verse.
So Tosphot is asking on our Gemara from two sides. He is saying if you assume thus and thus, this Gemara makes no sense. And if you make this other set of assumptions, the Gemara still is hard to understand.

 I think the entire Tosphot is going like the Ramban'.
The 'Rambam would deny that either question is valid. Let us think. the first question says that yes we agree with the Gemara that forbidding lots of things would be a reason not to get lashes for that prohibition. but there is a further reason not to get lashes for it--because it leads to the death penalty.

The 'Rambam would say, "No it does not. Once you know there is a penalty, you don't bother looking for the prohibition. The reason for the death penalty might have been that verse "Don't eat on the blood," but we don't need it to be, and now we know it can't be."

The second question of Tosphot does not even begin if one holds by  the Rambam. To the Rambam the reason for the lashes of the rebellious son is not from that verse because it is a verse that includes other prohibitions.
In any case the Rambam would have to answer the problem of what does Rabbi Yochanan means then and he would say it is just a general hint but it is in fact that the reason for either the lashes or the death penalty.

I am not done thinking about the first question of Tosphot. I am not sure if what I wrote here is really satisfactory or not.

The off-grid, home-school mother of the 10 children who were seized has spoken out on Facebook in defense of her family’s self-sufficient life – and she’s receiving plenty of support.

A note on that article:

I gave up on the USA when they did this to me and placed my children in the homes of child abusers that sexually assaulted my children.

see http://www.offthegridnews.com/

Reb Obadiah Joseph was an important Torah figure but I never went to see him because I figured an Ashkenazic Jew would probably just get the cold shoulder. But he could learn. And the fact is many Sephardim think he was a Tzadik. And that might be true. One person had a daughter and after that for many years had no other children. So he went to Obadiah Joseph  and got a blessing for more children. Then he had another daughter. And he went to the synagogue of Rav Joseph and at the reading of the Torah he asked what to name her, and he was told "Avigail." Then he went back to his seat. As he got back the Shamash [Gabai] came over to him and told him, "The rav wants to talk with you." He went over to Rav Joseph, and Rav Joseph slapped him, and told him "Next time have a boy." The next year, almost to they day, he had a boy.

There was another fellow who had had an operation and for some reason his penis was damaged. There is a legal question about marrying in such a case. So he went to the posek of the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem and was told it is forbidden to him to get married. Then he went to a few other Ashkenazic poskim. they also told him it is forbidden to get married and he could never have children.  He went to Rav Joseph and Rav Joseph asked detailed questions about the anatomic problems. He said he could marry and that he would have children. Now he has already two children.

What I suggest for home schooling is a double branched approach.
This is based on the Mirrer yeshiva high school system. They learn Torah in the morning until the time for afternoon prayer. In the afternoon they do secular studies.

Also there is an important dove tailed approach to learning at the Mirrer yeshiva once you get out of high school into the beit midrash [the large study hall for ages 18-22. [The large study hall is actually also for married people kollel. Or come to think of it pretty much for all ages.
At any rate-the morning is for in depth learning and the afternoon is for fast learning.


So what I suggest for people is this. To go though the entire Written and Oral Law, every single last word. (That is the Old Testament, the two Talmuds, and the midrashei halacha and midrashei agada)
Say the words and go on. If you don't understand the first time you will the second or third time.
But also to have an hour session in depth learning

Then for secular learning I suggest the basic program of the Rambam-to learn Physics and Metaphysics. Here also to just plow through the material as fast as possible,-say the words and go on.
But also to have in depth sessions. [Physics has gone further than the Aristotelian Physics the Rambam was referring to-but it still is the same subject matter. See the Guide for the Perplexed for more detail.] (Physics should be first to do relativity, then quantum mechanics and then string theory. And the second session in Math should be Algebra,  Geometry, and then Algebraic Topology.)

Abraham Lincoln was self taught. And this goes back to an old American tradition of self reliance and do it yourself type of thinking.

To make this clear: each session should be about one broad topic. Lets say for example the Talmud. That comes under the broad category of Oral Law. So you go through the Babylonia Talmud, then instead of going back to the beginning, you go to the Jerusalem Talmud, and the the Sifra, Sifrei Tosephta, Mechilta Torat Kohanim--and only then do you go back to the beginning of the Talmud.
Also there should be one in depth session with a learning partner, or a rosh yeshiva. If you are in Kentucky where neither in available you could buy a book of depth thinking like the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach or the Chidushie HaRambam by Chaim Solovitchik.

That is you take a broad category. The same could be for the written Law. read through the entire Torah and prophets in Hebrew from the beginning to the end. [If you keep up with the Torah portion of the week that counts.]

Another broad category is survival skills which also should be done daily.

Ann Rand

It is hard to defend capitalism because of several things. John Locke is the beginning of the empirical school of thought [that all knowledge comes through the senses] which is in close connection with his political ideas. Since there is knowledge that does not depend on the senses a serious foundation of his system is lacking.

The intuitionists Michael Hummer and Caplan are great thinkers but there is a certain quietism about their system.

I think Capitalism and Libertarian ideas [the Tea Party] can be defended by only by the  Kant who sees the individual as the  key. Autonomy. Authority must come from within. That is Kant's Dinge An Sich.

Ann Rand was amazing writer and defender of freedom and democracy, but one needs to defend this system from a philosophical rigorous point of view. It is not enough to defend it vigorously. The reason for this is people are not stupid. They see thinkers of great caliber defending Marxism. The whole structure of leftist Marxism has an array of powerful thinkers.  Freud, Rousseau. They pack a punch. These are very sophisticated thinkers all used in defense of Modern Marxism. The sad thing is they are defending the most murderous corrupt system ever devised by man.

It is not as if you could not support capitalism, freedom and democracy by a similar array of even more powerful thinkers and even more sophisticated--Maimonides, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant,

I know one person that was interested in converting to the insane religious world . He was talking in glowing terms about the frum world (the insane religious world ) to his father and his father said, "They probably have a few skeletons in their closet."  He did anyway convert. But it is interesting to notice the analogy. Sometimes something looks squeakily clean because they have put all the skeletons away where you can't see them.

Personally, I must admit that when I was planning on going to yeshiva, my father probably said something along the same lines to me.
I also did not listen.
In any case, the places I did go to were probably a lot better than most. But still there is something about my own experience in the frum would which I think indicate that there is something funny about it.
My own approach to this is to say "Well, they are just not keeping the Torah." And I did notice a lot of the teachings of the Shatz have become an integral part of the insane religious world  by way of pseudo Kabalah. In any case, I do think that the insane religious world  is mainly not very kosher. That is as a general rule. But Lithuanian yeshivas and communities founded upon them tend to be very good. So if you want to keep Torah--and that is a good idea--it is important to find a decent Litvak Yeshiva.
But the danger is there are lots of bad influence outside the doors of the yeshiva.

Some of the ways I don't agree with the insane religious world  are in Halacha. Other areas are about the State of Israel. Another area is concerning ethics,- [things that Musar was supposed to correct.]

Israel Salanter

I am pretty sure that Musar is important. One piece of evidence  is that my brothers and myself are on  different paths of Torah. My older brother tends towards the Reform side of Judaism. And yet when I mentioned to him about the book Duties of the Heart (the Chovot Levavaot) (חובות לבבות)  and Fear of God as a principle he was quite positive that that is the right path.
That is even though on the official level there are differences between different branches of Judaism, but for simple Jews there is little doubt of what the basic path is. Fear of God and living like a mensch. [not depending on charity, living according decent moral standards.]
My younger brother is goes to a conservative Shul but I am pretty sure that in essence he agrees with this approach also, though he might not have heard of any particular Musar book.


[I mean on the outside of the spectrum you can find insane Jews that are against the State of Israel.  The extremists don't define Torah. Only Torah defines Torah.



Musar itself  has been hijacked by extremists.
What I think is to stick with the core set of the classical Musar books [חובות לבבות אורחות צדיקים מסילת ישרים] and the writings of the direct disciples of Israel Salanter: Isaac Blasser, Joseph Horvitz, Simcha Zisel, Naphtali Amshterdam.
Isaac Blasser wrote the neoclassical Musar book אור ירשאל

Unless a person has gone through Shas [Talmud] I am not in favor of anyone learning kabalah. But if one has done the proper kind of preparation I think it is a good idea. [The Ari himself says if one learns it without the proper preparation, it kills him.--at least spiritually]
My own hope is to get through all the writings of Isaac Luria.  And if you are starting kabalah that is what I would recommend for most people. Also I hope to get through Yaakov Abuchatzeira's books and the Ramchal's [Moshe  Chaim Lutzatto] and the Shalom Sharabi (note 1).
And if you are interested in Kabalah then only learn it with some descendant of Yaakov Abuchatzeira.

The is to say legitimate kabalah I think needs to be distinguished from kabalah of the Sitra Achra [The Dark Side]
And we know there is Torah from the Sitra Achra and this applies to all four aspects of Torah. It is for this reason I emphasize sticking with the basic Litvak approach based on the Gaon from Villna. My intention is to avoid the Sitra Achra and to help others do so also. [Or at least to warn people.]


(note 1) Shalom Sharabi is the author of the book printed at the end of the Eitz Chaim. He was a Yemenite Kabalist that made his way to Jerusalem.  He wrote a lot more stuff besides that. There is a yeshiva that concentrates on his approach in Jerusalem called Nahar Shalom [and that is in fact the name of his book.] Mordechai Sharabi I think was a descendant of his. There are two prayer books along the lines of kabalah both called Sidur haReshash, a big one and a small one. I used the big one for some years. [I don't know much about that yeshiva. Maybe it is OK. But still my recommendation is to stick with the Bava Sali (Abuchatzeira) approach.]

Sanhedrin 63 the second to the bottom Tosphot. The Talmud brings a baraita that gives different things for which the verse that forbids them is ''don't eat on the blood.''לא תאכלו על הדם R. Yochanan says it also forbids the rebellious son. Then some person [amora] says one does not get lashes for them because there are no lashes for anything in which the same verse forbids different things.

Tosphot asks: "But it can't get lashes anyway because it is a prohibition that could lead to the death penalty. And also in fact it does have lashes."

You can ask on the first question the verse, "Don't eat on the blood"לא תאכלו על הדם does not exempt the rebellious son from lashes  so it can't exempt anyone from lashes. So to find an exemption is only by what the לאו שבכללות a prohibition that includes many things.
But you could defend the question of Tosphot in this way
 it does exempt from lashes because the rebellious son does not get lashes from that verse, but from the verse that is said in its own place. ויסרו אותו. [But for this answer to work you have to assume like the Rambam that when there is stated a punishment you don't need to find a prohibition, you just assume it is there.]



So I gave up. But then we moved on to the second question of Tosphot where it looks like he is in fact saying like I was saying--that the lashes do come from that verse.
So Tosphot is asking on our Gemara from two sides. He is saying if you assume thus and thus, this Gemara makes no sense. And if you make this other set of assumptions, the Gemara still is hard to understand.

In any case, why I bring this to the attention of the public is this. This Tosphot in fact depends on an argument between the 'Rambam and the Ramban' [Maimonides and Nachmanides].

To the 'Rambam if there is a punishment you don't need a verse. This is the first assumption of Tosphot. To the Ramban' even if a punishment is stated explicitly you still need to find a verse that forbids the act. And that is the second assumption of Tosphot.
So to sum up what is going on here is Tosphot is saying something that makes a lot of sense. He is saying no matter how you look at this Gemara it comes out difficult "shver." But he just packed this whole long argument (which if I had the energy I would go into more detail) into two short sentences.

a later retraction
I think I have to retract. I think the entire Tosphot is going like the Ramban'.The 'Rambam would deny that either question is valid. Let us think. the first question says that yes we agree with the Gemara that forbidding lots of things would be a reason not to get lashes for that prohibition. but there is a further reason not to get lashes for it--because it leads to the death penalty. The Rambam would say no it does not. Once you know there is a penalty you don't bother looking for the prohibition.the reason for the death penalty might have been that verse "don't eat on the blood"but we don't need it to be and now we know it cant be. the second question of Tosphot does not even begin to the Rambam. To the Rambam the reason for the lashes of the rebellious son is not from that verse because it is a verse that includes other prohibitions.
In any case the Rambam would have to answer the problem of what does Rabbi Yochanan means then and he would say it is just a general hint but it is in fact that the reason for either the lashes or the death penalty.

Pamela Geller

"Muslims say if you offend us we will kill you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCdJgqDhbS4

She said "There is a problem in Islam." I say "The problem is Islam."

Not only that but people that are willing to compromise with Islam are part of the problem.


I don't talk about Islam much on this blog because once I was in coming back home through Central Park [NY in Manhattan] one night about 1 AM  and I met a black man who had some very interesting things to say. In fact some very frightening things.
We were talking a little about religion and he had been at a lot of churches and even a lot of synagogues. And perhaps I might relate what he said if I can remember. But he also told me about his experience in NJ in a mosque. This was so long ago that I forgot most of the details but mainly there there another member of this mosque that had decided that Islam was not for him, and soon after the other members of the Mosque came to his house in the middle of the night and murdered the whole family, and as far as the NY police were concerned it was an unsolved crime for unknown motives with no leads.

While I am on teh subject I think his complain about churches was that he did not find God in them. And his complaint about synagogues I don't remember. But one thing that sticks out in my mind--about the blue string--the Techelet that people do not put on their garments. I tried to tell him about the yeshivas of  the Gra in Israel and Breslov. But I admit he is right that when teh Torah says openly to put on a blue string and we don't listen--that is a problem. In any case I don't think the kind breslov uses is right. There is the Tifrach kind I think is the proper one. And it is the kind that Zilverman in the old city uses.

I suggest something very different. It is talking with God. You can see this custom to some degree in psalms. King David was in fact doing this. But also he was able to write down his prayers. And it is probable that most people that have some feeling towards God do this once in a while.

But what I am suggesting here is to make a goal of this. To in fact take the long way to work and back so that you can spend more time talking with God or at least trying to talk with him.

[This idea was to some degree written about Lawrence, a lay monk. 

Jewish Ethics. Without Musar, people make up their own pseudo Torah

What I have wanted to do is to start something along the lines of Israel Salanter. A kind of Musar [Jewish Ethics] Movement that would stick to the original plan. Musar got to be sidetracked. For people in training in different fields it became about those fields. In some ways it became about being extra frum religious. But in it original conception it was about a kind of service towards God based on the classical books of Jewish Ethics. Of course, it was discovered that this in fact meshed well with yeshiva life. and it was difficult to do this program outside of a yeshiva context.

But I still think it is worthwhile renewing this program of learning the 30 or so books of classical Musar.
[Musar does have an aspect of keeping externals and internals. It is in find  a kind of complete program for serving God based on the Oral and Written Law. But it is  amazing how side tracked it got to be.
The basic Torah path has  mitzvahs, but it also gives a weight to each mitzvah. That is how much every mitzvah ought to be emphasized. When people pervert the Torah, the first step is to change the weight of the mitzvot. It is like you have a row of bottles. Each bottle represents a mitzvah, and the water in the bottles represents the weight or importance of each one. To find out the proper weight of each mitzvah is is necessary to learn Musar. Otherwise, one tends to emphasize minor things at the expense of major things. Without Musar, people make up their own pseudo Torah and present it as the real thing.

Peter Lloyd at the Daily Mail has an excellent article on men no longer marrying: “Why men won’t get married anymore: Women complain chaps today won’t settle down. Sorry, ladies, but it’s all your fault, argues a wickedly provocative new book.” He mentions Men on Strike and quotes me (though he states I am a lecturer at the University of Tennessee but I am not):

For an army of women, Mr Right is simply not there, no matter how hard they look for him. And the reason? When it comes to marriage, men are on strike.Why? Because the rewards are far less than they used to be, while the cost and dangers it presents are far greater.

‘Ultimately, men know there’s a good chance they’ll lose their friends, their respect, their space, their sex life, their money and — if it all goes wrong — their family,’ says Dr Helen Smith, a lecturer at the University of Tennessee and author of Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood And The American Dream.

‘They don’t want to enter into a legal contract with someone who could effectively take half their savings, pension and property when the honeymoon period is over.

‘Men aren’t wimping out by staying unmarried or being commitment phobes. They’re being smart.’

Read more: http://pjmedia.com/drhelen/2015/04/20/men-arent-wimping-out-by-staying-unmarried-or-being-commitment-phobes-theyre-being-smart/#ixzz3ZN8EbXek



My advice is to only marry the daughter of a true Torah scholar. This is known in the Talmud as a "Bat Talmid Chacham." It is the only way to come as close as you can to a guarantee your marriage will stay together and you will have good children. It does not help if you learn Torah. And it certainly does not help if she learns Torah. You need that her father learns Torah.

But not hasidim. There is specifically an excommunication of the Gra against marrying into the cult of hasidim. And from I have seen there is a good reason for  this. Maybe people were not aware of it for a long time but from what can tell the Gra was right on the money.