Gemara, Rashi, Tosphot, Physics and Mathematics is the truth and the light. The path the Rambam specifically held is the path of Torah.

The Torah [Five Books of Moses] is the inspired Word of God. The Torah declares itself to be God-breathed, inerrant, and authoritative. We also know that God does not change His mind or contradict Himself. So the Torah  most definitely does not allow for traditions that contradict its message. This is not as much of an argument against tradition as it is an argument against un-Torah, extra-Torah and/or anti-Torah doctrines. The only way to know for sure what God expects of us is to stay true to what we know He has revealed—the Law of God תורת משה. We can know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that The Law of God is true, authoritative, and reliable. The same cannot be said of tradition.

For example in Leviticus 18 it says these are the commandments that God commanded by which one may do them and live. So we know the Law of God gives life and the good. So there is no room to nullify the law of God. It is for all who want life and the good to come and learn and keep.
So if there are traditions that are anti Torah or contradict the Torah we must not listen to them. 

Traditions are valid only when they are based on the Law of God and are in full agreement with the Five Books of Moses. Traditions that contradict the the Five Books of Moses are not of God and are not a valid aspect of the  faith. Torah alone is the only way to avoid subjectivity and keep personal opinion from taking priority over the teachings of the Five Books of Moses.

Torah alone does not nullify the concept of  traditions. Rather, Torah alone gives us a solid foundation on which to base  traditions. There are many practices, that are the result of traditions, not the explicit teaching of Law of God. It is good, and even necessary to have traditions. Traditions play an important role in clarifying and organizing practice. At the same time, in order for these traditions to be valid, they must not be in disagreement with God’s Word. They must be based on the solid foundation of the teaching of Torah. The problem  is that many base traditions on traditions which are based on traditions which are based on traditions, often with the initial tradition not being in full harmony with the Torah. That is why we must always go back to Torah alone, the authoritative Word of God, as the only solid basis for faith and practice.

This is the reason the Gemara is always measuring itself against the verses of the Torah to make sure it does not contradict the Torah. 
Thus: learning the Oral and Written Law
Gemara, Rashi, Tosphot, Physics and Mathematics  is the truth and the light. That is the Oral and Written Law with מעשה בראשית מעשה מרכבה.
The path the Rambam specifically held is the path of Torah.



If the Gemara is always right is not the issue. Rather the issue is if it is not better to try to understand what work on Shabat is, rather than throw out the whole concept? Which approach would you say is more in accord with the Law of Moses,-to try to understand what work on Shabat is even at the risk of making mistakes or saying that one no longer has to listen to the word of God because someone already listened to the word of God once? Does the Torah say do not work on Shabat until someone comes along and does no work on Shabat. After that, you can then work on Shabat.  Similarly the Torah leaves no room for many other practices.
The only path that I know of that is in accord with this idea is the Litvish [Lithuanian] Yeshiva based on the approach of the Gra and the Rambam. 

This may sound like a critique on Christians but it is not. Rather I mean to exclude all groups that clock themselves in  mantle and clothing pretending to keep Torah while doing idolatry.

The Litvak yeshiva is where I found happiness.

Litvish Yeshiva. The Litvak yeshiva is where I found happiness. But I have not been a good advocate of this  system. We can understand what has prevented me from being able to advocate this kind of system.
That is if we look at the gentiles we can perhaps see a kind of parallel. In the gentile world there was a fellow by the name  Ludder. One day he was out walking and a lightening storm occurred. He made a vow to be a monk. He was a schizoid personality type. He could not stop washing. As he put it: " The more I washed, the more dirty I felt". Until one day he broke out of his mental prison, and announced to the word that with faith all things are clean. That was Martin Luther. He changed his name.

The Ding An Sich, the thing in itself, the self is hidden from us. Sometimes inside the self is some amazing new idea or world revolution that is just waiting to come out. But it can't come out because it is trapped inside the personality flaws of the individual.
That is me. I have recognized and known this amazing system for years, but because of my own mental prison I have never been able to advocate it. It is as if Luther had remained Ludder and never broken free.
What prevents me from saying this are the problems I had after the original years when things were going well. And even when things were going well, they were not as well as one could hope for. So there are mental obstacles and people obstacles preventing me from saying openly the Litvak Yeshiva is the best approach,  So instead I surf the internet until I find things that I like, or bother me, but do not spend the time and effort explain what is right and proper and great about the Litvak Yeshiva. [Nor do I spend the time on the Talmud that I ought.]  I live in a world of delusion. Thus, I can't be an advocate of something great and good. [The light and greatness and importance of the Litvak yeshiva are buried inside of me. Unless they break out of their prison, there is nothing I can do.]

In my first yeshiva I had a great deal of problems. First of all my parents were against it. They thought it was an institution that prepared people to use the Torah to make money. And even if that had not been the case, they still thought that Torah with Derech Eretz (Torah with a vocation) is important. But Something clicked inside of me when I got to yeshiva. Some amazing energy just gripped me. I found something so amazing in the Oral and Written Law that it would have taken a thermonuclear device to separate me from the Gemara. And there was no learning Musar there. It was Sola Gemara (Not Sola Scriptura, scripture alone but Gemara alone.) . {The two Talmuds, Sifra, Sifri, Tosephta, Torah Kohanim, Midrash Raba, Midrash Tanchuma}

But I fell into a mental prison. And since then the Gemara is....[unfinished.]


What my approach is today is in fact like my parents held:Torah with a vocation. And  I also go with the Rambam concerning Physics being a part of the Oral Law. So I do not think learning Physics or Aristotle is bitul Torah but rather a part of the Oral tradition. See the Rambam in Hilchot Talmud Torah in the halacah that one should divide his day into three parts. One part for the Oral Law and he says there the subjects called Pardes as he explained in the first four chapters are part of the Oral Law

Thus the Gra was right. And the excommunication should still be considered valid based on theory alone. The kind of wicked behavior that we see ought to convince us that the Gra knew what he was talking about. Does it not say a lot that no one wants to live anywhere near them?

Religious veneration can be idolatry. This is one of the reason I think that the Gra was right to sign the excommunication.

If, that is, the thing venerated is the thing the religion was founded to venerate {God}, and not something substituted, that is proper. This infinite God is a bit scary. If he knows what we need already, why pray to him? And he’s worse than Santa Claus – he knows whether we’ve been bad or good in excruciating detail. And if he says "No," then what? Talk about "The buck stops here." No, what we need is something a bit closer to us, a bit more limited in powers, a bit less in a position to point fingers. Something that leaves open the possibility of a bargain, or an end run around the rules. Like a saint; someone who made the grade, but is still human. And if one doesn’t perform, we can try others; we never have to face the fact that something might be off-limits.
Or maybe it’s a relic, a place, a holy object or a ritual. In theory, the purpose of the relic, holy place, object or ritual is to focus attention on God, and give the religion tangibility. In practice, it very often happens that the tangible expression itself becomes the object of veneration.
Thus the Gra was right. And the excommunication should still be considered valid based on theory alone. The kind of wicked behavior that we see ought to convince us that the Gra knew what he was talking about.  Does it not say a lot that no one wants to live anywhere near them?

  

I spend a good deal of time on tracatates Shabat and Eruvin.--The reason was force of circumstances. I had spend the previous two years in Shar Yashuv learning Ketubot and Yevamot. So when in my new yeshiva--the Mir in NY-started learning Ketubot, I felt it was time to start something new. So I did Shabat with a lot of the Tosphot, the Tur Beit Yoseph, Maharsha and Pnei Yehoshua. [I joined the small group that was doing Shabat in those days with my learning partner Hagi Presher who later became a rosh yeshiva in Russia and with Rav Nelkenbaum who is one of the roshei Yeshiva in NY in the Mir.] I did not however finish everything because in those days I was tried to get through the material as fast as I could, but also to understand it. Recently I put some nice ideas about Shabat (link) in my little booklet on Shas that deals with the most fundamental aspects of Shabat מלאכה שאינה צריכה לגופה. At the time I was thinking about these things, I was learning with my learning partner, David Bronson, who had  a copy of the Avi Ezri. The fact that he had the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach was very helpful. The main thing about Shabat is the Tosphot in Yoma page 34 or its sister Tosphot in Shabat and Sanhedrin. [Take a look at Rav Shach. The ideas there are astounding in depth and clarity.]

In terms of getting through Shas, I would prefer it if you would do a half a page per day with Tosphot and the Maharasha. Or if you do a whole page, then to still do it with Tosphot and the Maharsha. I think that it is important to get an idea of what is going on in Tosphot in one's early years,- because doing so later is often impossible. This is the reason why the places like Shar Yashuv and the Mir get involved in Tosphot even in the high school years. I did not understand at the time why learning Tosphot was important when I had not even finished Shas once, but now I see the wisdom in the approach of the Litvak [Lithuanian] yeshivas.

The book of Job

The book of Job  is a very important book.The Rambam goes into it in the Guide. My main feeling about the book is this. That the author has a privileged position. That is,- he is in a position to tell you accurately what happened. So though other positions [the friends of Job] have various degrees of validity, still the position of the author is different and should be considered the right position. So when he starts off that "Job had no sin," we should take that literally. And when Job gets punished from Heaven, we should not take that as a punishment for sin. Rather that Hashem (God) wanted to win a  bet with the Satan. Job surely was not at fault for this. And though the opinions of the three friends and then the last friend do reflect some aspects of reality, still they are not in the privileged position of the author. Furthermore, we know this is true because God himself tells the friends that they were wrong and should ask Job for forgiveness. Therefore what we learn is that numinous reality is beyond reason. It is the most basic and fundamental conclusion of Kant and Schopenhauer.  

This is important from a philosophical point of view, because  when you have God himself in the book of Job arguing the same point as Schopenhauer that gives it more weight.  

r97 C Minor  [r97 in midi format]

 [r101 in midi]

r98 F Minor r96 D major 6-8 time  [r98 in midi]

r93 f minor  in midi  r91 F Minor r91 in midi r90 e flat major  [r90 in midi]

Some things are not scale-able. The context of the Litvak yeshiva really works mainly in a small group. There is a kind of mystery in the fact that the Far Rockaway yeshiva of Reb Freifeld for me had a lot  more of the spirit of Torah than the larger more famous yeshiva I went to later.


[What I mean here is that once Gpddard and Von Braun figured out how to make a rocket ship, it was scale-able. The Democracy of Athens was not scale-able. Homemade bread is not scale-able. Certain things depend on size.]

Oral Law - Talmud

Sentences express abstract features, but these are always in a context of other abstract features (what Searle calls the "Network") . Thus the meaning of any verse in the Torah is radically under-determined. You need the Oral Law to get an idea of the overall context of Torah.

A comment on black and white relationships in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I grew up in an all white part of GR [Grand Rapids]. Tremendous. The blacks were on the other side of town. My dad talked me into getting a job on that side of town(at a bowling alley).I also got my first apartment in a mixed part of town. Both were "educational" experiences,to say the least.
At the bowling alley, many blacks would bowl and skip out on paying.I ran out,at first,to yell at them and got jumped those first times. After that,I told the boss, you can run out. He never did either.
At my apartment,I ran into a black guy I knew from the bowling alley. He asked me if he could borrow my car to go to the store. Being a young guy, I let him do it. 3 days later, they found it--150 miles away, transmission effed up. I Couldn't press charges because I volunteered the car to him.
I learned quickly though. Blacks came and went at the apartment. Noisy was an understatement. Drug use and criminal activity by them--you couldn't OVER-EXAGGERATE. I helped the landlords and police catch some of them.One was a possible death by a black thug group that lived together.
I lived on the middle floor.Once,the Orkin pest control people came in to spray in the black apartment below. As I watched TV,the Orkin's must have started spraying, hundreds--if not thousands of roaches ran up the wall behind my TV,into the apartment above. Filthy? 90% of blacks I've been around, live in garbage.
That was then. Now they've come to my original side of town. I've told the stories of having to evict blacks and Mexicans on either side of my current house.They haven't improved one bit in 30 years. If anything, they're worse--because now, the minorities have an attitude. They think they know more than you, but in reality, have the IQ of a banana.
Just thought I'd write a few lines on my experiences also.
-GR Anonymous


link

r97 Midi file C minor 4-4 time I have no  mp3 converter, so here i the plain file.

Here is the same file in Mp3 r97

[r97 in nwc]

Walls do work

I  saw an article in Haaretz [a leftist newspaper] that said walls do not work. That was before the wall keeping out terrorists was built.  After it was built even only about a fourth, the difference in terrorist incidences was very noticeable. The amount of bombs going off in  areas and in malls was reduced greatly. I learned then that people can write clever editorials that sound good but do not correspond to reality. 

r101 Midi File A major 6-8 time i can not put it into mp3 so here it is unedited

 I think I made a small discovery in mathematics. You have heard of vectors right? They are on in a x y z 3-d space. Well there is a similar thing called octonians. The normal vector in 3d space you describe by basis vectors ijk. But in 8-d space you have i,j,k,l, il, jl, kl,

If you take a simple octonian squared you get -7. That is (i+j+k+l+il +jl+kl)^2= -7

And if you take a simple basis vector (i+j+k)^2= -3 

I have mentioned before the connection this has with Kant with his triad, and Hegel with his triads, and the Reshash {Shalom Sharabi}.

Women that frivorce their man have to be shunned.

Women that frivorce their man have to be shunned. And the religious teachers that encourage them to do so also ought to be shunned. {Religious teachers make  a song and dance about how pro family values they are but they are in fact on the forefront of the movement to destroy fatherhood and families and have been doing so for a very long time.}

Here is a comment from one person that did this: 

"I also do this in my own family. My wife’s brother, his wife frivorced him for cash and prizes and to f-ck another man, and I have told everyone and anyone in my married family that until she REPENTS for her sin (which she’ll never do, Pride and Satan have a strong hold on her) she is “dead to me.” I wont go over to her house and see her kids if she is there. I will not help her (or her blood family) in anyway. I ONLY want to be in the lives of her children (my nephew and one of my favorite nieces.) But I will only attend events that focus on her kids provided I don’t have to sit anywhere near that woman. Initially my red pill shunning of her was met with conflict with my father-in-law. He said I was “too good a man” to be treating my ex-sister-in-law this way, and that we had to look past it. Said it was that movie 50 Shades of Grey that made her think she could act this way. I had a little talk with him, one on one, man to man, and he understands how badly he crossed the line with me. He and I do not speak about her anymore. Slowly but surely, I have gained allies in my family against this woman. Everyone is starting to shun her. And maybe (someday) someone ELSE will think TWICE before they do what she did if they KNOW that they run the risk of losing a great and helpful family member the way I was with her prior to her running to a judge and nuking her marriage unilaterally.

Act locally as I do. It has to start small, incrementally. It all started small in destroying the family and fatherly headship. We have to start small in repairing it."

Marxism

erudite knight

I saw this in the humanities and social studies departments. I thought it was a conspiracy from the KGB. I have a friend who worked for the KGB and he thought the KGB did not have the resources to cause the kind of social upheaval we saw in the 1960’s. But to infiltrate the universities he might agree. Look at Bezmenov’s ytube. Something caused these departments of universities to turn hard left.
Though I did not take the classes, in those subjects, when I was at Polytechnic in NY, I saw the texts they were teaching in the English and humanities departments. Pure straightforward Marxism.  This was a place dedicated to STEM so that was a surprise to me.

Race is the beginning of the divide of one species into two

I see race as pretty important from a evolutionary point of view. That is straight Charles Darwin. Race is the beginning of the divide of one species into two. To try and stop this -to fight nature-is doomed to failure. Another reason race is important is it is in fact how people react to others. A third reason is that there are characteristics unique to different races.





I should expand on each point. The first is straightforward. One species in two places adapts and changes. The beginning of the change is often color as we see with birds. After some time the separation becomes permanent and you have two completely different species.
This happens often in other species. No reason to think humans are any different. Darwin noted this in finches.

The other element of this is Sephardim often react to Ashkenzim as "the other," which makes getting to Israel very difficult. An Ashkenzic Jew often finds in Israel that his neighbor is a Sephardi and then the Sephardi spends all his time and money and efforts to get rid of the Ashkenazi. This happens so much that you could say the main reason Ashkenazim do not make aliya is not the Arabs, but the Sephardim.

Authentic Torah as opposed to religious con men

Religious teachers are the last people to decide what Torah is. .


When talking about Judaism, they are in fact talking about Jewish culture, not about Torah the Oral and Written Law. To conflate or mix up the two is stupid.

Woe to the innocent fools that go to religious teachers for advice..

To religious teachers  religion is about ritualistic behavior and Jewish culture. This appeals to people that are slightly schizo-typal personalities. To others it is all about culture.

To me Torah is about Torah--the oral and written law. Period.

Too many religious teachers are con men that are talented at getting people to believe there is some good deed involved in giving them money. It is because largely they are born into this scam. Their fathers made money by means of using the Torah, so they have to continue in this fraud.

This is very different from those people who in fact learn and teach Torah for its own sake as you find in Lithuanian kinds of yeshivas. But how to tell the difference I am not sure. Or how to give an accurate sign? I experienced the real thing, authentic Torah-in my first two yeshivas Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY. So I should have been able to tell the difference between the real thing and the frauds and scam artists. But I was not. I am overly naive. Here is a good link to an essay on cults
[These are important ideas that were around in the 1960's but that did not stop problems. Warnings that people did not heed.]

Communism.

There is a lot to discuss in terms of Communism. My basic point of view comes from learning Torah. One of the most fundamental aspects of Torah learning in yeshiva is the "three Bava's" which are about civil law. The main idea that you get there is people have a right to their own property.That idea is already in the Ten Commandments but it gets emphasized in the three bava's. Still to defend capitalism is possible from a purely secular point of view. See Michael Huemer's critique of Marxism. As far as it goes in practical terms there is a lot to discuss. I have seen a lot of good that the Soviets did for their own people and a good deal of the problems that came with the system. And the same for the USA. So to argue from empirical evidence or experience or philosophy is possible but to me it is simpler to go by the Ten Commandments "Thou shalt not steal." That is people have  a right to their own property.