Oral and Written Law, plus Physics [Modern] and Metaphysics [of Aristotle].

 Torah is not about mystical experience. However as a result of true attachment with God one can have as a side thing the experience of oneness with God. Devekut.

But it is not experience -it is a kind of  knowledge and sense of meaning.  It is what I felt in learning Torah, and it certainly is what learning Torah is all about. Yet, it is a kind of thing which has a close connection with morality. And it is on one hand highly powerful. It is the meaning of life. It is certainly not mystical experience. 

This area of value is on one hand the most powerful thing in the world and in any person's life, and yet the most delicate and sensitive and can be destroyed simply by the slightest whisper.
The approach of the Rambam --to learn the Oral and Written Law, plus Physics [Modern] and Metaphysics [of Aristotle]. There I seek the luminosity and numinous value that is hidden in the ten statements of Creation in which the light of Torah is hidden. 


[That is the Rambam himself saw that what people consider Torah alone is not enough to come to what the Torah requires of man.]



Faith plus reason had early beginnings even before the middle ages-with Saadia Gaon.



Faith in the wise is one of the 48 ways the Torah is acquired in  Pirkei Avot. The question is that of interpretation. What does the Torah mean? And who has the right to interpret it? The Talmud to a large degree has settled this question. "Divine Spirit" is not the way to interpret the Torah. Only rigorous painstaking reason as we see in the Talmud and Tosphot.

The influence of Protestantism  however is very apparent nowadays that people think they have the right to interpret the Torah on their own. This has very terrible implications. (1) Divine spirit is claimed as a guide which in practice means to ignore what the Torah actually says. (2) People claim authority though in fact ignorant  of Torah.

A Deadly MRSA Spread to Everyone by Homosexuals

A Deadly MRSA Spread to Everyone by Homosexuals

"A flesh-eating form of pneumonia that is easily passed between healthy people on public transport is spreading across the UK, experts have warned.

The deadly strain of MRSA called USA300 passes easily through skin-to-skin contact. It can also survive on surfaces and so has the potential to be picked up on crowded buses and tubes."

"It was first seen in the U.S but cases are now being reported in the community and not just hospitals in Britain." (Daily Mail, 2 February 2012)

"Preliminary results from a small Spanish study in December 2010 indicates that 75% of gay men are carrying the Human Papilomo Virus (HPV). This is a significant marker for HIV and it causes cervical cancer in women and penile cancer in men. Similarly, a 2007 American study showed that homosexuals are spreading a new highly-infectious and extremely dangerous bacterium called MRSA USA300 which can only be treated with rare drugs. The bacterium manufactures toxins that can cause necrosis - the death of surrounding tissue." (LifeSiteNews, 2 December 2010)

The study's authors note that the strong link between unhealthy behavior, particularly among homosexuals, is the driving force behind the disease. "Spread of the USA300 clone among men who have sex with men is associated with high-risk behaviors, including use of methamphetamine and other illicit drugs, sex with multiple partners, participation in a group sex party, use of the internet for sexual contacts, skin-abrading sex, and history of sexually transmitted infections," the authors write. (LifeSiteNews, 15 January 2008) also (Annals of Internal Medicine, 19 February 2008)

"The same patterns of increased sexual risk behaviors among men who have sex with men - which have resulted from changes in beliefs regarding HIV disease severity with the availability of potent antiretroviral therapy - have been driving resurgent epidemics of early syphilis, rectal gonorrhea, and new HIV infections in San Francisco, Boston, and elsewhere," add the researchers.

The study, which focused on clinics in the San Francisco area, found that in some cases up to 39% of patients had the MRSA USA300 infections in their genitals or buttocks, although the disease can be spread by general skin-to-skin contact and can even be picked up from surfaces.

This indicates that what was once confined to American homosexuals has now reached out to ordinary folk in the community.

What is apparent is that the medical professionals are not disclosing the true source of this terrible disease.

Comments from K B Napier, Founder, Bible Theology Ministries:

"What later became known as AIDS was ONLY found in homosexuals, when it was discovered in the 1980s. It spread ONLY by homosexual sexual activity, but quickly affected those they infected, such as prostitutes, wives, babies, girlfriends, and people who needed blood transfusions. At the time the government REFUSED to identify homosexuals as the ONLY source of AIDS, for fear of a 'backlash' (though they deserved a backlash). The homosexual connection was completely hushed up and medics were given bad advice. The result is that HIV and AIDS are now firmly embedded in all societies and kills millions.

This new MRSA is different, because it can spread without sexual contact, just by touching skin or things touched by infected people. When AIDS first became known, brave experts advised that homosexuals with the disease should be isolated. But, pro-gay propaganda got rid of common sense, and the results are seen around us today with huge social and financial costs.

With this new and wickedly-caused disease, certain things should be done:

As the first person to examine the spread of AIDS from a Christian perspective, I suggested strongly that we should never shake hands with homosexuals, because HIV passes by way of bodily fluids. Of course, this was scorned at the time. As I wrote in the Educational Times, teachers who come across a child with HIV, who bleeds in a schoolyard accident, should treat the child with extreme caution. It was not the child's fault to carry HIV, but HIV has deadly consequences and so teachers should wear gloves, etc.

Now, this 'no-touch' policy is vital. If you know someone is homosexual, do not allow body contact, such as hand-shakes. Also beware of food handled by homosexuals, homosexuals who sell in shops and handle your goods; perhaps we will soon have to resort to wearing gloves that can be easily washed – but remember that there is no cure for this new MRSA and it can lead to death very quickly. Watch out for homosexuals in tube trains, trains, and so on, and do not touch what they touch. There may be a need for many more strategies, but that will suffice for now. None can say this is 'hate speech', when the cause and spread is already known!

Of course, homosexuals and government will cry out in horror. Frankly, I don't care about their sensibilities. They (less than 1%) have brought one great scourge - AIDS - on the people of the world. Now, they have brought us something even worse. It is not time to be pro-gay and to be 'sensitive'. They have produced this new foul disease by indulging in immoral sexual acts. San Francisco homosexuals began this evil by having AIDS sex parties in which infected and non-infected gays had sex with each other in orgies... those who were not yet infected saw it as 'exciting', and those who already had AIDS called passing HIV on to others 'gifting'!!

We have nothing to thank homosexuals for – but plenty to blame them for. If the new MRSA grips society, we must at last stand up and fight for our most basic of health demands. And if this means isolating them, then so be it. It took Pharaoh's eldest son to die as the angel of death passed over, killing the first born of everything and everyone, before he let the Hebrews go. Perhaps this new disease will at last cause governments to see how stupid they have been in giving homosexuals so much legal freedom, as potentially many thousands become seriously ill or die because of homosexual immorality.

The avoidance of disease is common-sense, therefore the suggested ways to avoid the new MRSA is just medical good practice. The same advice would apply to ANY persons with a communicable disease.”

s74 B flat Major 6-8 time Andante

Musar {Torah Ethics} and Halacha.

My approach to Musar is to emphasize the classical books of Torah ethics from the Middle Ages. That is what would be called the rational approach. The more mystic approach which got into Musar  I tend to think was an unfortunate detour. No offence to the Ari {Isaac Luria} but that approach tends to fanaticism and delusion.   When I was more involved with Musar I tried to go through all the basic set of the books written by the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter and this I still think is important.

[When Bava Sali came to Yerushalim on on of his first visits and people came to him to get a blessing he told his gabai [servant] not to let any kabalist in.]

My approach to  Halacha is to learn Gemara and to depend on דינא דתלמוד the law of the Talmud. Only after learning the subject in the Gemara itself does it make sense to me to look up how the Tur Beit Yoseph understands any given subject. There are no short cuts. And see the Nefesh haChaim "אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא". "The only thing that matters is the law of the Gemara." He wrote this to a rav that he knew had made a wrong decision.

The thing to be careful of is religious people that use the appearance of Torah to hide their cults.


In any case to come to fear of God which is one of the major goals of Musar is not solely by learning Musar but Physics and Metaphysics also as the Rambam stated clearly in the Mishna Torah and the Guide and hints to in many place. Musar is important but to the Rambam it is not the real source of fear of God.

S72 D major mp3  s72 midi     s72 nwc

[frivorce] frivolous divorce

I went through this [frivorce] (see this link) in around 1990. This left me with not just a personal problem but also an intellectual problem. That is how to synthesis the information in order to create a more accurate worldview and then to act properly based on this new world view. I never got very far with this, But i found an approximate solution based on the opinion of Maimonides and Rabbainu Yona from Granada. That is to concentrate of personal improvement and not look at what is wrong with others but rather to find what is wrong with me and to seek to improve myself. That is to learn the Law of Moses, Physics and Metaphysics. That is I attributed my problems to some kind of lack of understanding and some kind of attitude problem and some kind of lack of good character within myself. I figured if I could change myself for the better then the whole world would change for the better. But I needed an accurate idea of what is good character. So I needed to synthesize   information that I was getting from reading the Law of Moses (Written and Oral) and reading about the world and also experience. 

Appendix:

(1)(The main thing is not to affix blame on anyone but rather to work on self improvement and to stay away from  evil people that will harm you and your family if given half a chance. This is part of the Mizvah of not saying Lashon Hara which comes in the same place in the Torah along with the mizvah do not stand by the blood of your neighbor. That is there is an obligation to warn people about dangerous people-which means mainly religious teachers whom I find to be highly dangerous for marriage and families.]


(4) [When the Rambam Maimonides refers to Physics and Metaphysics he says he is talking about these subjects as understood by the ancient Greeks.]  My opinion about it is it would  include Kant and  Hegel.

 My impression always was there is a big difference between authentic Torah at Lithuanian yeshivas,- and the false Torah of the Sitra Achra of the religious world. [Reb Nachman did warn about religious teachers an considered them as a rule to be quite evil. His term for them was "Torah scholars that are demons  תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודים" This sounds harsh but in fact seem like an accurate description of the vast majority of them.].  The main difference is that the ultra religious world makes up tons of rituals which have nothing to do with Torah and they claim it is Torah. The Lithuanian world tends to focus on what the Torah actually requires.

s73 A minor   s73 in midi

The Closing of the American Mind

It was Allen Bloom [The Closing of the American Mind] that thought there was a direct contradiction between two opposite flows of thought enlightenment and anti enlightenment that were coming int direct collision in the USA universities in the 1990's. His solution  was to learn the Republic of Plato along with what was called the great books.

Why would he have not mentioned learning Torah? Certainly the Gra would have. Is it possible that he had noticed that Torah alone does not produce the kind of answers he was looking for?

It seems the Gra and the Rambam both must have seen the same.
The program of the Rambam would be to learn the יד החזקה the Mishne Torah, Physics and Metaphysics. The Gra said that to the degree that one is lacking any knowledge of the seven wisdoms to that degree he will be lacking in knowledge of Torah.


So they are both thinking of  a polynomic theory of value. Torah provides an "in" into Numinous value. But they wanted a balance of values. 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an amazing book but I think a little unfair to the Middle Ages.Work then was being done on lots of fronts like Faith and Reason and lots of areas. Progress was being made that made things later possible. One example that comes to mind is water technology. That was a total Medieval invention. And when electricity was discovered it was easy to transfer from water to electricity.

It is common to find people that do not respect the Middle Ages. One of my first lessons in yeshiva as to correct me from that attitude. "Rishonim" are not just considered more logically rigorous than achronim. They are in fact more logically rigorous.

The Ari [Isaac Luria] brings this idea that a person can be basically good or even 99% good but have some evil core.

There is evil in quantity and evil in quality. The Ari [Isaac Luria] brings this idea that a person can be basically good or even 99% good but have some evil core. This gives a way to judge people on the scales of merit. For in fact most people that we see are evil simply choose a little less good that their environment would have dictated. Thus even if you see yourself as much better than them, this is only because your upbringing was better. not because you choose better.

Being out in nature and being able to survive

In California when I was growing up there there was a kind of ideal between nature and city life.  Being out in nature and being able to survive and thrive were considered just as much a part of growing up  as academic studies. Being out in Nature was considered as a great ideal all in itself. This was universal and also it went parallel to my own father's basic approach of emphasizing being self sufficient.


The way most American parents expressed this value was by in fact going out to nature every weekend which as the unspoken but universal rule in the USA. Jewish people did this on Sunday and Shabat was to learn Torah and Christians did this on Saturday and went to church on Sunday. The other very common thing was the Boy Scouts. Nowadays you would have to find an alternative this this.
[I have to admit I found keeping this balance very hard. I never got very far in the Boy Scots and even in academic studies I found myself very challenged.] Some Jews were just naturals at this type of thing. Like my Dad who was pretty much good at anything he tried to do. And also my father in law [Bill Finn] who was in Poland at the beginning of WWII and escaped from the Nazis to the eastern front and was taken by the Red Army and since he had German citizenship he was sent to Siberia. There he was so good at fixing anything he was made head of the work camp there. Later he got to NY and worked for Donald Trump's father.

The path of Torah

The path of Torah is to have  session of Gemara [Talmud] one hour per day and one half hour of Musar.
[The hour session can be review of one page for a few months or even one Tosphot, or it can be to make lots of progress by doing a few pages per day.] I should confess that I have had great difficulty in trying to do this. I would love to have an hour session in Gemara and a half hour of Musar. I am at this point very much longing to do this, but so far I have not been able to. But I see the desire in itself as being a great thing. The desire to do the right thing and the knowledge of what it is is already a big step in the right direction. 

s64 F major s64 in midi   same piece in nwc format

Kabalah tends to lead to a kind of world view in which the experience and high LSD high gives validity to what ever the ideas are.

The trouble with Kabalah. The constant craving for spiritual experience,as is attested to by all the great mystics,is addictive, like a drug. If the experiences are indeed spurious,they will never ultimately satisfy the soul that hungers after them, and will be required in stronger and stronger doses. 

But Kabalah became embedded in Musar from the  start. It is an inevitable step from traditional Musar into Kabalah and from their into worlds of  delusions of grandeur.

Not that this was the case with authentic mystics like the Ari or Bava Sali.

You can see why Reb Chaim  and Brisk did not have Musar as part of the daily session. Kabalah tends to lead to a kind of world view in which the experience and high LSD high gives validity to what ever the ideas are.   

There is a problem with the slippery slope.People can not change the Torah openly because no one would accept that. Instead they claim mystic visions and explain the Torah in the way they want. That way they think they can nullify the Torah and be accepted.


Once the pursuit of spiritual power replaces the striving after straight Torah, then the flood gates have been opened up and it is only a matter of time before there will be an overwhelming confusion of spirits,and error and division will be the order of the day. The world of the religious today is sadlly overwhelming from the Dark Side Sitra Achra. That is not do there there is no spirit at work there. However it is not the spirit of God but rather the occult.

divorce

The fact that divorce was accepted in the Protestant  world  made it acceptable in the Jewish world also. Divorce would be the classic example of where shaming someone worked very well. People would whisper "she is divorced" under their breath as if some horrible unspeakable monster had been let loose.  Poland is a mainly Catholic country  the fact that divorce was considered as a horrible demon had the effect on Jews that Jews also simply did not get divorced except under extreme circumstances.

when they throw out the Law of Moses

I noticed people have some kind of moral code automatically. I have long thought that when they throw out the Law of Moses they do not become free but rather adopt some other set of values with the same kind of emotional fervor that you see in religious fanatics. Just the fanaticism is directed in different directions.  

They adopt some other thing to be fanatic about.

The basic idea of Howard Bloom in his book the Lucifer principle,-- that is the centrality of the social organism and the fact that the social organism is formed and based on some social meme [unit of social information.]

 So to people throw out the Law of God and find some other meme to coagulate around.

s71   [S71 in midi format]

Musar Movement [Learning Ethics]

 In the Musar Movement of Reb Israel Salanter there was a subtle shift of emphasis from the axis of Musar during the Middle Ages to a new axis. In the Middle Ages the axis was a balance between Reason and Revelation. [That is Faith and Reason.]
The Musar Movement itself emphasized fear of God and good character traits. 
[Even though each one of the great Musar Yeshivas built by the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter all had a different focus, still the ground level  was these two principles--Fear of God and work on good character. 

No one really knows any more how they worked on character. You can try to dig up hint in the books that they wrote but it is not at all clear. Nowadays the most you have is a few minutes of learning Musar before Mincha and Maariv.   

I can not say I am very happy with this. The average session of Musar in the great Musar yeshivas was 40  minutes and 45 minutes.

But I am myself no "Baal Musar" If I could I would rather focus on the points brought out and emphasized by three individuals. The Gra, Reb Israel Salanter, and Rav Shach. That is these three points:(1) Learning Torah (2) Learning Musar (3) combining the Rambam with the Gemara.  [If possible it makes sense to make a commitment to learning Gemara an hour every day and Musar and the Tur, Beit Joseph in such a way as to get through the basic material from cover to cover, every last word.What one does not understand in this world he will understand in the next world.] The Talmud itself ought to be done with Tosphot and the Mahrasha. That is to have one session in which you keep at the same Tosphot for days and weeks until it starts to become clear.