6.1.17
Traditional Torah
Traditional Torah is what the world of religious Jews are supposedly offering. What makes clear this claim is a lie is the worship they offer to their leaders. The fact that they emphasize rituals does not make them traditional. Idolatry is not traditional Torah. The fact that they deny they are in fact worshiping their leaders does not make it any less true.
They use sophisticated means to reinvent Torah to mean that their leader ought to be worshiped. Sometimes this is worship offered to corpses [Kivrei Tzadikim] Graves of the righteous they call it. Sometimes it appears in other forms. But, in short, there is almost nothing in the religious world that corresponds to traditional Torah.
I myself am prone to being mixed up in this regard. I hear and listen to compelling speeches or read religious propaganda and get convinced easily.
There seems to be little that can provide immunization from such influences. This is because it is common for the religious to cloak their deceptions in traditional garb. All the better to catch naive people like me.
The truth is the religious world is demon possessed. I do not know how this happened. But for this reason it is best to avoid the whole scam. Or one could at least be sure to learn authentic Torah only. That is the Old Testament {Tenach}, The Two Talmuds, straight Musar of the Rishonim. And don't give the Sitra Achra a place in your heart to hold onto.
[I don't have any test for authenticity but I think the signature of the Gra on the excommunication should at least provide a starting point. If we know to exclude Torah from Sitra Achra, that can at least help to steer us in the right direction. But paying attention to the Gra would anyway exclude the entire religious world as I mentioned above.]
I did not want to make a list but authentic Torah mainly means the books of the Talmudic sages which are more than just the two Talmuds. The Rishonim also are legit. Achronim tend to be problematic. The best among the Achronim is Rav Rav Shach and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik with their commentaries on the Rambam and the Musar school of thought of Reb Israel Salanter.
[Just to be clear, I do not think Reb Nachman was in the category of the excommunication. So his books are OK and even good to learn. Also I should mention the Ari is very great, and it is a wonderful thing to learn his books. When I was in Safed I did not however learn his books, but I had learned the in NY before I got to Israel and I feel I had great benefit from them. The trouble is with books of mysticism after the Ari. The only good ones are those of the Ramchal, the Gra, Reb Yaakov Abuchatzeira, the Reshash (Shalom Sharabi). The rest are pure Sitra Achra and ought to be avoided at all cost.]
Still I am careful about mystics when the make mistake because, "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" ("false in one thing, false in everything.") A witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter.
[Reb Nathan the disciple of Reb Nachman created a new religion based on faith on Reb Nachman which mainly borrows from Christian themes but puts Reb Nachman into the center. This was certainly not the intention of Reb Nachman himself who was a sincere Jew and only intended to bring people to Torah.] Still the trouble is divergence from true Torah is like two lines
that are almost parallel but not quite. At first they are close. but then as time goes on and yo trace the path of the line, it diverges more and more fro the original line.
One can glimpse here the logical development of the
concept of merit and holiness qua faith in the tzadik in place of the
virtue of faith in God and Torah, which is inextricably linked to the higher virtue of menchlichkeit good character and human decency, we have in
its place a mere emotional "trust" in the transfer of the tzadik's merits to ourselves
. This will eventually become, in extremist
circles, a presumptuous "claim"to merit and holiness, and empowerment of Ruach HaKodesh[divine spirit].
For people far from authentic Torah yeshivas, my recommendation is to get at least one of the following books: The Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. The Chidushei HaRambam by Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, The chiushim of either of the disciples of Reb Chaim Reb Baruch Ber or Shimon Shkop.
Then to have one session fast just reading through them. And another session "Beiyun" review of one chapter for as long as it takes to "get it."
Books that come under the category of what the Gra put into חרם cherem excommunication I suggest throwing out because they are טמא unclean and make unclean anyone that touches them.
They destroy the lives of the people in whose home they are.
There is a good reason the Gra signed his name on the Cherem and I am surprised that people ignore it.
What they do to good honest people is horrific and they hide under a false cloak of pretended sanctity. There is nothing they touch that they do not ruin. If the Gra signed a cherem against them there are countless of victims that never got a hearing or a chance to have the crime committed against them heard and addressed. I am shocked that no one stands for justice. When terrible evils are committed against simple honest folk no one seems to care. They say it is none of their concern until it reaches their own doorstep. And then when they ask for help, everyone else says it is none of their concern. The Gra saw all this more than two hundred years ago and still people hide their heads in the sand.
The only person I heard that understood what the Gra was saying was Rav Sha ch and he also is ignored. [However I have seen a few blogs that deal with this [and they are doing great work]. I tried many times to call people's attention to the crimes with complete apathy as a response. So I gave up. I figure when people start caring about justice, that is when they will find help in their own lives. But as long as they ignore crimes committed against other, then I might as well be knocking on a brick wall. There is another reason I can not write about this. It is the power of the Sitra Acra itself. The Satan. And I am afraid of the powers of the Dark Side. So I avoid the subject as to my up-most ability. I try to write only about positive and happy themes. This is not because I care about people. It is rather because I care about myself and so I only want to think about happy things. I also have begun to wish to find kindness and charity in my heart for all.I saw the disciple of the Gra Reb Chaim from Voloshin said when one has enemies and judges them on the scales of merit-that is he starts to think of them as righteous then their hearts turn to good.
I would have been happy to pursue justice just like the Gra and Rav Shach, but with no friends and no allies there is nothing I can do.
They use sophisticated means to reinvent Torah to mean that their leader ought to be worshiped. Sometimes this is worship offered to corpses [Kivrei Tzadikim] Graves of the righteous they call it. Sometimes it appears in other forms. But, in short, there is almost nothing in the religious world that corresponds to traditional Torah.
I myself am prone to being mixed up in this regard. I hear and listen to compelling speeches or read religious propaganda and get convinced easily.
There seems to be little that can provide immunization from such influences. This is because it is common for the religious to cloak their deceptions in traditional garb. All the better to catch naive people like me.
The truth is the religious world is demon possessed. I do not know how this happened. But for this reason it is best to avoid the whole scam. Or one could at least be sure to learn authentic Torah only. That is the Old Testament {Tenach}, The Two Talmuds, straight Musar of the Rishonim. And don't give the Sitra Achra a place in your heart to hold onto.
[I don't have any test for authenticity but I think the signature of the Gra on the excommunication should at least provide a starting point. If we know to exclude Torah from Sitra Achra, that can at least help to steer us in the right direction. But paying attention to the Gra would anyway exclude the entire religious world as I mentioned above.]
I did not want to make a list but authentic Torah mainly means the books of the Talmudic sages which are more than just the two Talmuds. The Rishonim also are legit. Achronim tend to be problematic. The best among the Achronim is Rav Rav Shach and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik with their commentaries on the Rambam and the Musar school of thought of Reb Israel Salanter.
[Just to be clear, I do not think Reb Nachman was in the category of the excommunication. So his books are OK and even good to learn. Also I should mention the Ari is very great, and it is a wonderful thing to learn his books. When I was in Safed I did not however learn his books, but I had learned the in NY before I got to Israel and I feel I had great benefit from them. The trouble is with books of mysticism after the Ari. The only good ones are those of the Ramchal, the Gra, Reb Yaakov Abuchatzeira, the Reshash (Shalom Sharabi). The rest are pure Sitra Achra and ought to be avoided at all cost.]
Still I am careful about mystics when the make mistake because, "Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus" ("false in one thing, false in everything.") A witness who testifies falsely about one matter is not credible to testify about any matter.
[Reb Nathan the disciple of Reb Nachman created a new religion based on faith on Reb Nachman which mainly borrows from Christian themes but puts Reb Nachman into the center. This was certainly not the intention of Reb Nachman himself who was a sincere Jew and only intended to bring people to Torah.] Still the trouble is divergence from true Torah is like two lines
that are almost parallel but not quite. At first they are close. but then as time goes on and yo trace the path of the line, it diverges more and more fro the original line.
One can glimpse here the logical development of the
concept of merit and holiness qua faith in the tzadik in place of the
virtue of faith in God and Torah, which is inextricably linked to the higher virtue of menchlichkeit good character and human decency, we have in
its place a mere emotional "trust" in the transfer of the tzadik's merits to ourselves
. This will eventually become, in extremist
circles, a presumptuous "claim"to merit and holiness, and empowerment of Ruach HaKodesh[divine spirit].
For people far from authentic Torah yeshivas, my recommendation is to get at least one of the following books: The Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. The Chidushei HaRambam by Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, The chiushim of either of the disciples of Reb Chaim Reb Baruch Ber or Shimon Shkop.
Then to have one session fast just reading through them. And another session "Beiyun" review of one chapter for as long as it takes to "get it."
Books that come under the category of what the Gra put into חרם cherem excommunication I suggest throwing out because they are טמא unclean and make unclean anyone that touches them.
They destroy the lives of the people in whose home they are.
There is a good reason the Gra signed his name on the Cherem and I am surprised that people ignore it.
What they do to good honest people is horrific and they hide under a false cloak of pretended sanctity. There is nothing they touch that they do not ruin. If the Gra signed a cherem against them there are countless of victims that never got a hearing or a chance to have the crime committed against them heard and addressed. I am shocked that no one stands for justice. When terrible evils are committed against simple honest folk no one seems to care. They say it is none of their concern until it reaches their own doorstep. And then when they ask for help, everyone else says it is none of their concern. The Gra saw all this more than two hundred years ago and still people hide their heads in the sand.
The only person I heard that understood what the Gra was saying was Rav Sha ch and he also is ignored. [However I have seen a few blogs that deal with this [and they are doing great work]. I tried many times to call people's attention to the crimes with complete apathy as a response. So I gave up. I figure when people start caring about justice, that is when they will find help in their own lives. But as long as they ignore crimes committed against other, then I might as well be knocking on a brick wall. There is another reason I can not write about this. It is the power of the Sitra Acra itself. The Satan. And I am afraid of the powers of the Dark Side. So I avoid the subject as to my up-most ability. I try to write only about positive and happy themes. This is not because I care about people. It is rather because I care about myself and so I only want to think about happy things. I also have begun to wish to find kindness and charity in my heart for all.I saw the disciple of the Gra Reb Chaim from Voloshin said when one has enemies and judges them on the scales of merit-that is he starts to think of them as righteous then their hearts turn to good.
I would have been happy to pursue justice just like the Gra and Rav Shach, but with no friends and no allies there is nothing I can do.
5.1.17
straight Torah and Bava Sali
I might not be the one to suggest
that learning Torah is important, for I myself have not been much of a
learner." My steps were directed towards two great yeshivas in NY, Shar
Yashuv and the Mir and really did not recognize their greatness until long
after I had abandoned them. אין קטיגור נעשה סניגור. ("The prosecutor cannot become the defending lawyer.")
Still, I should at least mention that in both places there was (and probably still is) a kind of spirit of learning and keeping Torah that is overwhelming. Just by being there you get something of an intense desire to learn and keep the holy Torah. And this was something that I heard also from the daughter of Bava Sali and his grandson Shimon Buso. His daughter told me quite plainly that Bava Sali was about learning and keeping straight Torah as defined in the books of Musar and the Beit Yoseph. [That is to say the three books of Joseph Karo, the כסף משנה (Keseph Mishna) on the Rambam, the בית יוסף [Beit Joseph] on the Tur and the שלחן ערוך (Shulchan Aruch) with its own נושי כלים (commentaries) the מגן אברהם (Magen Abraham) and the ט''ז (Taz).]
Still it behooves me to say that if I had taken the warning of the Gra seriously to avoid certain groups, I would have saved myself and my family from worlds of troubles. There really is no good reason why the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication should still be ignored after the fact that time has shown him to be correct.
What I am saying here is that I have a bad habit of abandoning great things to go grazing in foreign fields that turn out to be full of poison oak instead of green grass. But this bad habit has also given me experience and perspective.
Lithuanian Judaism. Who cannot see that thinking is prior to believing? For no one believes anything unless he has first thought that it is to be believed.
Litvak Judaism is sometimes criticized for being head based.[That is Lithuanian Judaism based in the Gra and the prime value of learning Torah].
It is certainly true that Torah is not a mere"intellectualism", and that a dry, philosophical knowledge of the 13 articles of faith of the Rambam alone does not constitute faith. But, just as certain critics of such "intellectual dryness" speak contemptuously of so called "head faith", it is also possible to take this controversy to the other extreme- as is often done in some circles, and speak of an emotion
based faith. Faith is certainly more than intellectual knowledge, but intellectual assent forms an indisputable part of it. For who cannot see that thinking is prior to believing? For no one believes anything unless he has first thought that it is to be believed. It is necessary that everything which is believed should be believed after thought has preceded. Belief itself is nothing else than to think with assent. For it is not everyone who thinks that believes,- since many think in order that they may not believe. But everybody who believes, thinks.
3.1.17
The West is undergoing a shift in world view.
The Alt Right. The West has gone through paradigm changes in which one belief system is weakened and another replaces it.The Alt Right is mainly against democracy and rule of the masses and wants something like a return of an aristocracy. They are also not very thrilled with the way Christianity has been absorbed into Leftism. So some are not interested in Christianity at all, but others still want it but not in its current day Leftist Political state of being.
At first I looked on this as unlikely. But then further thought got me to notice that the Roman Empire had lost interest in the old gods and adopted Christianity at an amazingly swift rate. So changes in world view are possible for the West as a whole.
The introduction of the Enlightenment philosophers took much longer than Christianity to become the ipso facto world view of the West.
In any case I agree that all this is subject to change.
In short the West seems to be rejecting Leftism as a whole, not just Rousseau, but John Locke also, and Christianity also - at least in its present form with a more or less communist Catholic church and highly politicized Protestant church.
I can't tell where this will go. My own approach is "none of the above". It is the basic idea of Gra, Rav Shach, Reb Israel Salanter and the Rambam. How to put that in a nutshell? To learn Torah. That is the entire Oral and Written Law, every single last word of the Tenach Old Testament, and the Two Talmuds with Rashi, Tosphot, Maharsha. The entire Rambam with the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. Plus the idea of the Rambam of learning the entire Metaphysics of Aristotle plus basic Physics and Math (i.e. String Theory, Field Theory, Abstract Algebra and Algebraic Topology). [Even though the Rambam only referred to ancient Greek Metaphysics, I would include Kant.]
But this is not to suggest the religious world in itself is so great. There is a problem there with the absence of compassion. And that does not enter by any means that I have seen. Certainly not by Musar--which is the first place you would expect to find it. And with no compassion, there is also no Torah. The solution to this problem is by no means obvious since it certainly was the primary concern of Reb Israel Salanter [and the reason he launched the Musar Movement]. But to me it seems that if compassion was what he was aiming at, then the whole Musar movement was an abject failure. But I certainly have nothing better to offer.
[The way you can see the problem in the religious world is fairly obvious because of their aversion of doing kindness. This has given me the strong impression that Reform and Conservative Jews are much closer to the true path of Torah.][Even so this still leaves me wondering what is wrong and what could be done. If Reb Israel Salanter's idea does not seem to work, then what would?][Reb Nachman incidentally noticed this same problem as you can see in the LM II ch 8. There he says that compassion left Israel, and the little bit that is left has בחינת אכזריות the essence of cruelty. I can't quote the whole piece from memory.]
At first I looked on this as unlikely. But then further thought got me to notice that the Roman Empire had lost interest in the old gods and adopted Christianity at an amazingly swift rate. So changes in world view are possible for the West as a whole.
The introduction of the Enlightenment philosophers took much longer than Christianity to become the ipso facto world view of the West.
In any case I agree that all this is subject to change.
In short the West seems to be rejecting Leftism as a whole, not just Rousseau, but John Locke also, and Christianity also - at least in its present form with a more or less communist Catholic church and highly politicized Protestant church.
I can't tell where this will go. My own approach is "none of the above". It is the basic idea of Gra, Rav Shach, Reb Israel Salanter and the Rambam. How to put that in a nutshell? To learn Torah. That is the entire Oral and Written Law, every single last word of the Tenach Old Testament, and the Two Talmuds with Rashi, Tosphot, Maharsha. The entire Rambam with the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. Plus the idea of the Rambam of learning the entire Metaphysics of Aristotle plus basic Physics and Math (i.e. String Theory, Field Theory, Abstract Algebra and Algebraic Topology). [Even though the Rambam only referred to ancient Greek Metaphysics, I would include Kant.]
But this is not to suggest the religious world in itself is so great. There is a problem there with the absence of compassion. And that does not enter by any means that I have seen. Certainly not by Musar--which is the first place you would expect to find it. And with no compassion, there is also no Torah. The solution to this problem is by no means obvious since it certainly was the primary concern of Reb Israel Salanter [and the reason he launched the Musar Movement]. But to me it seems that if compassion was what he was aiming at, then the whole Musar movement was an abject failure. But I certainly have nothing better to offer.
[The way you can see the problem in the religious world is fairly obvious because of their aversion of doing kindness. This has given me the strong impression that Reform and Conservative Jews are much closer to the true path of Torah.][Even so this still leaves me wondering what is wrong and what could be done. If Reb Israel Salanter's idea does not seem to work, then what would?][Reb Nachman incidentally noticed this same problem as you can see in the LM II ch 8. There he says that compassion left Israel, and the little bit that is left has בחינת אכזריות the essence of cruelty. I can't quote the whole piece from memory.]
true attachment with God can be a result of faithful service towards God
There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what the Torah is really about. I might add also as to the laws of the Torah and questions of life style. What group should one be affiliated with?
Just briefly I wanted to address the first question. The reason for this is that I see the question of ecstatic experience and also the dominance of Meshuga miracle workers [mad, insane lunatic charismatic leaders] is troubling.
I really just wanted to make one point --that Torah is not about mystic experience. It is not to come to that type of thing. What is usually see with people getting something like a LSD "high" from reading kabalah or coming to some lunatic meshuga supposed miracle worker is not what Torah is about.
However true attachment with God can be a result of faithful service towards God. As the Torah says ולדבקה בו "keep his commandments in order to love and fear God and to be attached with Him."
Just briefly I wanted to address the first question. The reason for this is that I see the question of ecstatic experience and also the dominance of Meshuga miracle workers [mad, insane lunatic charismatic leaders] is troubling.
I really just wanted to make one point --that Torah is not about mystic experience. It is not to come to that type of thing. What is usually see with people getting something like a LSD "high" from reading kabalah or coming to some lunatic meshuga supposed miracle worker is not what Torah is about.
However true attachment with God can be a result of faithful service towards God. As the Torah says ולדבקה בו "keep his commandments in order to love and fear God and to be attached with Him."
2.1.17
Rashi and the Rabbit
Rashi comments about the verse "God went up from him" at the end of the debate between God and Avraham about what to do with Sdom: תיקון סופרים הוא זה. "This a edit from the scribes." That is,-- Rashi is saying in the original Torah it said, "Avraham went away from God." The Sofrim were not beyond making corrections when they saw fit. Therefore, I suggest that that is what they did with the rabbit. The original verse given to Moses said, "the rabbit is not kosher because it does not chew the cud nor split the hoof." Then the Sofrim came along and saw that rabbits chew the cud, so they changed it to כי גרה הוא יגר ופרסה לא הפריסה. [That is they left out one word "לא".] They, as we know now, made a mistake. The rabbit does not chew the cud. The original version given to Moses was correct. כי גרה הוא לא יגר ופרסה לא הפריסה. It does not chew the cud, and it does not split the hoof.
[The idea of this essay is to answer a question that is sometimes brought up concerning the rabbit.]
[Actually I forget where that Rashi is. It might be at the verse of the covenant that God made with Avraham called ברית בין הבתרים. In any case it is a very famous Rashi.]
I should mention that you can see this kind of thing in the Gemara that says in the Sefer Torah of R. Meir it was written כתנות אור וילבישם not כתנות עור וילבישם as in the modern day version. That is: In the Torah scroll of R. Meir it says "God made for Adam and Eve shirts of light." Not "shirts of leather."
[The idea of this essay is to answer a question that is sometimes brought up concerning the rabbit.]
[Actually I forget where that Rashi is. It might be at the verse of the covenant that God made with Avraham called ברית בין הבתרים. In any case it is a very famous Rashi.]
I should mention that you can see this kind of thing in the Gemara that says in the Sefer Torah of R. Meir it was written כתנות אור וילבישם not כתנות עור וילבישם as in the modern day version. That is: In the Torah scroll of R. Meir it says "God made for Adam and Eve shirts of light." Not "shirts of leather."
1.1.17
גירסה fast learning
I think the idea of גירסה that is mentioned in the Gemara in Shabat page 63 is overly ignored. [לימוד דרך גירסה](Say the words in order, as fast as possible and go on and don't even look at if you understand or not.) That is,-- what people already know is they ought to be learning Torah. This we already know from the Gemara and the Gra and Reb Chaim from Voloshin. But what makes it hard is people think they have to understand every last word and if not they can not move forward. This I saw in the book of Musar אורחות צדיקים and you would expect people that learn Musar would pay attention.
If people would just listen to this they could finish at least once in their lives the entire Oral and Written Law: the Two Talmuds with the Tosephta, Sifrai, Sifra, and all the Midrashim.
But what I wanted to add to this is the idea of the Rambam of learning also Physics and Meta-physics in exactly the same way. Plus all the Rambam's writings along with Rav Shach's commentary on the Rambam. This book, the Avi Ezri really should have top priority because it contains the essence of Torah.
The thing about the Rambam idea of Physics and Metaphysics is there is no basic set. So what I think is the basic thing is the actual set: The Metaphysics of Aristotle, plus basic physics and math. That is String Theory, Field Theory, Abstract Algebra, and Algebraic Topology.
I am not saying not to have in depth sessions also. In fact, I think they are important. But what I am saying is to have a separate session(s) for fast learning.
I neglected to mention Musar [the classical books of Torah ethics]--that is Ethics of Torah written during the Middle Ages plus the books of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter. I think thee books also are very important. In fact, Musar was one of the reason I left the yeshiva Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaay and went to the Mir. I felt my soul drying up with Talmud learning alone. I felt I needed at least a little work on fear of God. Plus I should mention the daughter of Bava Sali (Avigail Buso) and the grandson of Bava Sali Shimon Buso both mentioned to me the urgency of learning Musar.
If people would just listen to this they could finish at least once in their lives the entire Oral and Written Law: the Two Talmuds with the Tosephta, Sifrai, Sifra, and all the Midrashim.
But what I wanted to add to this is the idea of the Rambam of learning also Physics and Meta-physics in exactly the same way. Plus all the Rambam's writings along with Rav Shach's commentary on the Rambam. This book, the Avi Ezri really should have top priority because it contains the essence of Torah.
The thing about the Rambam idea of Physics and Metaphysics is there is no basic set. So what I think is the basic thing is the actual set: The Metaphysics of Aristotle, plus basic physics and math. That is String Theory, Field Theory, Abstract Algebra, and Algebraic Topology.
I am not saying not to have in depth sessions also. In fact, I think they are important. But what I am saying is to have a separate session(s) for fast learning.
I neglected to mention Musar [the classical books of Torah ethics]--that is Ethics of Torah written during the Middle Ages plus the books of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter. I think thee books also are very important. In fact, Musar was one of the reason I left the yeshiva Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaay and went to the Mir. I felt my soul drying up with Talmud learning alone. I felt I needed at least a little work on fear of God. Plus I should mention the daughter of Bava Sali (Avigail Buso) and the grandson of Bava Sali Shimon Buso both mentioned to me the urgency of learning Musar.
The solution to cults is simple: to learn about them.
People are in cults always from some emotional reason. Never from logic or evidence. But there are two kinds of reasons. One is a reaction against what they experienced in the past by people that they trusted. Another reason is benefit they get like community and certainty in life.
Therefore logic is useless against cults. And not all groups are the same. The yeshiva Shar Yashuv that I went to had some things that one might considered sort of cultish but it was in fact a great yeshiva because it was devoted to straight Torah.
You could see this in the great yeshiva Chaim Berlin also. Still to attain the degree of excellence that these places strive for in Torah, a certain amount of discipline is necessary.
To some degree what I think about cults is simple: to learn about them. Information provides a great perspective. It might not take one out of the cult he or she is in at the time but it provides a way of limiting the bad effects. However there is only so much of this kind of thing I can stand reading. Still for myself it was helpful to do research into the problems. It gave me perceptive on my own set of problems.
Also there is nothing quite like experience to show you the difference between the public image and the actual reality behind the facade.
The best cure is to make straight yeshivas like the Mir and Shar Yashuv. And if not a full yeshiva then at least to have a local Beit Midrash devoted to straight Torah and Musar that excludes rigorously all cults and any and all books or writings associated with the Jewish cults. To exclude what the Gra excluded.
However I should mention that there is no reason to hate cult members. Rather the best thing is to pray for their good, that they should merit to repent and to be save from all the kelipot that have taken over their mind's and to merit to be true tzadikim and Tzadikot and to merit to all the good in all the world.
Therefore logic is useless against cults. And not all groups are the same. The yeshiva Shar Yashuv that I went to had some things that one might considered sort of cultish but it was in fact a great yeshiva because it was devoted to straight Torah.
You could see this in the great yeshiva Chaim Berlin also. Still to attain the degree of excellence that these places strive for in Torah, a certain amount of discipline is necessary.
To some degree what I think about cults is simple: to learn about them. Information provides a great perspective. It might not take one out of the cult he or she is in at the time but it provides a way of limiting the bad effects. However there is only so much of this kind of thing I can stand reading. Still for myself it was helpful to do research into the problems. It gave me perceptive on my own set of problems.
Also there is nothing quite like experience to show you the difference between the public image and the actual reality behind the facade.
The best cure is to make straight yeshivas like the Mir and Shar Yashuv. And if not a full yeshiva then at least to have a local Beit Midrash devoted to straight Torah and Musar that excludes rigorously all cults and any and all books or writings associated with the Jewish cults. To exclude what the Gra excluded.
However I should mention that there is no reason to hate cult members. Rather the best thing is to pray for their good, that they should merit to repent and to be save from all the kelipot that have taken over their mind's and to merit to be true tzadikim and Tzadikot and to merit to all the good in all the world.
Dr. Zimbardo of the famous Zimbardo experiment
Dr. Zimbardo: "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. As basic human values are being strained, distorted and lost in our rapidly evolving culture, illusions and promissory notes are too readily believed and bought--without reality validation or credit checks."
You can see here why learning straight Torah is important. If one does not know what the Torah says he can fall for any one of the demonic Jewish cults that are out there. If one's time is limited, I suggest at least learning Shimshon Refael Hirsh's Horev or Rav Kook's books which give a good introduction to Torah. [Rav Kook's books are usually considered more deep than Rav Hirsh.]
You can see here why learning straight Torah is important. If one does not know what the Torah says he can fall for any one of the demonic Jewish cults that are out there. If one's time is limited, I suggest at least learning Shimshon Refael Hirsh's Horev or Rav Kook's books which give a good introduction to Torah. [Rav Kook's books are usually considered more deep than Rav Hirsh.]
31.12.16
the religious world.
I was thinking about problems in the religious world. The main thing that bothers me is the fraud aspect. That is, there is little that is upfront and honest. They make a song and dance in order to get money from secular Jews. They also try to make secular Jews to be religious, and yet treat them like dirt when they join. The whole problem seems to be aggravated in Israel when the religious try to undermine the State, and yet demand the State pays for their life style.
There is more to it than that. I have expressed some of the problems in terms of the fact that most of the religious world is made up of cults that make a show of Torah, but are really demonic cults. So there are a few problems that got me to thinking the religious world really is very far from Torah, and perhaps could considered as a real kelipa and a Dark force of evil. [See L.M. in his reference to Torah from the Dark Side which is what I think is the root of the problem with these cults.]
This however should not be considered as a critique on the authentic great yeshivas that learn Torah for its own sake along the lines of the Gra and Reb Israel Salanter and Rav Shach. And of course there are the Bnei Akiva places that combine Torah with work and serving in the IDF that I think are very great places.
There is more to it than that. I have expressed some of the problems in terms of the fact that most of the religious world is made up of cults that make a show of Torah, but are really demonic cults. So there are a few problems that got me to thinking the religious world really is very far from Torah, and perhaps could considered as a real kelipa and a Dark force of evil. [See L.M. in his reference to Torah from the Dark Side which is what I think is the root of the problem with these cults.]
This however should not be considered as a critique on the authentic great yeshivas that learn Torah for its own sake along the lines of the Gra and Reb Israel Salanter and Rav Shach. And of course there are the Bnei Akiva places that combine Torah with work and serving in the IDF that I think are very great places.
Groups that have a core essence that is from the Dark Side].Since in the cults there is not simple plain human decency you know there is no holiness either.
I claim the world of the religious is a cult. That is: it consists of many cults, but none of them actually keep Torah at all except for a a few Litvak yeshivas and their surrounding communities.
[Some or more are better than others.]
The way to see this is thus in the following way.
The dinge an sich [areas of Torah value] is not subject to human reason. When reason enters into these areas it ends up contradicted in itself and falling into inconsistencies.
Instead of Torah value being complicated, the truth is it is not complicated at all. It is entirely simple. Right and wrong is obvious, and mental gymnastics only serve to make evil seem good.But you can tell what is a cult [that is what groups have a core essence that is from the Dark Side]. The sign is simple. Evil while perhaps in its essence is hard to discern, but it has certain invariable characteristics. They lie, they cheat, they scam. They use keep Torah as camouflage and a cloak to hide their true demonic essence. We find that to recognize this can be hard. Even King David had no idea that he had sinned until Natan the prophet revealed it to him. We may not have Natan the Prophet, but we have had people that warned us of our sins, the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter, Rav Shach. But instead of listening we turned our backs on their warning. During the time of the prophets, idolatry was a lot more simple. One knew what serving God meant, or serving an idol. But now the power of idolatry has been sublimated within cults. One can on the surface perfectly kosher to all appearance, and yet have a demonic core as we see today in the religious world. Since in the cults there is not simple plain human decency you know there is no holiness either.
[Some or more are better than others.]
The way to see this is thus in the following way.
The dinge an sich [areas of Torah value] is not subject to human reason. When reason enters into these areas it ends up contradicted in itself and falling into inconsistencies.
Instead of Torah value being complicated, the truth is it is not complicated at all. It is entirely simple. Right and wrong is obvious, and mental gymnastics only serve to make evil seem good.But you can tell what is a cult [that is what groups have a core essence that is from the Dark Side]. The sign is simple. Evil while perhaps in its essence is hard to discern, but it has certain invariable characteristics. They lie, they cheat, they scam. They use keep Torah as camouflage and a cloak to hide their true demonic essence. We find that to recognize this can be hard. Even King David had no idea that he had sinned until Natan the prophet revealed it to him. We may not have Natan the Prophet, but we have had people that warned us of our sins, the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter, Rav Shach. But instead of listening we turned our backs on their warning. During the time of the prophets, idolatry was a lot more simple. One knew what serving God meant, or serving an idol. But now the power of idolatry has been sublimated within cults. One can on the surface perfectly kosher to all appearance, and yet have a demonic core as we see today in the religious world. Since in the cults there is not simple plain human decency you know there is no holiness either.
30.12.16
Cults share many of the same characteristics.
Human nature being what it is, and the dark side being what it is, it is no wonder that cults share many of the same characteristics. It is like when you put chemicals together the result is the same.
Some of the similar characteristics:They are anti simple human decency supposedly in the name of some higher morality. There is a sanctimonious sense of supreme virtue for one cult or sect and despising outsiders, and a charismatic leaders that gets all the perks and benefits. Babbling nonsense prolific writings of meaningless babble or supposed prophecy.
The main things are antinomianism [loosening of the restrictions of the Torah while at the same time hypocritically claiming to be adhering to the Torah. The other is the exaggerated spirituality with trances and contact with supposedly spirits of tzadikim which are really demons, since the Torah itself tells us לא תדרוש אל המתים "Do not seek the dead"]
But I should mention that not everything that seems like a cult is bad. Even if it has many cult aspects it might be doing good or be a lot better that groups that seem a lot more respectable. As a rule the groups that make the most effort to seem normal and respectable are in fact the most demon possessed.
You can be in a great yeshiva like I was in Shar Yashuv and think that there are better more respectable places and really be mistaken. I mean Shar Yashuv was in fact a yeshiva for beginners. It had and I think still has no reputation. Still in the higher classes [that is beginning from year two until yer four] it is Ivy league. Same with the Mir in NY. Those two places were probably the best I ever saw, and yet their reputation is not very high. People would rather go to Brisk or the Mir in Israel. I can't see why. The only place in Israel I think is really great is Ponovitch.
The yeshivas in Jerusalem think they are best because of their address. But they are all delusional. The only really great yeshivas in Jerusalem are Merkaz HaRav of Rav Kook and the Yeshivat HaGra of Rav Eliyahu Zilverman.
Some of the similar characteristics:They are anti simple human decency supposedly in the name of some higher morality. There is a sanctimonious sense of supreme virtue for one cult or sect and despising outsiders, and a charismatic leaders that gets all the perks and benefits. Babbling nonsense prolific writings of meaningless babble or supposed prophecy.
The main things are antinomianism [loosening of the restrictions of the Torah while at the same time hypocritically claiming to be adhering to the Torah. The other is the exaggerated spirituality with trances and contact with supposedly spirits of tzadikim which are really demons, since the Torah itself tells us לא תדרוש אל המתים "Do not seek the dead"]
But I should mention that not everything that seems like a cult is bad. Even if it has many cult aspects it might be doing good or be a lot better that groups that seem a lot more respectable. As a rule the groups that make the most effort to seem normal and respectable are in fact the most demon possessed.
You can be in a great yeshiva like I was in Shar Yashuv and think that there are better more respectable places and really be mistaken. I mean Shar Yashuv was in fact a yeshiva for beginners. It had and I think still has no reputation. Still in the higher classes [that is beginning from year two until yer four] it is Ivy league. Same with the Mir in NY. Those two places were probably the best I ever saw, and yet their reputation is not very high. People would rather go to Brisk or the Mir in Israel. I can't see why. The only place in Israel I think is really great is Ponovitch.
The yeshivas in Jerusalem think they are best because of their address. But they are all delusional. The only really great yeshivas in Jerusalem are Merkaz HaRav of Rav Kook and the Yeshivat HaGra of Rav Eliyahu Zilverman.
Moses, Kant, Hegel, Gra, Israel Salanter, Rav Shach, Tosphot, Rambam.
To build up a good approach it would be required to provide and intellectual basis. Leftism was a kind of trampling of Biblical Values. Or subverting Biblical values to serve its purpose by means of useful idiots. However the Right has just as much claim to intellectual virtue through a different array of patron saints.
That is-- the left had a list of patron saints. Freud, Marx, Russeou. Some people were absorbed into the Left like Nietzsche, though he was not a leftist at all.
My suggestion is to emphasize a whole different set of patron saints. Moses, Hegel, Kant, Gra, Israel Salanter, Rav Shach, Tosphot, Rambam, the Ari (Isaac Luria). [The Rambam, the Ari and Hegel are very Neo-Platonic so it is easy to fit them into one system.]
As for the last three the basic idea is that there is no reason to think that one could be put into a room with the Oral and Written Law of Moses and come up on my own the basic approach of Torah. If I understand the importance of learning Torah as a value in itself and of working to attain good character traits and if learning Torah in depth, then I owe a debt of gratitude to these individual who worked this out and showed the way.
What you need from each of the above thinkers is this: The Gra for learning Torah; Rav Shach and Tosphot for showing the depth of Torah; Kant for the limitation of reason and knowledge that is known but not through physical senses nor through reason. [One could have used the Rambam for that also.]
The Rambam for Torah Law, and learning Physics and Metaphysics. The Ari and Hegel for Metaphysics. John Locke for freedom and private property. The last one you could have gotten from the Two Talmuds but for some reason most people miss the message there. They think the welfare state and Socialism which is organized theft is kosher. Reb Israel Salanter one needs for good character plus fear of God.Z..The Gra has a whole school of disciples that are worthwhile to learn: the commentaries on the page of the Yerushalim Talmud, the Nefeh HaChaim, the Netziv, etc. The Nefesh HaChaim is important from many angles. One of the points he brings out is that intention to unite one's soul to the soul of a tzadik righteous person is idolatry.[Rav Kook the founder or religious Zionism already incorporated Hegel into his ideas as is well known. ] Hegel sort of tried to take the place of Aquinas in solving the dilemma between faith and reason. [To Aquinas that was Christianity with Aristotle. To Hegel that was Protestant Christianity with Plato, Plotinus, the presocratics and Kant] However, Aquinas was wildly successful in his influence on all Christian civilization after him. Hegel in an ironic way had the opposite effect. he became the patron saint of the radical left and had zero effect on the right which went with john Locke, Montesquieu and the English system. Rav Nachman also had an ironic effect. He also wanted to reconcile the straight Litvak approach of straight learning and keeping Torah with no changes, no extras, nor subtractions. But the effect is the opposite unless people have a solid ground and deep roots in the world of the Litvaks, the Gra, and Musar. Besides Hegel, the person with the deepest but unrecognized effect on the Right is Goethe. Everything, every meme, every idea became part of Western vocabulary, and intellectual structure that you can hear in almost every person’s everyday conversation
That is-- the left had a list of patron saints. Freud, Marx, Russeou. Some people were absorbed into the Left like Nietzsche, though he was not a leftist at all.
My suggestion is to emphasize a whole different set of patron saints. Moses, Hegel, Kant, Gra, Israel Salanter, Rav Shach, Tosphot, Rambam, the Ari (Isaac Luria). [The Rambam, the Ari and Hegel are very Neo-Platonic so it is easy to fit them into one system.]
As for the last three the basic idea is that there is no reason to think that one could be put into a room with the Oral and Written Law of Moses and come up on my own the basic approach of Torah. If I understand the importance of learning Torah as a value in itself and of working to attain good character traits and if learning Torah in depth, then I owe a debt of gratitude to these individual who worked this out and showed the way.
What you need from each of the above thinkers is this: The Gra for learning Torah; Rav Shach and Tosphot for showing the depth of Torah; Kant for the limitation of reason and knowledge that is known but not through physical senses nor through reason. [One could have used the Rambam for that also.]
The Rambam for Torah Law, and learning Physics and Metaphysics. The Ari and Hegel for Metaphysics. John Locke for freedom and private property. The last one you could have gotten from the Two Talmuds but for some reason most people miss the message there. They think the welfare state and Socialism which is organized theft is kosher. Reb Israel Salanter one needs for good character plus fear of God.Z..The Gra has a whole school of disciples that are worthwhile to learn: the commentaries on the page of the Yerushalim Talmud, the Nefeh HaChaim, the Netziv, etc. The Nefesh HaChaim is important from many angles. One of the points he brings out is that intention to unite one's soul to the soul of a tzadik righteous person is idolatry.[Rav Kook the founder or religious Zionism already incorporated Hegel into his ideas as is well known. ] Hegel sort of tried to take the place of Aquinas in solving the dilemma between faith and reason. [To Aquinas that was Christianity with Aristotle. To Hegel that was Protestant Christianity with Plato, Plotinus, the presocratics and Kant] However, Aquinas was wildly successful in his influence on all Christian civilization after him. Hegel in an ironic way had the opposite effect. he became the patron saint of the radical left and had zero effect on the right which went with john Locke, Montesquieu and the English system. Rav Nachman also had an ironic effect. He also wanted to reconcile the straight Litvak approach of straight learning and keeping Torah with no changes, no extras, nor subtractions. But the effect is the opposite unless people have a solid ground and deep roots in the world of the Litvaks, the Gra, and Musar. Besides Hegel, the person with the deepest but unrecognized effect on the Right is Goethe. Everything, every meme, every idea became part of Western vocabulary, and intellectual structure that you can hear in almost every person’s everyday conversation
29.12.16
religious people -- it is not a good idea that they should have political power.
From what I can see from religious people it is in fact not a good idea that they should have political power. The very thing that makes them religious makes them susceptible to numinous value from the Dark Side without knowing it. They might be very aware of Numinious value from the realm of Holiness, but as a rule they can't tell when the Dark Side seeps into them.
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