I deplore abuse and misuse of the Torah. Like any work of literature, the text has meaning, words have meaning.

I can't ignore the question of what to do with a text. Do you go by (1) Charity (i.e. one gives it an interpretation that makes more sense to him) or (2) "He meant what he said?" This questions comes up in many texts that either I believe in fully or at least believe they are inspired. Take for example the Torah. Or the Talmud or Plato.
  My attitude towards this is based on my experience with the side commentary in the Talmud called Tosphot. But also on a separate group of experiences that happens to me when people ask my advice about something or other. Also I like to look at the wide message of a text. This later idea I got from English literature classes.
  My first set of experiences with Tosphot is "He meant what he said."  But then inside of what he says is always contained something that looks like a glitch. But you go over it until you see the meaning in such a way that the glitch was actually not a glitch at all; but you see that you thought it was a glitch because you did not understand it perfectly. This has given me confidence in the "He meant what he meant" approach always even in Torah or anything that I read. But I have seen that often when people asked me for advice I would say exactly opposite things to different people-because of whom I was talking with. Different and even opposite pieces of advice apply to different people.


The problem with the (2) charity approach is that any text can say anything you want it to say.

  The third way of context I learned in my English literature classes in Beverly Hills High School with some great teachers.
Take for instance the Five Books of Moses. The context is clear. The basic approach is clear. The theme of these Five Books is clearly united.

Just in case this needs a explanation let me just say what Torah is not about first. It is not about Pantheism. It is not about Learning Torah. It is not about minutia that you can pick out from halacha books. It is not about the length of girls skirts. It is not about belief in any tzadik/saint including Moses.
It is about what King David said to Golath, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and I come to you in the name of the Lord God of the armies of Israel who you have insulted this day."
The basic theme of the Torah is the importance of Israel coming into the land of Canaan and building the Temple there and keeping all the commandments of God.

Habermas: On Israel (Considered by many to be the foremost philosopher of this generation.)

Habermas: In one respect, Muslim terrorism still possesses a certain outmoded characteristic in that it revolves around murder, around the indiscriminate annihilation of enemies, women, and children—life against life. This is what distinguishes it from the terror that appears in the paramilitary form of guerilla warfare
Compare the new terrorists with partisans or conventional terrorists, for example, in Israel. These people often fight in a decentralized manner in small, autonomous units, too. Also, in these cases there is no concentration of forces or central organization, a feature that makes them difficult targets. But partisans fight on familiar territory with professed political objectives in order to conquer power. This is what distinguishes them from terrorists who are scattered around the globe and networked in the fashion of secret services. They allow their religious motives of a fundamentalist kind to be known, though they do not pursue a program that goes beyond the engineering of destruction and insecurity. The terrorism we associate for the time being with the name "al-Qaeda" makes the identification of the opponent and any realistic assessment of the danger impossible. This intangibility is what lends terrorism a new quality.

(Habermas is considered by many to be the foremost philosopher of this generation. They might be right

The thing I must say about these people is their forte is in discovering fallacious logic. This includes their ability to discover the falsities in philosophical, political and economic thinking in most American universities and includes the falseness and self contradictions in Marx, Rousseau and almost all philosophers after the Enlightenment. The interesting thing is they never discover a flaw in Medieval thinking. The reason is there never is. Medieval thinkers made damn sure never to write anything that could be a million miles near circular reasoning. [Here I only refer to first level Medieval thinkers like Maimonides, Tosphot, Aquinas and Anselm. I don't mean second level people like the Ramban ( Moshe Ben Nachman) that did make mistakes in logic.] Also I don't mean they did not make mistakes at all. Obviously they did-but not in logic, only initial assumptions.
Incidentally just as side note: The Jews are not outsiders who invaded and colonized Israel; they are a native people whom the legal government allowed to return, as legal immigrants, to their ancestral homeland. The Zionists were given sovereignty, again by the legal government, over only that part of Palestine with over 60% Jewish population, so rule of the majority was followed. The Arab response to this LEGAL establishment of a nation by a NATIVE people was a War of Genocide, which failed. Bottom line, as I've EXPLAINED numerous times, is that the Arabs themselves have created the situation they're in by refusing to make peace after their attempt to ethnic-cleanse a NATIVE people from Palestine failed.

How to learn Kabalah the best idea is to go to just about any descendant of Rav Yaakov Abuchatziera.

How to learn Kabalah
prerequisite: It is necessary to have learned a lot of Talmud. First of all learning Talmud has a effect of purifying one and also just to understand the Kabalah the basic background of the Talmud is necessary.

Step (1): The first thing to do is to avoid the charlatans [They use kabalistic jargon to sound profound.]
Step (2): The next step is to learn the Eitz Chayim עץ חיים{a two volume work called the Tree of Life} of Issac Luria. It helps to learn all the writings of Rav Isaac Luria, but if you know the basic Eitz Chaim, you already know the basic structure of the Kabalah. The rest is just filling in the gaps. Now if you have come to this step the next step --and this is the step which everyone fails in--is the books of Shalom Sharabi. The major work is the Nahar Shalom [נהר שלום] printed at the end of the Eitz Chayim (עץ חיים). The problem here is simple. The Nahar Shalom [נהר שלום] is a vast system and it is hard to figure out how one part relates to the other. There are a few keys like when you read the word "chaya"often you know you are talking about Atzilut [Emanation].
At any rate, even here there is a major debate between the Ashlag and his disciple who wrote the comments on the printed Eitz Chaim. Between these two giants I dare not say anything.
As far as the present day  teachers of Kabalah --  most is  from Shabati Zvi and has little to do with real Kabalah. [You can not find the books of Natan, the false prophet of the Shatz in print but they are in microfim. Somehow most of new ideas of the Shatz and Natan from Gaza got into all books of Ashkenazim. I do not know how it happened, but it is easy to see.] [Not that I think anyone should read that stuff.]



So to get a unadulterated idea of Kabalah you really have to go to Rav Isaac Luria straight.



Now as for the kabalah of the Moshe Cordovaro and Medieval kabalah and the Heichalot the best bet to to go the Avraham Abulafia. Personally, I think Avraham Abulafia rivals Luria in greatness.

[As for people to learn from, I think the best idea is to go to just about any descendant of Rav Yaakov Abuchatziera.]

STEALTH JIHAD-Psychological Warfare. Humanity is at risk.

STEALTH JIHAD
 Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Islam and current Islamic propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the Islamic line in textbooks.
 Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

 Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting Islam in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
 Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "Islamic" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity.

 Eliminate Christian prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."


 Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Islamic goals.
 Discredit the Christian family as an institution.

Radicalize society. Help create an atmosphere in which when a man has an argument with his wife or a neighbor with another neighbor the automatic reaction is to go to the courts.

This year may prove to be the culmination of Islam's many years of infiltrating our educational institutions, and trade union organizations and attempts to dis-stabilize America relationships one with another. The effects of the poison of Islam is having the desired effect of undermining the Christian basis of the USA.
_____________________________________________________________

 But I can ask that people that see this process going on should do whatever it takes to stop this because I think the fate of mankind itself is in the balance. I should say that I see this process as corroding the very essence of humanity. And when I see people that see this process and do nothing I get frustrated.
Normally I would not say anything about this. After all there are some problems inside of Christianity. But at some point I began to realize that if Islam would have its way the whole world would look like Saudi Arabia and the Sudan. But not before they had atomized Europe and the USA. The very thought of it sends shivers down my back. How can people stand by and watch the destruction of Western Civilization in equanimity. It is not their concern? Or maybe they think that Islam  is a source of compassion and virtue and their daily rhetoric about destroying Christendom and all Judaeo-Christian civilization is just empty words? Or was is it they saw "It's a small world after all," in Disney Land  and they think teh whole world is just lovey dovy and everyone just wants peace and virtue.?

What has undermined the essence of America.

(I tried to find information about this from a friend who is a former KGB agent, but he was not involved in this type of activity, so he knew nothing about this side of the KGB.)
  Subversion and creating instability in the U.S.A. was a large part of the KGB. However my friend's modest part was simply to listen to radio broadcasts from the West and tell his superiors if anything interesting was mentioned. [No James Bond stuff.] Incidentally, he hates Communism even more than me--which is quite a feat. I have deep hatred of any totalitarian systems. On the other hand you can understand his point of view. He lived under Communism so he witnessed the evil of the system first hand. He incidentally did not think that the KGB had the ability to undermine American society all on its own. So I bring here information from another KGB that thought that it did. Also from my point of view the type of civil society that exited in America no longer exists there. Something obviously has already destroyed the very nature of America. This makes me wonder, "what could have caused this?" So here I present my essay on this subject)



[The way the KGB did this is by becoming or recruiting leaders of movements that are involved in destabilizing America like Christan pastors of liberal Protestant churches and the homosexuals and feminists. For example, just think about homosexuals. Years ago this was something dirty and sick that something someone did privately. Now it is a public movement. Why? People need to start asking "Why?" The question is not if homosexuality is a sin or not. But why is this political movement?]




(I want to mention that I have seen the results of what he is talking about in America. But this would require a whole different essay. Like I heard from a veteran of WWII: "The America I fought for no longer exists."}

Here is just one example from todays news (on Overlawyered blog) which shows this: Texas honor student jailed for missing too much school”

by Walter Olson on May 27, 2012

“Diane Tran said she works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking advanced and college level courses,” and her parents have “split up and moved away” leaving her in charge of a younger sister, which make it hard to keep to the exact school day. Judge Lanny Moriarty did not seem sympathetic: “If you let one run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em?” [CBS Atlanta]

This a perfect example of Legal Positivism which is in exact opposition to the very basic principles of natural rights that America was founded on.
This example show the basic American principle of justice today: "heteronomous relativism." This gives near or complete totalitarian force to any person that has a position in any branch of the America government. The main enemies of America today are the people in the America government.






Bezmenov "It’s a great brainwashing process, which goes very slow[ly] and is divided [into] four basic stages. The first one [is] demoralization; it takes from 15-20 years to demoralize a nation. Why that many years? Because this is the minimum number of years which [is required] to educate one generation of students in the country of your enemy, exposed to the ideology of the enemy. In other words, Marxist-Leninist ideology is being pumped into the soft heads of at least three generations of American students, without being challenged, or counter-balanced by the basic values of Americanism (American patriotism).

The result? The result you can see. Most of the people who graduated in the sixties (drop-outs or half-baked intellectuals) are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business, mass media, [and the] educational system. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them. They are contaminated; they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli in a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind[s], even if you expose them to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and the logic of behavior. In other words, these people... the process of demoralization is complete and irreversible. To [rid] society of these people, you need another twenty or fifteen years to educate a new generation of patriotically-minded and common sense people, who would be acting in favor and in the interests of United States society."



also see:http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/former-kgb-agent-yuri-bezmenov-how-the-kgb-demoralized-propagandized-and-indoctrinated-youth-using-schools/


As a final note to my readers I want to mention a ray of hope I have seen. Somehow or other there are in some American universities a few very powerful analytic philosopher and thinkers, like Brian Caplan and Michael Huemer and Kelly Ross. When I see people like that on the horizon it gives me hope for America. I think Caplan is the most analytic. Ross is the greatest builder. Huemer is the greatest architect of a political argument and the ability to perceive the flaws of logic of all philosophers since Hume.

Also see: you tube Yuri Bezmenov: KGB Psychological Warfare and Subversion Strategy.

The way to save America is simple. One word: Bible. For Christians this would be the Old and New Testament, Aquinas, and Augustine and learning John Locke. For Jews this would be the Musar [books fromthe Middle Ages explaining the moral principles of Torah]. The difference between Jews and Christians I respect. I know there are questions about the spiritual realm that I don't understand. But I know that America needs the holy Torah. Period. [And obviously getting rid of Islam from American soil.]

How the KGB influenced American Universities--the question of survival of the USA

The question of survival of the USA
[for more information: http://uselessdissident.blogspot.com/2008/11/interview-with-yuri-bezmenov.html]

I have noticed for a long time that the villain in all American movies is always the businessman or an American scientist, never a real criminal. I also noticed a shift in American universities starting from the 1960's when the social science and humanities departments of American universities began to teach radical Marxism under the code name "social justice" or as "progressive liberalism."
Until this very day, the regular staple of the diet of the political pseudo sciences is Hegel, Marx, Rousseau, Freud, Nietzsche;-- never actual ideas that America was founded on. They will never even mention the Second Treatise of Civil Government of John Locke. This is the founding document of America. You would think it would have some place in a political science course. No? Instead it is treated like the plague. May Marx and Lenin save us from thoughts of economic and personal freedom.

The problem is that all three branches of American government have now united to form one monolithic government. There is no more division of power. What the president want the states to say, they say. What he wants the Supreme Court to rule they rule. Whatever he wants passed in Congress is passed. They're all working together to create a new type of Soviet America.
Recently Arizona decided not to put the president on the ballot because he was not born in the USA, yet by coercion he was forced to concede.

Simply put the America people are no longer in control of their government.



"Bezmenov [a former KGB agent who defected to Canada and was murdered by the KGB] stated that he was also instructed not to waste time with idealistic Leftists, as these would become disillusioned, bitter, and adversarial when they realized the true nature of Soviet Communism. To his surprise, he discovered that many such [idealistic Leftists] were listed for execution once the Soviets achieved control. Instead, Bezmenov was encouraged to recruit such persons as were in large circulation, established conservative media, rich filmmakers, intellectuals in academic circles, and cynical, ego-centric people who lacked moral principles."

He also explained that the main (84%) efforts of the KGB was to subvert American values. Marxism was brought to America shores during the 1960s and those students are now in power. He says that the job of subverting America has already be accomplished and over accomplished. The USA is the last country of freedom. This is the last breath of freedom. It will fail unless Americans wake up now and force the government to abandon the communists system that is already in the USA.





What I do not like about the USSR is based my basic idea that people have a right to freedom, but also on stories I heard from Irina(a Ukrainian woman who just passed away). She remembered how when the Communists got power over Russia, the Communists came into her city and simply and plainly took everything in sight--cows, grain, all food stuffs, and whatever they wanted. This was Communism in real life--not how it is displayed in American textbooks.







From http://www.usnews.com/news

"The material in the Vassiliev notebooks corroborates the suspicion that Hiss was a longtime agent of Soviet military intelligence. That echoes the findings of Venona Project analysts, who concluded years ago that the code name "Ales" in the intercepted Soviet cables was "probably Alger Hiss."
The KGB files also corroborate that Julius Rosenberg, who was executed for espionage in 1953 along with his wife, Ethel, was indeed a Soviet agent.
Other Americans are vindicated by Vassiliev's KGB notes. For instance, they say that Robert Oppenheimer continuously refused to help the KGB, much to Moscow's frustration. After a public investigation into his loyalty, Oppenheimer lost his U.S. security clearance. Like many other accused "Red sympathizers," he spent the rest of his life defending his reputation. The Vassiliev documents concur with numerous other sources that show it was other scientists and technicians on the atomic bomb program who helped the Soviets develop a nuclear weapon."

Why does Kant want morality to be universal?

Why does Kant want morality to be universal? The reason is that he wants its existence to be perceived by reason. And reason perceives universals. (note 1) Now some universals are laws like laws of math. Some universals are other types of predicates. But Kant knows that he can't make morality into a universal like laws of math. Remember he was highly influenced by Hume. So he wants the universal morality to be a universal "ought".

 He also wants a certain ambiguity about its nature, but not about its existence. This is his opinion for dinge an sich (things in themselves). ("Unconditioned realities" in the language of philosophers.)

 Use the modification of Kant by Hegel. With Kant by himself you can't get reason to perceive the character of ethical laws. You need Reason to get to where Kant is trying to go.
[I should mention you always need to modify Kant. The surface level of what he says is sometimes wrong. But if you look into the deeper idea behind the words he is often implying a true and deep idea.]






  That personal freedom and economic freedom are valuable really seems to be  from  the separation of realms and different grounds of validity.

[note: The third formulation of the Categorical Imperative is “the Idea of the will of every rational being as a will that legislates universal law.” (4:432)]

At any rate, let me just say that I think the human problem needs a lot more that political or economic solutions. The problem is not just the dimension of morality, but the basic question what is the meaning of life? (This was the primary question of the 1960's, and sadly the answer to most people was political Liberation movements or fanatic Jewish or Eastern religious cults.)

I admit I have no great answer for this. But I do have an idea. It starts with  Maimonides. Because Maimonides managed to mediate between the two poles of Reason and Faith and formed a kind of synthesis or lightening rod. With him there is no contraction between Aristotle and the Torah.

The ground of holiness is different from that of reason. The radical Maimonides synthesis between Torah and Aristotle seems to me to need some improvement. First of all I am a Neo-Platonist. This is by education and also it is the way I think. Reading Plato when I was a teenager it think contributes to me tendency to say unpopular opinions and not be afraid to do so. I think clearly the example of Socrates contributed to this. But at any rate, I see spiritual reality just as real as atoms and molecules.


The thing which complicates this issue is often a doctrine that seems promising, seems to have a long string of crazy people attached to it. Since what makes spirituality interesting is its human element --it is impossible to separate it from the actions of people following a certain doctrine. What I mean is if the Talmud  was just some intellectual exercise that had nothing to do with people, then first of all they would not be interesting. So the fact that they have to so with people means that people following their teachings have to indicate to us to some degree the qualities of that doctrine.

However I do agree with Maimonides in that we should deny ‘there are good reasons for the polarization between faith and knowledge (which became an empirical feature of European modernity). There are no such reasons, on Maimonides' view,

The question is of course why is there no conflict? Is it because because Jewish theism – proved hospitable to and incorporated rational inquiry from the beginning, in the form of Greek philosophy.

However there is a ground of spirituality that is different from reason. The ground of spirit and the ground of reason in some way are in conflict because the principles are different but they are not in conflict in that both are important parts of what it means to be human.
If this is not clear just think of a circle of values. The closer you get to the top the more numinous value you have and less form. The more towards the bottom the more form and less numinous content

Notes
(note 1) Universals. I have (let's say for an example) two white pieces of paper in front of me. Do they have something in common? Yes. Whiteness.  So Whiteness is a universal. It is something that individuals have in common.

Appendix: One reason why Kant ought to be important to people is he provides a nice modification of Plato and neo Platonism. This is to where Jewish Philosophers were trying to go after the Rambam, [e.g. Crescas and Abravenal,] The Rambam was going pretty much with Aristotle and this seems to me to be a problem because knowledge of the physical form does not give knowledge of universals plus some basic problem in the Metaphysics. Maybe the Rambam can account for these problems? It would be nice to know if he does. But I do no have  Guide with me to do the research to see if he does. [I mean it is likely that he did hint to some answers in the Guide but I have not heard that anyone has found such hints.]