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25.12.14

In any case, sex between males is among the things not allowed according to the Torah.

In any case sex between males is among the things not allowed according to the Torah. As for dissident children בן סורר ומורה - there are rather strict conditions for which that law applies. (e.g. the amount of meat he needs to eat to be liable is almost humanly impossible to eat in the required time period).
In any case there is never a death sentence unless any act is done in front of two kosher witnesses and warning is given. The warning has to be about the reason for the prohibition and also the punishment and the perpetrator has to acknowledge the warning. It is like Miranda rights in that respect. Otherwise the case is thrown out of court.

Appendix

1) It is understood that the laws of the Torah were all addressed to Jews alone. Every single last one.
The question of what gentiles are obligated in is simply uninteresting to the Torah. As far as the Torah is concerned if someone wants to keep the Torah--very nice.
[''I have put before you this day the life and the good, and death and evil. So choose life by keeping these commandments.'' Deuteronomy. Now there is a deal you can't turn down. Who does not want life and the good? No one.]
2) In any case the subject does come up. We have the well known seven laws that were given to Noah. And how much of later laws that were given to Moses apply is subject to debate.
A ger toshav גר תושב the Rambam decided is one who accepts the seven laws in front of the Sanhedrin.
But there is an argument about that. To some opinions in Mesechet Gerim--a tractate outside the Mishna- a ger toshav is one who accepts on himself not to do idolatry.
In the middle ages the idea of gerei hashar גרי השער came up and the Beit Joseph did consider gentiles that were civilized to be in that category. That is a step up from gerei toshav, but not yet a full ger.
3) The Seven Laws, include not to murder, and not to do idolatry. Islam seems to be idolatry since they are worshiping   a false god. (They call him God, But you can call many people by the same name. That does not mean they are the same person. When they worship Satan, it does not help if they give him the name of the Creator. In fact it makes it worse.)







24.12.14

We all know that one brings a sin offering for doing a sin by accident. But do accidents combine?

Introduction: If one does any one of 43 sins he brings a goat or a sheep to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Only in the case of idolatry must it be only a she goat.
The sin has to be done by accident. You can't bring a sacrifice for intentional sin.
The sins are Shabat, sex with close relatives, sex with a male, sex with an animal, idolatry, walking into the Temple before getting purified, eating a sacrifice before getting purified, and a few others.
Sin offerings are commanded in Leviticus 4 for general things and in Numbers for idolatry.


I am going to share my questions about this with the general public even though I have not gone over it thoroughly with my learning partner.
Fact 1) One does work on the Sabbath day. He forgot that work is forbidden or he made a mistake in law and thought that it is in fact permitted, plus he forgot Shabat.
This is an unresolved question in the Talmud. [Sanhedrin 62, Shabat perek klal gadol] (That is does he bring one sacrifice or 39 for each work?) (I say it is unresolved because the Talmud brings it up in serval places and suggest maybe we can answer it form this or from that etc.? It sounds like It has not come to any conclusion and is always keeping it in the back of it mind to try to find some answer.)
Fact 2) If one depends on the Sanhedrin that made a false ruling and they allowed forbidden fat plus he got a piece of forbidden fat and permitted fat mixed up. Rav said he does not bring a sin offering.
He depended on the Sanhedrin so his additional error does not make him obligated.

So my question here is do accidents mix? [Horayot page 2]
Or lets say he forgot two things--that forbidden fat is forbidden and and it got mixed up.  From the Gemara in Horayot you would say he already brings only one sin offering. Just because he forgot something extra that does not add to the number of sin offerings. and you would be right in that reasoning. So I ask again, why don't we say the same thing on Shabat? He already brings only one sin offering because he forgot it is Shabat. So why would he bring more just because he forgot more stuff?

It has been a long day so I am not going to try and make my question clearer right now. If you want a little background take a look at those two Gemaras and also the Mishna LeMelech on the Rambam הלכות שגגות פרק ב

APPENDIX:
1) There are two kinds of accident. One is in the facts of the situation. The other is in law.
2) One reason I am bringing this to public attention is because I am looking for some help in my argument with my learning partner. I can't seem to convince him about this point that if one is liable only one sacrifice because he forgot Shabat then he can't be liable more for forgetting more. On one hand he is right that the Gemara itself seems to consider this question undecidable. But to me it looks like I have a proof from Rav. And who knows if perhaps that statement of rav might be part of the reason the Rambam did in fact decide that if one forgets both work and Shabat he brings only one sacrifice. I mean we do find the Gemara seems to  lean in that direction anyway, but this statement of Rav ought to be the smoking gun.
3) Forbidden fat is the fat that is in general sacrificed. It covers the area of the stomach. Because it is such a  serious issue,  Reb Shmuel Berenbaum never ate meat, only chicken. I think his wife sometimes served meat on Yom Tov to the guests like myself but for him it was only chicken.
4) I think it should be clear that Eliezer Menachem Shach's book the Aviezri probably deals with this. It is right up his alley to answer "shver" Rambams {hard to understand Rambams}. But I don't have his book. [I am right now in Uman, and they do not usually have too many Litvak books in the local synagogue.]

There is a permission to have a girl friend in the Torah.

Mainly this is an argument between the Rambam (emphasis on first syllable) who forbids and the Ramban (emphasis on the last syllable) (Moshe ben Nachman) and Raavad who permit. This comes up in the Shulchan Aruch also where the commentaries say that even the Rambam only forbids it as an איסור עשה a prohibition that comes from the force of a positive commandment.
The Gra brings down the notable fact that כלב בן יפונה [caleb ben yefuna the friend of Joshua] had a girl friend. He and Joshua were the only two of the spies that Moses sent into the promised land that gave a positive report. he is the only person in the Torah that it says about him וימלא אחרי השם he went after God completely

The only reason I mention this is that we live in a time when shiduchim  are impossible for most people.
The Rosh (Rabbainu Asher) seems to think that mainly it is permitted, but that because of nida issues he rules against it.
And that is the way the Tur also rules.
I also happen to know a few people with several wives.. Nowadays when a woman wants a guy she will get him. She won't care if he has another wife.  Woman want the Alpha Male and rarely let anything get in their way.
The Cherem of Rabbainu Gershom had a time limit according to the Shulchan Aruch. It has expired.



In general though I would keep this private. You personal life should never be allowed to be examined in public or subject to the approval of anyone.




The Geon from Vilnius has a few ideas which I wanted to share. that God runs the world with a different trait from time to time.

1) The Geon from Vilnius has a few ideas which I wanted to share.
that God runs the world with a different trait from time to time.
Now I shared this with someone and they thought I meant in cycles. Now cycles might be an idea but it is not what the Gra meant from what I can tell. The cycle idea might help us understand the rise of civilization. The Sumerians [cities and infrastructure], the the Jewish people [the Ten Commandments and the Law], the the Greeks (science, art, music, philosophy, politics), then the Romans, and then the Renaissance.


2) The Torah portion of the week corresponds to every hundred years. That is why the Gra found himself mentioned in Tetze. And also we find the Holocaust in Ki Tavo with the curses. That put us in a parsha that mentions the verse "Moshe called to Joshua" {VaYelech}.


23.12.14

The idea of infinity is in itself kind of paradoxical.

The idea of infinity is in itself kind of paradoxical. It is not a limited thing and it does not keep going. The strange nature of infinity was what led Kant to conclude that space itself can't be finite nor can it be infinite.  It is the way we conceive of things in themselves (dinge an sich).


) The thing that is difficult to understand here is where is the primary emphasis? The mind or external reality? With Kant external reality contains the dinge an sich (the thing in itself). In this way he is like Plato. We humans are down here in the cave of non reality. On the other hand with Kant sometimes the mind seems to take precedence. As when we say the mind makes external reality possible.
 To answer this  Schopenhauer-that the subject and the object each contribute a half to the final representation.
Frankly I like this. It gives us two levels of reality which is "just right" from my point of view. [Plato]
But these two levels of Kant  are not empirical and interior. They are phenomenon, and dinge an sich.
And the understanding is applied to both.



2) To show morality is objective  
\\All we have with Kant and Schopenhauer is that the representation is made half by the subject and half by the object. But what is that representation? It is a universal. It is not the dinge an sich! The dinge an sich exists independently from the subject as Kant says openly! The dinge an sich or a moral principle exist independently from the subject.  It's character--how it applies in any situation --part of the moral principle that is a representation is dependent on the  subject.
hink it is right.


"Anything but Torah." (That is the motto of the Satan)

I am looking on the news about difficulties involving Russia and the Ukraine. Also a set of problems involved with Muslims not very happy with Western Civilization. That along with race issues in the USA. Plenty of problems with no apparent answer.
My answer to these difficulties is to learn Torah. That is my feeling is that learning the Oral and Written Law would be a help. But for Torah to be it is also important to learn Musar along with it. Musar referring to books which deal with the ethical and world view issues of Torah.

This basic idea you can find in the book Nefesh Hachaim by Chaim from Voloshin, a disciple of the Gra [Eliyahu from Vilnius]. But it makes sense also. We know we humans are prone to mistakes especially in moral decisions. Ask yourself how many of your actions just ten years ago you think today were right? Probably very few. You have in the meantime probably changed your world view about major issues. The result is actions you did ten years ago you think were wrong. So we humans are flawed and need extra help to connect with the moral realm.

The written law is concerned mainly with revelation and the Oral Law is mainly concerned with how human reason can understand and interpret the Written Law. Together this is powerful way to come to connect with the space of moral facts.
Human reason on its own I should mention is not able to get to any solid conclusion about morality. What human think is moral today is utterly outrageous tomorrow.


So what I am suggesting is this: to get a Gemara Brachot and say it word by word. The first page with Rashi Tosphot and the Maharsha, and then the next page and so on until you have finished Shas. Same with the Jerusalem Talmud, Tosephta, Sifri and Sifra. Learn at home. (Don't bother with synagogues.)  It does not take more than a few minutes in a synagogue for someone to come up to you with some way to get you to stop learning Torah. They will always have some other mitzvah in mind that is "very important." "Anything but Torah." (That is the motto of the Satan)


22.12.14

For that reason, I tend to think the best thing is for people to get their own complete set of the Written and Oral Law: Gemara (Talmud), Bavli and Yerushalmi, Tosephta, Sifri and Sifra, and to learn them at home.

 For right now suffice it to say that the best approach to Torah that I know is a balance between Derech Eretz (work) and learning. What I think people should do is to balance between learning Torah and work or going to collage.

But this is just a symptom. What I think is something more internal is a problem in the charedi world. Some spiritual problem that I just can't identify.

For that reason, I tend to think the best thing is for people to get their own complete set of the Written and Oral Law: Gemara (Talmud), Bavli and Yerushalmi, Tosephta, Sifri and Sifra, and to learn them at home
Start learning Torah yourself. Open a Gemara Brachot and just say the words page after page until you have finished the whole Shas. Then do the same with the Yerushalmi, and then the Tosphta, Sifri and Sifra. Then all the writings of Isaac Luria. And have also an in depth class.
The best way for in depth learning is to get the basic set of Brisk--Chaim Soloveitchik, Baruch Ber, Shimon Shkop, and the Avi Ezri from Eliezer Menachem Shach, and learn them on one  sugia.
[Shmuel Berenabum's classes would be a good addition to the Brisk school of thought if they were available. They were taped but never printed.]





Appendix
1) In spite of my emphasis here on the Oral Torah, I hope it is clear that one needs also to finish the Old Testament in Hebrew. The Oral and Written Torah are both a part of what is called simply "Torah."
And it should be understood that one should also finish the basis set of Mathematics and Physics as the Rambam made clear in several places in his writings. I in fact had a Handbook of Mathematics printed by Springer. It was a translation of something in Russian and its style was very Russian--that is dense. But it was the only thing out there available that I could afford.
Nowadays I think it would be better to just get a few basic textbooks. One for Algebra like that three volume set from Nathan Jacobson., and one for topology like that one from Allen Hatcher (Algebraic Topology. Also I only left out the writings of Isaac Luria because I think the Oral law comes first. But after one has finished once through the whole Oral and written law then certainly it is important to get the set of the writings of Isaac Luria and go through them word by word until he has finished the whole set.]
2) Also in spite of my emphasis on balance, Torah with Work and college, that does not mean to learn non kosher subjects in college, like psychology. What makes it non kosher is its world view about what human beings are is not like the world view of the Torah in these matters. There are people that believe in psychology and still outwardly do Jewish rituals, but they are pigs that show themselves to split the hoof and so outwardly have one sigh of kashrut but inwardly they are traif not kosher.
3) Post Modern Philosophy  would have to be considered to be not kosher. In spite of the Rambam's emphasis on learning Physics and Metaphysics still philosophy today is not along the lines he was thinking.
4) Most every academic discipline has a kosher core and a pseudo science exterior. This includes Torah and kabalah also. In fact I have a theory that most institutions are made to stop people from doing what they profess to be helping them to accomplish. This is because the pseudo exterior is most often the main thing that is being taught. Psychology for example really intends to make people mentally ill. It accomplishes this by getting them to talk about sex and to make them think they are getting cured of some problem by doing so. And people love to talk about sex. psychologist just found a way to make money off of this perverse desire.