I have heard it often enough for it to seem to be a pattern. I think some people don't feel the holiness in the Talmud.
At first I did not think anything of it.


But then I noticed even sincere people that long for God's holiness sometimes do not feel what is happening inside the Talmud.
Sometimes people close to me  would see me learning Talmud and  did not feel what or why I was doing so.
Sometimes you hear from a Breslov person that he walked into a Litvak (Lithuanian )Yeshiva and all he saw was people talking about some subject in the Talmud and they were not talking about God. And this was always presented as a proof to me that in Lithuanian yeshivas people don't think of God.
[Of course that is silly because we really don't have a lot of information about God. We know he is the First Cause who made everything something from nothing. And that is about it.]
In any case I have realized that there are people who don't feel what is going on in Talmud learning. So I would like to tell people what it is. It is numinosity. It is not that it makes devekut (attachment with God) possible but rather it is a level of devekut in itself.

And it simply is not that case that people don't think about God. From the day I left the world of Lithuanian yeshivas until today I have not seen one single prayer with the fervor and intention I saw at the Mir. At the Mir you could feel the Divine presence [Shechina] descend into the building during the morning prayers.

The Rambam (Maimonides) says prophets and the later scribes [sofrim] were allowed to add mitzvot but they could not say that God revealed the mitzvah to them. And if they would they would be stoned as a false prophet because God has already told us that the Torah he gave us is permanent  and that he will never add any mitzvah nor subtract any mitzvah.

And that was only until the end of the time of the Talmud. After the Talmud, no one has permission to add or subtract even a mitzvah derabanan [rabbinical decree].

OK. That is the introduction.  Now the question is about the blessing we say of lighting the Hanukkah lights. We say "who commanded us to light .." Would it not make more sense to say "Who commanded us to listen to the Sages?" After that is how the Rambam tries to get out if this problem. He says we are commanded to listen to the sages and they told us to light the Hanuka lights.  (There is also the issue about the main idea of לא תסור don't turn aside from what they say refers to the Sanhedrin.)



I remember sitting by Reb Shmuel Berenbaum with my wife one Yom Tov and he talked at the festival meal about this or something related. Later I noticed a similar discussion in a commentary of the Rambam. But it was a long time ago. It might have been related to the idea of the second day of the festivals in which the regular blessing are said. (The second day of the festival is not a law but a custom based on where the witnesses can arrive.)

Now all this is just common sense. We have Jewish communities in the Middle Ages and every community was able to make laws for its own members.  Just the laws would not have the force of a rabbinical law.
The problem is nowadays when all kinds of people claim to have divine revelation about some new mitzvah. This to me seems to be a problem.
You can even see this in Breslov which is generally just people sincerely looking to keep Torah.
But the leaders often claim Divine revelation. Just today I asked some fellow from Israel if he ever tried to be in a yeshiva. And he said he sold everything and came to Jerusalem  and found a job  and then walked into one Breslov yeshiva. It happened the minute he walked in the Rav was giving a lecture and was discussing the fact that he had critics. And he asked, "How can they criticize me when I have these amazing revelations from Heaven?" So Breslov does not seem to be immune from the general kinds of delusions which haunt the world of hasidim.

At any rate I do not mean to leave this hanging. My learning partner brought this up, and I do hope to recheck the Mishna LaMelech and Lechem Mishna  and (Ramban) Nachmanides about the issue of how there can be any such thing as a rabbinical mitzvah in the first place? [Since we are not allowed to add or subtract from the Torah. If anything comes up I hope to post it here.]
[I mean that the Ramban wrote a critique on the Rambam's Sefer Hamitzvot where he goes into this. I know he goes into this issue over there.]



I only mean for this blog entry to be an introduction to this problem.

I have mentioned learning fast a few times. . But the first time I saw this concept was from a book Biyan Olam בנין עולם which was from some Litvak in Israel. And in fact the Gra mentions this concept himself. And it is brought in the Talmud itself. [Avoda Zara 19:a] What slows people down is the Magen Avraham who people will always quote to you [not in his name] who held if you don't understand, it is not called learning. But it looks like the Gra did not hold from that particular Magen Avraham. [Orach Chaim 50 paragraph 2]
See the new edition of אבן שלמה from Israel where the editor brings proof of this in the Appendix

The Gemara says:
Rava said one should always say the words and go on even though he forgets and even though he does not know what he is saying.

I found this approach encouraging while I was in yeshiva because  the yeshiva I was in was into learning in real immense depth. That is a good thing. But I also needed this counter weight to get a general idea of what was going on.
And I should mention that at the Mir in NY, it was a given that in the afternoon one was supposed to be learning fast.

The Geon from Villna says two things stop a person's prayer from being accepted. One if he has sins.
The other is not relevant right now.

 But if you want your prayer to be answered and you know you have done some sin , it makes a lot of sense to go to someone who in your best judgment is righteous. The problem is deciphering who is a tzadik.
being a tzadik after the time of the Baal Shem Tov became big business.

If what Putin is doing is escalation, then I would say now not to escalate. The worst thing would be war. So if Putin wants Donetsk and Lugansk, then let him have them. What is the big deal anyway?
What exactly is in Donetsk that makes it worth a world war? Some coal?
Now normally speaking I would not say this, because it is not nice to just walk in and take over. But most of what good there is in the Ukraine comes from Russia anyway. The buildings and the infrastructure, schools, doctors, etc. all come from when the Ukraine was part of the  USSR.

As it is it is hard to do any kind of business in the Ukraine because business agreements are worthless. You can buy a apartment from someone you think is the owner and the next day the real owner shows up and asks what are you doing in my apartment? In Russia at least business is possible.


But this is all not really relevant to the main point. What seems to be happening is that Putin seems intent on matching whatever the Ukraine does. If the Ukraine sends in more troops then Donesk makes a draft and the Russians send in hardware and military advisers. There is not end to this scenario except not to escalate in the first place.
Don't send in more troops and then Russia will not send in more troops. And the young soldiers on both sides get to live out their normal lives instead of dying over a border which has always been fluid.

Even the critics of Musar(--the movement of Israel Salanter to get people to learn Jewish books of ethics from the Middle Ages-) admit it brings one to fear of God.  In fact that is their major criticism of it. They don't like the fact that it brings one to fear God. They think that is a bad thing. So no one is disagreeing with what Musar accomplishes. Rather they don't like what it accomplishes if done with the proper fervor and intensity.

Some people might think that fear of God is a bad thing.

Highly recommended spiritual groups: The Lithuanian Yeshivas in New York, Mir, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat. But for these places you in general need to have some knowledge of Talmud. For beginners in NY I would recommend Shar Yashuv.In Israel the best is Ponovicth. But that is known anyway as the MIT and Cal Tech of all yeshivas.

Less recommended  are almost any other Litvak Lithuanian yeshiva.
But cult places are to be avoided at all cost. They are dangerous cults (as the Gra pointed out).
But they have charisma, and people get spiritual highs from cults. Even so they are traps.
Sadly, some people feel that dangerous cults are only found in Hindu or Buddhist  groups. They feel anything Jewish is Kosher and the more Jewish and strict it is the more kosher it is. The truth is just the opposite. The more strict they are the more likely they are to be a cult. Especially when they parade their Jewishness.

The Rambam has a parable

The Rambam has a story inside the Guide about learning Physics and Metaphysics. It is the parable of the Kings palace. In short in the parable you have a country of a king in which people differ in their closeness to the king. there are people outside the country, inside, in the capital city, around the palace in the outer part of the palace and in the inner part.
The parable refers to how close people are to God. There the Rambam puts philosophers and scientists in the palace with God.
But he also makes a condition that they need to be facing God.