I mentioned my idea how to make the Gra make sense in terms of his idea that night starts after 13.5 minutes after sunset. [Or 18 if you go by a 24 minute mil.].
The problem with this is three medium stars don't come out until 45 minutes after sunset.
[Another problem is all rishonim and also Rav Saadia Geon say like Rabbainu Tam.]
I wrote my idea on this blog a few days ago that this can be explained by the expansion of the universe.
Shimon Baker in a Breslov Shul nearby told me he has another proof for the Gra. The Mechilta on Exodus 12. The first verse says, "This month shall be to you the beginning of the months."
The Mechilta [brought by Rashi] says God did not give Moses prophecy at night. So how could he show the moon to Moses? Answer God talked with him during the day and then right when it became night he showed him the moon.
The moon sets on the first day of the month right after sunset. Therefore when God showed him the new moon it had to be within about 13 to 18 minutes after sunset. On 72 minutes after sunset on the first day of the month there is no moon.


Please don't take this as a pesak halacha. Even though I have great respect for the Gra, I can't say to go with his opinion against all the Rishonim and the Shulchan Aruch itself which goes like Rabbainu Tam.
I know there are some people who follow the Gra in everything like Rav Zilverman in Jerusalem and that is admirable but I can't say to do that as a general rule. [I might like to, but I can't. ]

Sex  comes from the human attic, not the basement.



 an approach which does not hide sex under a veil of secrecy. Don't  make it something wrong or to be embarrassed about. But rather like atomic energy which can be used properly or improperly.
The subject of sex deserves a thorough treatment. The first place to look is at Yaakov Emden's sidur. There he goes into great length about the idea that sex to bring children into the world has to be on the night of Shabat after midnight. And it is clear that the man and wife have to sanctify themselves in thought and action in order to bring holy children into the world. You can see that this treatment of sex is very different than what you find in the secular world.


Just like sex within the right framework brings holy souls into the world so when it is done wrong does the opposite. At any rate this deserves a longer treatment than what i can do for it right now.

significant of good practices I had been doing when I was part of the Lithuanian Yeshiva World.

(1) Shemirat Habrit. The awareness that sexual purity is the first and foremost prerequisite towards any spirituality what so ever--if the spirituality we are talking about is from the realm of the holiness and not the opposite.
(2) Joy. I became aware that service to God must be with joy.
(3) Israel. Torah teachings gave me a lot of encouragement to get up and make aliya to Israel.
And that in itself led to all kinds of good things. [A lot of things opened up for me.]
(4) Talking with God . This was for me an amazing channel while I was in Israel. There was a nearby forest while I could go to and spend whole days doing this.

I think if I had keep up my Talmud learning along with these other good things that I would have been a lot better off. But as I said, I did not go into it with balance.

Breslov was kind of a sore point in Meor Chaim. Rav Ernster had invited Breslov baali teshua into the four buildings given to him by the Israeli government. And they were kind of a pain for him. I am sure he was surprised when I turned out myself to be a baal teshuva . He must have thought I was a regular "Mir Yeshiva Guy." In any case I did not fit into the kollel. And did not want to either. Learning Torah to get a pay check was not my cup of tea. But I think I should have gone there anyway or found some way to do my regular learning.

[The major problem I saw was that people took tests to show they were learning. To me that seemed an open violation of the principle not to use Torah to make money]

In any case, it seems to me that there was a great deal of tension in the kirya [set of buildings] because the baali teshuva/ [newly religious people] were constantly making problems for Rav Ernster and then other baali teshuva turned against me also until I had to leave Israel. Baali Teshuva do tend to be nightmares for everyone around them.
Rav Ernster himself acted in the whole episodes uprightly. Now it is highly uncomfortable for me to go into details, but also a lot of details are unknown to me. Mainly I got the impression of tension and at some point people that had become religious thought it was mitzvah to stone me and my children and that certainly made me uncomfortable enough to leave. Since then I have thought that kiruv [bringing people in to make them into the insane religious world ] is not all apple pie.
To make along story short  baali teshuva  were trouble makers. About a twenty on a scale from one to ten.

Even though I named this blog by the name of the Gra, and the Gra clearly holds learning Torah to be the central mitzvah, I think that a relationship with God has to be a give and take kind of thing. I don't think it can be all just learning what the Torah has to say but there has to be a kind of continuous conversation with God to open ones heart  for the words of the Torah to have  a place to enter.It is for this reason I think at least on weekends people should make a effort to go to some secluded spot preferable in the mountains or some forest in order to talk with God while no one else is around but you and Him. 

The Universe is expanding. So two thousand years ago stars were closer to Earth. So three medium stars would have been able to be seen sooner than they are nowadays. (Nowadays three medium stars come out at 45 minutes in Israel.)
This might explain why the Gra holds the night begins 13.5 minutes after sunset instead of  72 minutes.
We find in the Gemara Pesachim that there is a four mile walk from sunset until the night. But the Gra says that refers to when all the stars come out and does not refer to the halachic beginning of night.
Most Rishonim hold by Rabbainu Tam that the night starts after 72 minutes and that is what I have been accustomed\ to do for years. But at least we can understand the Gra.

The medium three stars thing is given in Shabat along with an argument about 2/3 or 3/4 of a mile from sunset until night. The thing that makes the Gra convincing is that the Gemara in Pesachim is not dealing with when the Halachic night begins.



Here is the basic idea here in Hebrew but with a little more detail.



 בעניין שקיעה של רבינו תם. רוב ראשונים פוסקים כמו ר''ת. אני מתקשה להבין את הגר''א. השתדלתי למצוא אופן שהגר''א יכול להיות בהתאם עם הגמרא בשבת, ועדיין לא מצאתי אופן כזה. אם הגר''א היה צודק, היה בהכרח לראות  כוכב בינוני אחד בשקיעה הראשונה, ואחר כך עוד אחד בתוך כמה דקות.
  זה כדי ששקיעה תיחשב להיות בין השמשות. וזה רק אחרי שכבר קודם השקיעה, היינו צריכים לראות שלשה כוכבים גדולים. ואי אפשר לדעת את הממוצע של קבוצה מסוימת אלא אם כן יודעים את כל הדברים שיש בקבוצה, ואי אפשר לדעת מה זה כוכב בינוני אלא אם כן קודם זה רואים את כל הכוכבים (שאפשר לראות אותם בלי משקפת), ואז אפשר לדעת מה זה "בינוני". ואז צריכים לבחור כמה כוכבים בינוניים, ולראות מתי הם יוצאים בליל המחרת. אני עשיתי את זה, ולפי מה שראיתי, לא יוצאים כוכבים בינוניים עד בערך ארבעים וחמש דקות אחר השקיעה בארץ ישראל.
תוספות רי''ד בשבת מפרש רבינו תם גם לשיטת חכמי יוון  (שחכמי ישראל הסכימו אתם בגמרא בפסחים)- והם אמרו שאין מסדרון (פרוזדור) שהשמש נכנס בו בשקיעה.  רב נטרונאי גאון אוחז בשיטת הגר''א. אבל רב סעדיה גאון אוחז בשיטת רבינו תם (מצוטט באבן עזרא שמות י''ב פסוק ד').
החלל מתרחב. ולכן לפני אלפיים שנה הכוכבים היו קרובים יותר  לארץ.ולכן היתה אפשרות לראות שלשה כוכבים בינוניים קודם הזמן שהם נראים היום. היום שלשה כוכבים נראים אחרי ארבעים וחמש דקות אחרי השקיעה. וזה עוזר לנו להבין את הגר''א שאוחז בשיטה שהלילה מתחיל אחרי שלש עשרה וחצי דקות. אנחנו מוצאים בגמרא פסחים שיש מהלך ארבע מילים מן השקיעה עד הלילה, אבל הגר''א אומר שזה מדבר על הזמן שרוב הכוכבים יוצאים, ולא על התחלת הלילה על פי הלכה. ויש סיועה לזה בגלל שהגמרא הפסחים אינה מדברת על התחלת הלילה לפי הדין. והגמרא נתנה שיעור שלשה כוכבים בינונים רק לסימן, לא מה שקובע את  הלילה.

 So what i am saying here is that I think if you look at the issue in Shabat that you will see the Gemara holds the time after sunset is what determines the night and that the stars are given as a sign.
Now I do admit this is not like 99% of the rishonim and it is not like Saadia Geon. But there are people that depend on the Gra and from what I can see in the Talmud itself it looks like the Gra was right.
Anyway people have heard of the idea of majority opinion when it comes to Rishonim but that would be against all the rishonim to decide any halacha like that. The idea comes from the beit Yoseph when he could not find a majority between the Rif, Rambam, and Rosh  and he presented it as a way to decide which way the halacha probably would be, not as his own decision and not as the ipso facto Halacha.

In fact this might be a good place to bring what Reb  Chaim from Voloshin writes about about halacha.
Many have stumbled and thrown off from themselves the labor of learning the Talmud in order to derive halacha. For they say learning to do is only learning the Shulchan Aruch. And even those that learn Gemara do it only to make themselves smart....
and that is not the straight path...The main halachic decision always has to be from the Talmud itself and the learning of the Shulchan Aruch is only as a reminder

The problem here might be the rate of expansion. 2000 years might be simply too short a time for the expansion to make any difference.

Here is a short introduction.
On the Sabbath Day, Jews are not allowed to work. If a Jew works on the Sabbath, he must bring a sin offering. But let us say he knew today is the Sabbath but he forgot about two different kinds of work. Does he bring one sin offering or two? This is no mystery. WE know already that he brings two.
[These sin offerings are stated in the Holy Bible in Leviticus chapter 4.]
Now there are lots of kinds of sins for which a Jew has to bring a sin offering. Another example is eating blood or forbidden fat. So lets say he forgot about the prohibition to eat blood and also forbidden fat. The we also know he brings two sacrifices. [This can get to be expensive. Each sacrifice has to be a sheep or  goat. You can't bring turtledoves or pigeons except for specific sins.]

We know what kind of work a Jews can't do on Sabbath because the Bible tells Jews not to build the Tabernacle on the Sabbath. So we know what ever type of work was needed for building the Tabernacle, we can't do on the Sabbath.



Rabbi Zachai said Shabat is more strict than other commandments in the Torah because if one does two acts of work by one "forgetting" on Shabat he brings two sin offerings (Leviticus 4), while for other commandments he brings only one

The Talmud [Gemara in Sanhedrin 62]   for some reason does not like this. But what Rabbi Zachai says makes plenty of sense. If one knows today is Shabat but forgot about two kinds of work he does bring two sacrifices. This is called חילוק מלאכות division of labor.
What it seems the Gemara is trying to ask is that Shabat has divisions in side of it while other rmitzvot do not. But if that is what it is trying to ask then why does it not ask it? Instead it goes into the problem in an elliptical way. It asks: What two works are we talking about here? If harvesting and grinding then but other mitzvot we are talking about forbidden fat and blood. But there two there are two sacrifices.
If on Shabat we are talking about two acts of the same kind of work like harvesting the also by blood there would be only one sacrifice.

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.