That is the end of the quote. My take on this is that Israel is very hard to be in. But it is the essence of what it means to be Jewish. For reasons beyond my control, I have found being in Israel difficult.But I long to be there. And synagogues I am in general not very happy with.  Probably the best are Conservative or Re-constructionist. I would not go anywhere near an the insane religious world  one.
If there was a straight Lithuanian yeshiva in my area, I would spend as much time as possible there.

But when I say yeshiva I mean something along the lines of the Mirrer in NY. I have made a suggestion before to have a "Beit Midrash" on a blog I wrote a long time ago. That is a study hall which is a little less formal than a yeshiva but close enough.

In any case I am not into organized religion much. As far as I am concerned people ought to learn Torah, and I don't care much where they do it. In fact, if you can do it at home- that is the best. If you are not up to Talmud, then maybe get a Mishna. But in any case, I don't accept the idea that people can't learn on an advanced level. I think that is sheer laziness. The way I see it, everyone has to go through the entire Oral Law at least once. Do it fast or slow, - I don't care. That means Talmud Bavli, Yerushalmi, Tosephta, Sifra, Sifri, and the basic Midrash [Midrash Raba.]

The Ramban [Nachmanides],

The Ram'ban [Moshe ben Nachman, Nachmanides].[When you say Ramban you stress the last syllable.]]
My learning partner thinks he is the best thing there is for understanding Torah. I think part of his reasoning is that the Ram'ban is a kind of interface between the mystical parts of Torah and the more rational aspects.

And the rational parts don't make much sense without the mystical parts and visa versa.
If you go with just the rational explanation of Torah of the 'Rambam (Maimonides) things get very awkward.
His Aristotelian explanations of Torah, just don't seem to fit.  [And to make the 'Rambam (Maimonides) make sense you have to go to the mystic Avraham Abulfia and his commentary on the Guide anyway.]
But when people go into the mystical aspects they tend to go off the deep end very quickly. They start getting involved in the ten sephotot and unifications and Adam Kadmon and not the Torah.
They think that by meditating on the ten sephirot or Adam Kadmon or something that they get somewhere. Which is clearly false. All they get from that is delusions.


Nachmanides, the Ram'ban, shows a middle path. And in his commentary on Torah he shows how things make sense.

I am not sure what to think about this. when it comes to mysticism I just go with the Ari straight. But I admit the Ram'ban might be a good interface.

How would you define white privilege?”

Simple. Everything good comes from Blacks and Muslims; every invention, every new idea. It has only been blacks and Muslims fighting for social justice for whites. If not for blacks, whites would be in some mud hole in Africa.  
Jesus we know was black,  also Moses and Plato, Newton,  Einstein,  Bach, Kant and Gauss.
And they stole their ideas from Muslims and Blacks.
So everything whites have is only because of white privilege. Whites earned nothing. All they do is sit around all day and collect welfare checks. And complain about how blacks have exploited them, and how when they get the chance, they will take down the blacks.
Name one invention of a white person! Or a medicine? Nothing. Nada. 
And you can bet that it is only because of affirmative action that whites are accepted in any university.

To understand the Rambam's idea that learning Physics and Metaphysics brings one to Love and Fear of God. [This is stated most openly in the Guide for the Perplexed but also shows up in Mishna Torah] [The Rambam tells us what he means in different places. He says this in elliptical form as he warned us openly that he would write in that way. He defines the work of creation מעשה בראשית and work of the divine chariot מעשה מרכבה in the beginning of the Guide for the Perplexed . In the Guide itself he tells us what is the purpose he sees in these--the Work of Creation to come to fear, and the Work of the Divine Chariot to come to love. And this approach of the Rambam is quoted virtually verbatim in all later books of Musar.]


To justify this approach of the Rambam I would like to bring together a few ideas:

[1]  we find that God's glory does not extend everywhere. That is even though His glory fills the whole world, there are places where his glory does not reach. וכבודי לאחר לא אתן. Now we find that it says in a verse that God created the whole world for his glory. לכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So his glory is the root and life force of everything that exists. So what about those places where his glory does not extend? They get life force from the hidden statement (מאמר הסתום). "In the beginning God created heaven and earth."  That is hidden because it does not say "He said." [In nine other acts of creation it says, "He said."]

So the areas  the most hidden from God get their life force from the highest levels of holiness.

And when one turns to God from those areas and calls out "where is the place of his glory?" Then he returns to the highest statement of creation.

In Math and Physics there is no open numinosity. But there is the hidden statement by which the world was created. So when one turns to God there, and learns for the sake of Heaven, he brings up all the creation to God.




[2] Maimonides held that Torah is only the Written and Oral law. But two of the commandments of the Torah are to love and fear God, and these Maimonides held were only possible by learning Physics and Metaphysics. [He was referring to the two sets of books by Aristotle called the Physics and the other called the Metaphysics]. [In Hebrew University I studied both to see if what Aristotle was doing intersected with modern Physics. My conclusion was yes.]

[3] But there are different levels of revelation of Torah.
The world was sustained by the Ten Statements (עשרה מאמרות) before the Torah was given [ten times it says ''And God said'']
But these statements were hidden. Then the ten trials of Abraham were a first step towards the revelation of Torah. The ten plagues on Egypt were the next step to make it possible to reveal the Torah. Then the Ten Commandments were the actual revelation of Torah. [The idea of the plagues was that one has to get rid of evil before the good can be revealed.]

[4] But because the Torah is in everything, it is possible to serve God with everything.


In the above, I am looking at Maimonides's idea and though I realize it has a simple explanation, I am trying to find a deeper justification for it. The way it looks from the Rambam is learning Physics and Metaphysics is to inspire one and awaken him to the deepness and beauty of God's creation. What I am looking for here is the idea that the Physics and Metaphysics themselves are a kind of revelation of one aspect of of God's wisdom contained in his creation.
[Same as what the Rambam says about the idea of natural law that preceded Torah law. But that is a different discussion.]

I am also saying that Torah is a super level of natural law, not that it is identified with natural law.
At least this is the way I conceive of these things. Other people probably have different ideas, but that is my approach. It is basically Neo-Platonic, but I am using it to justify Maimonides' more Aristotelian approach. [The Rambam was not pure Aristotelian either, but as Plotinus himself a kind of mid point between Plato and Aristotle.]

[7] In this world is hidden holiness; and even in the lowest regions in spirituality is hidden the highest holiness that comes from the hidden statement of creation. [In the first statement of Creation there is no "He said"]



[8] Where do you see that "truth is in the ground?" In physical matter? Why is it that the Rambam insists on seeing in facts about physics the highest truths? He probably saw it in a Midrash. God wanted to create Man. The angel of truth came and asked, "How can you create Man when he is full of lies?" God took the angel of truth and threw him on the ground, as the verse says, "He threw truth to the ground.."



[9]  The Rambam holds learning Physics and Metaphysics (of Aristotle) is higher than learning Torah. Rambam beginning of the Guide, beginning of Mishna Torah, end of vol III or (vol II) in the Guide in the parable about the palace of the King,
See also LM II:39; LM II:12; LM I:1;
Sefer Hamidot of Nachman Ot Daat.

 To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the Ten Statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those Ten Statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom, and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.



[10]  There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. Often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah, one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.



Appendix: It is my hope that people will understand that learning Gemara, Rashi, and Tosphot is also important. I would hope that people can find a balance in which they spend part of their time on the Physics and the rest of the day on straight Torah.

Does Israel have a right to exist? This is a good question and I think Dr. Kelly Ross deals with it best on his web site in this essay: http://www.friesian.com/outremer.htm#israel

But I would like to approach this question from a less philosophical  angle.

Let's say you are in a group of people that are fighting to stay alive. The reason for this situation is not important. But it is the way things are. And there are other groups of men out there that want to kill everyone in your group and take your stuff. And they say to you that that is what they want to do. And they are actively going about getting weapons that will help them accomplish this.
What do you do?
You first need to find out who is with you, and who is against you.  You can't have anyone in your group who will open the gates to the enemy. Not even one single person. Because even one person from inside can destroy the whole group.
And you need to establish a perimeter.
And you need protection from the enemies. And there is no question that other groups of humans are the most dangerous enemies.
And people inside your group that tell you openly that when they get the chance they will join with the enemy clearly are not going to be an acceptable risk to have around.

Now let me ask does this group of people that you are  part of have a right to exist?

Or let me ask do people inside of your group that are trying to kill you have  a right to exist? Or do the groups outside your group that are trying to kill you have  a right to exist?

Would you think that they should be treated honor and a minimum amount of respect as you desperately try to get them away from your compound. Of course. Respect and honor them, but get rid of them as fast as you can.

This is obvious. So then why is there such a thing as antisemitism in the first place? It is because we Jews need to get rid of the cults in our midst.  The cults are the black plague which ruins everything.
See the Talmud in Tracate Shabat 39a: "If you see a generation that troubles are coming upon it, go out a check the Jewish leaders. Because all problems that come into the world only come because of Jewish leaders." I have tried to tell this to people before but no one listens. Cults just have too much magnetism.

The main way to tell if someone is insane is to see if they are psychologists. The problem starts when people take psychology in collage, but that does not make them insane. It is only when they become practicing psychologists that insanity takes hold of them and converts them into something that looks human.

And that that point they gain the ability to make people that come into contact with them also insane.
But this insanity is not visible usually to anyone but themselves. They know that they are insane. But they hide it in order to be able to continue in their profession.

While I realize that people do need guidance in their lives but going to insane people for guidance is a bad idea.
Psychologists and therapists  need psychological help. I wish them a cure and to get better soon. But there must be better places to go for life guidance than to sick people.

My own idea of where to go for life decisions ones own parents.  I have a basis for this idea. It is the fifth of the Ten Commandments. Outside of that ones siblings. And after that ones close friends.
There is a basis for this idea in Isaac Luria where we see that ones close family are actually integral parts of ones own soul.

My views about politics were formed basically by my learning Talmud. Talmud is thoroughly capitalistic. People have the right to what they have earned. And in the Torah and Talmud there is no permission to steal from people because you think they have gained their wealth by exploitation--even if it would be true that they did so.

This makes me thoroughly anti communist. And I have a philosophical justification for this view also based on Kant Hegel. But my view comes foremost from Torah and Talmud. Mainly from the Commandment "Thou shalt not steal." This is the exact opposite of the so called "Democratic Party" in the USA and the general approach of Communists and Socialists.