The Cotton Letter made it clear that a Republican controlled Congress will never agree to any deal that allows Iran to have nuclear weapons. This is the not the intention of the Democrats. Yet here we see Jewish people complain about the Republicans who are desperately trying to stop Holocaust 2.0 They even want to indict Cotton for trying to save Jewish lives. Why did they not suggest indictment of Kerry who met with Iran officials a few weeks ago? Maybe the idea is that they simply hate Republicans and try to find any possible excuse to hurt them?

 Jews without Torah are drawn to socialism. In Russia in the early days of Lenin, Jews were drawn to Bolshevism, and then Communism. In Germany, as unbelievable as it might seem, some Jews were attracted to National Socialism. Some Jews voted for the National Socialists in 1932 which brought Hitler, their worst enemy, to power. Today, all too many Jews support the Democrat Party, and are fully behind B. Hussein 0bama; even though he is a known enemy of Jews.   American Jews, out of a sense of guilt, support Israel with their donations, yet they look down on Israel because the Jews there, are not up to "their" standards. 

 American Jews, while in love with Socialism, disdain the freedom and free enterprise  enjoyed by Israelis. Sadly, liberalism or Liberal Socialism as it actually is, would deny Israel the right to exist and would in all probability, eventually get around to once again, rounding-up Jews and concluding as their National Socialist cousins did in 1942, that there must be an answer to the "Jewish Question." The answer of course, is Holocaust 2.0. Liberal Socialists have embraced the Islamic Cause, and have deep down, latent disdain for Jews and anything Jewish.


The Cotton Letter made it clear that  a Republican controlled Congress will never agree to any deal that allows Iran to have nuclear weapons. This is not  the intention of the Democrats. Yet here we see Jewish people complain about the Republicans who are desperately trying to stop Holocaust 2.0  They even want to indict Cotton for trying to save Jewish lives.

Democrats know that people are aware of the meaning of socialism -- the ownership and control of everything by the government -- and that Americans especially have an immediate and visceral antipathy to that. Democrats think that if they talk about freedom (while promising free stuff) while in fact creating tyranny, they will be able to deceive enough people to get away with it.
The Democrats hate almost everything about Israel and America, including the very ideas of limited government, individual rights, private property, self-defense, free enterprise, free speech, etc.

The argument is in LM I:15: One must bring fear up to its root. Because when does not do so then fear is dressed in everything in this world.
The idea is that when there is judgment below there is no judgment above. So when one judges himself on everything he does then there are no judgment upon him above. But when one does not judge himself then they do judge him in heaven and then the judgments are dressed in everything  this world. and when the judgment are dressed in things in this world then he has fears. he is afraid of things because they in fact have the power to hurt him since the higher judgments are dressed in them.



Just as a side not I should mention that there are too many religious groups out there that cash in on the appearance of authenticity. And I admit it would be nice to have a gauge to measure such a thing.
My suggestion for authenticity in Torah would be to find a decent Litvak yeshiva and also go to Israel. Preferably both together. And if you want the authentic Israeli experience I recommend going into the IDF. In fact in the context of Musar there is a certain amount of opinions that are not well to my liking. The amount of people that think being against Israel is a good thing is astonishing. I am not impressed with their arguments.

In the insane religious world, shuls and synagogues tend to be clandestine cults. Or if not actual cults then at least the really evil cults spend a lot of time and effort in infiltrated legitimate places]

A small stick of wood can lite a large one. I may be a small stick of wood, but I am sure  there is a large stick of wood out in the world somewhere that needs to hear what I have to say, and that is this: It is possible to go through the entire Oral Law. If possible, it is best to do this in a kind of Lithuanian yeshiva situation. But it is not necessary. You can do it at home. And after all what can you do if you walk into  a  or shul yeshiva and they try to convince you of some alternative doctrine that is not true and straight Torah? [In the insane religious world,  shuls and synagogues tend to be clandestine cults. Or if not actual cults then at least the really evil cults spend a lot of time and effort in infiltrated legitimate places]
Not every city is blessed to have a Mirrer Yeshiva or Torah VeDaat in every neighborhood.
Last time I was in Israel I was blessed to have a nice straight Litvak Yeshiva in the neighborhood and that was a great help in my learning. That was of Rav Montag in Netivot--the city of Bava Sali.

There might be questions on yeshivas. You might have had difficult experiences in one or the other.
But I want to suggest Abusus Non Tollit Usum. [The "um" at the end of a Latin noun means it is the object.] (Abuse does not cancel use.) That is people can abuse any system even the most perfect system. So what I suggest to you is that if you have had a hard time in learning Torah you have to tweak the variables in a way that applies to your own particular situation. But not tweak variables in Torah itself. Only Torah is Torah. People commonly try to change some aspect of Torah to make it more compatible with the way they would like it to be. That advantage of the Litvak path is that there is a general understanding that only Torah is Torah and it is known that one is not allowed to change it to suit ones taste.

Appendix:
1) Oral Law means the two Talmuds, Sifra, Sifri, Mechilta, Tosephta and Midrash.
To go through it you need one fast session: read and words aloud and in order and go on. The slow one is like in any Lithuania yeshiva mainly to stay on one page for about a week and  keep knocking away it it until it become clear.
2) I am not implying to minimize the time needed for STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] subjects. If you are doing this in university keep it up. The time needed for Torah in such a  setting is only about two hours per day. An hour for fast learning and one hour for learning in depth with a learning partner.
As a general life plan how ever I think people should have about four years in a straight Lithuanian yeshiva anyway - at least half a day besides university.

Musar (Ethics)

I want to defend the idea of learning Musar (Ethics).

Musar is as is well known to be not the same thing as Hashkafa (world view) issues. It is also not the same as Halacha (legal) issues. It occupies its own special niche.

 It is mainly about two sub-issues--Fear of God and character improvement.

It is hard to defend because of lots of reasons. We know that Brisk never became  a Musar yeshiva. We know lots of people, even mashgichim (מנהלים רוחניים), learn Musar and there is not apparent character improvement. 

Some people have been in so called Musar yeshivas and were not happy, and perhaps were even treated not well.

Still, I think it is important for its two areas of expertise, a) Fear of God and b) character improvement.
And I think that there is nothing that can replace its utility in these two areas.
What I mean is that sometimes you hear people saying other books have Musar in them.. They in doing this mean well, but are not really interested in what Musar is about.




Musar here refers to the basic medieval set of Ethics books, plus the books of the immediate disciples of Israel Salanter. [Isaac Blazer, Joseph Horvitz, Simcha Zisel, Naphtali Amshterdam were his immediate disciples.]

Appendix:
1) השקפה  world view issues are dealt with in books like Saadia Geon's אמונות ודעות Faiths and Doctrines. Also in the Guide for the Perplexed of the Rambam. It is a solid rule that only Reform and Conservative  Jews read these books, because everything in them goes against the insane religious world 's major tenets.
2) Musar and world view issues do intersect in certain areas.  Also Musar and the LM  do intersect in some areas. But what I am suggesting is-- that there are large areas where they do not intersect.
3) At least I want to suggest having the basic books of Musar in your home. I think where Musar is there is a invincible force field that protects the place.
4) The argument that Musar is a good and important and indescribably great thing would have to be based on my own experience and on what I saw in the Mirrer Yeshiva in NY and also on my experience with people that don't learn Musar. I don't think I could defend it based on some theoretical value, or insight it gives.

One thing I know about Russia. Anything you are surprised about is planned. It is their primary strategy. If Putin disappears for a week it is because he wants people to be surprised. And even perhaps to rumor that he is not feeling well. And why would he want that? Because he does not want to waste any more time with negotiations. But also because he does not want a slow build up about the Ukraine. He sees the USA is about to send upgraded tech to the Ukraine.  And that would make it hard to retake it. To me it all points to one thing. He is about to launch a full-scaled invasion. If he wants the Ukraine, he knows he has to take it now. The president of the USA is a weak fool.

Communist strategy to weaken and demoralize America has worked thoroughly. The men are all beta males, or mentally confused cross gender nut cases. This is the perfect opportunity for Putin to launch a surprise. And he loves surprises.
But though this sounds like an alarm, I don't think it is  a big deal. Best thing at this point I say is to recognize the independence of the eastern provinces. Remove the cause of war.


It seems to me he might be using a retreat advance strategy also. First advance. Then pretend that he regrets it and is willing to make amends. then advance again.  And so on and so forth. And this applies to the USA also. Not just the Ukraine. There is still the idea of destroying the USA so that Communism can take hold of it from within.
Communism never had a goal to physically destroy the USA. Rather the idea was to morally disable it so that the USSR could take control of it. The idea is that though things like homosexuality would be against the law in Russia they would secretly promote it in the USA by clandestine means in order to erode and destroy the USA from within. And this goal has gone forward.

I had a few interesting experiences in Israel. But they were spread over different time periods.
And some are a bit personal and thus not easy to write about. And each period provides insight into what Israel is about. One period is when I was in a kollel in Safed of Rav Ernster. . That in itself was a very nice period until Baali teshuva started showing up. When they moved into Meor Chaim --and everyone knows how crazy baali teshva are- it became a nightmare.
There was another time period in Jerusalem in which I spent time with Rav Zilverman [the Rosh Yeshiva of Adert Eliyahu] and his father in law Rav Shlanger the Mashgiach of Porat Yoseph and Pertz Aurbach.

The kind of Judaism I saw in Israel is very different from what is seen in the USA.
I have mentioned on my blogs my different points of view about things but I show make clear  that a lot of my opinions are based on what I saw in Israel and it is because of my experience there that I tend to be critical of Judaism in the USA.

In any case  there was another time period in which I spent a lot of time with the family of Bava Sali in Netivot and Jerusalem. Especially the daughter of Bava Sali, Avigail Buso I found to be an amazing personality,

In any case my learning partner has been on a crusade telling me and anyone who will listen to learn the Nachmanides on the Torah.

Demons

This is an argument between the 'Rambam and the Ramban'. Maimonides and Nachmanides

The Rambam holds they are not real. Nachmanides hold they are but we are not allowed to worship them.
This came up in learning Sanhedrin. But in my own mind it helps to understand why it is that when people try to do the right thing, things go wrong.
When we understand that there are forces out there angels and otherwise--it helps to understand the irrational element of the world. That things don't make sense and the harder you try to do the right thing the more your feel forces at work against you.

When you see evil spreading in the world at an alarming rate, it is hard not to agree that there seems to be hidden forces  of evil at work. "Kelipot" so to speak. Evil gods. Can't there be some demon of homosexuality that is taking hold of people's minds in the USA?

In any case my learning partner has been on a crusade telling me and anyone who will listen to learn the Nachmanides on the Torah. [For English speakers there is the Chavel translation.]
My days are constrained so at least I am passing the message to the world in general about learning the Ramban (Nachmanides).