If you look at the Rambam [Maimonides] about the issue of idolatry you can see he uses the second verse לא תעבדם "Don't serve them as a verse that specifically forbids kissing  hugging, sweeping in front or doing an kind of honor to an idol." That is the verse in Exodus 30. And he says one does not get lashes for this because it is not explained in the verse what it is referring to exactly.

So he is not using the idea of the Gemara [Sanhedrin 63a] that it is a לאו שבכללות a prohibition that forbids many things.
Tosphot also asks in the last Tosphot on the page how is it different than Shabat or cooking a the sciatic nerve on the festival, or eating the Passover sacrifice boiled or raw? He says basically the same as the Rambam אלו מיפרשי טפי.

What does all this mean? Is this how the Rambam and Tosphot are explaining the idea of לאו שבכללות a prohibition that forbids many things?

Tosphot  and the Rambam are saying that the prohibition for the rebellious son is don't eat on the blood and that is the prohibition that gets him lashes.  So Tosphot is not looking at this a a לאו שבכללות -- but  Tosphot and the Rambam both say about "don't serve other gods" that the problem is it is not explicit about what the lashes come for.
So what we have is that what I said a few days ago in this blog. That Tosphot and the Rambam simply noticed that Rabbi Yochanan disagrees with the Braita. Dont eat on the blood is not a לאו שבכללות. But לא תעבדם is a  לאו שבכללות







P.S. There are more serious kinds of idolatry, i.e., the four services and accepting  anything or anyone as ones god. But the prohibition for those things comes from a different verse that is found in the Ten Commandments.

Sanhedrin 61b.

I assume this is the basic reason the Gra found good reason to sign his name on the famous  excommunication that deals with this problem.

In any case every moment you spend with God is a a moment in eternity.

It is my opinion that thus we can see how important it is to talk with God at least an hour a day while walking around either in a wilderness or even in the city. This practice is good for the body and the soul.

This clearly started with King David. There was a book written about it by  Lawrence in France (The Presence of God).

So my suggestion is for people to walk to and from work and on the way there and back to talk with God. And if possible on weekends to get out of the city and get into the wilderness and spend time alone with God. And I should add that I think that God answers prayer sometimes. In any case every moment you spend with God is a a moment in eternity.

The sages of the Mishna made an effort to decide what was part of the Torah
There was some questions about the Song of Songs and the book of Ezekiel.
The only reason these two were included was the first Rabbi Akiva said was OK and the other another sage went into his attic and did not leave until he resolved the contradictions.
This is all contained in Bava Batra and in the Talmud Shabat.
Later on the Oral Law was all written down.  So we have today the set of the oral Law.
That is an actual account of the oral tradition. Later on a kind of consensus developed about what would be considered valid Halacha books. So we have a kind of set of Halacha.

There is a point to this. The point is that even if people are going to read books out of the regular set of Torah they still need to know what is part of the regular set and what is not. The Sages of the Mishna could have just said whatever people want to read they will read anyway. And they were not making a list of forbidden books. It is rather people need to know what is the established system.
I suggest a similar process with Musar.

Here is my idea of the what constitutes the Oral and Written Law Torah. Old Testament. The Two Talmuds and Midrashei Halacah Midrashei Agada,
Rif, Rosh, Rambam, Tur, Beit Yoseph.

Musar I think also needs to be limited in some way.
I am not alone in this. At least we know that Rav Shach made a distinction between books that are meant to be clarify things within the context of the Oral Law and books of "hashkafa" world view issues.  He wrote that the verse "Of making books there is no end and they weariness to the flesh." applies to books of world view.

What is wrong with books about Hashkafa (השקפה world view of Torah)?
1) They are in most often written by authors who do not know the Hashkafa of Torah.
That is to say Saadia Gaon wrote a book for the specific purpose of telling people the world view of Torah. You would think that a book by an authentic Gaon would be popular by people who want to understand about the world view of Torah. I mean who could possible know it more accurately that a real authentic Gaon? But in fact people have scarcely even heard of Saadia Gaon and the name of his books certainly  draws a complete blank. [It is called the Creeds and Doctrines. אמונות ודעות].
The Guide of the Rambam is also written specifically for the sake of explain the world view of Torah. You would think it would the singular most popular book in the Jewish world. Who after all could know the world view of Torah or explain it more clearly that the Rambam himself?

But the truth is people don't read these two books because they say things people don't want to hear.
They would rather read books that feed into their delusions and make them feel good about themselves. They don't want to know or even hear about what the Torah actually holds. And of they do then it will only be about rituals--never about what the Torah holds about major issues.
The problem with the Guide for the Perplexed of the Rambam is not that it is hard to understand. The reason people don't read it is because it is possible to understand. All too possible and all too easy. And then when he says things that fly in the face of what people want to believe it is disturbing.

A link to music that was written for the glory of God

holy spirit in midi [i cannot find a mp3 version]
orchestra in midi  orchestra in mp3
n86 in midi n5 in midi

p120 [in midi]


n3 in midi


n7 in mp3  n7 in midi

n8 in mp3  n8 in midi

i1  [in midi]

l76 in mp3   l76 in midi

I want to write about the Talmud in Sanhedrin two questions and one answer. I want to write a little background about Bava Metiza page 14.

1] But I want to start with Bava Metzia. My whole essay on the other blog [Wine Women and Transcendence is mainly understandable only if you have this first fact that if you have a borrower who has property at the time of the loan his property is משועבד is a lean for the loan. That is the context of the argument between the Maharsha and the Maharshal. The property bought later can also be a lean because of what he writes in the deed of sale. But that is not relevant to the argument. Let's say, for example, over there on page 14 the borrower goes after the second buyer. It will be let's say for argument's sake that we are only going with the idea of what was owned at the time becomes  a lean. So how can the loaner go after the first guy when there was still property owned by the borrower? It would not make any difference if we added an extra variable about the deed of sale.

2] Sanhedrin 63. Tosphot has two questions on the Gemara. And when I sat down to learn it today by the ziun of Reb Nachman it suddenly occurred to me that Rabbi Yochanans hold that לא תאכלו על הדם "Don't eat on the blood" is a prohibition for the rebellious son alone. That is how Tosphot understands the Gemara and in fact also the Rambam. That is Rabbi Yochanan disagrees with the Braita.  So everything I wrote about this subject before is ridiculous. We still have the same question on the Gemara. Why is the redactor of the Gemara inserting Rabbi Yochanan into this discussion.
But Rabbi Yochana in any case makes perfect sense. And the Rambam probably saw that also, and said, "If redactor did not have to insert R Yochanan here, that does not change anything about the halacha. All we have is a question on the Gemara. So what? It does not change anything."
I will have to find what I wrote about all this and erase it.

3]The Gemara thinks the prohibition of hugging and kissing an idol and sweeping up in front of it are all  לאו שבכללות a prohibition which prohibits different things and therefore gets no lashes. David asked. "Why?" This is not the usual case of לאו שבכללות a prohibition which prohibits different things
The usual case is one verse that forbids wildly different things. Hugging and kissing an idol are just subcategories of the same thing.

4] Why are hugging and kissing an idol and sweeping up in front of it forbidden? Rashi says in the Mishna page 61b from the extra don't serve them in parshat Mishpatim if these things have a special verse forbidding them and the verse if calling them serve then they are service not according to it way and they should be liable a sin offering. We have already that the first "Don't serve them" in the Ten Commandments means serve according to their way. And we say the four services also are included because of a גילו מילתא. But here we have the same expression used for these minor services. Why should they not be included in the general category?




סנהדרין סג.יש לתוספות שתי שאלות על הגמרא.  הגמרא מביאה ברייתא שפורטת כמה דברים שעוברים עליהם משום לא תאכלו על הדם. ואז היא מביאה רבי יוחנן שאומר שהלאו של בן סורר ומורה בוא הפסוק לא תאכלו על הדם. ואב היא מביאה רב אבין שאומר על כולם אינו לוקה משום לאו שבכללות. שאלה אחת היא שבן סורר ומורה הוא לאו הניתן לאזהרת מיתת בית דין ולכן ממילא אין מלקות. שאלה שנייה שבן סורר ומורה כן לוקה. ישבתי ללמוד ליד ציון ר' נחמן ופתאום הבנתי שרבי יוחנן סובר שלא תאכלו על הדם הוא לאו לבן סורר ומורה לבד. הוא אינו מסכים עם הברייתא. אצל ר' יוחנן כן לוקים על הלאו הזה ואנו לאו שבכללות. ככה התוספות מבינים רבי יוחנן שהם אומרים שבאמת זה הלאו שבגללו הבן סורר ומורה לוקה, וכן סובר הרמב''ם שמביא את הפסוק הזה ללאו הזה.) סנהדרין סג. הגמרא אומרת שלא תעבדם הוא אוסר גיפוף ונישוק ומכבד לפני עבודה זרה וגם היא אומרת שזה לאו שבכללות. החברותא שלי שאל איך זה יכול להיות? לאו שבכללות אומרים על לאו אחד שאוסר דברים שונים לגמרי. אבל כאן הדברים האלו הם ציורים שונים של כבוד לעבודה זרה שלא כדרכה. עוד קושיא רש''י במשנה כתב שגיפוף ונישוק אסורים משום "לא תעבדם" יתירה שנכתבה בפרשת משפטים לא תשתחווה לאלהיהם ולא תעבדם כי מוקש הוא לך, אם  הפסוק בעצמו אומרת שאלו הדברים הם עבודה למה לא חייבים עליהם קרבן חטאת

My story is I started a little above average. I mean my family was wonderful. But I had some kind of internal need to discover the meaning of Life the Universe, and Everything Else. And that is bound to not end well. Almost by definition. With the amount gurus and scam artists that grow like mushrooms it is hard to imagine how such a search could end well. But my some quirk of fate  I did end up in two remarkable yeshivas in NY [Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway and Mirrer in Brooklyn.] But the hammer hit the anvil and after all what is a good story without conflict? And mine is no different. Instead of getting the girl as every good story has, in mine I lost the girl and fell to the bottom of the well.
 So this is more about life in the bottom of the well. and when one is in the bottom of the well that is  interesting. The hobos and vagabonds like me love . Down here in foggy bottom. No one loves a loser. And so it is lonely down here. And yet in our misery we find encouragement

here are links to some music which I wrote for the glory of God.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B71pces179i2cGRZZVhRZERJOW8/view?usp=sharing

This needs editing towards the end



b99



b100

This needs some editing.
But I can't convert anything to Midi. So I hope this version is OK.

Midi Files


e33



Mathematics




n83

l76I just found a way to put this here in Midi. [I pressed "export."]