I think that to come to Torah is a highly difficult task being that the basic organizations that are supposedly there to help one in this direction are in fact are obstacles. What one ought to do is to learn Torah at home or at a legitimate Lithuanian yeshiva. Shuls and synagogues tend to be highly problematic.
If you want to learn Torah you have to do it on your own, or find a place that is devoted to the Torah without any side agenda or hidden agenda.
I am trying to be polite and not offensive. But if I could say over just the basic facts of what I know surely you would be shocked. Because many times people and places that makes the greatest show of keeping the Torah are doing secretly just the opposite. Count on it. [The groups that consider it of primary importance to seem Jewish, are not.]

Take for example the school I was planning on going to. They would go through about 5 books per week. Why I ask can't the same be done with Torah. Take one week to finish the Old Testament in Hebrew. The go through the Babylonian Talmud. Just an hour a day would get you through about seven pages at least if you read slow. That way you finish it in a year. I would like to add Rashi and Tosphot but the first time just the basic Gemara is enough.


But this is not meant to be an all day long project. Not everyone was meant to be reading books all day long. At least not me. Though 4 years in a Litvak yeshiva is important but after that people ought to work.

I think learning each day should be short and sweet. A hour with a learning partner in Talmud in depth. Then one hour of fast learning the Oral and Written Law. An hour of Physics and Math. Then work. [And kollels I should mention I think tend to support people that ought to be working. Not everyone but most. I think supporting kollels is mainly the same as throwing away money down the drain.]

For the glory of God -a music link to an l file

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In terms of learning Torah I mentioned about the Oral Law which is not Kabalah. And there are plenty of reasons to frown on kabbalah. But today I heard one person who was all excited about the Ari.  I was surprised [pleasantly]. There is something so remarkable about Isaac Luria that it always astounded me how people might not be excited by him.  It is not Oral Law, but it personal revelation that also has validity.

If possible I would love to finish the writings of the Ari. For some reason I got interrupted in the middle and never could get back to it. I was at the Mirrer Yeshiva in NY and when I did not have to be at the yeshiva doing Gemara, I learned the Eitz Chaim at home.

I think it was the most astounding book I had ever read, and it affected me indelibly. But I am very happy that I learned it only after I had gone through a lot of Talmud first as the Ari himself says is required. I have seen plenty of people that get involved in Kabbalah and get sucked into the Dark Side. Not just one or two. But if you can approach the Ari properly there is no question that it is an amazing help. That is: finish the Talmud a few times and then get all the set of the writings of the Ari from the Kabalah institute [--the Ashlag edition is great.] And plow through it.
There is just as much danger as being against kabbalah as there is being for it. What I have seen is frauds and phonies that pretend that they have the proper Talmudic background to qualify and to disparage those who they think are their inferiors. There is not much I can say about this but that it as much a delusion as those who learn it without in fact the proper requirements.



In spite of all this I think that I gained a great deal by learning the Ari. The major dangers that one should avoid are thinking that on comes to some kind of holiness by learning kabbalah. Or that one comes to some kind of spiritual powers. These two things seem to be the major source of problems because when  one approach the Ari with these attitudes there is created  a world of illusion around the person to delude him and others around him.

We need to keep what the Torah says. And that is what matters.

I tend to do better in discernment by means of negative results. That is by making mistakes I tend to learn more than by any kind of inherent intuition. That is the reason that I hold by a small set of things that I concentrate on. I tend to see that by deviating from this set that things go haywire.

Not everyone I know is like that. My learning partner seems to have an inherent compass. He tends to see fallacies in different groups even before getting involved in them.  Not me. I need to jump into the boiling water to find out how hot it is.
So this explains why my priorities are things that my parents told me and I did not listen to. I learned eventually that they knew a lot more about the world and the way things are that I ever could.
This also makes me see the importance of the State of Israel, and also learning Torah. It is not that I have such  great appreciation for any of the above. It is just that when I see when either I or others abandon any of these things that highly negative results follow.



My parents were very much into the idea of being a mensch--a decent moral person with all that implies.The Ten commandments.  Working for a living and never asking for and never accepting charity. Going to university [and not to be a rabbi under any circumstance]. Never to use the Torah for money. But to learn Torah and keep it in every last detail. Learning Physics and Math also was very high on their list of priorities. And also Mozart. and general classical music.
They sent me to Beverly Hills High School and they chose that kind of secular education on purpose.
 We were Beverly Hills that reason alone. My Dad had to work on satellite communication for NASA and SDI in a place that was far away from Beverly Hills. He had to commute every day for an hour and a half, [i.e.each direction].   Beverly Hill was chosen only because of the high school.
And this path they certainly thought was the Torah path. Religious Fanaticism was  very far away from their idea of what Torah is about.

But within that framework, I would like to suggest: 1) finishing the Oral and Written Law. Tenach [Old Testament], the Two Talmuds, Sifra, Sifi, Tosephta, Mechilta, Torat Kohanim,  Midrash Raba, Midrash Tanchuma. That is one session for the oral law and the other for the written law. Also one small session for halacha--Rambam, Tur, Beit Yoseph and the basic commentaries on the Rambam the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach, and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's Chidushei HaRambam.--from the first word to the last.
This is really not a big deal. There was one school I applied to that was into  having the students read and finish about five books per week.  I never went there but this shows that what I am saying ehr is not a big deal. It just sounds like a big project because of the evil inclination that wants to stop people from learning and keeping Torah. In one hour per day alone you can finish the whole Talmud in one year and still have time to surf in Malibu or become and astronaut.

The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be intrusted to man,

Hush money

Music for the glory of God [Normally, I would not bother with this. This music was written for God, not for people. But I figure music should be shared.]

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I was looking at some older n files and it looks that this was not finished but I am not sure so I am putting it here.
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I tend to do better in discernment by means of negative results. That is by making mistakes I tend to learn more than by any kind of inherent intuition. That is the reason that I hold by a small set of things that I concentrate on. I tend to see that by deviating from this set that things go haywire.

Not everyone I know is like that. My learning partner seems to have an inherent compass. He tends to see fallacies  in different groups even before getting involved in them.  Not me. I need to jump into the boiling water to find out how hot it is.
So this explains why my priorities are things that my parents told me and I did not listen to. I learned eventually that they knew a lot more about the world and the way things are that I ever could.

 This also makes me see the importance of the State of Israel, and also learning Torah. It is not that I have such  great appreciation for any of the above. It is just that when I see when either I or others abandon any of these things that highly negative results follow.



My parents were very much into the idea of being a mensch--a decent moral person with all that implies.The Ten commandments.  Working for a living and never asking for and never accepting charity. Going to university [and not to be a rabbi under any circumstance]. Never to use the Torah for money. But to learn Torah and keep it in every last detail. Learning Physics and Math also was very high on their list of priorities. And also Mozart. and general classical music.