Music for the glory of God

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Reality is subjective and objective.

Reality is subjective and objective. But it is also local. It is surprising that people have not noticed the fact that Kant provided a good framework to understand Quantum Mechanics long before QM was discovered. Utube videos of Murry Gellman. In one of those he explains breifly why the double slit experiment does not prove non-locality

It is in fact easy to understand Islam. You need to study the Eitz Chaim of Isaac Luria and you will see that the Dark Side has many aspects to it. It has an open aspect  That is what is called the Satan or male aspect of the Dark Side. That is Islam. That is the male aspect of the Sitra Achra. And there is a softer aspect the Female Dark Side, i.e. the side that disguises itself as a mitzvah.

We find in the books of Jewish Ethics [Musar] that there is a problem in joining evil people So it is important to be able to discern if some person or group is perhaps the Dark Side [Sitra Achra] in disguise. Books of Musar commonly bring this from the verse where the prophet Isiah told king Hezekiah "" when you joined together with Achaz, God made a breach in your works."
בהתחברך עם אחזיהוא פרץ ה' את מעשיך 

Music for the honor of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.

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Some people are attracted to the Dark Side. And others try to avoid it but get caught in it by trying to do mitzvot and good deeds. This is not news. We find in several spiritual disciplines the fact that evil disguises itself as good in order to trick people. And sometimes people want to do good and simply have  a strong urge to do evil even while knowing that it is evil. But they don't try to justify it. They excuse it saying it is not that bad.

I don't have a good answer for the problem of the Sitra Achra. But some of the practices i talk about on my blogs are meant to help myself avoid the Dark Side.

My main model of goodness is what I saw in my parents home. And my parents were Reform Jews. And our home was one of wholesomeness and decency. So to a large degree I try to emulate them.
But I think we were not careful enough in the commandments, so I do try to keep the commandments of the Torah more than what was done in our home. But I try to do this with balance. For I see people that accept some ritual commands of the Torah (which in itself is good), but that leads them to ignore more important aspects of the Law--like loving one's fellow man  or honoring ones parents.

In any case, my basic ideas about avoiding the Dark Side are to talk with God like one talks with a friend, and be especially careful about never saying a lie or anything not even slightly not true. When I found myself sinking, I decided to hold onto this trait with all my might--never to say anything not true under any circumstances, and I believed that the strength of the truth would help me get through everything and hold me up.

A good link to this subject by Kelly Ross attack on morality

Some ideas in Talmud learning חידושי הש''ס


These are ideas in Sanhedrin, Shabat, Bava Kama, and Bava Metzia

Baali Teshuva [newly religious Jews] are at a disadvantage in the frum [Ultra Religous Jewish] world. Everything is the opposite. The frum community acts like hydro-chloric acid to dissolve whatever relationships they have. Their marriages are commonly eroded and dismantled by the frum community. There is certainly no respect for them.
It is a toxic relationship by all accounts I have ever heard of.

Whether you realize it or not, you are in a relationship with the yeshiva you learn in and community you live in.

Here are  things to keep in mind 

Having mutual respect

Trust. Respect is hard to describe. We can tell when we get it and when we don't. Mutual respect means delivering on the things you commit to, showing up,  not talking down to others, and helping people.  Nobody wants to be a part of an environment where mutual respect doesn’t exist.

Imagine being in a relationship where you’re constantly in fear that your significant other is looking to find someone “better” than you. That’s not really much of a relationship is it? You need to be in a relationship based on trust where both you and the yeshiva are going to do your best to make things work. 

 You don’t want to feel like your yeshiva views you as and expendable cog and your yeshiva  wants you to just stick around for a few months and then leave. 

Leave when things are bad

Not every relationship is meant to be but it’s important for us to realize when it’s time to move on. Many of us are in abusive yeshiva relationships and we still stick around. We are talked down to,  we don’t credit for the work we do, we get transferred  without notice,  or we are constantly threatened with disciplinary action. None of these things are healthy. A bad relationship is something that either party can create. An student can take advantage of the yeshiva  or the yeshiva can treat the student as a “cog.” Regardless of who is at fault or why, it’s crucial to end a relationship when things get bad. It’s the best thing for both the yeshiva and the student.

The advice I have here is simple. Keep Torah on your own and don't be dependent on a community. The frum communities that I have seen are in a predatory relationship with baali teshuva. At first everything is made to look hunky dory--all sunshine and love. But that is an illusion they need to instill into the baali teshuva in order to gain their trust.
 But of you in fact have found a community that is in fact supportive then fine. But my feeling is that you need to  have a secular education and learn a honest profession and not be dependent on people's kindness's that can evaporate in a day. The yeshivas are totally dependent on charity. So they have to give the impression they are doing a public service. And maybe some are. At least the NY yeshivas I was in were in fact good places. But those are the exceptions.
What I suggest is the idea of a Beit Midrash, a place where Torah is learned but not paid for. Kind of like what you have in Hillel Centers.


Rav Shach as is known held differently than this. But I think he was thinking more along the lines of yeshivas like Ponovitch or the kind of great Litvak yeshivas where Torah is learned for its own sake. If he would see the situation today, he would agree with me.


What I am trying to say is like my learning partner told me when I brought up the subject of yeshivas. He said it is like what you find in the Talmud "מחזי". That is sometimes the Talmud forbids things because they look like something that is forbidden. So what we have here is great yeshivas in Europe like the Mir or Navardok where Torah was learned for its own sake. And people transferred those places in Israel and NY. But on the side you have people that noticed that they could make good money by starting a yeshiva. and so now you have  vast number of toxic yeshivas compared to the infinitesimally small places that are authentic

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