q5  q5 in midi format This piece was not developed as thoroughly as I would have liked as you can tell. But there is little I can do about it. It has to be formed naturally, and I can go back and change things even if I would like to. There have been times when I did the best I could and then a few years later I looked back at the same piece and it occurred to me what was missing. This happened for example in b98.
I knew something was missing at the end, but for several years I did not know what it was until I got to Uman and looked it over again. I hope God grants to me the same with this piece.

In praise of Talmud.

I have limited objective here. It is to point out the advantage of learning Talmud for its own sake and not to be paid for doing so. And I also want to point out a kind of time limit for it. That is I don't want learning Talmud to become away of making a living, because then it loses the effect.

The main effect of Talmud is that it carries with it the different promises that you find the sages said about learning Torah. [And it is the actual oral tradition first hand. As the Rambam says "Just like one must can not add or subtract from the Written Torah, so he can't add or subtract from the Oral Torah." But, of course, people add and subtract from the Written and Oral Law all the time. The point however of the Rambam is that none of that stuff counts as Torah.]

This I am sure all sounds very vague. So let me try to make myself clear.
First to defend my position in front of Christians I should say that I am not saying Talmud is Divine in the same sense that the Torah and prophets are Divine. Rather, I am saying that learning Talmud connects one to the same divine source as when one learns the Torah and prophets. And it has the advantage that it goes into detail how to keep the laws of the Torah and prophets with rigorous analysis, and it does not leave it to individual opinions which vary as the winds.

Second, I wanted to point out there are kinds of services that people promise, "If you do such and such, this will be the result." A good example is Yoga. In spite of extensive studies, no one has found any evidence that yoga does anything for anyone,- and yet it is a multi million dollar industry. People pay good money to do what there is no the slightest evidence that it does anything but waste your time.

But I have good reason to believe from what I have seen in others and in myself, that learning Talmud has enormous benefit --but only on condition it is not done  for pay. If one is paid for learning the learning turns to poison and corrupts the character. So this is a delicate matter.

j93 mp3  j93 midi  j93 nwc

Ideas in Bava Metzia  Here is a link to a small booklet of ideas.
Ideas in Shas  This is another link a small booklet on Shas.

Music link  q4

Now as far as Halacah [learning Law] is concerned I think that just learning Shulchan Aruch without knowing the sources in the Talmud is a bad thing thing. The power of delusion is always going about searching for a person to inhabit and when it finds  a person that is "שונה הלכות" it enters him or her. [The word here is שונה which does not means to learn in depth. It means to learn the basic meaning and to go on. And I have seen enough examples of this.


So my suggestion about learning Torah is to have a fast session for about an hour or more per day in which one goes through מקרא משנה גמרא קבלה. That is to start at the beginning of the Old Testament and put in a place marker and just say the words and read a whole page. Then when you turn the page put in the place marker [and then the next day come back to that same place where you left off and continue.] Then put aside the Old Testament and pick up the Mishna. And do the same. Read through one page and put in a place marker and then the next day pick up where you left off. Same with Talmud and the same with the writings of Isaac Luria  and the Remak (Moshe Kordovaro).

Then have a in depth session in Talmud with a  learning partner. If you can't find a partner then take one page and work on it daily with Tosphot and the Maharsha until it becomes clear

All together that is two hours of learning. If you can add to that I recommend Math and Physics based on an idea from Maimonides. The way to do Math and Physics is the same as above. Take one basic text and plow through saying word after word until you get to the end and then review.The reason for this you have to take on faith in the Rambam.



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j91 j91 in midi format 

j91 nwc
q4 mp3   q4 midi  [i can not find a q4 nwc file, however if you need the notes, the midi file can be transformed into notes but without the instruments. however i think most pieces  are just basic orchestra--strings, winds, French horns, and timpani.]

Introduction.
1) This is just a first glance at a subject about the borders of Israel and presenting a question on the Rambam.
2) It is generally understood that קדושה ראשונה קידשה לשעתה ולא קידשה לעתיד לבא. The first sanctification sanctified the land only for its time and not for when Jews went into Exile. And קדושה שנייה קידשה לשעתה וקידשה לעתיד לבא. The second sanctification sanctified the Land for its time and for all the future.
 But there is an option that the first sanctification sanctified it permanently. We will see Rashi has to use that option to explain and mishna in Sheviit.
3) Sichon and Og were kings that attacked the Jews and lost the war and their lands. This area is beyond the Jordan River. It was settled by Jews coming out  of Egypt. According to the grandson of Rashi [Rabbanu Isaac known as ''the RI''] all or part of it was settled by Jews coming back from the first exile in Babylon.
But to Rashi none of it was settled by Jews returning from Babylon.






Tractate Yevamot  16a
To Rabbainu Tam the land conquered by the Jews coming out of Egypt does not determine the borders of Israel today.
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To RT if an area was settled by עולי בבל then it has the holiness  of the Land of Israel and is חייב in ביעור in the seventh sabbatical year. In his first answer that land is the part of Sichon and Og that was the original land of Sichon. But land that Sichon conquered from Moav [in the Torah] was not settled by Jews coming back from Babylon. And so the parts of Sichon that were conquered by Sichon were not settled by those Jews and so in the sabbatical year have to bring the tithe given to the poor.

The second answer of RT leaves all the land of Sichon as one and considered it to have been settled by עולי בבל. So it is חייב in ביעור בשביעית. And Amon and Moav that are obligated in tithes to the poor are areas never owned by Sichon. At this point I don't have any idea what he would say about an area conquered by עולי מצרים. Off hand it makes sense to say he would go like the Rash Rabbainu Shimshon.

This second answer of Rabbainu Tam widens the borders of Israel considerably.



Rashi holds Sichon and Og is synonymous with Amon and Moav and are obligated in Truma and maasar by rabbinical decree. As for the Mishna in Sheviit one can say that is like the person that said קדושה ראשונה קידשה לעתיד לבא. [Rav Shach].

That leaves us with the Rambam. He holds עבר הירדן which is עולי מצרים is not holy, because it was conquered by Jews coming out of Egypt alone. Not Jews coming out of Bavel. And yet it is not worked in the sabatical year and it is חייב in ביעור.