(1) You have in Hegel a metaphysical system of the world. And I suppose that is what attracts people to Hegel more than to Kant.  Yet there are problems in Hegel as noted by Schopenhauer.
But his system still remains attractive I think because there are not many rivals.
You do have mystics but people in general need more to go on that the approach of mystics which is to say "Take my word for it," with nothing else to back it up. Hegel at least has philosophical arguments to back him up.

(2) A rival of Hegel is the Ari (Isaac Luria). The interest of people in metaphysics attracts people to his system which is sophisticated to a high degree but also highly mystical and not backed by rational arguments.

(3) The truth be told their systems are not all that different. Especially if you go with the approach of the Reshash (Shalom Sharabi).

(4) However, the amount of pernicious and downright lunatic doctrines that have been written and based on these two figures is enormous.


(5) When the Rambam recommended metaphysics he was  talking about the metaphysics of the ancient Greeks--the pre Socratics, Plato, and above all Aristotle. Neither the Hegelian system nor the Kabalah was intended by the Rambam.[As he wrote in the Intro to the Guide.]

(6) The amount of trouble caused by people going along with Hegel or the holy Ari makes me think that perhaps it is best to stick with what the Rambam said and take his word for it. That is if you want to learn Metaphysics--the deep structure of reality, then stick with Plato and Aristotle.

(7) I don't mean to sound critical of the Ari. It is just that his system tends to get people side tracked from Torah and into all kinds of rubbish.
(8) You could say that you would learn only the straight Ari and Kabalah that has not been "Lunaticed" or Lunazied. But I don't if that helps. Even if you are strict to learn only authentic kabalah, the effect still seems to be to get people side tracked. [That is they get off the path of leading a balanced, moral life. In any case we know people that learn Kabalah for some reason seem to get an overdose of Kelipot [Dark Forces] and people that learn Hegel fall in love with totalitarian systems and start seeing all human relationships as a tug of war between enemies. In Hegel there is no room for love or human friendships.]
 The reason seems to be that it is not really סודות התורה secrets of the Torah. It is a commentary on Torah based on certain ideas in the Kabalah of the Middle Ages. Nothing wrong with that. But that does not make the secrets of the Torah. מעשה מרכבה ומעשה בראשית are something completely different than the Kabalah to the opinion of the Rambam.

(9) I have not seen anyone involved in Kabalah that did not imagine themselves to have "spiritual powers."

If someone is a tzadik does that mean you should be their slave? The answer seems to be no.

I heard this issue brought up in a discussion between a Na Nach person and another fellow from the Shuvu Banim Group--both subgroups of Breslov.

The Shuvu Banim fellow was trying to convince the Na Nach guy to hold from the lunatic madman that is the head of their movement. The Na Nach fellow said some things in response to this attempt which I thought were insightful.  He said:
"Let us say you have a person who has worked on himself for twenty years. And now he is a tzadik.  Does that mean I should be his slave? Sure it is true that he being a tzadik gives him spiritual powers. But should  give him power over myself?"

It is classical California type of independence even though the Na Nach fellow was not from California at all but rather from somewhere near Tel Aviv.

This is relevant to many other movements that have nothing to do with Breslov. Some people become in fact righteous and tzadikim and in the back of their minds is the idea that that is how they will make a living. Other will voluntarily contribute money to them once they know that they are tzadikim.

I saw a fellow that was learning Torah.. But it did not look like he was doing it for show. Nor was he getting paid. I thought it looked unusual enough for me to ask him what he was doing. He said he has this session in Bava Kama of doing a 1/2 a page per day [That is called an Amud in Hebrew] with Tosphot and the Shita Mekubetzet.

OK I let it go. Then after a few days I saw him again and my curiosity was bugging me to ask what was going on. So I walked up to him again and said, "You must have learned in some Lithuanian Yeshiva."
He said, "No."
And I was shocked. Because Torah for its own sake you simply can't find outside of  a Litvak yeshiva. So I kept on probing until I found out that he started learning Torah about six years ago and and the person that he came to Torah with was in the Slobadka Yeshiva. Mystery solved.

For the general public let me just say Slobadka was a Musar Yeshiva in Europe that now is in Tel Aviv. It is Pure Litvak.

 there is no way one can learn Torah for its own sake [without pay] unless he or she is somehow connected with the Gra.

q26 mp3 [q26 in midi format] i can not find this in nwc

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q24 Edited   q24 in midi   [i put this here in midi for the sake of anyone who wants to print the notes] -i would share the nwc file but most people not have that format.



This is an mp3 file that did not work for a few days. Somehow Google or someone unknown to me managed to fix the problem and so here is the file.

Floride

from WIKI:
Hexafluorosilicic acid is also commonly used for water fluoridation in several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland. In the U.S., about 40,000 tons of fluorosilicic acid is recovered from phosphoric acid plants, and then used primarily in water fluoridation, sometimes after being processed into sodium silicofluoride.^[5] In this application, the hexafluorosilicic acid converts to the fluoride ion (F⁻), which is the active agent for the protection of teeth.

And this also from Wiki:
Concentrated hexafluorosilicic acid is corrosive and can attack the skin.

Belief in a true tzadik. This is apparently some kind of archetype that some people get more of and others get less of. And it is in apparently contradiction to   a false tzadik or a non authentic tzadik-- a faker. Most of these fakers have convinced themselves that they are true tzadikim.
["Being a tzadik"  work is not, contra popular opinion, an occupation of nobility and integrity, any more than any other profession is. It's a profession made up of noble and ignoble people, honest people and liars, decent folks and utter thugs. It does not deserve the cultural free pass we've given it.]

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