Fear of God is mentioned a few times in the Bible as being very important.


I have seen this a lot. You walk into some yeshiva and it seems like everyone is half asleep. And even when they are awake I get the definite impression that they could not care less about what the Gemara says. Their learning Torah could not be any more apathetic and pathetic. They are clearly there for one purpose alone. To get the kollel check at the end of the month.

The only places I saw different were NY Lithuanian Yeshivas.  But I was not in Ponovicth or Brisk and I would assume they would be like the places I saw in  NY.

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In my first yeshiva, the Rosh Yeshiva and his son, Moti, emphasized learning in depth and review..
 I had a kind of mental battle with this, because I wanted to make "progress."

To me it made no sense to sit on one page of Talmud for two weeks at a time when I had not finished even one tractate!

Now however I see the wisdom of their approach.  I have seen a lot of people that learn fast and learn a lot, --but can't "learn." That is they have no understanding of what is going on in any Tosphot or Gemara or even halachah.
 In any case, I did try to make progress along with doing sessions in depth. What I found helpful at the beginning of my studies was doing each little paragraph in the Pnei Yehoshua about 10 or more times. And I recommend this to others  that are at the beginning of their learning. [This is of course only if you are not in a situation where you can hear a class from an authentic Lithuanian Rosh Yeshiva. But there are not many of these authentic types around except in NY, and in a few places in Israel like Ponovitch or Brisk.

This ten times each Pnei Yehoshua approach is a good introduction to learning. But the best thing is to have a decent Rosh Yeshiva or at least a good learning partner. If you can't find this, then at least get yourself a Pnei Yehoshua, the חידושי הרמב''ם by Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, and the Avi Ezri by Rav Elazar Menachem Shach.  Of these three the last is the best --by far.


There is a lesson here for STEM people also. At least for myself I have found that two sessions are helpful in math and physics. One an in depth session. I try to find some core subject and review a section ten or more times. And I also have a fast session where I just say the words and go on.


There is also a lesson here for Jews and Christians. It is important for everyone to have a good idea of what the Torah is about. It does not matter what religion you are. No issues facing Americans today would not even begin to be issues if people learned Gemara. Nothing would be left unsolved.
Issues like the second amendment would be clear. Everyone  has a right to self defense. The homosexuals would be put it their place. Right to private property would be clear, And many other issues also. [No one would vote for a slave to become the president Woe to the land for whom its king is a slave.]


There is also a modern day problem associated with my advice to find an authentic Rosh Yeshiva. The sad truth is most are not authentic. Most are frauds and it is a mitzvah to let people know about this.  Certainly people that have not learned in an authentic Lithuanian yeshiva can't learn.  And if they can't learn but pretend to be talmidei chachamim then they are by definition liars. But there are many who have been in a Litvak Yeshiva but still can't learn and don't have Torah values.
The insane religious world  often pretends to be Torah scholars. And this gives a bad reputation to authentic Torah scholars.
מפרסמים את החנפים מפני חילול השם

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(1) There is such a thing as סוף הוראה (The end of the period when people could make  a legal decision) the end of פסק הלכה. As the Talmud says רבינא ורב אשי הם סוף הוראה. Ravina and Rav Ashi were the end of the period when people could make a legal decision.
(2) The Rambam says during the time of the Sanhedrin, there was no argument because you went by the majority of the Sanhedrin. After that time the Oral Law in its entirety was complied into  the two Talmuds and Midrashim. And the end of that period was the "end of decision."
(3) What is strange about the Shulchan Aruch is that it changes this decision making process. Instead of the give and take of people in a Sanhedrin, you have the decisions made over a thousand year period all considered equal and you collect them all to take  a vote. רוב ראשונים.
Can you image all the small courts sending their decisions to the Sanhedrin and then the Sanhedrin going by a majority?


(4) And the cliche you hear at Shabbat Table Judaism, "We go by Shulchan Aruch," is false. There is almost no where n Halachah that the Shulchan Aruch is the way people decide halachah. They always go by some later authority that they happen to like. It is a game of קטנות המוחין small mindedness. What determines Halachah is in reality the pecking order. Who is the Alpha Male? That is how Halacha is decided.
(5) The trouble does not stop with the Shulchan Aruch. It gets compounded in every generation.
Once people get to the Halacha books of the Achronim the whole concept of סוף הוראה the end of decision is gone. Then the Rishonim become like the tenaim, and achronim like Amoraim. The entire idea of the Gemara  [which the Rambam brings] that the Gemara is the "end of decision" is gone.
(6) What is the pecking order that is the deciding factor in Halacha? It is this: When on.e decides to start keeping Torah, he thinks he is giving up "this world." All the possibilities that were open to him will be closed. He can't any more get a Noble Prize in Physics, he can't become millionaire, he can't make it big in Hollywood. Why? Because now he is devoting himself to Torah. So you can imagine his surprise when he enters into the world that he thinks is following Torah, and he discovers they are just as much into money and honor and sex as the world he left. And who is the big shot gets all the money and good shiduchim. So he tries to become one of the חשובה אברכים (important people). And then he discovers Breslov. And he sees some kind of light. So he drops what he is doing and joins that group. And even what h might had had for sure he loses instantly. And then he finds out that there too is the pecking order the determining factor.
Torah is irrelevant to the people there just as much as in the previous groups. Because only the pecking order matters. Who is the Alpha Male? And after him everyone has their place. The Baal Teshuva is at the lowest rung, and given the scraps. And usually not even that.
(7) Like what Reb Chaim from Voloshin wrote "אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא" We only have  the decision of the Gemara.
(8) So why was the Shulchan Aruch written? The author, Joseph Karo had decided that there was a problem. In much of Spain, Jews had been deciding issues based on the Rambam. But in one area they were deciding like the Rosh. After the expulsion this state of affairs continued. So Rav Joseph Karo decided that this was a problem.So he set out to correct it by making a book that would be the one proper decision that everyone would follow. However sometimes something become a problem only after someone decides that it is a problem. And most often the solution is worse than the problem. For example at one time if someone was poor and decided they needed more money there was immediately available a simple solution. Get a job. The Lyndon Jonson came along and decided that Poverty is a problem. and everyone started agreeing and saying to each other you know what? Poverty is a problem. Da. And the obvious solution was tell people to work? No. It was to give away free money. Now we have seen the horrible results of this. So in our case. Why should everyone have to do the exact same thing? And let us say that in one community the light their Chanuka Menora from right to left and in other they light it from left to right? Why should that be  problem?
(9) The problem with this situation is this: What happens when the idealistic newcomer does not want to accept his or her proper place at the bottom of the pecking order? What if they discover that they are not any less bright or moral than the big shots? Or perhaps they discover that teh big shots that are touted as Tzadikim and geniuses are in fact stupid, dull, barely sane,  and morally challenged?

(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.