My basic approach is that of Israel Salanter. I go with his idea that the basic cannon of Musar books defines the Torah approach. That is to say there is something like a closed cannon. The basic ones are well known.[חובות לבבות, אורחות צדיקים, מסילת ישרים, שערי תשובה]

This concept was  never really articulated by Rav Salanter himself but it seem implicit in the basic Musar approach that developed after him.

I bring this up because I want to tell people to learn Musar right when they get up in the morning. For myself I have known that the first hours in the morning are very important, and you can see this theme in Chaim from Voloshin also."Everything goes by the beginning."


The advantage of Fear of God is that it brings to length of days. That is your days become longer. You have to spend less time wasted with trivial stuff that adds nothing to your quality of life.

Appendix: If people would learn Musar I think many issues on a personal basis and a national basis would be solved.  You can't imagine people learning Musar that would have any doubt about abortion or homosexuality. But further more the disciple of Israel Salanter Isaac Blazer wrote that Musar is a cure even for mental disease. It is רפואת הנפש ורפואת הגוף. So the solution to all your problems is right in front of you. And the solution to all the problems in the USA is right in front of them. And the solution to all the problems in Israel is right in front of us all. Learn books that instill in you fear of God right away when you get up in the morning. I mean even one page. Say it word for word.

The point is not just to learn Torah but to get in a direct way what the Torah is telling you.

q28  q28 in midi

Race is actually a function of biology. It is the way nature starts to separate one species into two or more. And you can't fight nature. Nature will always win. And the more you fight it, the more forceful Nature will be in getting her way. Nature laughs at those who think they can beat her.
People are finding this out the hard way.

Ideas in Shas

I added a new idea here at the end about the Rambam in Bava Kama 19. I decided there is no way to get him to fit the Gemara and so I came up with an idea that he must have has a different version than our Gemara. I think you have to say this because the Gra said that Rambam is "אינו מובן" ("not understandable."

Also you can see I wrote some of this in Talmudic Hebrew and the more recent things in  modern Hebrew. So if there are mistakes in grammar please forgive me. I in fact assume it still needs a lot of editing. The reason I put it here is because the ideas are sound.

I also edited the middle a little. To me today it seems the Rambam may have understood outside books to mean books of idolatry. And the Rif and Rosh it means books that explain the Torah not in accordance with the Talmud.  The Rif and Rosh here have an opinion that is strict--even more than the Rambam. The reason is that almost all  "Torah" books today explain the Torah in ways not in accordance with the Talmud. They all have use  kabalistic foundations and principles to explain the Torah. That would make the entire body of Torah writings from all the major publishing houses to be ספרים חיצוניים outside books.

Personally I am not against the Kabalah. But still I think it is fair point to take note that every so called Torah book today on issues of "השקפה" [world view] takes its world view from anywhere except Talmud.

Trump policy will be to work with people to get things done,-- like he has done in NY.

Once you can learn even one 1/2 a page of Gemara with Tosphot and the Avi Ezri then you have graduated. You now can be called a person that "knows how to learn." At that point you can take any Gemara and any halacha anywhere and know how to analyze it.

If given a small amount of time for learning Torah, I usually try to learn Tosphot. And this is what I think would be a good idea for others also. There might be several reason for this but one clear benefit is that without Tosphot people don't understand the Gemara itself. That is they imagine they understand. It is not just the Gemara, but halacha also. There are people that think that they can know halacha without understanding  the actual Gemara from where the halachah is derived. This is more common than you would think.
Doing one page of Gemara for a week or two with every Tosphot is in fact a good way to understand what Torah is about.

And if you have done the Gemara well then next step is the learn the Rambam with Rav Shach's Avi Ezri If you have done this thoroughly on even one 1/2 a page of Gemara then you will know how to learn a lot better than those that just skim  and call it "learning."

Also this would help to have good idea of what the Torah is saying about the particular subject you are learning.

Once you can learn one sugia [subject] properly, then you have the ability to do every subject.

What I am saying is in in fact an amazing idea. It is this. Once you can learn even one 1/2 a page of Gemara with Tosphot and the Avi Ezri then you have graduated. You now can be called a person that "knows how to learn."  At that point you can take any Gemara and any halacha anywhere and know how to analyze it.


This works for anything. If you want to know what the Torah says about homosexuality this is simple. You find the Mishna and Gemara that deal with this in כריתות. And then you learn the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach on that Gemara and you will know how the Torah looks at this. Furthermore I would suggest that until you have learned the subject from the standpoint of the Torah then you should withhold an opinion. I have heard people say things in the name of the Torah when it si clear that they had not learned the subject properly.

The Shiduch idea is important for the  people of Israel. That is a marriage offer. Not a forced marriage but not a date either. This goes back a long way. The tribe of Benjamin had done a crime  and murdered a girl friend of some guy. The rest of the Israel decided they were not going to stay by and condone this. They went to the the Urim and Tumim and got word that they should make war on Benjamin. They did so and at the end of the war most of the tribe was wiped out. During the war they had let it be known that anyone that did not join would be considered a traitor. The men of Yabesh Gilad did not join. So Israel went and wiped them out and took their virgin girls and gave them to the tribe of Benjamin. They made sure every single guy got a shiduch. That was not enough. So they told the remaining guys to go to Shiloh and kidnap the virgin girls that went dancing on the 15th of Av.
No matter how you look at this they were serious about the importance of getting a girl for every guy.

And thus you can see how things have changed today--and not for the better.