q94 [q94 in midi format] [q94 nwc] A song of thanks to the God of Israel. q98 [q98 in midi] [q98 nwc] e45 in mp3 [e45 in midi] [e45 nwc]e46 [e46 in midi] [e46 nwc]e47 [e47 in midi] [e47 nwc] e48 in mp3 [e48 in midi] [e48 nwc] e51 [e51 in midi] [e51 nwc] e55 in mp3. [e55 in midi][edited. e55 is my attempt at 6/8 time] [e55 nwc] q96 [q96 in midi] q96 nwc e files are from about ten years ago. q files are more recent. There were lots of other files but a good deal was lost. q66 in mp3 [q66 in midi] [q66 nwc][q66 i just found buried in some old files so i added it to this blog entry]
30.1.16
People must be familiar with Shalom Sharabi's Nahar Shalom in which he reduces the Sepherot to three.
[You can't miss it because it is right smack on the first page.]
It is hard not to see the connection between this and Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. I don't make it a point to point out connections like this unless something comes up to remind me. Hegel's Triads are obviously isomorphic the the Reshash who has the actual sepherot being three as per the begining of Nahar Shalom. But Schelling and the Nahar Shalom have an obvious connection. One has intellectual intuition. But considering that Schelling's intellectual intuition is half subject and half object and not really inside of oneself except as it is perceived it comes out that they are saying what seems to be the same thing.
Faith is needed to get to attachment with God --that is why Jews are called the "Hebrews" which means "to pass over." The original idea was because Jews came from beyond the Jordan from Iraq [Mesopotamia]. To get to the Infinite One one has to pass over --that is to go by faith, not by reason.
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi showed that a system of rational knowledge never arrives at the knowledge of God since, for such a system, the unconditioned can only arise as a result of a process where the one conditioned leads to other conditioned in an infinite chain of negativity. To get to Devekut [absolute attachment with] with the Unconditioned, one must begin with the Unconditioned itself which no rational knowledge ever attains. For Jacobi it is only the leap of faith beyond the system of rational knowledge that enables us to open to the unconditionality of the absolute being.
In this context I should mention that I personally do not know how attachment with God happens and I would assume that one needs the ability to discern object facts from spiritual delusions before he can make progress in this area. I felt myself a great deal of attachment with God when I was in Israel the first time, but I could not say how that occurred, and it was always hard to deal with that kind of level of reality. But later I learned to appreciate this kind of thing and to realize it has great value.
The way I see value in a Schelling kind of way. That is I have a normal semi circle of values but with me it is dynamic not static. That is it is a harmonic oscillator.
[And the idea of Schelling about intellectual intuition is the exact same thing that the Intuitionists are defending.
[You can't miss it because it is right smack on the first page.]
It is hard not to see the connection between this and Kant, Schelling, and Hegel. I don't make it a point to point out connections like this unless something comes up to remind me. Hegel's Triads are obviously isomorphic the the Reshash who has the actual sepherot being three as per the begining of Nahar Shalom. But Schelling and the Nahar Shalom have an obvious connection. One has intellectual intuition. But considering that Schelling's intellectual intuition is half subject and half object and not really inside of oneself except as it is perceived it comes out that they are saying what seems to be the same thing.
Faith is needed to get to attachment with God --that is why Jews are called the "Hebrews" which means "to pass over." The original idea was because Jews came from beyond the Jordan from Iraq [Mesopotamia]. To get to the Infinite One one has to pass over --that is to go by faith, not by reason.
Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi showed that a system of rational knowledge never arrives at the knowledge of God since, for such a system, the unconditioned can only arise as a result of a process where the one conditioned leads to other conditioned in an infinite chain of negativity. To get to Devekut [absolute attachment with] with the Unconditioned, one must begin with the Unconditioned itself which no rational knowledge ever attains. For Jacobi it is only the leap of faith beyond the system of rational knowledge that enables us to open to the unconditionality of the absolute being.
In this context I should mention that I personally do not know how attachment with God happens and I would assume that one needs the ability to discern object facts from spiritual delusions before he can make progress in this area. I felt myself a great deal of attachment with God when I was in Israel the first time, but I could not say how that occurred, and it was always hard to deal with that kind of level of reality. But later I learned to appreciate this kind of thing and to realize it has great value.
The way I see value in a Schelling kind of way. That is I have a normal semi circle of values but with me it is dynamic not static. That is it is a harmonic oscillator.
[And the idea of Schelling about intellectual intuition is the exact same thing that the Intuitionists are defending.
29.1.16
The Second Temple
The actual Temple was mainly in the hands of the Sadducees who were not running it according to the Law. The Sanhedrin also was mainly packed with the Sadducees. According to law one does not pay to get into the Temple. Nor does one change a bad animal to a better one. If a animal has a blemish that makes it unfit for a sacrifice then OK, but that is not the same thing. If it is fit for the altar then it must be sacrificed, and one is not allowed to exchange it. The Sadducess were very corrupt and when they were in control, things were miserable.
One way you can see that the Sadducees were in control of the Sanhedrin is that in the reported trial of Jesus, there was almost no law that was not broken. The was not one single legal procedure that was not flaunted and broken during that trial.
Just one example: saying that one is the son of God is not blasphemy. Blasphemy has a legal definition which is: May "Jose strike Jose." Jose here is used to stand for the Name of God because during the trial you don't want to keep repeating the phrase. For someone to claim they are the son of God is not unusual because we say this three times a day in every Shmoneh Esra and this comes up very often in the prayer book. We all call God "Our Father" more times than I can count. Doing so is not blasphemy though it might have been to the Sadducee.
Some problems with the trial: At night. Even if a person does a sin that gets the death penalty which did not exist in that case still you need two witness to warn the person right before he does the sin. That is to tell him both the sin and from what verse it comes from and the penalty. None of this existed then There is a whole tractate in the Talmud about this one aspect of laws. It is not a trivial detail. I could go on but you can just open up a tractate Sanhedrin and Makot and see it all for yourself.
One way you can see that the Sadducees were in control of the Sanhedrin is that in the reported trial of Jesus, there was almost no law that was not broken. The was not one single legal procedure that was not flaunted and broken during that trial.
Just one example: saying that one is the son of God is not blasphemy. Blasphemy has a legal definition which is: May "Jose strike Jose." Jose here is used to stand for the Name of God because during the trial you don't want to keep repeating the phrase. For someone to claim they are the son of God is not unusual because we say this three times a day in every Shmoneh Esra and this comes up very often in the prayer book. We all call God "Our Father" more times than I can count. Doing so is not blasphemy though it might have been to the Sadducee.
Some problems with the trial: At night. Even if a person does a sin that gets the death penalty which did not exist in that case still you need two witness to warn the person right before he does the sin. That is to tell him both the sin and from what verse it comes from and the penalty. None of this existed then There is a whole tractate in the Talmud about this one aspect of laws. It is not a trivial detail. I could go on but you can just open up a tractate Sanhedrin and Makot and see it all for yourself.
There are yeshivas that are the equivalent of Ivy League schools.
There are two aspects of yeshiva. There are yeshivas that are the equivalent of Ivy League schools. And they are similar in that they lead to advancement --not in money but in other not so tangible things. The top one in this category is obviously Ponovitch,- with Brisk being a close second.
The great NY yeshivas don't have the same reputation as these two yeshivas in Israel
but still are what I would call Ivy league. [Chaim Berlin, Mir, Torah VeDaat]
There is another aspect of the whole thing that is really an escape from the harshness of the outside world.
These are two opposing dynamics that you can find in sometimes the same yeshiva. Both the striving to be Ivy league and also the striving to escape from the harshness of reality.
In a practical vein this simply means it is best to go to what is really an Ivy league yeshiva because that is where you find the real Torah. There are many other places that are simply places for people to escape from reality and yet at the same time to claim they are Ivy league.
The great NY yeshivas don't have the same reputation as these two yeshivas in Israel
but still are what I would call Ivy league. [Chaim Berlin, Mir, Torah VeDaat]
There is another aspect of the whole thing that is really an escape from the harshness of the outside world.
These are two opposing dynamics that you can find in sometimes the same yeshiva. Both the striving to be Ivy league and also the striving to escape from the harshness of reality.
In a practical vein this simply means it is best to go to what is really an Ivy league yeshiva because that is where you find the real Torah. There are many other places that are simply places for people to escape from reality and yet at the same time to claim they are Ivy league.
The world responds to one's character. The way you control your character is two fold. Getting right opinions. That is learning Musar [Mediaeval Ethics].
Each problem seems to have actually two parts. Part is their flaws and the other part is the flaws of how the world treats them. And each of these is divided into two parts. One's own flaws are 1/2 his own fault for making bad choices. The other part is internal things not in one's control. The world's fault is partly just the way the world is with everyone. Capricious. The other part is the part that when it sees good it retaliates with evil. The part you can control is only your own decisions. You have to start making good choices.
The world responds to one's character. The way you control your character is two fold. Getting right opinions. That is learning Musar [Mediaeval Ethics]. That gives right opinions or at least closes to objective truth more so that one would get by the Crowd and the Mob. And this also gets absorbed into the self.
28.1.16
1) "Seeing the wisdom in God's creations" in the mediaeval code word for learning Physics and Metaphysics. If you only see this in the חובות לבבות Duties of the Heart , you can miss this. Refer to the Guide of the Rambam who says this openly. But you can see it also in מעלות המידות by Binjamin the Doctor --one of the classical books of Musar.
2) The idea is learning these subjects is a good value in itself The books of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam show two values in learning the natural sciences.
To the Rambam learning Physics and Metaphysics is the fulfillment of the highest mitzvot in the Torah, i.e. Love and Fear of God.
3) Later this was hidden. Even though all books of Classical Musar refer to this approach of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam, it is obscured by people that do not want this information to be widely known.
4) The Torah is clothed in the Creation. So when you learn about God's creation, you are learning God's wisdom.
5) See: Rambam beginning of the Guide, and beginning of Mishna Torah. {Plus הלכות ת''ת ברמב''ם איפה שהוא כתב והעניינים הנקראיים פרדס בם בכלל הגמרא}
6) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the ten statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those ten statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. [as brought in the Tikunei HaZohar] And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.
7) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. In Physics are hidden secrets of Torah. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.
Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in it s higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.
8) The Rambam defines the "Work of Creation" מעשה בראשית and work of the "Divine Chariot" מעשה מרכבה in the beginning of the Guide for the Perplexed . In the Guide itself he tells us what is the purpose he sees in these--the Work of Creation to come to fear, and the Work of the Divine Chariot to come to love. And this approach of the Rambam is quoted virtually verbatim in all later books of Musar.]
9) The question is how is this jump from knowledge of physical things or mathematical things helps one to make the jump to God? Clearly the Rambam holds this does help to make that jump, but how?
[See Schelling and Jacobi who dealt with this problem.]
10) To justify this approach of the Rambam I would like to bring together a few ideas:
We find that God's glory does not extend everywhere. That is even though His glory "fills the whole world," there are places where his glory does not reach. וכבודי לאחר לא אתן. I will not give of my glory to idols. Now we find that it says in a verse that God created the whole world for his glory. לכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So his glory is the root and life force of everything that exists. So what about those places where his glory does not extend? They get life force from the hidden statement (מאמר הסתום). "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." That is hidden because it does not say "He said." [In nine other acts of creation it says, "He said."]
So the areas the most hidden from God get their life force from the highest levels of holiness.
And when one turns to God from those areas and calls out "where is the place of his glory?" Then he returns to the highest statement of creation.
In Math and Physics there is no open numinosity. But there is the hidden statement by which the world was created. So when one turns to God there, and learns for the sake of Heaven, he brings up all the creation to God.
Appendix:
a) Maimonides held that Torah is only the Written and Oral law. But two of the commandments of the Torah are to love and fear God, and these Maimonides held were only possible by learning Physics and Metaphysics. [He was referring to the two sets of books by Aristotle called the Physics and the other called the Metaphysics].
b) But there are different levels of revelation of Torah.
The world was sustained by the Ten Statements (עשרה מאמרות) before the Torah was given [ten times it says ''And God said'']
But these statements were hidden. Then the ten trials of Abraham were a first step towards the revelation of Torah. The ten plagues on Egypt were the next step to make it possible to reveal the Torah. Then the Ten Commandments were the actual revelation of Torah. [The idea of the plagues was that one has to get rid of evil before the good can be revealed.]
But because the Torah is in everything, it is possible to serve God with everything.
c) Knowledge of this sub-level comes not by sense perception, and not by logical deductions, but by non intuitive immediate knowledge.
e) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the Ten Statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those Ten Statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom, and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.
f) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah, one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.
g) Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in its higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.
h) The Rambam has story inside the Guide about learning Physics and Metaphysics. It is the parable of the King's palace. In short in the parable you have a country of a king in which people differ in their closeness to the king. there are people outside the country, inside, in the capital city, around the palace in the outer part of the palace and in the inner part.
The parable refers to how close people are to God. There the Rambam puts philosophers and scientists in the palace with God.
2) The idea is learning these subjects is a good value in itself The books of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam show two values in learning the natural sciences.
To the Rambam learning Physics and Metaphysics is the fulfillment of the highest mitzvot in the Torah, i.e. Love and Fear of God.
3) Later this was hidden. Even though all books of Classical Musar refer to this approach of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam, it is obscured by people that do not want this information to be widely known.
4) The Torah is clothed in the Creation. So when you learn about God's creation, you are learning God's wisdom.
5) See: Rambam beginning of the Guide, and beginning of Mishna Torah. {Plus הלכות ת''ת ברמב''ם איפה שהוא כתב והעניינים הנקראיים פרדס בם בכלל הגמרא}
6) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the ten statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those ten statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. [as brought in the Tikunei HaZohar] And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.
7) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. In Physics are hidden secrets of Torah. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.
Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in it s higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.
8) The Rambam defines the "Work of Creation" מעשה בראשית and work of the "Divine Chariot" מעשה מרכבה in the beginning of the Guide for the Perplexed . In the Guide itself he tells us what is the purpose he sees in these--the Work of Creation to come to fear, and the Work of the Divine Chariot to come to love. And this approach of the Rambam is quoted virtually verbatim in all later books of Musar.]
9) The question is how is this jump from knowledge of physical things or mathematical things helps one to make the jump to God? Clearly the Rambam holds this does help to make that jump, but how?
[See Schelling and Jacobi who dealt with this problem.]
10) To justify this approach of the Rambam I would like to bring together a few ideas:
We find that God's glory does not extend everywhere. That is even though His glory "fills the whole world," there are places where his glory does not reach. וכבודי לאחר לא אתן. I will not give of my glory to idols. Now we find that it says in a verse that God created the whole world for his glory. לכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So his glory is the root and life force of everything that exists. So what about those places where his glory does not extend? They get life force from the hidden statement (מאמר הסתום). "In the beginning God created heaven and earth." That is hidden because it does not say "He said." [In nine other acts of creation it says, "He said."]
So the areas the most hidden from God get their life force from the highest levels of holiness.
And when one turns to God from those areas and calls out "where is the place of his glory?" Then he returns to the highest statement of creation.
In Math and Physics there is no open numinosity. But there is the hidden statement by which the world was created. So when one turns to God there, and learns for the sake of Heaven, he brings up all the creation to God.
Appendix:
a) Maimonides held that Torah is only the Written and Oral law. But two of the commandments of the Torah are to love and fear God, and these Maimonides held were only possible by learning Physics and Metaphysics. [He was referring to the two sets of books by Aristotle called the Physics and the other called the Metaphysics].
b) But there are different levels of revelation of Torah.
The world was sustained by the Ten Statements (עשרה מאמרות) before the Torah was given [ten times it says ''And God said'']
But these statements were hidden. Then the ten trials of Abraham were a first step towards the revelation of Torah. The ten plagues on Egypt were the next step to make it possible to reveal the Torah. Then the Ten Commandments were the actual revelation of Torah. [The idea of the plagues was that one has to get rid of evil before the good can be revealed.]
But because the Torah is in everything, it is possible to serve God with everything.
c) Knowledge of this sub-level comes not by sense perception, and not by logical deductions, but by non intuitive immediate knowledge.
d) in this world is hidden holiness; and even in the lowest regions in spirituality is hidden the highest holiness that comes from the hidden statement of creation.
e) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the Ten Statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those Ten Statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom, and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.
f) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah, one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.
g) Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in its higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.
h) The Rambam has story inside the Guide about learning Physics and Metaphysics. It is the parable of the King's palace. In short in the parable you have a country of a king in which people differ in their closeness to the king. there are people outside the country, inside, in the capital city, around the palace in the outer part of the palace and in the inner part.
The parable refers to how close people are to God. There the Rambam puts philosophers and scientists in the palace with God.
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