r49 g major  Edited

Gemara and Musar.

To communicate with you a little of my yeshiva experience. Both yeshivas were very special places. 


There is something very special about being immersed in Torah all day. I was kind of a "Masmid," in that it would have taken a thermonuclear device to tear me away from the Gemara. 

And there was in Israel a kind of light that lit up inside my head 

 So Torah is important. 

Why I mention this  is that I am thinking that it might be hard for me at this point to go through the entire Oral Law as I had hoped. 

 But what I am thinking is the idea of מזכה את הרבים- To bring merit to many. 
But I think that since the authentic Lithuanian yeshiva approach is precious and dear and valuable, it might be an idea  to recreate something like that in whatever area you settle down in.

But it has to be authentic with the real spirit of Torah. That would be the exact opposite of what most yeshivas are today. That is my thought for how  I could perhaps merit to the great light of Torah--by bringing Torah to others. That is Gemara and Musar.

False Torah is worse than no Torah. Torah used to promote a cult is  a travesty.

Communism and Socialism as opposed to Talmud.

I think Communism is wrong mainly from the aspect of belief in wise people. That is I learn Talmud and see straight forwards market Capitalism in the three major tractates, Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, Bava Batra. I read the Bible and see the command "Thou shalt not steal." That means also one is not allowed to steal from rich people just as much as from poor people.
I also see, "Thou shalt not covet," which seems relevant.


Then I also have great respect for people that I consider wise nowadays like Dr Kelley Ross and Michael Huemer and Edward Feser. I read Dr Huemer's critique on communism and it made sense to me. [That it is based on the labor theory of value.]


Then I have have had many conversations with people in the former USSR and asked about their experiences. Plus I also remember how America was before the liberals ruined it. So all and all I am pretty disappointed with the Left and anything to do with socialism.
Plus I am kind of shocked when I see or hear people advocating socialistic policies. I wonder, "Do they not know where this leads to?"


And Kelley Ross made a profound statement concerning the job of the State:" On the other hand, if the state provides for general interests only indirectly by being the guarantor of justice, this does not need to be understood as any kind of contract; for no one agrees to be bound by justice. Those who do wrong certainly do not agree to be bound by justice, but those are precisely the ones against whom the state will legitimately exercise force."
Dr Ross's essay on Marxism

I would say that learning Torah has a quality of being a guaranteed cure for most physical mental and spiritual problems as long as it is not being paid for.

That would go along with what the sages said זכה נעשית לו סם חיים לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות.
Concerning the words of Torah,if one has merit it becomes for him an elixir of life and if he does merit then it becomes poison.



This idea I saw in the Musar book  of the son of the Rambam, Reb Avraham. מספיק לעובדי השם

Ideas in Talmud Tractate Bava Metzia ch 8 and 9.

Ideas in Talmud Tractate Bava Metzia ch 8 and 9.

I have to admit there is something odd about Sefardim that I had not put together before.
But because of the great Sefardi Chachamim [wise men] I am reluctant to put anything down in writing.
The Jews that were under Muslim rule in the first generation were intermarried with Muslims as a rule, not as an exception. There is something, a drop, violent about them. Some ancient taint. Not that that has anything to do with being Jewish. Jewish is just belief in Torah and keeping the laws of Torah. But everyone has some kind of evil inclination to overcome and it seems to me for the first time I am connecting the dots.

Are you an Ashkenazi Jew that has found himself subject to this strange kind of  vibe. You are approached all the time for money by Sefadim, and they make  a song and dance about how "We are all brothers." But then if you move into some area where there is a Sefardi, somehow they always on the sly manage to get rid of you? You think you are alone?

I  can't even begin to count how many times I have seen this  exact scenario played out but I never could imagine what was really going on. I always though there was some reason that I did not understand, until one day it dawned on me the one common factor.
An Ashkenazic Jew in a Sefardi area. They will always find some excuse to get rid of him.

This would not be necessary to say if not for people like Rav Shick that tried to make Sefardim to be super Jews. Everyone that wanted to start a yeshiva would go and flatter Sefardim to get to to come.  

Constitution of the USA and Brett Stevens

amerika is saying as a few other people that democracy has not worked very well in the USA.
This is an opinion I have seen on Return Of Kings. Herodotus said there was one fellow who suggested Democracy for Persia before Darius became king.  And we see Aristotle going through a very large number of possible constitutions

I have had this kind of discussion with my learning partner and he is as so many other in the USA upset the way the USA is today.

My own feeling about this is first to look at people older and wiser than myself. The deepest philosopher I have seen in this generation is Kelley Ross. Edward Fesser and  few others are also up there in the stratosphere but Dr Ross is the deepest. I also remember a time when the USA was different and decent and frankly amazing. I have heard ad talked with many people that have lived under various systems. Muslims in the Middle East and people under the USSR.

People that wish other systems outside of the Constitutional Republic  you used to have in the USA are not aware of what it is like to live in other kinds of systems.

Any system can be abused.


And my first basic approach is to look at the Talmud. The Talmud does not deal with politics but it does deal at great length with laws of contracts and the Constitution is  a contract. Since the Federal government does not respect the contract any more that is no reason to say it is not a good approach.
I think I would have to agree with my learning partner that the monkey in the wrench is what wreaked up everything. Before that the Constitution of the USA was working very well.

The rule of דינא דמלכותא דינא is from the power of  a messenger according to the Rashbam. That means when representatives do not do what they were empowered to do by the people their power is void. So again I think if the Constitution would be enforced things would be different. Plus it can only work for people with a core set of values based on the law of God as expressed in the Torah. The founding fathers made it in such a way that it would work only for people from a Jewish or Christian background.