Musar is the glue

I realize my life and the meaning of my life is fragmented. If I look at all the pieces of the puzzle some are more well put together than others. But the whole thing is like pieces of a puzzle when you open the box. It looks like one big mess.
It is like when I was following the path of Musar of Reb Israel Salanter which in a nut shell is the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule then all the pieces fit together. That is Fear of God and working on having good character (as the Torah defines good character) --as like the mortar for the bricks, the cement, the glue.


The problem was accepting a different "meme" unit of social information. The Torah is explicit about what matters and what does not. The trouble is that as long as I was part of the Mir Yeshiva in NY there was a kind of glue that held things together. Learn Gemara and Musar. Though I think Reb Nachman was a great tzadik, but getting involved in the group that supposedly follows him was exchanging the meme of the Torah for an alternative meme.
Besides that it had the problem of ignoring the signature of the Gra on the second excommunication.


What this means for people that are not in the Mir yeshiva is simple. No matter where you are you can work on the exact same things: (1) Fear of God (2) Good Character. These are available at all times to everyone.

The best ways to go about however is not clear to me. But the goal is clear.

I am not saying the books of Musar are perfect. Rather what I am saying is that without Musar it is all too easy to get the meaning of life and of Torah mixed up.

 Sparta. It is hard to know why Plato thought it was so great. Perhaps he was thinking of the fact that Athens at the time was under Spartan rule and was doing fairly well.

Perhaps he was thinking of a kind of synergy between Athens and Sparta? After all that is what existed in his time and it was the time that he and  Aristotle wrote and many other advances came about.


[To see a thorough account of the affinity Plato had for Sparta see Karl Popper's, The Open Society and its Enemies]

r87 G Minor edited

Allen Bloom called tendency to self destruct "the crisis of the Enlightenment." He also noted the anti Enlightenment began almost as soon as the Enlightenment itself. He was thinking along the lines of the Republic of Plato a being the solution. That seems to indicate Sparta. Not that Sparta was all that much like the Republic but that is certainly where the sympathies of Plato were.

If the goal is to save Western Civilization then it is important to focus on the principles involved, not on who is saying them. If S. Miller [an advisory to Trump] helps in this regard then he should be complimented. What people ought to do is focus on the prize--the presidency-- because you can be assured that the Left is extremely focused on that. If the right will not concentrate to the same degree we are likely to lose everything. Civilization itself.

The intellectual basis of the Left is the group--Rousseau's "general will." This was meant to replace religion and the rule of kings and princes. This is opposed to John Locke's individual rights. The issue is where is the center of gravity? The individual, or the super-organism.  In John Locke, the individual gives up some rights in order to form a community. In Rousseau the community is the source of rights. The French Revolution as founded on the ideas of Rousseau, and the American revolution was founded on John Locke.  This blog  amerika. noticed that both seem to have limitations.
I there suggest a kind of return to the Middle Ages where both the Torah and Kings had a kind of balance of Power.



[You have to read between the lines of John Locke to see his approach. He does not come out and say this openly.]


What I think is missing here is the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. There is no liberty without the Law of God.

In any case what is missing is not just the law of God, but also Hobbes--civil society. That is the area that government is meant to protect-- but not interfere with.
It seems to me the area of Torah is in this area of civil society where people accept voluntary acceptance of  the Laws of the Torah.

See the history of Spain and the Martyrs of Cordoba.

When Muslims get over a  certain % things go downhill quickly. Below a certain % they are the best mannered. Then people think well of them. Then the % grows and jihad starts with the youth  and the parents saying "we can't control our children. They are doing these violent acts on their own."  Then the % grows and you have a Muslim country. This is a common thread of how they took over many countries. See the history of Spain and the Martyrs of Cordoba.