[The sages of the Talmud were aware of the problem with people that use Torah for making a living.

In some way the world of Torah [the world of Yeshivas] was at least in my own mind a kind of representation of heaven. But at a certain point the organization itself lost credibility to me and I think many others. Not in the same way as the Catholic church lost its credibility but in a somewhat similar way.
They can not just make mistakes. But even worse. Do real evil.

I have seen enough to show me the unspoken truth about these things.
religious teachers are home wreckers. The are the most destructive thing for marriages and families.
The Zohar refers to them in this unique language, "Torah scholars that are demons." I have found that to be appropriate and not an exaggeration.

 I  uphold the Oral and Written Law the Law of Moses and the two Talmuds, but in contrast to the world of yeshiva, I have to do it in opposition to the official Establishment. [Lithuanian yeshivas however I do support as long as I get the impression they are authentic. But that is rare. The best are (as is well known) Ponovitch, and after that Brisk. I would have to say they are probably in fact very good. After them I think the three great NY yeshivas are important, Mir, Chaim Berlin and Torah VeDaat.] [There are offshoots of these great places which are also good. That is people that learned in these places sometimes started small Batei Midrash [study halls] which I would consider to be authentic and good places.]

[The sages of the Talmud were aware of the problem with people that use Torah for making a living. I only quoted the Zohar because it makes the point a lot more clear. I mean to say Torah scholars are doing wrong when they use the Torah to make money is not the same thing as saying they are demons from hell sent on earth to destroy human life. You have to admit the Zohar makes the same point but in a more powerful way. ] But it still does not get to the major problem today which is a bit worse because of worship of people that are assumed to be righteous. This is definitely not in accord with the Torah. And the power they weld is beyond anything that a politician could dream of. They have the kind of power you see only in gurus that command willing followers. These followers will do anything for their guru, die for him or commit murder for him. This problem is largely unspoken. People can criticize gurus all they want. But the kind of worship of humans I have seen in the religious world out shadows  that of gurus.

Giving to most yeshivas is not giving to charity. It is giving to parasites.  Yes, the poor are mostly parasites, but so are many of the “successful” who knowingly take on useless jobs for the salaries and power. And the religious teachers, self-help instructors, populist priests and psychologists? What  they do is  parasitic, but thickly disguised.

נפש החיים The Soul of Life by the disciple of the Gra [Eliyahu from Villna]

נפש החיים The Soul of Life by the disciple of the Gra [ Eliyahu from Villna] (Reb Chaim from Volloshin) is a very good book. It was included in the list of Musar {Ethics} books recommended by Israel Salanter.

It deals with vital and urgent issues that are modern.

I mean to say the basic set of ethics books from the middle ages are very good, but they tend not to deal with some issues that came up after that period.

Some of the issues are Bitul Torah. That is not just the mitzvah of learning Torahת but the sin of not learning Torah when one can be learning. A detailed discussion of what is idolatry. It also shows the way of prayer and service in the way of the Arizal (Isaac Luria).

I think it is, possibly, the most important Musar book ever to be written, because of its dealing with the issues that are urgent, but just were not relevant during the Middle Ages.


The actual books of Musar that are best are the known set of Mediaeval ones, plus the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter who wrote more modern approaches like the Madgragat HaAdam [מדרגת האדם] about trust in God and Isaac Blasser about fear of God. That was the general tendency of the Musar movement for each person to find some trait the felt they needed to work on and to hold onto, and often they would write a lot about that particular issue. I myself did not really go for any of that and went off in different directions, but I did find one trait that I have tried to hold onto at all cost--to speak the truth always no matter what. This actually had an early beginning when I read the Musar book אורחות צדיקים  The Ways Of The Righteous.

[There has been good stuff in terms of Musar. Recently someone found more writings of Isaac Blazzer, the major disciple of Reb Israel Salanter, and printed them. It is almost impossible to find, but I saw a copy in Netivot. [So from him we have two books- אור ישראל and this newer book.] There is a new and well researched biography on the Gra also that came out about 7 years ago- which I have heard is very good. It must be good judging by how many people were enraged at it. 
Everyone in some official position condemned the authors even though they had done meticulous research.You can see it must be the best book on the subject of the Gra.

I did not see the book myself but from what  I understood the conclusion of the authors was that the Gra meant what he said about the excommunication. This apparently got everyone in Israel very angry at the authors, and now you can't find this book anywhere. [There were previous books about  this issue. But this was a modern book that took the stance that the Gra meant what he said. and that the cherem has halachic validity.

I should however mention that when growing up I only liked classical music, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven. Only about ten years ago I discovered Renaissance Music. But I have always had an appreciation for the Renaissance period.

My Dad gave me Mozart Symphony 19, 24, the Magic Flute by Mozart, Mozart - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Egmont Overture by Beethoven.

Rifle-Wielding North Carolina 13 Year Old Girl Scares Off Home Invaders

According to wikpedia.org, Snow Camp, North Carolina is a small unincorporated community with a large Quaker population. It doesn’t seem the kind of place where violent crime would threaten innocent life. Then again, who knows? Snow Camp is surrounded by larger cities and even the smallest towns in America are home to drug abuse, and attendant crime. Like this [via wncn.com]:

Kirk Puckett, a spokesperson for the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office, said two sisters, 12 and 13, were inside the home when they heard knocking on the front door.

Puckett said when they looked outside, they saw three unfamiliar men. He said the older sister grabbed her dad’s rifle.

The suspects then broke in through the back door. Puckett said the 13-year-old pointed the rifle at them, causing them to run away without taking anything.

The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.

In this small paragraph I am depending a lot on the analysis of Howard Bloom in The Lucifer Principle and Allen Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind both.


The details are mainly in the book by Allen Bloom about problems with the Enlightenment. But in terms of a solution --the meme-I am thinking of Harold Bloom.

That is I am thinking the solution is in bringing back  a certain kind of Meme--unit of social information.--The Law of Moses.
The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.


I should mention that there is much in the Catholic Church that I think does not agree with the Oral and Written Law. Still I see the church as an important ally in terms of upholding the Law of Moses.
Whatever brings to the Law of Moses is good as far as I am concerned.

A problem plagues the world of Torah.

A problem plagues the world of Torah. Anyone with enough Charisma can claim to know Torah. There is no objective test and no checks and balances. Thus it is  a world full of fraud and scams.
You can see why the Rambam included Physics into his conception of what the Oral Law is. Not just because of the objective reality part of מעשה בראשית [the work of  creation] but also to connect to the דעת of God in a objective way.

The connection between the Litvak Yeshiva approach and the family of Yaakov Abuchatzaira

I had some connection with the family of  Yaakov Abuchatzaira. This was mainly through a grandson of Bava Sali, Shimon Buso.
This connection gave me a certain amount of clarity about the importance of Torah--that is the oral and written law and Musar [Musar in the sense of Reb Israel Salanater.] and the general path of Reb Chaim Soloveitchik. Or said simply the Lithuanian Musar yeshiva approach.

I  mention this because of the clarity that came to me on these issues through my connection with family of Bava Sali [i.e. Israel Abu-cha-tzei-ra ישראל אבוחצירה]
This is a Sephardi family but this clarity about the Musar Litvak approach was  very clear to them as expressed to me by many years of involvement with this family.

I had in fact been impressed with this path before that. In fact, you could say I really found happiness and fulfillment through the Litvak Musar Yeshiva path.

But not everyone can be in a Litvak yeshiva. So what some people do is they try the "kollel thing" or Beit Midrash [study hall for anyone that wants to learn Torah].

The basic ups and downs about this path- I have written about in other blog entries. But here I wanted to mention this Bava Sali connection because of the clarity it helped me achieve concerning this. That is, -almost all of the issues I have brought upon this blog, I discussed at great length with Shmon Buso, and also had discussion with the daughter of Bava Sali, Avigail Buso.

There is no question that this basic Musar Litvak approach is what Mrs Avigail Buso was thinking as the right approach. I also had some connection with the direct descendants of the older brother of Bava Sali known as עטרת ראשינו. [David Abuchatzira]  Looking back on it there is no question that all held from this basic Litvak Approach. It definitely was not the "sefardi pride" approach of the many Sephardi Jews. It was as Litvak as you could possibly be.

[I would also like to suggest the books of Reb Yaakov Abuchatzeira as an addition to the traditional books Musar.]