There are a lot of pitfalls in the "frum-world"[i.e., the religious world].

There are a lot of pitfalls in the "frum-world"[i.e., the religious world]. Sometimes it makes sense to mention them. Mainly it is the human cost of getting people to join in. This fanatic need to bring people in to be "frum" and then treat them like dirt is not an admirable trait. And it suggest the need to make people frum is more of a symptom of a schizoid personalty sickness.
That is just one problem. They might invite you into their kollel if they think you can give them money but never to be part of their group. It is a kind of גניבת דעת trickery.
But the further problem is that the frum world itself is clearly insane. That is it is filled with insane groups and the likelihood is anyone joining in will join in one of those groups.

It’s neofeudalists – good white businessmen willing to flood the country with more customers and cheaper labor if it’ll make them another buck.

Comment on Unz review: "Let’s be honest with ourselves: it ain’t just “neocons” (i.e., Jews interested in pulling all the strings). It’s neofeudalists – good white businessmen willing to flood the country with more customers and cheaper labor if it’ll make them another buck. Like ye olde Southern plantation owners, these men think they can control the consequences when whites become a minority. We see what those men ultimately did to the South, and what the modern neofeudalists are doing to the entire country – the entire West – will be just as awful."


This is the first comment that accurately describes my feelings. I grieved me when I saw the country being flooded by blacks. Then it grieved me even more when I saw it being overrun by Muslims. Then the last straw was to see the Jews being blamed for it all. The people that brought in the blacks were not Jewish; they were Southern Businessmen. And the people that flooded the country with Muslims were not Jewish. The Jews are simply the most convenient scapegoat for what White Anglo Saxon Protestants did to themselves.

[My family had to escape from Newark, NJ when it was overrun by blacks. We certainly did not invite them.]

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It hard for me to imagine the whole Yaakov Abuchatzeira thing disappeared into thin air.  While it is true we don't have anything anywhere near the Bava  Sali, still I recommend going to see his descendants and getting a blessing and also going to anyone descended from that family on the festival days and Shabat. During the week I recommend learning Gemara and Musar at home or in a local Beit Midrash {study hall for Gemara  only.}

I had a close friendship with a grandson of Bava Sali, Shimon Buso who was a teacher in the Ponovitch branch in Jerusalem for a number  of years and I knew the whole Buso family pretty well. It is a good idea to get a blessing from any of them.


Of course if you are in the vicinity of an authentic, Litvak yeshiva then by all means learn there and support it--if it is the real thing and not just an excuse to ask secular Jews for for money.

I might make a list of the good yeshivas--Ponovitch, the Litvak yeshivas in NY, Brisk and their branches.[The NY ones are Mir, Torah VeDaat, and Chaim Berlin.] {I did not mention Tifrach because as far as I know it stems from Ponovitch, so it is included automatically.]
If you are not in the area of any of these then make your own yeshiva at home. Get the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach, the Chidushei HaRambam of Reb Chaim Soloveitchik and learn them on your own.

Some have brought up the subject of Zionism as a form of nationalism. Also "Self determination."
But self determination does not seem like nationalism. Nationalism is defensible with Hegel. But self determination is incoherent. What is the group? This was noticed right away when Wilson proposed self determination as a principle. It automatically leads to conflict. However nationalism is  perfectly legitimate and can be defended by Hegel.  [But then you would have to defend Hegel, which I think is possible and even desirable. ]


I believe the point was raised right away after Wilson stated this principle. Self Determination has not lower limit, and no upper limit. It is a simply a principle that gives a way for people to make trouble when they don't like the way things are going. Serbia is one good example. Nationalism however is something that is defended by Hegel. So one would have to see exactly what kind of nationalism he is defending and why. Certainly he is not saying self determination for everyone. He means a kind of nationalism that has associated with it an upward vector. It is not stationary.

Reb Aaron Kotler and Zionism

 I was in Israel and at the time identified with the Ultra Religious.  And then I saw a book of Aaron Kotler and saw  that he said דינא דמלכותא דינא "the law of the country is the law." So I realized then that my anti Zionist stance was mistaken. Reb Moshe Feinstein also said the same thing. Since then I have been supportive of the State of Israel.

ADL Anti defamation League  I have seen them defend things I thought were not very good. I forget exactly but I seem to recall they wanted to ban celebrations of Christmas and the Ten Commandments and such things. I would assume they might have something to do with the banning of the Confederate Battle Flag in the South. That suggests to me they must be Democrats. They seem to be on some kind of crusade to wipe out morality and values.

Notes

Reb Aaron Kotler was a very great Torah sage who had learned I think in Kletzk and wrote a very good book on Shas and a book of Ethics. The book on Ethics is where I saw this opinion of his.

I really can't tell who was greater, but Reb Aaron is considered to have been as great as Reb Moshe Feinstein or perhaps greater. My own experience with Litvish gedolim was confined to Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY. That is Reb Naphtali Yeager and Reb Shmuel Brudny, Reb Shmuel Berenbaum, the author of the Sukat David and Reb Shraga Moshe Kalmanovitch. My impression of all of them is very high. I think Reb Shmuel Berenabum was the deepest thinker and I think Naftapli Yaeger is the most rigorous.

The person that probably was the greatest of that generation was Rav Shach in Ponovitch.[He wrote the Avi Ezri which is an amazing book.]

Nowadays there is not much left. For guidance, the best people around are probably the descendants of Reb Yaakov Abuchazteira and Bava Sali. [Though I admit I am not  aware of who is who. I know Shimon Buso -a grandson of Bava Sali, but that is about all.]

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