OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) has nothing to do with Fear of God, but to the religious world it is the same thing. The more one focuses on rituals, is the more holy they seem..

A lot of religious motivation has more to do with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder more than with any kind of holiness. But not all.

And the system of the Ultra Religious encourages and nourishes this kind of disorder.

This happens when nothing else seems to work. A time of anxiety brings this on.

The obsessions in the Ultra Religious world are the exact same things as classic OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) , [i.e. cleanliness, food preparation, obsession with sex, holy places. numerology and gematriot.

The leaders are people that have an exaggerated version of this OCD.

And this is the basic reason why the Ultra Religious world is insane.

OCD has nothing to do with Fear of God, but to the religious world it is the same thing. The more they focus on rituals,  the more  holy they think they are.

So, in spite of the great thing that Reb Israel Salanter did in emphasizing Musar and Fear of God, still there is this troubling side of things in which fear of God can't be discerned or told apart from a diseased imagination.


For this reason Reb Israel Salanter himself focused on the more rational books of Musar Ethics from the Middle Ages more than the later Musar books which were all fused with kabalah and probably were written by people with this disorder. The obsession with religion is not the sign of a healthy personality, even though being true to the word of God in the Oral and Written Law is important.

[After spending time with the religious, you will start noticing this just as I did. A lot the people there simply have diseased imaginations.]

You can see why in Lithuanian kinds of Yeshivas obsessive religious behavior was rigorously  excluded in order to prevent these kinds of crazy people from joining. Thus in the ultra Religious world you have people at the heads of the cults have different levels of OCD, but that is rare in the Litvak world which  excludes this kind of insanity.

However to avoid people with this kind of disorder it is safer to simply join a Reform Temple. I myself went to Temple Israel and also to a Conservative place in Southern California.

Math, Physics, Gemara Musar, Music, Survival Skills.

I mentioned a few times that my basic approach is Torah with Derech Eretz [manners and a vocation.]. That is Math, Physics, Gemara Musar, Music, Survival Skills. But also I wanted to add the learning these things does not depend on understanding. There is such a thing as a mitzvah to learn Torah even though you do not understand. This is not just because it is assumed that with lots of review one will eventually understand. There is also the idea that in the next world one will be reminded and understand everything he tried to understand in this world but was not able to do so.
This forms the basis of the type of fast learning that all authentic Litvak yeshivas do in the afternoon and I showed how this comes from the Talmud itself. לעולם לגרס איניש אע''ג דמשכח ואע''ג דלא ידע מאי קאמר

I mentioned this in reference to Tosphot --just to say it over day after day, even for months until you understand.[Unless you are learning with a learning partner. In that case you do this kind of learning on your own time.]

But also this applies to learning Gemara, and Tur, Beit Joseph. To put a place marker in the book and every day do one whole page in order, and the next day to go on from where you left off.

I wanted to add the idea of learning standing. This is also a great help to understanding. I remember that this was how I did a lot of the writings of the Ari(zal),  Isaac Luria. I did not have "Stender" at home so I pulled out the shelf of one cabinet and stood up learning the Ari. [Not during "seder" or regular yeshiva hours 10:00-2:00 4:00-8:00]

This should not be taken as a kind of agreement with the Ultra Religious who are insane. This should only be taken as agreement with Lithuanian yeshivas  where Torah is learned for its own sake. Nothing else in the religious world do I consider kosher at all. [In fact the Gra knew exactly what he was doing when he signed the Cherem and it is wrong for people to ignore it, because it relates to objective reality.] This affected the entire frum world including the yeshivas. Even the yeshivas have gotten a share of the kelipot that penetrated into them. They will make a song and dance around secular Jews that have money but treat other people like dirt.

s24 A major

ditto in midi ditto in nwc

 Muslims  purposely target Jews on campus with insults and many other ways of making them feel no wanted.


Sephardim picked this up technique of subtle harassment from Muslims. They do it to Ashkenazim pretty consistently. But then you have some Sephardim that are appalled at this behavior, but they can't do anything about it. There is always at least one that makes life intolerable for the Ashkenazi until he is forced to leave town. [Unless the area is Ashkenazi and the sephardim are the guests.]

Musar-Ethics has a promise that goes with it from Isaac Blazzer (the disciple of Reb Israel Salanter) of being a cure for all bodily, and mental, and spiritual diseases.

, The way I  decided on what to say when I get up in the morning took time and thought to develop. It is a long and involved story. At the Mir in NY my interest was kindled in Musar (Ethics) one Rosh Hashanah. Then I lost interest. And then recently I asked a fellow  from Bnei Brak to bring some books of straight, normal Musar. The first one was I think the Obligations of the Heart. After that I asked for a book of Musar that is well known in yeshivas called Even Sh'lema and the Nefesh HaChaim  by the disciple of the Gra, Reb Chaim from Voloshin and another well know Musar book called Madrgat HaAdam [by Joseph Yozel Horwitz, a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter].

Then while reading these books I noticed at certain time areas of character development that I seemed to be lacking.

Then I wrote down one long paragraph and I would say it to my self right away when I got up in the morning. I forget which one it was but it might be the same one that I still say to myself when I get up: "When a person gets up in the morning and accepts upon himself that day to be mekababel [accept on himself] the yoke of Torah in truth –that is he decides in his heart that he will listen to no one and nothing will prevent him then on that day he will have success in Torah. And according to the deep of his commitment and strength of his conviction to that degree from Heaven he will receive help and he distractions and obstacles will be taken away from him."

After that I decided I needed help to judge people on the scales of merit and thus started saying to myself: "It is a known tested fact that when one has enemies –G-d forbid,- and he judges them on the scale of merit, that is, he decides in his heart that they are true and perfect saints, then immediately their heart will be turned to be his friends." {From Reb Chaim from Voloshin the disciple of the Gra}

A long time after that it occurred to me that I had ceased trusting in God at all and that this had been an important factor in my upward development. So I decided to start saying over a paragraph about trust in God that I had seen in the book the Madragat HaAdam during the middle of the day. But then at some point I started  saying it also in the morning.


The whole paragraph is this: “Trust in God with all your heart and do not depend on your intellect.” (Mishlei Proverbs 3)  That is your heart should be perfect and whole in trust in God and not with just part of your heart and do not depend on your intellect that is You should not say I will trust in God but I am also obligated  to do actions and to depend on my intellect. There it says do not depend even as a staff or support you should not depend on your intellect.

Someone heard in the name of the Gra that this is the explanation of what it says in Rosh HaShanah 25B

The students at the Beit Midrash did not understand the word Yehavka יהבך in psalms [Cast on God your yehavka and he will take care of your burden יהבך]. Then one day they heard a gentile merchant tell Raba Bar Bar Chana “Take your Yehavka (burden) and put it on my camel.”  The Gra said it does not mean the students did not understand the word. Rather it means they thought one should trust in Go an also do effort. Therefore they had a question on that verse. It should say your needs. Then they saw the merchant tell Raba Bar Bar Chana to take his burden and out it on his camel and then they understood that when something is supposed to come to one from Heaven then it will come no matter what and one does not need to do any effort to get it.



Musar Ethics has a promise that goes with it from Isaac Blazzer the disciple of Israel Salanter of being a cure for all bodily and mental and spiritual diseases.

While in my present situation I can't learn Musar [no books available] , I hope at least to encourage others to do so. While the best kind of approach is the Litvak Musar Yeshiva , still if that is not possible at least at home.

Christianity and the Mystic Rav Avraham Abulafia

Christianity I think is mainly based on Paul, and not Jesus at all.  Jesus himself I see as simply a Jewish saint. And one could go further based on the medieval Mystic Rav Avraham Abulafia and claim he was משיח בן יוסף (messiah son of Joseph) foretold in the Talmud tractate Sukka.

That still would not provide any reason to worship him, as the Rambam makes clear.

[I mean to say that the Rambam made Monotheism clearer by going with Aristotle. In that case the idea of the First Cause is absolutely simple and consistent with Divine Simplicity.]

Appendix

Note (1) I mean to say that Neo-Platonic thought up until the Rambam had enough problems  to cause the Rambam to switch to Aristotle, and Aquinas followed him. I used to think perhaps the reason was Divine Simplicity, but now that I am thinking of it, I realize you can have just as much Divine Simplicity with Neo Platonic thought.

Note (2) Avraham Abulafia's books have been printed in Mea Shearim Jerusalem-or you can buy the whole set on line. When I was researching this topic I had to go through the microfilms with that insane medieval script to see what Rav Abulafia was saying. I should mention Avraham Abulafia was the subject of professor Moshe Idel's (at H.U.) Ph.D thesis and later books. }

Note (3) The subject of Messiah son of Joseph comes up a little in the Zohar, but mainly in Moshe Chaim Lutzatto's Tikunim and the קול התור of the Gra and a drop in the Ari {Isaac Luria}. The Gra's book, Kol HaTor deals mainly with the topic of messiah son of Joseph. Maybe there are more sources that I did not run into.

Note (4) I am not saying this is a topic to spend time on. Mainly it looks to me to be "Bitul Torah" wasting time that could be better spent on learning Torah. But still, in any case, I had I think good reason to get to the bottom of this topic.

Note (5) Sorry. I forgot to mention that Rav Avraham Abulafia was respected by Reb Chaim Vital and the Chida.

Note (6) Rav Abulafia went to debate the pope. He was not happy with the Catholic Church. There were orders to arrest him. No one could lay a hand on him.

Note (7) Rav Abulfia's ideas are brought down in the Remak and also Reb Chaim Vital in detail [in שערי קדושה חלק רביעי].

Note (8) The reason I say that Christianity is based on Paul is that if your take Jesus in his own context there is no claim of Divinity nor nullification of the commandments. These are strictly Pauline doctrines.  That is to say major doctrines of the church have no textual support from the New Testament. The said doctrines contradict what Jesus said openly. They depend only on Paul and yet Paul was writing things that contradicted what the disciples of Jesus had written openly in his name.

I should mention:I grew up in John Birch society area. It was basically WASP and very nice. I kind of had a glimpse of Old American Values, and it was a really nice world.

a Litvak yeshiva

Ideas in Tractate Bava Metzia edited Ch 8 and ch 9.

The best place to learn Torah, if possible, is a Litvak yeshiva [called Litvak because "Litva" is the proper name of Lithuania] It is where yeshivas were real and authentic

That is they were made in order to learn and keep Torah --not schools to turn out people that use Torah for money. This was an argument I had with my parents. They thought yeshivas were really meant as means to make money. I tried to convince them that, "No. Rather their pursuit is to learn and keep Torah." Which of us was right I still do not know. at this point i think that there is too much mixture of money with Torah. Torah was not meant to be a means to make money, and yet that is what it is used for. I would say that Shar Yashuv and the Mir in N.Y. and Ponovitch in Israel are for Torah "Lishma" (for its own sake.) The best idea as far as I can tell is to learn a vocation, and not be in a position in which the only way one can make it is by using Torah. It is considered that Ponovitch is the best of the Litvak yeshivas, and Rav Elazar Menachem Shach was Rosh Yeshiva there for some time. From what I can tell this is accurate. Brisk also has a great reputation which is probably well deserved. But the best is probably Ponovitch [which includes "off shoots" (branches) like yeshivas founded by people that went to Ponovitch, e.g. Tifrach.]