I saw with Rav Shick the idea of being attached to a tzadik and pantheism. He must have felt both of these ideas were the most important things to hold onto. I can see the importance of holding onto some basic trait, but neither of those two things seem  to be worthwhile goals, or to lead to any kind of human perfection or even improvement.

The Gemara itself seems to exclude any kind of idea of attachment to a tzadik as being a good thing, as it says in Sanhedrin circa 63b, "What is the difference between him and us?"

That is:-- the teaching of the Sages:  If one says, "Serve me," he gets the death penalty for being one that tries to seduce another to do idol worship. (מסית ומדיח). That is to all opinions. Then there is a  question if one answers that person and says, "Yes." Does he also get the death penalty? Some say "Yes." And others says "No" because all he meant was to make fun of the person asking for worship. After all מאי שנא איהו מינן דידן? ("What is the difference between him and us?").



[All the movements stemming from the Baal Shem Tov got heavily into pantheism, and have tried to sell it as the legitimate viewpoint of the Torah. (I do not think the Baal Shem Tov himself was responsible for this, but it came out of misunderstanding his intention in some of his statements.)

With Rav Shick the worship of a human being slipped into Vagina worship and with all religious leaders of this generation. [I mean worship of women which is the basic orientation of all religious leaders.]




My impression is the main thing to hold onto is the Law of Moses. And I can agree that there are particular things which can help to concentrate on. But attachment to a tzadik is at least one thing that seems to profit no one. The only results I have seen from that kind of approach are the destruction of good character. And the same goes for pantheism.

Trust and truth

You can not hide who you are or what you do. Believe me everyone knows. Everything is revealed. If if you take what does not belong to you in secret, everyone can feel the kind of person you are, and they do not trust you, so they will not hire you for any kind of job that requires trust. You have to get into the habit of always speaking the truth and never touching what does not belong to you and they you will begin to radiate an atmosphere of truth and truth around you that people can feel.

to repent on my sins

Since it is right before Yom Kippur and I understand the need to repent on my sins and the need of others also. Yet I realize that just like I am stuck in certain patterns of behavior that may or may not correspond the the Oral and Written Law of Moses it seems that changing my ways in a way that would be objectivity considered as Teshuva [a true return to the way of the Torah] is probably impossible.  This is a problem the Musar books deal with and their suggestion is to bring merit to many. That would probably translate to making yeshivas along the lines of Narvardok that empathizes good character trait [being a mensch] Fear of God, Trust in God and learning Torah.
The idea seems sound to me but there is a drawback that most places called yeshiva are really just private country clubs that learn Torah for show but they are not authentic.

The type of yeshiva I would recommend would be the traditional Lithuanian yeshiva but with this difference.
The only difference would be Physics and Math that the Musar yeshivas did not have in them, and for some reason unknown to me they decided to ignore the Rambam. Maybe it is the same reason the Gra's signature on the letter of excommunication is ignored. Some people just ant to be religious fanatics and the more stupid rituals the better.

[Just to make it clear what I am saying: If you go through books of Ethics you will find that they deal with the problem that sometimes one finds he can't repent. Their idea is that this comes from כל המחטיא את הרבים אין מספיקים בידו לעשות תשובה (from heaven they do not let repent anyone who causes many to sin). And their cure for this problem is כל המזכה את הרבים אין חטא בא על ידו ( no sin comes about through anyone who causes many to do a good deed or a commandment.)]

Then the problem is that what most people do to bring merit to many is usually the source of terrible sin. As a rule it is better for people to pursue selfish ends rather that do things they think are a mitzvah. The most horrible thing come into the world through people that want to help the world. The more sincere they are the worse their effect.

Determinism is self refuting.

three-arguments-against-determinism


https://sydneytrads.com

Determinism is self refuting.

But we wouldn’t say that the snowfall is “true” or “false.”


I should mention that Allen Bloom mentioned briefly this idea. Also John Searle I believe has a book along the same lines. I am not surprised to see a professor at a NY university putting together such an excellent essay.

To have some learning session in Kabalah. There was an opening of Divine Light on me for the years I was in Israel before I pushed it away. So I do have a great deal of confidence in the Ari himself that learning him does prepare the soul for a higher kind of light--if done for the intention of learning Torah.

Because of the fact that young people -when they get interested in Torah also get interested in Kabalah is not a surprise.  They do first need to get the idea that it is kosher. If not for that crucial step, even the most secular Jew would reject the idea of having anything to do with it.

(1) To me the Ari seems important. But a lot of the Dark Side got mixed into the general books of Kabalah especially after the Baal Shem Tov. Not that this as the fault of the Baal Shem Tov, but rather the fact that the basic approach of the Shatz got into all mystic books after the 1700's.
The focus of the Sitra Achra (Dark Side) became the possession of religious teachers, and from there it was easy to subvert the rest of the Jewish people.
(2) Without the Kabala,h the Torah looks to modern eyes rather empty of significance. So it is natural to look for what is going on under the surface. This is the same as when you read Chaucer, you look for the deeper meanings. But in Kabalah people expect they will find the feeling and knowledge of numinous value.

(3) My position on this is that the Zohar is not from R Shimon ben Yochai. But that does not invalidate it. It was common for souls of people to reveal things to the living as we see with Joan of Arc and many others.

(4) I do think the Ari [Isaac Luria] is important but almost nothing that was written in Kabalah after him. The only two schools of thought after the Ari that I consider kosher are Yaakov Abuchatzeira and Shalom Sharabi.

(5) Besides those to schools of though I think everything else is basically from the Dark Side.
[Clearly Yaakov Avichatzaira and Bava Sali held very highly of the Ari and the Remak. The trouble is clearly not from them but from later demonic teachers that got to be commonly accepted as tzadikim who were clearly not so.]

Th danger is also that people  that learn kabalah think they have Ruach  Hakodesh and or the ability to do miracles. They imagine anything they think come from the realm of holiness.

(6) My own position you have to realize comes from a balance of a lot of things. I really liked the Eitz Chaim of the Arizal which I learned in the Mir Yeshiva in NY [between sessions] before I went to Israel, and in Israel I learned zero Kabalah, but visited the grave of the Arizal. [I mean in NY the basic thing was to learn Talmud and  so I learned the Ari only between sessions--I think. I might have done some during some sessions.] In any case, there was an opening of Divine Light on me for the years I was there before I pushed it away.  SoI do have a great deal of confidence in the Ari himself that learning him does  prepare the soul for a higher kind of light--if done for the intention of learning Torah. If it is done for the intention of getting spiritual powers it definitely causes one to fall into the Dark Side. I also look at the Ari from the standpoint of Kant that there is a an area of value that reason can not know. The realm of the dinge any sich.

Music for the glory of God

s52 C Minor

Socialism or any Rousseau based system I do not like. The way I see it the Constitution of the USA    would work perfectly well if not for the New Deal and the Great Society and black influence. The Constitution grants certain powers to the Federal government and no more. All other powers and right remain for the States or for the individual.
This really goes back to Hobbes that government is in order to protect civil society.

From the aspect of Torah, Socialism has two problems. Two are from the  Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet. From the aspect of Torah the Federal government has a problem because it is limited by contract. The contract in this case being the Constitution. It is in violation of this contract because it has usurped power not given to it and reserved only for the states or individuals.   No one can believe in the Old Testament and still hold with socialism.