Darius

Darius is the most confusing person to me. On one hand he did give the order to complete the Temple in Jerusalem according to the Law of Moses. On the other hand he also invaded Hellas right before the Golden Age of Athens and Sparta. Art, Science, Math, Literature,  Music, Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Pretty much everything that enriches human life. It is hard to imagine what would have happened if Persia had managed to subjugate Hellas.

Would some of this managed to come about elsewhere? It seems unlikely since it never did at any other time or place, though there were plenty of opportunities.

The idea of the Divine light shining on me and my family while we were in Israel in Safed,  I admit implies a certain degree of responsibility on my part.  I thought I could escape from the presence of God, and that would absolve me of my responsibilities. Kind of like Jonah. But it did not exactly work that way.  In any case, apparently from what I can see, that not only was it wrong to run from God's presence, but even though I did so, that did not absolve me of my responsibilities.

The trouble is I have a hard time trying to figure out how keep my obligations. In theory it ought to be simple. Call people to keep the Law of Moses, the Oral and Written Law. It could not be more simple. But in practice it is hard because the world that makes a show of keeping the Torah are just about as far from the holy Torah as a human being could possibly be-- with all the cults and idolatry that they cover up by means of Torah rituals. For one who really wants to keep the Torah in an authentic way, the worst possible idea is to have anything to do with the religious Jewish world. The only exception I can think of is the Lithuanian yeshivas which are great,- except for the problem  that the boundary between them and the religious is fluid.

Therefore, what I can do is to recommend the basic Litvak yeshiva approach with a caveat (condition). That is,- this recommendation comes with conditions. While the basic approach is true to Torah to some degree,  it still has problems since  the border between it and the insane religious world is porous, and also the kollels are simply using Torah as a way of making an income.

Better no Torah than false Torah.

My impression in the 1990's when my wife left me that it was a tragedy on  a global scale. That is not that I thought I was special in any way. I know I am not. But for the years we were in Israel for some reason or other God decided to shine his Divine light on me and my family in a really intense way. It was so strong that even visitors to our home would comment on it. You can even ask Rav Peretz Aurbach who was there for a visit and he felt it. So it seems to me my home was a kind of focal point for some kind of Divine energy. When Leah left, I knew this was going to have global repercussions on the entire state of marriage everywhere.

[To be fair to her, it was not really her fault since religious teachers and leaders were putting great pressure on her.] But later when the so called Shiduch Crisis began and then later marriage has fallen apart as an institution and now all religious leaders worship the Vagina I am not surprised.
Nowadays anyone who wants to get married out to have his head examined.

The solution to this problem is clear. The Law of Moses says if one keeps to Torah, things will go well. If things are not well in the world, we can only blame ourselves. But the question remains, what part or aspect of the Law are we not keeping? I can venture a guess  for myself. Listening to our parents, speaking the  truth at all cost, not touching what does not belong to us, learning Torah, not doing idolatry towards people.

[Obviously staying away from the religious with all their forms of idolatry and cults makes a lot of sense. Better no Torah than false Torah.]

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


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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.