Marriage today is undergoing some kind of strange transformation

 I have no advice but I just wanted to mention that when my wife left me I found it helpful to be very careful  never to say a negative word about her to anyone. Since I knew I was going into a period of tremendous turmoil I also found it useful to find one core principle to stick with at all cost and that was to tell the truth always under all circumstances. These two ideas I believed helped me get through the problems..

Anything to do with Kabalah today is coming from the Sitra Achra [the Dark Side].

I see there is critique on Kabalah. Some consider it Occult. Which is true for much of it, and certainly for all modern day people that indulge in it. It surprised me when I found this modern attitude in people that were interested in Kabalah. Where it comes from is easy to see. People are interested in the deeper meaning of the Torah, and then the subtle hints and promises of secret powers gets to them.


[I meant to get into this subject in more depth, but did not get a chance. In any case, I could have to agree with the critique that almost anything to do with Kabalah nowadays is basically coming from the Sitra Achra. ]


Critics typically do not differentiate between types of Kabalah when they are including it in the category of Occult. They are certainly right for the critique on Occult practices. However I must distinguish between what they are criticizing and the Ari (Isaac Luria).

In fact the very word used for Kabalah in the yeshiva world refers to only the Zohar, the Remak, and the Ari. These is not the same things that the critics are criticizing.


There is however a kind of grey area in which even legitimate kabalah gets into the wrong energies.


In  essence the Ari,  Remak, Zohar, Rav Avraham Abulafia are giving a mystic view of the Torah, not advocating occult or magic practices

Later groups supposedly going with the Kabalah  however are defilement from the dark side.

 In the realm of witchcraft and the occult, and there are profound scriptural warnings not to remember them or to be "a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer" (Deut. 18:11). 

The Jewish orthodox world also believes in the blending of psychology and Torah as if the Torah was not enough. They think the Torah says, "I have placed the good and the truth, Jung and Freud before you this day." And "These are the modern theories of psychology by which a man will live by them."

The Sitra Achra [Dark Side]  goal is ultimately to lead to worldwide demon possession.

The default position of American youth is "No one can tell me what to do." This is stated as an obvious axiom although there is nothing obvious about it.
It is hard to know what it means. Does it mean no one has the right to tell him what to do.


Imagine a recruit in the Army. That thinks he knows best how to take a rifle apart and clean it. He is taking twenty minutes and still has not figured it out.

The instructor comes over and shows him his mistake. The recruit says to the instructor  "No one can tell me what to think." How is this defensible?

Or you have a cash register worker with sticky fingers. At the end of the day  money is missing. The store owner asks him about it. He answers "No one can tell me what to do."


Even if one is alone, no one is alone. One's parents have something invested in him. Many parents care very deeply about their children. And in any case no one is alone. Everyone one lives in some groups and everything he does or does not do affects others.Imagine a world with no traffic rules. No one would be safe.

You can have someone walking in front of a moving car and he keeps on walking straight at the car and the car keeps coming expecting him to  move  of the way. They get within about 20 inches of missing. You tell the fellow, "Don't walk in front of a moving car." He answers "No one can tell me what to do." I am not exaggerating. This is how ingrained this attitude is today.

s55 g major  s56 6-8 time

s57  F Major edited  S-57 in midi format

The Modern world developed as a reaction to religious abuse.

Society has become secular. No Numinous value. I can see this as a problem. But numinous value is also confusing. It is hard to find a proper balance. One does not wish religious authorities  to have power. I shudder at the thought. The Modern world developed as a reaction to religious abuse. So all we have are two approaches neither of which seems very good.


So my suggestion is to learn Torah --that is the Oral and Written Law of Moses, plus Math and Physics. This approach is based on my parents and it happens to corresponds to what Maimonides said in the Guide. [Maimonides also emphasized Metaphysics the set of books of Aristotle by that name.] [Philosophy and philosophers nowadays are  stupid. But there were  great thinkers like Plato Aristotle and Kant. ]




 [I should mention that the Oral Law is a lot of material to go through and therefore the best idea for a fast introduction is to learn what is called Musar/Ethics. Musar in its essence means medieval Ethics like the Obligations of the Heart, and Paths of the Just, The Ways of the Righteous etc. But to get a better idea of Musar it is helpful to learn the books of Reb Israel Salanter's disciples.]

Musar is based on the Written and Oral Law but extracts the basic aspects of Fear of God and Ethics.

I see the Alt Right and monarchists are not so thrilled with the Enlightenment. That would seem to be along the lines of Allen Bloom. (Closing of the American Mind). But Bloom takes the critique mainly from the beginning of the Enlightenment up until Kant and then skips over to the modern day American University. So he did not deal with German Idealism nor its offshoots. I am not sure why?

I see a lot of value in German Idealism and the later people like C.G. Jung who built on Schopenhauer and Kant.

Still the overall impression is that none of these people liked the Throne and Altar approach of the Middle Ages.


In any case you can see even in Jung  and Hegel the struggle to get out of a Torah Framework.

Certainly not in Kant though.


In any case I am still trying to evaluate the whole thing. I read Allen Bloom about 5 years ago and pretty much what he says makes sense. That is: The Enlightenment and the Anti Enlightenment have both been on a collusion course for some time and now are colliding. The devastation of the Enlightenment is apparent in the modern USA university. But the solution is no where to be seen. He certainly does not think a return to Throne and Altar  is a good idea. I also have sen plenty of abuse in religious settings. There is enough abuse for me to shudder at the idea of religious authorities have any kind of power.

I prefer to remain in the Allen Bloom Zone where both the Enlightenment and Throne and Altar approach have some validity and that the best way has simply not been found yet.

Just to be clear I think the modern world got intoxicated with modernity. The best thing is to learn Gemara, Musar [medieval ethics] Math and Physics. Take the best of the holy Torah and science.  [Hegel I am not so thrilled with.]