s73 A minor   s73 in midi

The Closing of the American Mind

It was Allen Bloom [The Closing of the American Mind] that thought there was a direct contradiction between two opposite flows of thought enlightenment and anti enlightenment that were coming int direct collision in the USA universities in the 1990's. His solution  was to learn the Republic of Plato along with what was called the great books.

Why would he have not mentioned learning Torah? Certainly the Gra would have. Is it possible that he had noticed that Torah alone does not produce the kind of answers he was looking for?

It seems the Gra and the Rambam both must have seen the same.
The program of the Rambam would be to learn the יד החזקה the Mishne Torah, Physics and Metaphysics. The Gra said that to the degree that one is lacking any knowledge of the seven wisdoms to that degree he will be lacking in knowledge of Torah.


So they are both thinking of  a polynomic theory of value. Torah provides an "in" into Numinous value. But they wanted a balance of values. 

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an amazing book but I think a little unfair to the Middle Ages.Work then was being done on lots of fronts like Faith and Reason and lots of areas. Progress was being made that made things later possible. One example that comes to mind is water technology. That was a total Medieval invention. And when electricity was discovered it was easy to transfer from water to electricity.

It is common to find people that do not respect the Middle Ages. One of my first lessons in yeshiva as to correct me from that attitude. "Rishonim" are not just considered more logically rigorous than achronim. They are in fact more logically rigorous.

The Ari [Isaac Luria] brings this idea that a person can be basically good or even 99% good but have some evil core.

There is evil in quantity and evil in quality. The Ari [Isaac Luria] brings this idea that a person can be basically good or even 99% good but have some evil core. This gives a way to judge people on the scales of merit. For in fact most people that we see are evil simply choose a little less good that their environment would have dictated. Thus even if you see yourself as much better than them, this is only because your upbringing was better. not because you choose better.

Being out in nature and being able to survive

In California when I was growing up there there was a kind of ideal between nature and city life.  Being out in nature and being able to survive and thrive were considered just as much a part of growing up  as academic studies. Being out in Nature was considered as a great ideal all in itself. This was universal and also it went parallel to my own father's basic approach of emphasizing being self sufficient.


The way most American parents expressed this value was by in fact going out to nature every weekend which as the unspoken but universal rule in the USA. Jewish people did this on Sunday and Shabat was to learn Torah and Christians did this on Saturday and went to church on Sunday. The other very common thing was the Boy Scouts. Nowadays you would have to find an alternative this this.
[I have to admit I found keeping this balance very hard. I never got very far in the Boy Scots and even in academic studies I found myself very challenged.] Some Jews were just naturals at this type of thing. Like my Dad who was pretty much good at anything he tried to do. And also my father in law [Bill Finn] who was in Poland at the beginning of WWII and escaped from the Nazis to the eastern front and was taken by the Red Army and since he had German citizenship he was sent to Siberia. There he was so good at fixing anything he was made head of the work camp there. Later he got to NY and worked for Donald Trump's father.

The path of Torah

The path of Torah is to have  session of Gemara [Talmud] one hour per day and one half hour of Musar.
[The hour session can be review of one page for a few months or even one Tosphot, or it can be to make lots of progress by doing a few pages per day.] I should confess that I have had great difficulty in trying to do this. I would love to have an hour session in Gemara and a half hour of Musar. I am at this point very much longing to do this, but so far I have not been able to. But I see the desire in itself as being a great thing. The desire to do the right thing and the knowledge of what it is is already a big step in the right direction. 

s64 F major s64 in midi   same piece in nwc format