We know what legitimate Torah is

I noticed one very nice thing about Torah, and that is that we know what legitimate Torah is. There is very little (if any at all) ambiguity  about what is authentic Torah. And that makes it easy to detect what is phony and false.
Just for the record, just in case there might be some person who does not know:
The Oral and Written Torah  we know very well what they are. Two Talmuds, Tosephta, Sifra Sifri, Midrash Raba, Midrash Tanchuma.
We know what is legitimate and authentic halacha [Rif, Rosh, Rambam, Tur, Shulchan Aruch of Rabainu Joseph Karo.]
We know what are the authentic books of Musar  (Ethics) (Obligations of the Heart, אורחות צדיקים  שערי תשובה.)
And we know what are the authentic books of השקפה [- the world view of Torah]. The Guide for the Perplexed of the Rambam, אמונות ודעות of Saadia Gaon. [Joseph Albo and Abravanel also.]

And we know what is legitimate למדנות: books showing how to learn: R. Akiva Eiger, Reb Chaim Soloveitchik (חידושי הרמב''ם), Rav Shach (the Avi Ezri אבי עזרי), Reb Naphtali Troup.

What I mean by this is this: There might be some people that keep this better and some that keep it less well. But at least we have a clear idea of what is legit [legitimate] and what is not.

[That does not stop phonies from trying to claim their delusions are legitimate. But what is good is that those who wish to know what is authentic,-- can know]

[There is debate about the Zohar. I do not think it is from R. Shimon ben Yochai. The words עם כל דא which is a translation of עם כל זה come up all the time in the Zohar. And עם כל זה is a phrase invented by the Ibn Tibon family of translators to say "although." Before the middle ages, there were a few ways of saying "although." One was אף על פי. Another was אף על גב. But none of the ways was very elegant. The first means "even on my mouth." The other means "even on the back." So Ibn Tibon came up with this more elegant way:  עם כל זה. And this comes up all the time in the Zohar showing that it was authored in the Middle Ages. 


In mysticism there is a threat to the essential
underpinnings of the holy Torah,  in the sense that they adhere to a view of spirituality that is fundamentally
experiential and subjectivist; and in more or less subtle language,  put forth the idea that there is, in these days, a new, charismatic, "super wakening" in the making, which will inevitably supplant the antiquated institutions of historical Torah. Those at the fringes  tend (nowadays, using very cautious language) to consider any questioning of
its hyper-delusions as, at best, a manifestation of a hardhearted "traditionalism" or intellectualism [חכמות], and at worst, a diabolical the unpardonable sin of slander against tzadikim (righteous people). 







In any case, the things which I think is important is to get through the entire Oral and Written Law, and after to concentrate more on עיון in depth learning.

If you do not have time for that then Musar [Ethics] is the best thing to concentrate on. The basic set of Musar books contains after all the main message of Torah fear of God, and good character. Especially the Obligations of the Heart חובות לבבות. But also the book of Rabbainu Yona {שערי תשובה} is very important. There are  few other Musar books from the middle ages which form the basic set of Musar. (The אור ישראל by a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter also is a very important book.)

best yeshivas

The two best yeshivas that I ever saw were both in NY. Though I saw lots of yeshivas in Israel and in many other places around the world I was most impressed with the Mir in NY and Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway. The reason is these places were the closest thing I saw to learning and keeping Torah for its own sake. It was not just that they were both very much into learning "Beiyun"(--in depth) but also there was a spirit of "Torah for its own sake" that I never saw elsewhere.

[I have tried to express in a few essays what is unique and special about authentic Torah but nothing really gives the power and impact of learning in one of these two places.]
[The main thing about the yeshiva world is to learn and keep Torah. Since most people are far from NY, the best thing is to get your basic set of the Oral and Written Law, and just plow through them. The actual world of yeshivas itself tends to be very confusing because of the numerous cross currents. For those like me that simply do not want to know or hear about that it is best just to make your own spot a place of authentic Torah (מקום תורה) and do not be concerned what others are doing.] It might be a good idea to do research and to write  a paper on the yeshivas, and the yeshiva movement as it started with Reb Chaim of Voloshin. But the short and sweet of it is simple. There are places which are more or less devoted towards learning and keeping straight Torah. Some are better and some are worse but as long as straight Torah is their focus they are basically good. The trouble is the cults that pretend to be keeping straight Torah and they are very dangerous and ought to be shot on first sight.

What is straight Torah? The basic Oral Law is the two Talmuds. The basic set of Halacha is the Rishonim Rif Rosh Tur Shulchan Aruch of Rabbainu Joseph Karo. The best of the later achronim are the Pnei Yehoshua, R Akiva Eiger, and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, and Rav Shach's Avi Ezri.


Great tzadikim   such as the Gra and Rav Shach  became more and more aware of the danger of counterfeit movements entering in and ruining genuine Torah as time went by, and they wrote specific warnings  about this. Other people have chosen to ignore the problem and thus indirectly caused many to fall. 
The cults teach and practice and try to bring people to their imitation Torah and succeed because no one of real stature combats the problem. False teachers was a problem addressed by Reb Nachman himself;- and though the movement founded on him is full of false teachers, still there is great importance in his lessons, -and this one among them. Fake Torah is much worse than no Torah.


One way the cults trick people is by camouflaging the belief being taught and until the subject is willing to accept it.


They claim to teach Torah. But think for a minute.


 Imagine a man with a bottle in his hand. There is a colored liquid in the bottle and there are many healthy ingredients in that bottle. There's water in it and and  excellent ingredients. But there happens to be an amount of prussic acid, and though it's a very small amount it can kill anybody who drinks out of that bottle! What's the point of praising the good ingredients when there is rank, lethal poison in the bottle?" The pseudo Torah cults add Torah to their poison to hide what they are actually offering. [The Sitra Achra, the Dark Side, imitates the realm of holiness but one with his eyes open can tell the vast difference.]

The major reason the Gra signed the excommunication was for this very reason. He saw the attempt to subvert the Torah. The main objective of cults is to break up your relationship with your parents and wife an children. They are scum pretending to be superior beings.

I heard a story today which hit home.  A woman was praying for her husband to repent on his bad ways for ten years with no result.One day it was suggested to her that she  should pray to be able to serve him and be a proper helpmate for him as the Torah requires. From that time on  she began to wash his socks and laundry and help him in other ways. And in fact he also began to change for the better

What was interesting to me was  that a prayer for someone to repent is not a bad prayer. It is much better that praying for some enemy's ruin and destruction.  Still apparently even to pray for a bad person to repent is not a good as wishing sincerely for oneself to love them and to wish to serve them. 

s77 C major [s77in midi]  s78 [s78 in midi] s80 [s80 in midi] j2 [j2 in midi format]

I can see that there were serious problems with the Enlightenment philosophers.

While I like the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, I can see that there were serious problems with the Enlightenment philosophers. But that is how philosophy progresses. At first there is some puzzle or problem, and then someone comes along and solves it. That was the problem of change for Parmenides. The greatest thinkers struggled with that until you got Plato and Aristotle. Same with the Enlightenment philosophers that struggled with problems of human freedom and how we know stuff until Kant came along and then the whole German Idealism school. My advice would be to learn from the best of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and Kant.

It is common in Litvak yeshivas to learn and appreciative the importance of the Rishonim medieval scholars and yet still to learn from the best of the Achronim [scholars after the Beit Yoseph and including the Beit Yoseph (Rav Joseph Karo)]. This is not to say the achronim were greater but rather there is something to learn from them.

One can learn the Musar (books of Ethics) of the Rishonim but still come out not understanding a thing until one gets to the Musar of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter.

One can learn Gemara and Rishonim all day and still just not get it until one opens up Rav Shach's Avi Ezri. This happens to me all the time.

Kant

My suggestion is the Kantschool of thought. That is an extension of Kant that uses Schopenhauer for metaphysics and Hegel for epistemology. 


It is kind of like Ayn Rand and John Locke in practice.


The importance of Schopenhauer is great. Also  German Idealism [i.e. Kant, Fichte, Schelling,  et al.]. I still have a great deal of trouble with Hegel. I see most Marxist principles and Leftist Socialism stemming from him. I can not figure out if the trouble was people misusing him or if there really was something "off". This is not an irrelevant question. The fate of about 100 million people perishing under socialist governments in the 20th century seems to raise some some doubt about Socialism. 

From a Jewish point of view German Idealism is important because the basic structure of Metaphysics of Torah is mainly Neo-Platonic and Aristotelian. [That is the metaphysical backbone that is clearly stated by Saadia Gaon and the Obligations of the Heart and Maimonides and the Ari.] There are questions about this structure which need to be addressed and not just papered over. [The general way to deal with the Rambam and Saadia Gaon is to ignore them an pretend they did not write anything about the basic metaphysical structure of Torah.]
That is,- there is a reason why Saadia Gaon and the Rambam adopted the Neo Platonic point of view. The same reason gives us today a further reason to find support for the Torah point of view after that much of the medieval concepts used by the Rambam and Saadia Gaon seem quiet,.. well..--medieval. That is,- axioms that do not seem all that true anymore.

[After I wrote the above essay I thought to mention some points. Mystic experience is not what the holy Torah is about. Because the Rambam rational approach is not interesting to people they go instead to mystics. The trouble is most of them all are teaching the teachings of the Shatz in different form.]

Jewish cults. What you tolerate you get more of.

Events similar to this are repeated ad nauseam in the history of the  Jewish people.  A charismatic (in the generic sense) leader, claiming a special calling, and extraordinary powers, will, little by little, gain control over people’s hearts, minds, women and (significantly) their property. Impressing upon their followers the imminence of the "Geula"גאולה/Redemption, or some global catastrophe, and assuring them that they alone will be the survivors, they assure these followers that  they will occupy a position of power and influence in the new world to come. Readers will note that this has  happened in Uganda, where thousands of innocent persons lost their property, their freedom, and finally their lives in a hideous fashion after being duped by a charismatic leader. 

I am not immune from this myself and  there are lots of shades of grey in this. Even some authentic Lithuanian  yeshivas can have some characteristics of cults.

Kabalistic and mystic error mixed with a combustible pseudo-spiritual empowerment and magnetism has constantly proved a deadly mixture. Unfettered by authentic Torah and unmoved by charity, which is not mere affectation, or emotional attachment, it will breed jealousy, rivalry, quarrels and sects, and fulfill the demonic purpose, which is the further fragmentation of the Jewish world.

Indeed, primitive man understood that to him belonged the responsibility not only to provide for himself and his family, but also the duty of beating the $h#t out of any man or animal that threatened his family’s existence. This is why when you encounter a Jewish cult, your obligation is not to run and hide, but to beat the living daylights out of them because they threaten the very existence of yourself and your family. It is why the Gra put them into Cherem 
What you tolerate you get more of. And it is simple to show the origin of their teachings come from the Shatz. The trouble is it is all one big mass deception. There is nothing in the Torah about being possessed by the neshama {soul} of a tzadik. That is pure idolatry. In the Torah we are not automatons.

The constant craving for spiritual experience, as is attested to by all the great mystics of the Torah like Rav Avraham Abulafia and the Ari, is addictive, like a drug. Since the experiences are indeed spurious, they will never ultimately satisfy the soul that hungers after them, and will be required in stronger and stronger doses. In light of this, it is no surprise that cult leaders themselves were no longer content with mere Torah but went further and further down the road of absurdity and fanaticism.

It is an undeniable fact that most Jews take their values and beliefs from other people. When listening to teachers they like, they will retain some of their teachings; when listening to teachers they don't like, they ignore just about everything being said, whether or not it is truth. They will read certain authors and underline the bits they like. They will listen to secular leaders on  radio and imbibe whatever is current thinking. In this way, the majority of Jews build up a formidable store of haphazard knowledge. 

The trouble with this store of knowledge is that it is mostly useless!  There can be only one type of useful, valuable, knowledge… knowledge  given by God, and which points to God and His Truth. Everything else is worthless. It does not matter how 'academic' a topic is. or how important it is in the eyes of others; if it does not agree with God's view of things, then it is, bluntly, nothing but rubbish!

Along with this magpie-collecting of odd bits of knowledge, comes a growing interest in New Age ideas, concerning everything from incense and soothing oils, to yoga and spiritualism. Oh, how evil loves to hide its true self behind many guises! Weird ideas from occultists, New Agers, unbelieving scientists and plain sceptics, have tended to shape popular Jewish culture. So, when it comes to demons, there is a wide diversity of opinion concerning their presence, their ways and their aims.

Favourite aunts, uncles, or even parents, are seen; usually they have come to 'comfort' those they leave behind. It is assumed, that this 'proves' ghosts are spirits of dead people and that most of them mean no harm.

This is a great error, for all ghosts, without exception, are demons: wicked angels whose only task on this earth is to deceive and to harm. We are told this in the Torah. Ghosts are never friendly. They are always wicked, even if they appear to be kind. Their purpose is to make us believe they are spirits of the dead. Once they manage to delude us, they continue to hold our attention, so that any belief we may have in God as He is presented in scripture, is eroded to nothing.

Demons are angels who were thrown out of God's presence. Satan was the chief of all angels, of incredible beauty and power. But, he sinned, even before Man sinned. When he was cast out of heaven, those angels who followed him were also cast out. All of this is found in scripture. They were bound to this earth and they have lived here since the world was formed. They devote their sleepless, evil lives to harming God's people, deluding and harming others and generally wreaking havoc in the lives of all humankind. They will persuade and nurture Hitlers and Neros; they will make great preachers fall; they will cause governments to oppress and individuals to rebel.

Evolution, much of psychiatry and psychology, many scientific ideas, social practices, are formulated and initiated by demons, through humans.  Often, they will work through just one person: have you ever come across someone whose very presence makes your skin crawl and whose every word is tinged with malice? It is highly likely that the person is 'led by the nose' by demons. What about those in society whose perversions spill over, often dramatically, so that many in society are at danger? It is likely that they are the pawns of demons. Demons are like stalking lions, watching for easy prey. And when they find someone, they pounce with a ferocity that is boundless and totally vicious.

The main problem with the cult that the Gra put a Cherem {חרם} excommunication on is idolatry. That is: people have a natural tendency to worship some idol. It does not really matter which one it is. That cult made worship of its leaders as a kind of supposedly kosher idolatry and created a sophisticated system to show how it is kosher based on the kabalah and also used ideas from the Shatz and also makes sure to look kosher in dress and rituals to try and get away with this fraud.