The religious world is a haunted house full of demons and goblins.

  It is more instructive to learn the writings of people that left cults than it is to learn about the cults themselves. There was one fellow that left a Hindu cult  that had a lot of great insights into the whole problem of cults. [I am referring to the cult of Adi Da. He had one disciple who left him and wrote about the problems with that cult in a very insightful way.]

  One thing he noticed that I would like to take a few minutes to discuss is the issue of archetypes. In short, the basic idea really begins with the fact  that people that get into the Intermediate Zone have a problem with ego inflation. 

  What he suggested was that even people that successfully get absorbed into some higher archetype are still to be avoided, because the human soul is higher than any archetype. Coming close to a person that you believe has successfully avoided the Intermediate Zone and the Dark Side, and you think has merited to become one with some higher archetype, will still have the effect of damage to your own soul.   


  That being said, there still were in history great people that merited to wondrous and amazing things. These people are not secret. We have no doubts about Einstein, Mozart, Moses, the Rambam, the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter, Rav Shach, Bava Sali, Plato, etc. 

  But we also know about people that were a mixed bag and some who were very great in intellect and yet did horrific damage. 

  The greatest problem seems to be in the area of numinous [religious] reality.-- because that is where when people fall and do damage that they fall the hardest and do the most harm. 

The trouble seems endemic in the religious world. The religious world is a haunted house full of demons and goblins. It is hard to find a corner of light.  

The best idea is to find examples of human excellence that truly were excellent and not take for one's goal to emulate people that were a mixed bag of good and bad ideas.


There are problems on two sides. One is religious fanatics of high self delusions, and the other is what is called anti-nomian-ism [anti-Law].   In this essay I have dealt mainly with the first problem because it fills the religious world today. The trouble is these two things are connected. Often the exact same group with the self delusions is the same as the antinomianism group. They use the Law of Moses as a cover and disguise.  

The Rambam's learning program

The Rambam has a learning program that involves dividing one day into three parts.  A third for the written Torah [Tenach/Old Testament].Another third for the Oral Law. Another third for deepening one's understanding of the Oral Law, that is Gemara. It sounds at first when he says the Oral Law he means the Talmud. But the actual language he uses is "Oral Law,"- the same exact terminology he uses for his own Mishne Torah.

That means, he considers  his book the Mishna Torah as containing the Oral Law.  It is in the  third part of deepening one's understanding of the Oral Law that learning the Talmud comes into his program.

Included in the third part of his program is Metaphysics and Physics as he says openly in Mishne Torah. [He explained this is more detail in the Guide. In the beginning of the Guide he explains what he means by Physics and Metaphysics and later explains why they are important.]

So he considers deepening one's understanding of the Mishne Torah as the essence of Gemara.
Thus nowadays what one ought to do after finishing the Mishne Torah straight through [which should take a few weeks at most], is to learn it again with Rav Shach's Avi Ezri, Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's חידושי הרמב''ם, and the books of the disciples of Reb Chaim-- Reb Baruch Ber, and Shimon Shkop. Plus Naphtali Troup (חידושי הגרנ''ט).

I am  pleased with seeing this with clarity because it has the benefit of fitting in with how I tend to learn the Gemara--that is to concentrate on one sugia at a time. That is-- to spend a great deal of time on one sugia (subject) which generally includes a few tosphots and a chapter  or two in the Rambam plus the portion of the Avi Ezri or Chidushei HaRambam that happen to deal with that particular sugia.
It is nice to see that this in fact fits in exactly with what the Rambam was saying anyway before I even realized that this is exactly what the the Rambam was saying to do.


Seeing this also has the advantage that it fits with something secret the daughter of Bava Sali told me.And also it fits with my parents idea about Torah.

s89 s84 music files

s89 e flat major  s84 C Major

Two problems with many people that are religious: ego inflation, and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).

The problem with religion was noticed by Sapolsky.[Robert Sapolsky at Stanford]
The problem is that of motivation as it relates to schizoid personalities.
That is, since as the Ari says most of this world is evil, we have to assume the majority of people obsessed with religion are doing it from the standpoint of Schizoid personalities. [Their obsession with ritual and sex is really a form of OCD.]
And that also means those that are obsessed with religion from the standpoint of trying to disprove some religion, or all religion, are also coming from the standpoint of a a schizoid  personality.


But we also know of authentic mystics and tzadikim that were God filled. Their service towards God was certainly not from some personality defect. Some example might be Bava Sali or the Gra or the Rambam.


The way I think to deal with this is from the idea of Dr. Kelley Ross--that of intention.[That is he solves the problem of Ontological undecidability by means of intention and that is what I think makes the main difference here also.]


The other problem with religion I noticed is ego inflation. This can either be a flattering image of one's self as some kind of central world figure. Or it can refer in its beginning stages to one's group. In either case it is a terrible mental disease. And it exists in all religious teachers that I have seen. And in fact in a large majority of religious people.
Both effects OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and Ego Inflation are direct results of what Kant called "Antimonies."That is contradictions that results when pure reason enter into areas of the dinge an sich.

The problem with dentists

There is a lot to go into in terms of the issue about teeth. As I mentioned dentists are notorious for making up work to do that is totally not necessary and has the effect of making holes in one's teeth and then they fill up the hole they themselves make with some putty that eventually falls out and then food and bacteria get into the tooth and ruin it. As I said I would only trust the NYU clinic in Manhattan or dentists in former USSR that make sure never to do work that is unnecessary. [In Israel, I did find a great dentist in Netivot, but he was anyway trained in the former USSR.]

[The problem with dentists I noticed myself but it was also documented on American Journal.] [They walked into clinic after clinic after the producer' teeth had been found to be perfect and every single clinic claimed he needed lost of work to be done.]

[obligations of the Torah that are between Man and God and other obligations that are between man and man.

There seems to be some kind of equilibrium point where you maximize the בין אדם לחבירו ובין אדם למקום. 
[obligations of the Torah that are between Man and God and other obligations that are between man and man.]



For we see groups that are not religious at all. Then there are groups that are more religious and then even more until you get to the ultra religious. And the measure of menshichkeit/human decency seems to take a nose dive according to the degree people are religious.There seems to be a kind of inverse proportionality.

But to be not religious at all is not an option for there are plenty of obligations of the Torah that are בין אדם למקום between Man and God. [And being totally secular has already been noticed also seems to affect obligation between man and fellow man adversely. So what I suggest there is some middle point. Perhaps Conservative Judaism where you maximize both sets of obligations without detracting from the other.



Therefore you have to say there is some middle point where both functions are maximized.
[The fact of the religious being dismal in obligations between man and fellow man is something they will rigorously  deny  though anyone outside of their immediate close friends and family will admit this to be true after any degree of experience with them. Unless he happens to be one of the naive rich secular Jews that they make  a whole song and dance to impress. Other than that everyone knows the frum world is a nightmare when it comes to human decency.]


I wish I could say the more religious the better but the facts overwhelmingly point towards this terrible problem that the religious will vehemently deny and try to hide. You might not believe me now, but after letting them into your life, and seeing the  infinite, irreparable damage they cause, you will see my point.

People are now being taught: Do not resist. Do not question them. To point out the problems is considered lashon hara  You must comply. Go along, to get along.  

World of the religious. Worship of corpses.

 Torah scholarship undoubtedly moves in fads, and  much of the literature has received less attention than it deserves. The general rule of thumb about the Rishonim (mediaeval authorities) is quite true--that they form the backbone of explaining the Torah. 

While some Achronim (later authorities after 1520) are very valuable, but a lot of trash got thrown into Torah thought in since the times of the movement the Shatz. [That is from around the time of 1660.]





While to some degree bad cults are weeded out over time, but sometimes not. Sometimes they just change form.

Nowadays to find out what authentic Torah thought says the worst place to go is to the religious. The world of the religious has sadlly become an epi-phenomenon of the Shatz and in fact uses the Torah as a cloak to disguise their anti Torah teachings and demonic essence which is Worship of corpses.  ["Kivrei tzadikim"]

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. 






[There are some islands of authentic Torah like Ponovitch in Israel and the NY yeshivas Mir, etc. But as a rule of thumb it is best to stick to Mesorati or Conservative and Reform in  order to avoid the kelipot (demonic forces) that fill the world of the religious.]

Vocabulary:
Mesorati means Conservative but it is roughly the same as Religious Zionism or Mizrachi or Bnei Akiva.--All very good.

Rishonim means the great sages from the time after Rav Hai Gaon until the Beit Joseph.
Achronim means from the Beit Joseph and on. That period in itself ought to be divided into two. The achronim before Reb Chaim Soloveitchik and after him. The reason is that after Reb Chaim Torah scholarship shifted in a way I can not describe but you can see easily if you compare  the achronim before him and after him. All the great yeshivas after Reb Chaim teach in more or less the basic approach of Reb Chaim.

I want to add that borrowing or finding the same themes and ideas does not mean identity nor does it mean conscious borrowing. The fact that the religious teach the doctrines of the Shatz does not mean they are doing it with intention nor that there are some variations. For example no one could consider Reb Nachman anything but  as  completely sincere and devoted to God and the holy Torah. Sincerity however does not mean there are no mistakes.  But Reb Nachman is the exception, not the rule and was not in fact under the excommunication of the Gra at all as you can see by reading the original documents.



The problem tends to be circumvention of the Torah. Most often what people in power are doing is finding ways of getting out of keeping the Torah according to its simple meaning. In general the text of the Holy Torah and the Talmud is perfectly clear.The religious in order to get out of things  they do not like simply ignore the Torah. In Torah we do not trust those in power and we always check the text. That is what the text of the Oral and Written Torah is for.
There seems to be some kind of equilibrium point where you maximize the בין אדם לחבירו ובין אדם למקום. For we see groups that are not religious at all. Then there are groups that are more religious and then even more until you get to the ultra religious. And the measure of menshichkeit/human decency seems to take a nose dive according to the degree people are religious.