29.12.16
Rav Shach
I wrote a little about the importance of Rav Shach but when I mention Rav Shach I really mean it as shorthand for the whole school of thought starting from Reb Chaim Soloveitchik, through Rav Baruch Ber and Shimon Shkop, and Naftali Troup.
What this means is that there is this whole school of thought that Reb Chaim started that basically says that there is a way to justify the Rambam.
Now to some degree this process started a long time ago, but it just was not very effective. At the most you would get with the Beit Yoseph and others the source from where the Rambam got his law from. But almost never "Why" or "How?"
The אור שמח I think was the actual beginning of this process. But it is mainly attributed to Reb Chaim. The reason I usually mention Rav Shach is that he brought this process to the pinnacle of perfection is his book the Avi Ezri. Or at least that is how it seems to me. My own experience with the חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Chaim is that it always leaves me unsatisfied. Always. I always end up more confused than when I started. Even though he goes a long way in solving the difficulties with his יסודות foundation principles. Still I always end up with a feeling that things are more confusing than when they started out. But with the Avi Ezri I always feel amazingly happy after I have finished a piece. I feel when he answers a difficult Rambam that the problem has in fact been solved.
[The general Litvak approach does not usually include the Rambam's idea of learning Physics and Metaphysics. I assume the reason is because even to the Rambam there is not question that knowing Shas come first and that is something that takes a certain amount of time. I learned Gemara for years and only recently did God grant me to write two small booklets on Bava Metzia and one on just a few places in Shas.]
What this means is that there is this whole school of thought that Reb Chaim started that basically says that there is a way to justify the Rambam.
Now to some degree this process started a long time ago, but it just was not very effective. At the most you would get with the Beit Yoseph and others the source from where the Rambam got his law from. But almost never "Why" or "How?"
The אור שמח I think was the actual beginning of this process. But it is mainly attributed to Reb Chaim. The reason I usually mention Rav Shach is that he brought this process to the pinnacle of perfection is his book the Avi Ezri. Or at least that is how it seems to me. My own experience with the חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Chaim is that it always leaves me unsatisfied. Always. I always end up more confused than when I started. Even though he goes a long way in solving the difficulties with his יסודות foundation principles. Still I always end up with a feeling that things are more confusing than when they started out. But with the Avi Ezri I always feel amazingly happy after I have finished a piece. I feel when he answers a difficult Rambam that the problem has in fact been solved.
[The general Litvak approach does not usually include the Rambam's idea of learning Physics and Metaphysics. I assume the reason is because even to the Rambam there is not question that knowing Shas come first and that is something that takes a certain amount of time. I learned Gemara for years and only recently did God grant me to write two small booklets on Bava Metzia and one on just a few places in Shas.]
the religious world
One problem I see in the religious world is that one that chooses it for a life style is essentially committing himself to a lifetime of asking people for charity. And to justify that claim he has to try to prove he is doing some kind of public service. And then when people ask him for charity the answer is always, "No" because he feels they are not as good as him.
[That is, it is not just you that noticed this. It came time for you that you needed a favor, and were surprised that you were refused. You thought this was an anomaly. But it is not. It is modus operandi.
Of course there are great servants of God (like Bava Sali) whom people gladly gave money to because they knew he was helping others in many ways. But that is not the usual religious life style which is mainly to go around to secular Reform Jews and try to convince them to give him money.
[That is the religious world exists mainly by a kind of fraud. When they try to get money they always try to show how they are doing some kind of public service. But when someone actually needs helps they always refuse unless they think there is some way they can make more money out of exploiting him. In other words the very essence of the religious world is in direct contradiction to the basic values of Torah. I hope it is clear that this is an attack on those that misrepresent Torah and desecrate it, not against the Holy Torah itself. There are good institutions that are worthwhile to support like the great Litvak yeshivas [based on Rav Shach, Reb Israel Salanter and the Gra] that learn and teach authentic Torah.
[That is, it is not just you that noticed this. It came time for you that you needed a favor, and were surprised that you were refused. You thought this was an anomaly. But it is not. It is modus operandi.
Of course there are great servants of God (like Bava Sali) whom people gladly gave money to because they knew he was helping others in many ways. But that is not the usual religious life style which is mainly to go around to secular Reform Jews and try to convince them to give him money.
[That is the religious world exists mainly by a kind of fraud. When they try to get money they always try to show how they are doing some kind of public service. But when someone actually needs helps they always refuse unless they think there is some way they can make more money out of exploiting him. In other words the very essence of the religious world is in direct contradiction to the basic values of Torah. I hope it is clear that this is an attack on those that misrepresent Torah and desecrate it, not against the Holy Torah itself. There are good institutions that are worthwhile to support like the great Litvak yeshivas [based on Rav Shach, Reb Israel Salanter and the Gra] that learn and teach authentic Torah.
28.12.16
Plato and Kant and the Law of Moses.
I might be optimistic but I do not think Dr. Bloom was. [Closing of the American Mind] He saw an essential contradiction in the Enlightenment itself and he definitely saw the universities (the humanities and social studies departments) as the major source of the problem.
He was not religious but he saw that Torah was an important source of value. But he was also aware that the problems of the Enlightenment did not pop up spontaneously. They had arisen as the problems with Throne and Altar in the Middle Ages had become apparent. That is he did not see any essential workable approach at all. And he thought that unless one was found we are all in hot soup.
That being said I should mention that I thought I had seen something amazing in the Litvak Yeshiva world. But I also saw the surrounding religious world is a kind of insane asylum. So I saw I kind of solution to the problems that Allen Bloom saw. --that is to learn and keep straight Torah. But I also saw that the religious are mad. So It seems to me there is a simpler solution simply to join a Reform Temple or a Conservative Synagogue and to learn Torah in that context or on ones own.
That I I would avoid the religious at all cost unless there happens to be a legitimate Litvak yeshiva in the area. That is any yeshiva based on the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter and Rav Shach. For example: Ponovitch, Mir, Brisk, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat and others based on that model.
To explain why I think avoiding the religious at all cost is important I have to make note that the major mitzvah in the Torah is to avoid idolatry. Since every religious group that I know of is heavily into idolatry it is therefore important to avoid them. That takes precedence of any kind of benefit you imagine you might gain from them.
I think Dr Bloom was thinking along the lines that Hegel would be an answer to the kind of dilemma he was seeing, but if he thought so why did he not write it openly? Same goes for the Oral and Written Torah. Why did he not say so? The only openly expressed answer in his entire book is for people to learn the Republic of Plato. [Read between the lines and you might see that Dr Bloom was also considering the three critiques of Kant. But he clearly was not going to choose between Kant and Hegel. If anything he would have suggested reading and learning intensely both.
The Alt Right is suggesting a return to kings but not to Altar.(the Catholic Church). They are also suggesting nationalism.
Both seem very close to Hegel with his Constitutional Monarchy and importance of the super organism. I however have a lot of trouble with Hegel.
But at least Dr. Bloom and I agree on the importance of Plato and Kant and see the importance of the Law of Moses.
I am personally in favor of Plato and the whole Kant/Hegel school which is highly Platonic. Christians I think are not very happy with Plato because of the heresies of the Gnostics like Valentinus.
He was not religious but he saw that Torah was an important source of value. But he was also aware that the problems of the Enlightenment did not pop up spontaneously. They had arisen as the problems with Throne and Altar in the Middle Ages had become apparent. That is he did not see any essential workable approach at all. And he thought that unless one was found we are all in hot soup.
That being said I should mention that I thought I had seen something amazing in the Litvak Yeshiva world. But I also saw the surrounding religious world is a kind of insane asylum. So I saw I kind of solution to the problems that Allen Bloom saw. --that is to learn and keep straight Torah. But I also saw that the religious are mad. So It seems to me there is a simpler solution simply to join a Reform Temple or a Conservative Synagogue and to learn Torah in that context or on ones own.
That I I would avoid the religious at all cost unless there happens to be a legitimate Litvak yeshiva in the area. That is any yeshiva based on the Gra, Reb Israel Salanter and Rav Shach. For example: Ponovitch, Mir, Brisk, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat and others based on that model.
To explain why I think avoiding the religious at all cost is important I have to make note that the major mitzvah in the Torah is to avoid idolatry. Since every religious group that I know of is heavily into idolatry it is therefore important to avoid them. That takes precedence of any kind of benefit you imagine you might gain from them.
I think Dr Bloom was thinking along the lines that Hegel would be an answer to the kind of dilemma he was seeing, but if he thought so why did he not write it openly? Same goes for the Oral and Written Torah. Why did he not say so? The only openly expressed answer in his entire book is for people to learn the Republic of Plato. [Read between the lines and you might see that Dr Bloom was also considering the three critiques of Kant. But he clearly was not going to choose between Kant and Hegel. If anything he would have suggested reading and learning intensely both.
The Alt Right is suggesting a return to kings but not to Altar.(the Catholic Church). They are also suggesting nationalism.
Both seem very close to Hegel with his Constitutional Monarchy and importance of the super organism. I however have a lot of trouble with Hegel.
But at least Dr. Bloom and I agree on the importance of Plato and Kant and see the importance of the Law of Moses.
I am personally in favor of Plato and the whole Kant/Hegel school which is highly Platonic. Christians I think are not very happy with Plato because of the heresies of the Gnostics like Valentinus.
27.12.16
The Closing of the American Mind (Allan Bloom)
The book, The Closing of the American Mind (Allan Bloom) attributed most problems-in the USA today to the Humanities and Social Studies departments of universities.
What I recommend instead is to learn the basic program of the Rambam, the Oral and Written Law, plus Modern Physics and Metaphysics of Aristotle. That plus Musar.
And for Musar {Mediaeval Ethics} I mainly think the best thing out there is the כוכבי אור [Stars of Light] by a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter, Isaac Blazer.
[I myself have a fascination with classical learning but today if you would want to learn that stuff, it is best to do it on your own. I doubt if the Rambam would agree with any of it. At least Kant he would include in his program of Metaphysics.]
On a side note:
The Gra would agree about the seven wisdoms. That is the Trivium and Quadrivium-grammar, rhetoric, and logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. See the introduction of Reb Baruch of Shkolov on his translation of Euclid. He quotes the Gra: to the degree that one lacks knowledge in any one of the seven wisdoms to that degree times a hundred he will lack in understanding of the Torah.
What I like about the Stars of Light is how he makes the whole idea of Musar clear--fear of God and good midot {character}. Astronomy today is mostly Physics so there the Gra and the Rambam are on the same page. Geometry today is mainly Algebraic Topology and for that I recommend the book by Allen Hatcher.
Incidentally in the Stars of Light, Rav Isaac Blazer does go into the importance of making a special place to learn Musar, but that never took off the ground. Rather Musar got absorbed into the straight Litvak (Lithuanian) yeshivas and that is where I think it has the most benefit. [These are yeshivas that follow roughly the path of the Gra, Rav Eliyahu from Villna.]
What I recommend instead is to learn the basic program of the Rambam, the Oral and Written Law, plus Modern Physics and Metaphysics of Aristotle. That plus Musar.
And for Musar {Mediaeval Ethics} I mainly think the best thing out there is the כוכבי אור [Stars of Light] by a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter, Isaac Blazer.
[I myself have a fascination with classical learning but today if you would want to learn that stuff, it is best to do it on your own. I doubt if the Rambam would agree with any of it. At least Kant he would include in his program of Metaphysics.]
On a side note:
The Gra would agree about the seven wisdoms. That is the Trivium and Quadrivium-grammar, rhetoric, and logic, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. See the introduction of Reb Baruch of Shkolov on his translation of Euclid. He quotes the Gra: to the degree that one lacks knowledge in any one of the seven wisdoms to that degree times a hundred he will lack in understanding of the Torah.
What I like about the Stars of Light is how he makes the whole idea of Musar clear--fear of God and good midot {character}. Astronomy today is mostly Physics so there the Gra and the Rambam are on the same page. Geometry today is mainly Algebraic Topology and for that I recommend the book by Allen Hatcher.
Incidentally in the Stars of Light, Rav Isaac Blazer does go into the importance of making a special place to learn Musar, but that never took off the ground. Rather Musar got absorbed into the straight Litvak (Lithuanian) yeshivas and that is where I think it has the most benefit. [These are yeshivas that follow roughly the path of the Gra, Rav Eliyahu from Villna.]
Speed reading and learning fast.
I was fascinated by the idea of learning fast from an early age. I noticed that by just saying the words and going on, that the second time I would review material, it would become clear.
Though in yeshiva this was frowned upon, still in on my own time [the afternoon and evening sessions after the morning class.] I tried hard to make progress through the Talmud and Poskim [Rishonim, mediaeval commentaries on the Talmud].
I was not aware of the opinion of the Rambam that Physics and Metaphysics were important aspects of Torah, and I think I was not the only one who was unaware of that. But if I had been aware I probably would have done the speed reading thing with Physics + Metaphysics also.
The difference is that in the Talmud itself and in the Musar (Ethics) book the Paths of the Righteous the way that is recommended to do speed reading is to say the words and then to go on.
[Incident to the above. The Rambam idea of Physics and Metaphysics is that that is the fulfillment of the mitzvah to love and fear God. That is since the Torah can not command an emotion we understand instead that it commands to learn the material of the wonders of God's creation that inspire one to love and fear God. The Rambam is very aware of the problem of spirituality with no boundaries and dry formalism and legalities on the other. Thus he comes up with this elegant idea.]
[In the Rambam's world view the beginning of one's learning would be to get through the entire Old Testament in Hebrew, and the Mishne Torah {יד החזקה} as as brief introduction to the laws of Moses, the Metaphysics and Physics of Aristotle. But this all would be just introductory material to prepare the way for further study.
The ultimate goal would be to finish at least once in one's lifetime the entire Oral Law--the two Talmuds and all the midrashim. Even if one does not understand it here he will in the next world.
I also discovered that to get to any decent level in any subject takes at least one year of concentrating on that one thing alone. I discovered this in playing the violin. And later in the to great yeshivas Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY I also realize that I only made progress because I directed all my fire power onto learning Gemara alone. I began to realize this is a general principle.
And this was a kind of thing that was just all around in the USA. There were speed reading courses, and speed reading books etc. And I even remember applying to a college that specialized in this kind of thing for reading classical philosophy and literature.
Though in yeshiva this was frowned upon, still in on my own time [the afternoon and evening sessions after the morning class.] I tried hard to make progress through the Talmud and Poskim [Rishonim, mediaeval commentaries on the Talmud].
I was not aware of the opinion of the Rambam that Physics and Metaphysics were important aspects of Torah, and I think I was not the only one who was unaware of that. But if I had been aware I probably would have done the speed reading thing with Physics + Metaphysics also.
The difference is that in the Talmud itself and in the Musar (Ethics) book the Paths of the Righteous the way that is recommended to do speed reading is to say the words and then to go on.
[Incident to the above. The Rambam idea of Physics and Metaphysics is that that is the fulfillment of the mitzvah to love and fear God. That is since the Torah can not command an emotion we understand instead that it commands to learn the material of the wonders of God's creation that inspire one to love and fear God. The Rambam is very aware of the problem of spirituality with no boundaries and dry formalism and legalities on the other. Thus he comes up with this elegant idea.]
[In the Rambam's world view the beginning of one's learning would be to get through the entire Old Testament in Hebrew, and the Mishne Torah {יד החזקה} as as brief introduction to the laws of Moses, the Metaphysics and Physics of Aristotle. But this all would be just introductory material to prepare the way for further study.
The ultimate goal would be to finish at least once in one's lifetime the entire Oral Law--the two Talmuds and all the midrashim. Even if one does not understand it here he will in the next world.
I also discovered that to get to any decent level in any subject takes at least one year of concentrating on that one thing alone. I discovered this in playing the violin. And later in the to great yeshivas Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY I also realize that I only made progress because I directed all my fire power onto learning Gemara alone. I began to realize this is a general principle.
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