Pagan religions

The basic difference between the belief system of the Torah and pagan religion is not just in the
number of gods. The basic differences in world view is what caused the Gra to see groups slipping pagan religion into the Torah world, and to put them into excommunication.

These group might be called "pagan Judaism," since they make a show of their Jewish rituals, but their practice and beliefs are pagan. They worship others gods (i.e.  men that they believe control theworld).
Pagan religions contain theogonies, birth of a god, "theogony", accounts of the births of gods. Thus in Pagan Judaism there are also celebrations of the birth of their gods. In Torah, God controls the world but is separate from it. In pagan Judaism, their views change according to whom they are talking to but mainly their views go according to the Bhagavad Gita and Hindu religion.

But the way people get hooked is that they are fed droplets of the belief system. Only small amounts. So by the time they see the abuse  and get abused themselves they are already hooked.

t60 D Minor  This is an edited version with a final part in 6/8 time. The idea to end with 6/8 time  is an idea of Mozart in one of his B flat symphonies or serenades. [I forget which.] 

the amazing amount of destruction of the mind that seems to come along with learning Jewish mystics

Based on the amazing amount of destruction of the mind that seems to come along with learning Jewish mystics (mainly in the area of delusions of vast knowledge and self assumed holiness and pride) and based on the problem that the Zohar was not presented accurately, but put into writing as being from R. Shimon ben Yochai, I wonder if perhaps it would be  a good idea just to delete everything based on that from the Jewish canon of books that relate to the concept of  "learning Torah."

Compromise and tolerance seems in the end to bring to acceptance and to me it seems that most of this mystic stuff brings to terrible  things.

[Still there are some people I have much respect for like the Ari and Reb Nachman. Still the thing to do is simply to learn them on the side for those people that feel a need but not as part of the program of learning Torah]

The point is if one wants to accept on himself the yoke of Torah it is important to know what counts as legitimate torah

Sadly the doctrines of these group are presented in droplets—and when it was too late, one is already hooked. Too much occult has gotten into the religious world.

Too much occult has  gotten into the religious world. See Deuteronomy 11 and 18.
It is one thing to obey the Law of Moses, but quite another to be doing the occultism that is the most essential part of the religious world.

The New Age is being taught as Torah. The ancient practices of witchcraft and contacting the dead, are common and they show great signs.

Counterfeit spirituality is the major test of these days.

[New Age is however not new. It is old occult practices that is being taught as Torah true spirituality. And people with some unfulfilled need flock to this.
But this side of things [the other side] is sadlly adept as disguising itself as true Torah.
Sadly the doctrines of these group are presented in droplets—and when it was too late, one is already hooked. 


But even if one is aware of this fact, it is hard to know how to deal with it. I myself got caught up in it for years after I saw that it seemed to have a stamp of approval from great Litvak Tzadikim.  To take a step to remove all occult from one's life would involve removing a great deal of what is considered perfectly authentic and legitimate Torah. This is  a test I am afraid is too great for me to stand in. After all it comes down to a person accepting a world view as part of their mental framework. To try to uproot that after it has become hardwired into one's psyche must cause damage. How can one uproot this?

Take pagan religion and put a few Jewish rituals on it to provide cover and you get the religious world today.

Musar Book Obligations of the Heart. That Bell's Inequality proves Kant. Reality is subjective.The electron has no objective time frame or space frame until it is measured.

 Matter and צורה equal עצם and טופס or מצב according to the חובות לבבות
This comes from  Aristotle equates עצם with צורה. The question of the third man that was asked by Aristotle and also Plato himself. Based on an computer algorithm  I answered: "the third איש" is not a איש. That is a good answer to some degree. But it leaves me wondering. Why  is a איש considered a איש because יש לו חלק of this צורת of איש which is itself not a man?  That is my answer does not seem to answer the question but rather evade it.
One could ask here the question that היפוליטוס  asks on Aristotle שאלה זו. That is  בהמיות as such does not exist. So how can it be the motivating force that makes animals exist? The fact is Aristotle tries to avoid this by equating form with species, not with genus. To Aristotle  the form is the essence, not that which is stable under שינויים. But it also seems to be a good question. You could put it in this way. The individual animal depends on the צורה for its existence, but the צורה itself depends on each individual animal for it's existence. So which one is it? Another issue is in his book, the Metaphysics  Aristotle equates substance with form. The problem  is that this does not correspond to Aristotle's'  book, the Categories where primary substance is the פרט. Also  there is an essential סתירה within the Metaphysics itself. Up until the later chapters Aristotle argues substance is a universal. Then at the end he argues forcefully against this.   Another issue. There are two separate answers for the חובות לבבות. One is that he simply means like Aristotle that substance is form. The other answer is form and matter equal together substance and mode. But form by itself does not equal substance. But that is a different answer. That would mean  is matter just a טופס. In my final answer there I go into the Kantian approach and bring a proof from the fact that Nature violates Bell's inequality. That seems like a good answer but goes with the idea that substance is essence, not that which survives under changes. That is Aristotle's approach  and it leaves out the need for time. Bell's Inequality proves Kant. Reality is subjective. The electron has no objective time frame or space frame until it is measured.
But the rules of reality are objective. That is to say universals are objective. An example would be Schrodinger's equation. This shows Aristotle was right that the main reality of this world is universals

  צורה עם חומר שווים לעצם וטופס (או מצב) לפי החובות הלבבות. זה מגיע מאריסטו שמשווה עצם עם צורה. יש שאלה של האיש השלישי שהתבקשה על ידי אריסטו וגם אפלטון עצמו. בהתבסס על אלגוריתם מחשב עניתי: "את האיש השלישי" אינו איש. זוהי תשובה טובה במידה מסוימת. אבל זה משאיר אותי תוהה. למה איש נחשב איש כי יש לו חלק עם צורה זו של איש אשר הוא עצמו לא יאש? תשובתי לא נראית לענות על השאלה אלא משתמטת ממנה. אפשר לשאול כאן את השאלה שהיפוליטוס שואל על אריסטו. כלומר בהמיות  אינה דבר קיים. אז איך זה יכול להיות הכוח המניע שגורם לחיה להתקיים? העובדה היא אריסטו מנסה למנוע שאה זאת על ידי השוואת צורה עם מין, לא עם סוג (גנוס). לאריסטו הצורה היא המהות, לא דבר אשר הוא יציב תחת שינויים. אבל זו  נראית שאלה טובה. אתה יכול לומר את זה ככה. חית הפרט תלוי בצורה לקיומה, אז איך צורה עצמה תלויה בחיה פרטית לקיומה. אז איזה מהם הוא נכון? סוגיה נוספת. בספר המטאפיסיקה אריסטו משווה עצם עם טופס. הבעיה היא שזה לא מתאים לספר של אריסטו הקטגוריות שעצם עיקרי הוא הפרט. כמו כן קיימת סתירה הכרחית בתוך מטאפיזיקה עצמה. עד הפרקים המאוחרים אריסטו טוען חומר הוא אוניברסלי. אז בסוף הוא טוען בתקיפות נגד זה. עוד נושא. ישנן שתי תשובות נפרדות עבור חובות לבבות . האחת היא כי הוא פשוט אומר כמו אריסטו כי עצם הוא צורה. התשובה השנייה היא צורה וחומר יחד שווים לעצם ומצב. אבל הצורה כשלעצמו אינה שווה לעצם. עוד דבר. בתשובה הסופית שלי אני נכנס לגישה קנטיאנית ומביא הוכחה מן העובדה כי הטבע מפרה את השוויון של בל. זה נראה כמו תשובה טובה אבל הולך עם הרעיון כי עצם הוא מהות, לא דבר אשר שורד תחת שינויים. זו השקפת העולם של אריסטו שהיא מזניחה את הצורך בהשקעת זמן. שוויון בל מוכיח קאנט. המציאות היא סובייקטיבית. לאלקטרון אין מרחב זמן או מקום אובייקטיבית עד שהוא נמדד. אבל הכללים של מציאות הם אובייקטיביים. כלומר האוניברסלים הם אובייקטיביים. דוגמה לכך תהיה המשוואה של שרדינגר.

So it looks like the idea of Aristotle of having substance equal species or universals makes sense

t60 mp3   t60 midi  t60 nwc

A lot depends on the social meme. There are social memes that bring out the worst in people, and other ones which tend to bring out the best. A lot of the good in the West I think was a result of combining a lot of good ideas together into one social meme--that is the unique combination of the Middle Ages of combing reason and revelation. This was not at all obvious as being a good thing as Hippolytus and Kierkegaard went in quite a different direction. But some time after Plotinus this began to be an accepted approach. It is well accepted that Paul got most of his ideas from Philo so the idea of combing faith with reason is an early approach. In any case whether because of Maimonides or Anselm, the basic approach is unique to the West. And this I think brings out the best in people across  the board. 

To a large degree I accept this approach of Maimonides though a lot of people disagreed with it.
But in my effort to combine Reason with Revelation I found a certain amount of difficulty. One is this: In the Rambam Maimonides program one learns the Written and Oral Law completely and also Physics and the Metaphysics of Aristotle. The trouble for me is that after the first hour in the morning i have trouble concentrating on the mathematics that is a necessary component of Physics. So I try to devote the first hour to that since without doing so, I would not be able to learn at all. Another issue for me is in understanding the Rambam. So I found that when I had a copy of the Avi Ezri that it was helpful to go through it straight because  frankly with that most of what the Rambam says in Mishna Torah is incomprehensible to me. 

A lot of how one's life goes depends on prior commitment. Ideally this should happen on the 13th birthday for boys and the 12th for girls.  The idea is to commit oneself to follow the Law of God the Written and Oral Law of Moses.
Another way of putting this to to follow God, the truth and the moral law. In any case, if one missed the chance to do that then, still every day at its beginning gives  new opportunity to do this. That means one can follow what he knows to be right of what people around him think is right.

Bob Dillon did this commitment type of thing and devoted himself to the prince of this world, which accounts for his success in this world.Often success in this world can be attributed to the person having made commitment to the prince of this world at a young age.  [Or the divinity that is found in this world--which is Satan.]

To some degree I think I made a good choice to try to find the "Truth" which at an early age. A bad decision was I think when I got married with Leah, that I did not make learning Torah the goal of our marriage. I think that that lack of commitment in the very beginning caused the problems that came later. Still I have never been able to get back to learning Torah as being the goal of life because of the kinds of people that populate that section of humanity.So my own doubts have lead to a lack of commitment. I found some compromise with the Rambam that as such that Physics and Metaphysics are part of that goal of learning Torah


My immediate motivation for this essay was that I noticed Bob Dillion's commitment to the Sitra Achra which gave him his success. Also I saw an essay on the problem in the Left of not making a distinction between means and ends. It hit me right then that that was something i should have done at the very beginning of my marriage.

Maybe I was myself confused about that issue. After all learning Torah as the goal does not really come up until Reb Haim from Voloshin. You just do not see it beforehand stressed in the same way. And that I think led to my own falling from that ideal.