In an ethical society it is simple to say what a man ought to do--obey the rules. This is how I thought of the religious world during my yeshiva days. Then it became clear that the religious world is highly unethical. In an unethical society it is also simple to say what a man ought to do--disobey the rules,  and to break the rules, to leave it, and to leave as much destruction in his wake as possible.

In an effort to live an ethical life, one has to take into account the society he lives in. Therefore once it is clear that the religious world is highly unethical (as is well known to everyone that exists inside it) it becomes an obligation to leave it. And to make known that their facade of keeping Torah is a ruse and a scam.

What would a society look like that actually kept Torah? I am not sure, but my impression is it would be close to what the Religious Zionist groups are like. Maybe that is not perfect, but the basic approach of the "Bnei Akiva" is about as good an approximation to Torah as I can tell.

What is the essential problem in the Jewish religious world? Reb Nachman, as is well known, attributed the problem to Torah scholars that are demonic. That is they are possessed by the forces of evil. That  is one possibility. Another is more concrete--the usurpation of power. The ruling mafia who pretend to know Torah simply have grabbed power. They award each other credentials--none of which have any validity. Not only is their "ordination" a complete scam and against halacha in which the only authentic ordination ceased to exist in the middle of the Talmud period. But they do not even know what they pretend to know.

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T59 D Major

In a deeper sense what you see is that the realm of the "dinge an sich" (the thing in itself) (non phenomenal reality. Reality beyond appearance.) is as hidden as Kant thought it was. Thus what parades as holiness is often the opposite and what looks to be from the Dark Side is sometimes from the Realm of the Divine. Outward appearances not withstanding. Doctrines as also no indication at all. Purity of doctrine and depth of teachings can disguise evil and wicked hearts as we see in the Jewish religious world so often.

If things would have gone  according to plan, I would be finding arguments to support the idea of simply trusting in God and learning Torah. The reason I am not avidly advocating this is I found a surprising thing. (I still advocate trusting in God and learning Torah, but with the reservation and knowledge that this does not always seem to be on the inside what it is on the outside.) It was this. When I was in the Mir yeshiva in NY, every day came a different person from Israel asking for charity to support his yeshiva in Israel where he was doing all he could so that anyone who wants to learn Torah would have a place to do so. But not just there. The Lakewood Kollel in Los Angeles were asking me the exact same thing when I was living in Beverly Hills.
Much to my chagrin  and dismay, when I returned to Los Angeles--but this time without money, they did everything they could to convince my wife to leave me. So I figured at that point maybe Lakewood is just not so great. So I returned to Israel. And there I figured I would just sit an learn Torah in any Beith Midrash without asking for anything. That was after all exactly what every single person from Israel was saying anyone could do--just walk in and learn Torah and that was the entire purpose according to them for the very existence of their yeshivas. To my utter amazement every single yeshiva that had made this claim of being open for the public for anyone who wanted to learn Torah threw me out from the top of the staircase down into the alley.

It is not that I disagree with the importance of sitting and learning. After all God did not abandon me and even granted to me to learn Torah even after all that. But one thing I did see. The religious world is highly anti-Torah and wicked.

I did also have to make some modifications in my world view after seeing the astounding hypocrisy of the religious world and frankly straight forward sadistic people dressed in religious garb claiming to be keeping Torah.

But since this blog is about world view issues I do not have a lot to add, but just for public information in what ways have I changed my world view to correspond to the facts and reality?
The main difference is I have had to go with the explicit opinion of the Rambam and the implicit opinion of my parents concerning the importance of  Physics, and Metaphysics.  These bring to fear and love of God to the Rambam, and are in themselves the fulfillment of those commandments so  I think without those two aspects of Torah, people go astray.
In any case, there is some deep seated wickedness in the religious world which causes them some kind of evil inclination to hurt others and then to look for excuses to blame the people they hurt.
The major source of wickedness however I did not see in Litvak place but rather the cults that the Gra put into cherem excommunication. It is just the sickness of those cults seems to have deeply infected the Litvak world also
As bad as the Lakewood group was, it still did not come anywhere near the shear sadistic wickedness I saw the the groups the Gra excommunicated. Little in the world can compare to the shear amount of Sadism I saw in those groups. All in the meantime making a song and dance about how they keep Torah. Frankly I think there are few groups in the world that present the astounding amount of sadism that I saw in the religious world. Hurting people from the shear delight of doing so.
So in short, despite their claims, I do not think they are keeping the holy Torah.

I believe this problem was actually seen by the Rambam himself who also wrote that using Torah to make money or as a means to making a living causes one to lose his portion in the next world and in Heaven, plus he was not shy about his advocacy of Physics and Metaphysics. I can not help but wonder if perhaps he linked these two issues in the same way I have here--that is in seeing the learning of Physics and Metaphysics as a kind of cure for the problem of people using Torah for money and thus losing their menschlichkeit human decency?



In any case I do not see the religious world as keeping the Torah at all. Rather I think Reform and Conservative Judaism are much closer to the path of Torah. Fanatic rituals do not make one righteous in the eyes of God.

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.