The New Moon and "seeing is better than hearing."

It seems to me that  ראש חדש ought to be calculated according to the actual time of the מולד. One reason I have already mentioned comes from סנהדרין ד''י ע''ב that several אמוראיים say that  ראש חדש is not dependent on the court. This goes along with  the opinion of ר' אלעזר בן עזריה  that if the court does not sanctify it on time, they sanctify it from heaven. But a further reason comes from the fact that a person that murders in front of a court is killed because דלא תהיה שמיעה גדולה מראיה. That is, certain kinds of things do not depend on the court knowing them through hearing. If they know the facts from a more accurate source of information (e.g. if they saw the events themselves), that is even better than hearing. There  in סנהדרין ע''ח ע''א where תוספות brings this it only says that seeing is better than hearing. But to me it seems the same idea applies.  You can see this from the מלחמות of the רמב''ן where the רמב''ן brings this idea about קידוש החודש specifically. [See האבי עזרי של רב שך  הלכות סנהדרין פרק י''ד ה''א where רב שך  brings these מקורות.]
[That is to say even if there was a Sanhedrin that sanctified all future new moons there is no reason to think that meant the present day calendar which was only adopted later in the time of the geonim.]





נראה לי כי ראש חדש צריך להיות מחושב לפי הזמן בפועל של מולד. סיבה אחת כבר הזכרתי בסנהדרין ד''י ע''ב, כי כמה אמוראיים אומרים כי ראש חדש אינו תלוי בבית המשפט. זה הולך יחד עם דעתו של ר 'אלעזר בן עזריה כי אם בית המשפט לא קידשו אותו בזמן, הם מקדשים אותו מן השמים. אבל סיבה נוספת נובעת מכך שאדם שרוצח בחזית בית המשפט נהרג כי "דלא תהיה שמיעה גדולה מראיה". כלומר, סוגים מסוימים של דברים אינם תלויים בשמיעת בית המשפט מעדים, אלא בראיה. אם הם יודעים את העובדות ממקור מידע מדויק יותר, למשל אם הם ראו את האירועים עצמם, זה אפילו טוב יותר מאשר לשמוע. שם בסנהדרין ע''ח ע''א תוספות מביא את זה. אבל יש להעיר  שזה אומר כי ראייה טובה יותר מאשר לשמוע. אבל בעיני זה נראה אותו רעיון. אתה יכול לראות את זה מהמלחמות של הרמב"ן שבו הרמב"ן מביא את הרעיון על קידוש החודש במיוחד. [ראה האבי עזרי של רב שך הלכות סנהדרין פרק י''ד ה''א שבו רב שך מביא את המקורות של: שלא תהיה שמיעה גדולה מראיה

It seems to me that the new moon ought to be calculated according to the actual time of the conjunction.

It seems to me that the new moon ought to be calculated according to the actual time of the conjunction. One reason I have already mentioned comes from Sanhedrin page 10 that several amoraim say that  the new moon is not dependent on the court. this goes along with r the opinion of R. Elazar Ben Azariah that 'If the court does not sanctify it on time , they sanctify it from heaven." But a further reason come from the fact that a person that murders in front on a court is killed because דלא תהיה שמיעה גדולה מראיה that is to say certain kinds of things do not depend on the court knowing them through hearing. if they know the facts from a more accurate source of information e.g if they saw the events themselves, that is even better than hearing. There in Sanhedrin 78a where Tosphot brings this, it only says that seeing is better than hearing. But to me it seems the same idea applies.  You can see this from the מלחמות of the Ramban where the Ramban brings this idea about Kidush Hachodesh specifically. [See Rav Shach's Avi Ezri הלכות סנהדרין פרק י''ד ה''א where Rav Shach brings these sourses.]

accepting the yoke of Torah

So in essence --the way it looks to me today is my major problems have been from simply not accepting the yoke of Torah and trust in God.
Even though there are for me lots of "קושיות" on this path, but I figure that the unscrupulous people that misuse the path of Torah do not present  a real question on it, and that I ought to simply get back to the straight and narrow path. [Gemara and Musar]
That is more or less based on the Mishna in Pirkei Avot כל המקבל על עצמו עול תורה מעבירים ממנו עול מלכות ועול דרך ארץ "The yoke of the government and the yoke of the way of the world is removed from him who accepts the yoke of Torah".

Not that this takes care of everything. Sometimes there comes a time when you stop praying and get up and do what needs to be done. "מה תצעק אלי דבר אל בני ישראל ויסעו" 

 When the Jewish people were at the Red Sea and calling to God for help God said to Moshe Why do you call upon me/ speak to the children of Israel and tell them to MOVE.
However though my own mistakes in leaving off learning Torah seems is clear, how to share this information is not since since most teachers of Torah are really just plain terrible people. They to me do not seem to follow Torah at all.

The entire religious world is basically a large bunch of cults. Even though they all claim Torah, there sadlly is little there that is kosher in any sense of the word.

My own approach is based on a statement of the sages אין יסורים בלא עוון. There are no troubles without sin. But when I try to figure out what exactly are my sins I do not get very far. Some things definitely seems to fit the bill  but they contradict other actions that also seem to fit the bill.

I have actually made a sort list on this blog a few times. But since I anyway have trouble identifying what exactly are my sins, I fall back to another statement of the sages. פישפש ולא מצא יתלה בביטול תורה One who has troubles should examine his deeds. One has examined his deeds and not found anything, should attribute the problems to lack of learning Torah.
[Essentially my sins seems to be leaving the straight path of Litvak Torah. I.e. the Gra's path.]



In any case what I think are the major causes of sin are that people join cults, and then their whole world view changes. Straight Torah no longer holds the charm it once did for people that join cults.
And the entire religious world is basically a large bunch of cults. Even though they all claim Torah, there sadlly is little in the religious world that is kosher in any sense of the word.



[The major issues for me are certainly Bitul Torah. For even when I got to Israel which was a great step up, I slacked off in learning Torah. I also did leave Israel eventually which I think was a terrible sin.]

[This is not intended to disparage kosher places built on straight Torah like the yeshivas that go by the Gra. The trouble is straight simple Torah is hard to hold onto.]

T87 A Major    [T87 in midi format]

straight Torah

The path of straight Torah is easy to stray from. Or perhaps better said-it was easy for me to stray from it. The major difficulty with sticking with straight, undiluted, unadulterated Torah  is not from enemies of Torah, but from its best friends. "Sure you should learn Torah, but if you come and join our group you will do it so much better! You get the true spirit, not just the words etc." The variations on this theme are endless. But the inner purpose if the same--to get the person out of  authentic Torah into something which seems to have so much more external spirit but is lacking the true essence.

What makes this hard is sometimes there really is something that is an important value--like going to Israel and serving in the IDF. It is just hard to make sense out of it all with so many cults out there.

It is perfectly possible to learn from Reb Nachman and say the Tikun Klali [ten pslams to say if one has done some sexual sin, psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59 77, 90, 105, 137, 150] and even go to Uman for Rosh haShanah, but not get involved in Breslov, but rather to remain in a straight Litvak yeshiva and to follow the path of Straight Torah--the Gra and Musar.

It is also possible to  appreciate the importance of "devekut" (attachment with God) and to stick with straight Torah.

But that is not what usually happens. it is just to easy to get caught up in bitul Torah. And Bitul Torah does not simply mean wasting time what could have been spent learning Torah. It also means anything that causes one's fervor for Torah to slacken and weaken.

One aspect of things was brought up to me -the fact that the Litvak path tends to be dry. People  can be interested in Reb Nachman for perfectly good reasons--as in looking for the inner meaning of life and the Torah.  That is not to say that in everything where people feel taste and and vibrancy is from the realm of Holiness. But I would have to say that in the case of Reb Nachman, it is true that he was a true tzadik and his lessons and ideas are valuable.

One of the difficult aspects however if that of בל תוסיף that is not to add to the commandments. This is prohibition in the Torah and it means that what the Torah forbids is forbidden and what the Torah commands to do must be do. You can not make up new rules and claim the Torah holds that way. And this is the practice of the religious world to transgress this on a constant basis.

[I should mention that I do hold with the Rambam opinion that Physics and Metaphysics are included in the Oral Law. Not just because of seeing this in the Rambam,and the Musar book the obligations of the Heart, but also from my parents emphasis on the natural sciences. In fact I have a new way of learning Physics that I do which is the same way I learned gemara for many years-that is just to say the words in order and go on. In Hebrew that is called "Girsa." That is how I think Physics ought to be learned. But I know it would be hard to convince people of this idea because they do not see every word of  Physics as a mitzvah as the Rambam's opinion. If they do not hold that every word is  a mitzvah then how could I explain to anyone this idea of just saying the words and going on?
[Though the Rambam specifically referred to these subjects as understood by the ancient Greeks i feel Physics today and also Kant and Hegel would be included. But I also would include the Ari, and the two major commentaries on the Ari, Rav Yaakov Abuchatzaira and Sar Shalom Sharabi.

There is some kind of inherent ambiguity about a הלכה in the רמב''ם נזקי ממון פרק ב. He holds if a string gets attached to  a chicken and it is walking around and breaks vessels, the owner of the chicken pays חצי נזק. And he brings a support for this view from בור המתגלגל ברגלי אדם ובהמה [a hole that is rolling around in a public domain by the feet of people or animals.
That proof seems to work against what the רמב''ם is saying for נזקי בור  are not obligated for damage to vessels.
If it is considered damage caused by רגל, then it would not be obligated at all in  public space.

How to answer this? The גמרא asks what does  צד השווה in the משנה come to include. רבא says בור המתגלגל ברגלי אדם ובהמה and it is learned from בור ושור. Is it possible the רמב''ם could hold once something is learned from צד השווה It would get the חומרא of both? In our case that would be an obligation in רשות הרבים  and also חייב על נזקי כלים?


יש איזשהו אי בהירות מובנית לגבי הלכה ברמב''ם נזקי ממון פרק ב. הוא מחזיק אם מחרוזת מחוברת לעוף וזה מסתובב ושובר כלי, הבעלים של העוף משלמים חצי נזק. והוא מביא תמיכה לחוק זה מבור המתגלגל ברגלי אדם ובהמה [בור המתגלגל במרחב ציבורי על ידי רגלי אנשים או בעלי חיים.] נראה כי הוכחה זו פועלת נגד מה שהרמב"ם אומר שנזקי בור אינם מחויבים לנזק לכלים. אם זה נחשב נזק שנגרם על ידי רגל, אז זה לא יהיה מחויב בכלל במרחב הציבורי. איך לענות על זה? גמרא שואל מה הצד בשווה מגיע במשנה לבוא לכלול. רבא אומר בור המתגלגל ברגלי אדם  והוא בא על ידי בור ושור. האם יתכן שהרמב''ם יכול להכיל משהו שנלמד מן הצד השווה לקבל את חומרא של שניהם? במקרה שלנו זה יהיה חובה ברשות הרבים וגם חיוב על נזקי כלים.
This would be not like the רא''ש nor the other opinion the רא''ש brings that when something is learned from צד השווה we go by the most lenient aspect.
However this might be the opinion of the רמב''ם and a support for this can be found in רב שך in the אבי עזרי רמב''ם נזקי ממון פרק א' ה''ח  where he brings the fact the גמרא learns כופר for רגל. There he brings the idea that the whole reason we learn מצד השווה is to tell us why each of the four אבות נזיקים needs to be written. But after they are written,  the rules that apply to each are not limited to what could be deduced from מצד השווה.

זה לא יהיה כמו הרא"ש וגם הדעה האחרת שהרא''ש מביא כי כשמשהו נלמד מתוך צד השווה אנחנו הולכים על הצד הכי קל. עם זאת, ייתכן שזו דעתו של הרמב''ם ותמיכה לכך ניתן למצוא אצל הרב שך באבי עזרי ברמב''ם נזקי ממון פרק א 'ח', שם הוא מביא את הגמרא שלומדת כופר עבור רגל ברשות היחיד. הנה הוא מביא את הרעיון כי הסיבה  שאנו לומדים את הצד השווה הוא לספר לנו למה כל אחת מארבעה אבות נזיקים צריכים להיות כתוב. אבל אחרי שהם כתובים, הכללים החלים על כל אחד מהם אינם מוגבלים למה שניתן להסיק מן הצד השווה.