22.10.17
When the Rambam discusses Physics and Metaphysics
When the Rambam includes Physics and Metaphysics in the category of the Oral Law it seems to include chemistry. That is he says is he referring to these subjects as understood by the ancient Greeks and whether in Mishne Torah or in Aristotle we can see Chemistry being included.
Even though the actual Physics of Aristotle does not seem valid anymore, still the subject matter that the Rambam was referring to is clear.
On the other hand when the Rambam refers to Metaphysics, I think it is clear he means specifically the book Metaphysics of Aristotle. But then going by subject matter I think then one would have to include Kant and Hegel.
Even though the actual Physics of Aristotle does not seem valid anymore, still the subject matter that the Rambam was referring to is clear.
On the other hand when the Rambam refers to Metaphysics, I think it is clear he means specifically the book Metaphysics of Aristotle. But then going by subject matter I think then one would have to include Kant and Hegel.
Hezekiah (king of Judah) had been giving money [tribute] to Assyria. Then at one point he stopped. Then the king of Assyria sent an army against the cities of Judah. So Hezekiah said to him "I am sorry. How much would it take to make peace between us?" Assyria gave some staggering amount and Hezekiah sent it to him. Then the king of Assyria sent an army to conquer Jerusalem.
The lesson seems to be: Do not compromise with the Dark Side. They get a taste of victory and then they just want more.
The lesson seems to be: Do not compromise with the Dark Side. They get a taste of victory and then they just want more.
21.10.17
Basic principles.
[] Talking with God in one's mother tongue. [As we see King David was doing. We also see the Rambam mention that this was the actual way people prayed before the prayers became solidified and set.
[] No Lashon Hara [speaking bad]. That is no talking bad about other unless you fulfill the seven conditions the Chafetz Chaim brings for saying lashon hara for sins between man and his fellow man. For sin between man and God these seven conditions do not exist but there are a few other conditions as the Chafetz Chaim goes into in chapter 4.
[] Truth. Speak the truth at all cost.
[] Try review the Oral and Written Law. That is every day one full chapter of the Old Testament at the dinner table with the whole family. That is to get through the entire Tenach from cover to cover.
Also the Two Talmuds. [With the all the basic commentaries if possible].
[] Same with Physics and Math [as Maimonides (the Rambam) mentions in Mishne Torah and also the Guide.].= to get through the basic subjects. I know of no particular text, but at least to get through the basic subjects.
[]The way to do this learning is to say the words and to go on. That is called "Girsa".
[] learning survival skills.
[] If in Israel, it is important to serve in the IDF and otherwise support the peace of the state. [There were plenty of Jews that tried to stop the second return to Israel n the days of Ezra and Nechemia and their names are recorded for a in the book of Nechemia for their eternal shame. Thus the religious world that today also tries to undermine the State of Israel will also been remembered as cursed for all future generations.
I got to thinking about this after breaking my foot and leg in three places. I was not able to walk for two months so I had lots of time to think about teshuva (repentance). That is I hope to not let this crisis go to waste but rather to strive to understand in what ways do I need to improve myself.
[] Talking with God in one's mother tongue. [As we see King David was doing. We also see the Rambam mention that this was the actual way people prayed before the prayers became solidified and set.
[] No Lashon Hara [speaking bad]. That is no talking bad about other unless you fulfill the seven conditions the Chafetz Chaim brings for saying lashon hara for sins between man and his fellow man. For sin between man and God these seven conditions do not exist but there are a few other conditions as the Chafetz Chaim goes into in chapter 4.
[] Truth. Speak the truth at all cost.
[] Try review the Oral and Written Law. That is every day one full chapter of the Old Testament at the dinner table with the whole family. That is to get through the entire Tenach from cover to cover.
Also the Two Talmuds. [With the all the basic commentaries if possible].
[] Same with Physics and Math [as Maimonides (the Rambam) mentions in Mishne Torah and also the Guide.].= to get through the basic subjects. I know of no particular text, but at least to get through the basic subjects.
[]The way to do this learning is to say the words and to go on. That is called "Girsa".
[] learning survival skills.
[] If in Israel, it is important to serve in the IDF and otherwise support the peace of the state. [There were plenty of Jews that tried to stop the second return to Israel n the days of Ezra and Nechemia and their names are recorded for a in the book of Nechemia for their eternal shame. Thus the religious world that today also tries to undermine the State of Israel will also been remembered as cursed for all future generations.
I got to thinking about this after breaking my foot and leg in three places. I was not able to walk for two months so I had lots of time to think about teshuva (repentance). That is I hope to not let this crisis go to waste but rather to strive to understand in what ways do I need to improve myself.
religious teachers are actually demons
Reb Nachman of Breslov has a good point that most religious teachers are actually demons. That is to say they do not have human souls--though they might have had human souls once. [He calls them "Torah scholars that are demons" and he brings this idea from the Zohar.]
This theory has one thing going for it- it accounts for the damage they cause.
On the other hand if you go with the idea that everyone has an evil inclination, then it is hard to see from where their uniformly evil advice comes from.
The fact is that Jeremiah and all true tzadikim throughout the ages have had to deal with the problem of false teachers.
The obvious question is how to tell who is from legitimate and who is not. From my experience there is nothing in the religious world that is legit except for the rare exception of the great Litvak yeshivas in NY and Ponovitch in Israel.
I bring this up because there is a great deal that one can learn from the Oral and Written Law [Torah] but the first step is to avoid the teachers from the Dark Side.
[ These demonic Torah scholars use Torah and prayer to relieve people of their money. For them Torah is a way to get ahead in life.]
I might mention that the problem of telling the difference between good and evil I am beginning to see is world wide problem. To me it looks that the Dark Side is very active is getting evil to seem like good. The best solution to this problem I take as being this: Reason perceives universals. That is to say: reason might not tell us much, but it remains the only possible way to tell the difference between good and the Devil's plots..
To put this differently I go with Maimonides that there is a reason for the commandments of the Torah and that is to bring to natural law--that is moral law that is objective. Also this goes along with Hegel that reason can penetrate into the dinge an sich by means of a dialectical process.
But I do not mean that Torah is only consequential morality, rather i think it is like what Kelley Ross of the Kant Fries school calls "Ontological undecidability." That is that commandments of the Torah are to bring to some goal and also have an inherent holiness .
This theory has one thing going for it- it accounts for the damage they cause.
On the other hand if you go with the idea that everyone has an evil inclination, then it is hard to see from where their uniformly evil advice comes from.
The fact is that Jeremiah and all true tzadikim throughout the ages have had to deal with the problem of false teachers.
The obvious question is how to tell who is from legitimate and who is not. From my experience there is nothing in the religious world that is legit except for the rare exception of the great Litvak yeshivas in NY and Ponovitch in Israel.
I bring this up because there is a great deal that one can learn from the Oral and Written Law [Torah] but the first step is to avoid the teachers from the Dark Side.
[ These demonic Torah scholars use Torah and prayer to relieve people of their money. For them Torah is a way to get ahead in life.]
I might mention that the problem of telling the difference between good and evil I am beginning to see is world wide problem. To me it looks that the Dark Side is very active is getting evil to seem like good. The best solution to this problem I take as being this: Reason perceives universals. That is to say: reason might not tell us much, but it remains the only possible way to tell the difference between good and the Devil's plots..
To put this differently I go with Maimonides that there is a reason for the commandments of the Torah and that is to bring to natural law--that is moral law that is objective. Also this goes along with Hegel that reason can penetrate into the dinge an sich by means of a dialectical process.
But I do not mean that Torah is only consequential morality, rather i think it is like what Kelley Ross of the Kant Fries school calls "Ontological undecidability." That is that commandments of the Torah are to bring to some goal and also have an inherent holiness .
20.10.17
Having a girl friend? To me it seems that nowadays it is preferable to have a girlfriend rather than a wife. I would rather have someone who comes up to kiss me when I walk through the front door rather than someone who yells at me.
The major reason I think that having a girl friend is OK is mainly the two commentaries on the in Even HaEzer that say that even to the Rambam the whole problem is only an איסור עשה a prohibition that is derived from a positive commandment. [That is to say we know this is allowed to the Raavad and Ramban/Nachmanides. The whole question is the Rambam. But even to the Rambam there is no prohibition per se, but rather simply the lack of doing kidushin (the marriage ceremony).]
If you look over there, you will see that Rav Joseph Karo just brings the Rambam, and the Rema brings the opinions that it is allowed. But that is not news. What is interesting is the fact that the two major commentaries on Rav Yoseph Karo [בית שמואל, חלקת מחוקק] both say the Rambam only forbids it from an איסור עשה that is a prohibition that is derived from a positive commandment.
[Much after this someone showed me the Radvaz who says the same thing in some long teshuva [letter].]
See this idea from Chronicles I ch. 2 verse 46.
The reason this is interesting and also important is that not everything people plan on works out the way they expect. Even in marriage. In fact, in marriage I assume most people think hard and think twice before settling on a particular marriage partner,- and even with that it does not always work out the way they expect. Thus this idea of a girl friend is a very positive option.
[Normally I find it a lot better to look at the Tur to clarify difficult issues. The Tur is ambiguous because he brings the Rosh who clearly does not like the idea but from side reasons. That is-- that there is not any prohibition in itself.]
And a further issue is simply that it is not good to be without a wife. So if having a wife is not possible in places like the USA where women are bad news, the best idea is a girl friend.
[Women in the USA have been determined to destroy men ever since around 1990 and on,]
To me it seems that nowadays it is preferable to have a girlfriend rather than a wife. I would rather have someone who comes up to kiss me when I walk through the front door rather than someone who yells at me.
The reason why Calev ben Yefuna having a few girl friends (Chronicles I 2:46) is important is that he was not a king. So we see there is no special status granted to a king in this regard. Having one or more girl friends is perfectly permitted. [The fact of Caleb ben Yefuna is significant since he was a true righteous person. He was the friend of Joshua and one of the spies sent by Moses. But he an Joshua brought back a good report about the Land of Israel. So the act that he had multiple girl friends is significant.]
The proof from Caleb ben Yefuna I found in the Gra's commentary.
If you look over there, you will see that Rav Joseph Karo just brings the Rambam, and the Rema brings the opinions that it is allowed. But that is not news. What is interesting is the fact that the two major commentaries on Rav Yoseph Karo [בית שמואל, חלקת מחוקק] both say the Rambam only forbids it from an איסור עשה that is a prohibition that is derived from a positive commandment.
[Much after this someone showed me the Radvaz who says the same thing in some long teshuva [letter].]
See this idea from Chronicles I ch. 2 verse 46.
The reason this is interesting and also important is that not everything people plan on works out the way they expect. Even in marriage. In fact, in marriage I assume most people think hard and think twice before settling on a particular marriage partner,- and even with that it does not always work out the way they expect. Thus this idea of a girl friend is a very positive option.
[Normally I find it a lot better to look at the Tur to clarify difficult issues. The Tur is ambiguous because he brings the Rosh who clearly does not like the idea but from side reasons. That is-- that there is not any prohibition in itself.]
And a further issue is simply that it is not good to be without a wife. So if having a wife is not possible in places like the USA where women are bad news, the best idea is a girl friend.
[Women in the USA have been determined to destroy men ever since around 1990 and on,]
To me it seems that nowadays it is preferable to have a girlfriend rather than a wife. I would rather have someone who comes up to kiss me when I walk through the front door rather than someone who yells at me.
The reason why Calev ben Yefuna having a few girl friends (Chronicles I 2:46) is important is that he was not a king. So we see there is no special status granted to a king in this regard. Having one or more girl friends is perfectly permitted. [The fact of Caleb ben Yefuna is significant since he was a true righteous person. He was the friend of Joshua and one of the spies sent by Moses. But he an Joshua brought back a good report about the Land of Israel. So the act that he had multiple girl friends is significant.]
The proof from Caleb ben Yefuna I found in the Gra's commentary.
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