I think reading the news is a kind of evil inclination. History also. If one's intention is to relax, then reading news and history does not accomplish that goal. It just makes one more nervous.
Also the Rambam includes reading history in the category of Outside books that one loses his portion in the next world for reading] [That is in his commentary to the Mishna.]




That is to say there is a short list of what are called secular subjects that were recommended by the Gra and the Rambam. [Physics Metaphysics the Trivium and Quadrivium] but outside of that they forbid.
[Most other Rishonim were against learning things the Rambam recommended like Aristotle. Certainly the Ramban and Rav Ovadia from Bartenura. But I have reason to believe the Rambam was right. Mainly my reasoning is that I did no see much in the way of righteousness of even human decency n the path of religious fanaticism. This observation convinced me that the Rambam and the Gra are correct.\]



I should mention the news does not really add much in terms of objective knowledge about the world in any case. You can tell this yourself. Just think about any event that your were personally present at or involved with that was reported in the news. Was there any connection between the real facts and what was reported?

listening to one's parents

Rav Naftali Troup does bring the idea that listening to one's parents is  a command in the Torah. This is usually ignored but still it should be fairly clear in the Ten Commandments.
One place where you see this is in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah. The children of Yonadav ben Rekav were charged by their father not to drink wine and not to dwell in a house but rather only in tents. So when they were ordered by a true prophet Jeremiah (to drink wine) they refused to obey him because of the commandment of their father. This got for them a promise from God that the family of Yonadav ben Rekav will continue forever.
This is interesting from the standpoint of obeying one's parents even when what they say is not related to Torah. Or even further--it seems to imply that listening to one's parents overrides listening to  a true prophet.


The idea is that one does not have to think that what one's parents are saying makes sense for this command of the Torah to apply. But it can not be  a case when they command one to transgress  the more severe kinds of commands in the Torah. This is because a positive command overrides a negative command, but not a negative command that has as a punishment being cut off from one's people.


Rav Naftali Troup was one of the  great Litvak sages in litvak yeshivas before WWII.


Why is this relevant?  Mainly because my parents did have a set of wishes for me. This includes things they specifically asked for and also things that their wishes were clear even if they did not express them openly. This is is one of the reasons that when I mention about the idea of the Rambam about the importance of learning Physics and Metaphysics that I sometimes mention my parents.

There is an idea in the Ari [Rav Isaac Luria]  small mindedness. That is that people can fall into a constricted state of consciousness.[or just normal state].

[n the Ari this all comes up in zeir anpin. This in fact has no connection with people except for souls of Emanation like the Patriarchs.Still there is what to learn from the concepts that apply to zeir anpin. The soul of a person is not a miniature zeir anpin as is clear throughout the entire set of the writings of the Ari.]

The way out of limited consciousness is by
 idea of a fulcrum--that is finding small acts and habits that can led to a higher state of consciousness or connection with Absolute Spirit.
These are:
Learning Torah [The Old Testament and the two Talmuds and the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach] , Musar [Mediaeval Ethics books], learning fast but simply saying the words in order and then going on with no review until one has finished the book at least four times. Talking with God in one's own language. Avoiding cults. Avoiding sins of the tongue lashon hara, lies, rebuke in the wring kind of way. "Thou shalt not steal" to the ultimate extreme.

Avoiding the entire religious Jewish world is important because the Dark Side just got intertwined  and embedded too deeply. It is just now a large cult.

Whatever religious group one gets involves with, it always seems to end up being worship of people.
Even Buddha who was not asking for worship, did end up becoming an object of worship.
I must say that even though it is good to learn from the wise, it is never good to worship them.

I think it proper to mention that I try to stick with good principles that have been emphasized by wise men. And I try to use common sense to avoid things that may be held up for admiration but which I feel are suspicious.


(1) So worship of people as far as I am concerned is completely out of the question.
(2) I also avoid rebuking others for the same reason. It is a command in the Torah, but it is a command that I feel can cause more damage than good if applied without great caution.  I try to save it for the most serious of issues.
(3)   I definitly agree with the emphasis in the Mir Yeshiva on learning Gemara and Musar [ethics and rules of proper conduct].
(4)  I feel that Rav Silverman [Eliyahu] was right for taking the Gra at his word about putting his signature on the letter of excommunication. That is the only yeshiva that I am aware of that does take it seriously. That is for the same above mentioned reason about the importance of not doing idolatry.

What is relevant now about this is that keeping Torah depends on staying away from Jewish religious teachers as far as possible.

סביב רשעים יתהלכון In Psalms there is  a verse that states "around  go the wicked" This is usually understood to mean wherever holiness is found, around that come the kelipot dark forces to wreak it up.


In Reb Nachman's thought this comes up in different ways. One is the idea he brings from the Zohar that when there is a lot of sin in the world, the opening towards holiness is almost shut. But in order that it should not be shut completely they place there a false teacher.

For me in particular this is relevant because  my experiences with religious teachers has been universally negative in the extreme. I definitely can relate to what Reb Nachman is saying.

That is that religious teachers are actually placed there to keep people away from Torah and to give Torah and bad name. There is no question that there is a great deal of evidence to support Reb Nachman's thesis that Jewish religious teachers are home wreckers and their actual mission is to destroy families and all adherence to Torah.

What is relevant now about this is that keeping Torah depends on staying away from Jewish religious teachers as far as possible.

As ironic as it seems the best places with real authentic Torah are places that go by the Gra--and the more closely they follow the Gra the better.

[It seems to me that this ties in with another idea of Reb Nachman that the evil inclination is a continuous spectrum. That is--it starts at coarse  physical desires but reaches up towards the spiritual evil inclination and even up to the fallen angel the Satan. That is similar to the idea of Reb Israel Salanter that there is  a physical evil inclination and spiritual evil inclination. The spiritual one has nothing to do with physical desires but rather what ever is against the Law of God, the Law of Moses, it gives one a great desire to do.  ]

It should be clear that the spiritual evil inclination is vastly more evil than the physical evil inclination. And this explains the reasons for the phenomenon that I discuses in the above essay.

U-25 E Flat Major   U-23 F Major