World view used to be connected with the idea of a systematic philosophy. That idea was lost to the degree that people have world views that are immune to realty and employ self contradictory principles. A lot of work during the Middle Ages in philosophy was done to get to a systematic non self contradictory system. This still existed during the time of Hegel. But after that a world view could be just that --a world view unrelated to reality.

The good thing about Musar Ethics of the Middle Ages is that its structure depends on well worked out world views.

[I mean that Musar tends to depend on the books of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam in terms of world view]

The religious world

The religious world is pretty worthless at this point, but there are still a few decent Litvak yeshivas by which a new beginning might be made. That would obviously be Ponovitch and the great NY Litvak yeshivas. But before a new start can be made, the first thing is to clear out the avoda zara--idolatry-that the Gra was trying to warn people about. [I should point out that Reb Nachman was not in the category of the "herem". ]

If there is any way at all to come to authentic Torah, it certainly is not through the religious world.


When I actually try to think about what it would take to come to Torah, my thoughts automatically drift to the שערי תשובה The Gates of Repentance of Rabbainu Yona. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because he gives there the short and simple way. But mainly, my feeling is coming to Torah and the Absolute Spirit is mainly by learning Gemara and Musar [all the mediaeval books of Ethics], not just the Gates of Repentance.


The way to learn Gemara is to have a fast session  and an in-depth session. The fast one is by reading the Gemara along with Rashi [line by line, word by word] and at the end of the page to read all the Tosphot. The in depth session is to learn one or more Tosphot many times for many days.

The importance of learning Torah is that it is higher than repentance. So when one does not know what of how his or her actions are objectively wrong, learning Torah in itself sends corrections into the world of Repentance.


Reb Israel Salanter noticed the problem that religious people lose the menschlichkeit of Torah the more religious they become. He wanted to correct this problem by means of the Musar movement. He had a few disciples that went out and spread the good news about Musar/ learning Ethics. This to me seems to be a good idea. The way to do this I think is to get all the books of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter and of the rishonim and just plow through them word by word.
The printing house Eshkol in Israel used to print all the major Musar books in one set.

Some girls just are interested in you because of your American passport.

. Some girls just are interested in you because of your American identity. Some are interested in your money. And some are not honest. I have sadlly known all these types.Sometimes you can find all three wrapped up in a single girl.

If you find yourself giving free English lessons to someone who is supposed to be your friend, then you know you are in a bad relationship.

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.