The places and people you might think to go to to learn Torah are actually Trojan horses.Torah scholars demons.

The Ran from Breslov had a good point in emphasizing the fact that many times the places and people you might think  to go to to learn Torah are  actually Trojan horses. Traps laid out by the Dark Side to entice people.

This to a large degree goes along with his emphasis on private service towards God. However there are some good a holy places that I am thrilled and very happy about that I went to like the Mir in NY and also Shar Yashv of Rav Friefeld.

The problem  is that authentic Litvak yeshivas are rare. However dens of the Dark Side are common.

So the best  is to learn Gemara Rashi Tosphot and the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach at home unless one happens to be in an area like NY where the great Litvak yeshivas are located --or Bnei Brak.

Reb Nahman had a great deal of other important points, though for some reason when people get involved a bit too much in his books they tend to lose perspective.


Still this idea of Reb Nahman is not commonly known. But it comes often in the writings of Reb Nahman himself. For example in Volume I "the reason why people argue and make problems for those who fear God is because they (the problem makers ) hear Torah lessons from Torah scholars that are demons. שדין יהודאיים תלמידי חכמים. As a source the notes on bottom of the page say to look up the Zohar in Pinhas which I did not find there (though I did not look hard.). But this is a subject which comes up in the Ari. In any case it ought to be more well known
How many homes would be spared, how many lives would be save from ruin if this lesson was more well known and people would know to be wary and on guard?
[This theme is brought up also in the Rambam concerning people that make money off of Torah.The Rambam says they have no portion in the next world which means they lose their holy soul. That is in fact quite close to what Reb Nahman says in different words.]
The fact is that most people do not have much knowledge in Torah and thus are easily conned and deceived. And no one stands up except Reb Nahman to warn people.

It is interesting to note that the people who were with קורח  (Korah) who argued against Moses were the heads of the Sanhedrin. Some things just keep on recurring.




In any case if one is learning at home, the thing to do is to get one Gemara and concentrate on it for a year with the Maharsha and Tosphot. Then to get one or two of the major later on אחרונים that deal with that particular Gemara. Most often that will be the Pnei Yehoshua., if you choose Ketuboth or the Bava's or Shabat. There is also a very great edition of R.Akiva Eiger that collected his works along the seder of Shas. Also the ערוך לנר.  The Avi Ezri I think should just be learned in order independently. [That is in its own order, not according to the order of Shas. Just learn it from the beginning to end, and then review many times.]

Even though this is not a popular message, still judging from Yeravam ben Navat who refrained from the truth because of fear of losing his popularity and support, I would say that even at the certainty of losing popularity one ought to say the truth.

Music for the Glory of God

U-71 B Flat Majormp3  u71 in midi  u71 nwc

Esther apparently went twice to the king without being called. The second time was after the original event that is well known. The second time she went in again at the risk of her life in order to get the decree of annihilation rescinded. You know this because the second time it says the king again held out the golden staff to her.

It is also interesting to note the 10 sons of Haman were apparently hung as examples but were actually killed before then.

The main things of interest about this is that it seems it was this king that gave the final decree to grant permission to rebuild the Temple. [As far as I can tell from the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah]

Another point of interest is how this relates to Herodotus and the events of this king invading Greece and being stopped by 300 Spartans. These events are not even hinted at which is curious. Apparently the invasion of Greece happened later. 

To come up with a political system based on the best philosophy ends up with the worst system in politics.

WWI and WWII brought an end to interest in German Idealism.

As a matter of fact it was mainly WWI but WWII finished the job. And in place of Kant and Hegel you got a host of  vacuous philosophies of the twentieth century.  

The reason was that the connection between philosophy and politics  is non trivial.

On the other hand, I think this is somewhat tragic since Kant was  the best thing that happened in philosophy ever since Aristotle and Plotinus. But in fact when it comes to politics, philosophy  is weak.
Starting from Plato, philosophers have come up with one ridiculous scheme after the other when it comes to politics and in understanding human nature.

What makes this confusing is that in some cases Hegel and Communism seem still to be functioning like in China. And even in Czarist Russia,  the simple implementation of some kind of Parliament  system [the Duma] did not help any of the problems of WWI nor the civil war.


The best idea in political thought to me still seems to be the Constitution of the USA. Politics and Philosophy seem best to be divided. To come up with a political system based on the best philosophy ends up with the worst system in politics.

The Constitution was based in part on John Locke, but mainly on the English system that had evolved in the 1700's along with a great deal of understanding of ancient systems like Athens and Rome. The Natural Law ideas of Aquinas certainly played a role. But the philosophical element was weak.
And the great effect and force of philosophy in the USA seems to constantly to be directed at undermining the Constitution-- starting from the Frankfurter School at Colombia,- but also including just about every other stream of philosophy.  It is like a great hobby -to throw darts at Christianity and at the Constitution. It is almost as if people get up the morning and wonder: "What can we do today to undermine the Constitution and/or faith."

Appendix: (1) Dr. Michael does not think any state is legitimate. He also favors open borders along with Dr Bryan Caplan. The Frankfurt School is well known to have been plotting the downfall of the USA since its inception.
Socialists on one hand, anarchists on the other. All brilliant philosophers. Where has common sense disappeared to?

(2) To some degree you can see that the Constitution based on a WASP population simply would not have worked in Czarst Russia. But the problem seems to be that people expert in their own field often get so caught u in their own worlds that they cannot see the limits of their ideas when applied  elsewhere. A good example is the war in Vietnam when the presidents of the USA were taking advice of economist on how to wage the war. That was to make it non cost effective for the North Vietnamese. But what works in economics does not necessarily work in governments and politics.

(3) I think getting philosophy right is important. And Kant, and the Kant Friesian School of Dr Ross  go a long way. But Philosophy still seems to have some kind of stumbling block in it when it comes to politics or common sense. [My impression is that Kant, Schopenhauer and Leonard Nelson are somewhat better than Hegel, even though I do not share their complete dismissal of him.]
I am thinking that as much as getting philosophy right, it is just as important to get politics right, and for that I think learning the Federalist Papers should be first priority.

Or perhaps to be more accurate in terms of political theory the best thing is to learn the background of the Constitution which is England in starting from Elizabeth plus John Locke and DeFoe. For starting to learn about the USA Constitution at the time it was written is losing the entire perspective.

Dates on the calendar have a problem.

Dates on the calendar have a problem that I have mentioned before. The reason is there does not seem to be any evidence that the calendar was in place during the period of the geonim. There are letters from the early geonim that have dates that do not correspond the the regular calendar that is in use.
So to say it was established by Hillel II  is false. The earliest record of the calendar is from the time of the later geonim. So it is impossible that Hillel II sanctified all future new moons.  And there is no Gemara which even hints to such an event.
The logical thing to do is simply count the day of the מולד the conjunction as the day of the new moon. That is at least what Tosphot says in Sanhedrin page 10 side b. But you could make a case for the Molad to be the actual date of the new moon from the actual people mentioned in the Gemara over there like R. Elazar who holds if the court sanctifies the new moon on time fine, but if not then anyway they sanctify it from heaven. Also from Rava and Rav Ashi you could make  good case in this direction. But what seems to be the most compelling  about this is that there is nothing else to go by. There is no other calendar,- since the present day one was adopted under false pretenses.

The main reason why this is serious  is things like Passover when the issue of leaven bread is about as serious as it gets.  When most people are still eating leavened bread, it is already 15 days after the Molad.

It is an odd fact about the Ketubah marriage document that sometimes it is written and signed before the actual marriage. If the שטר/document is dated in the day and the wedding takes place at night, the שטר/document is a שטר מוקדם/predated document.



One way that it might be OK is the fact that a קניין סודר acquisition made by handing over a handkerchief . So perhaps the obligations start right  then and there even though the actual marriage does not take place until the evening.
The trouble is what makes the obligations is the marriage.



Otherwise a  שטר מוקדם [document that has a date before the actual acquisition was made.] is straight forward not valid.

[This I think happens in the summer when days are long and the wedding might be called for 7:30 P.M., but then the wedding does not take place until an hour later. In NY 730 is still daytime.

One way to get out of this problem is to in fact have the date on the document the next day [which starts at night]. Also an important fact  to know is that a  כתב יד [hand written] obligates. That is even if the actual Ketubah is not valid because of the above mentioned problem, one can always just write on any scrap of paper, that he is obligated to pay the מאתיים זוז [the two hundred zuz] to his wife and have the date. This in fact seems a lot better than a Ketubah written by someone else because of  a number of problems that exist in the regular document. Another thing might be simply to write the regular document himself. [or just print the regular version and put in the names by your own handwriting.]

The fact that a כתב יד [hand written by the person himself] is much better that a שטר written by a scribe also is relevant to Gitin. 

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