20.3.18
The King of Judah, Ahaz, invited the king of Assyria to fight against Israel [the Ten Tribes] and Syria. But the policy of Assyria did not change after that. Even though the original alliance was a success, the later king of Assyria just continued his war against Israel until he exiled Israel into the land of Medea [East of Assyria]. After that the kings of Assyria just continued their old policy and then invaded Judah, and then finally tried to conquer Jerusalem itself. The event the Assyria army being wiped out at that point is well known. But the fact that Assyria was first invited in by the King of Judah is less well known. [See Kings 16]
Be careful whom you ask for help from. Alliances are important but with whom to make an alliance is something not simple. [Since reading Thucydides I have been aware of how important alliances are. But the events surrounding the fall of the Ten Tribes shows how much care one needs in determining with whom to form an alliance. ]
Be careful whom you ask for help from. Alliances are important but with whom to make an alliance is something not simple. [Since reading Thucydides I have been aware of how important alliances are. But the events surrounding the fall of the Ten Tribes shows how much care one needs in determining with whom to form an alliance. ]
The all-women engineering team that designed the ill-fated pedestrian foot bridge at Miami’s Florida International University were highly touted for their advances in a field that is typically dominated by men.
The all-women engineering team that designed the ill-fated pedestrian foot bridge at Miami’s Florida International University were highly touted for their advances in a field that is typically dominated by men.
But critics are pointing the finger of blame at the female engineers for design flaws that may have brought the bridge down.
Investigators are still on the scene of last week’s bridge collapse that killed 6 peopleple and injured 9 on the FIU campus in Southwest Miami.
My learning partner suggested this same reason for the cutting back of the Space Program after the Lunar Landings. I mean to say the later accidents were because of promoting incompetent people--so instead of changing the policy to have only white, male engineers,- they simply cut back the program.
[Promoting people that are competent is what ought to be the measuring stick. It should not matter if they are white or male or Martians. The problem is promoting people because they are female or some color other than white. ]
19.3.18
Even though the mystic writings are not supposed to be the basis of Torah, they have assumed a degree of confidence that questioning them is thought to be tantamount to a capital crime.
This was pointed out to me by my learning partner that the Ramban [Nahmanides] is the start of the most fanatic forms of Torah observance. The Rambam [Maimonides] forms the basis of a whole different kind of approach--which never really took off.--the more rational approach.
The mystic "thing" certainly is brought to the attention of anyone at the first step into the world of fanaticism.
One thing that is curious about the mystic thing is that most of the ideas come from the pre-Soctratics. That does not disqualify anything, but makes it less probable that it is Torah from Sinai.
There is nothing innocent about this. It is the pretense to secret knowledge that is used to further personal ambitions and those that suppose and project their own superiority.
Among the signs of idol worship is the ingenious variety of techniques devised to advance the human ambitions in the name of God.
The trouble is rewriting Oral and Written Torah which has been revealed and recorded once and for all time, and with the dangers of misleading others, seeming to claim spiritual merit for oneself, or indulging in simple self-aggrandizement.
[However I do have confidence in the insights of the Ari and other great tzadikim like the Gra and Rav Shach of Ponoviz.]
I have already written an essay a long time ago showing the ten sepherot to the 10 spheres around the earth in the Ptolemy Model, and the "Contraction" and drawing down of the light to the pre Socratics.
The empty space is one of the most remarkable ideas in the Ari and yet the original concept comes from Anaximader. Nevertheless it is a potent and important idea as note by Heidegger. In fact the original seems to have been forgotten by Metaphysics until Heidegger noticed it. The empty space--or negative transcendence was merely conceived as a background for existing things. It was forgotten to ask and understand what it is in itself. [What Heidegger and the Rav Isaac Luria were asking was what allows existing things to come into existence in the first place. Now what do existing things have in common.]
This was pointed out to me by my learning partner that the Ramban [Nahmanides] is the start of the most fanatic forms of Torah observance. The Rambam [Maimonides] forms the basis of a whole different kind of approach--which never really took off.--the more rational approach.
The mystic "thing" certainly is brought to the attention of anyone at the first step into the world of fanaticism.
One thing that is curious about the mystic thing is that most of the ideas come from the pre-Soctratics. That does not disqualify anything, but makes it less probable that it is Torah from Sinai.
There is nothing innocent about this. It is the pretense to secret knowledge that is used to further personal ambitions and those that suppose and project their own superiority.
Among the signs of idol worship is the ingenious variety of techniques devised to advance the human ambitions in the name of God.
The trouble is rewriting Oral and Written Torah which has been revealed and recorded once and for all time, and with the dangers of misleading others, seeming to claim spiritual merit for oneself, or indulging in simple self-aggrandizement.
[However I do have confidence in the insights of the Ari and other great tzadikim like the Gra and Rav Shach of Ponoviz.]
I have already written an essay a long time ago showing the ten sepherot to the 10 spheres around the earth in the Ptolemy Model, and the "Contraction" and drawing down of the light to the pre Socratics.
The empty space is one of the most remarkable ideas in the Ari and yet the original concept comes from Anaximader. Nevertheless it is a potent and important idea as note by Heidegger. In fact the original seems to have been forgotten by Metaphysics until Heidegger noticed it. The empty space--or negative transcendence was merely conceived as a background for existing things. It was forgotten to ask and understand what it is in itself. [What Heidegger and the Rav Isaac Luria were asking was what allows existing things to come into existence in the first place. Now what do existing things have in common.]
18.3.18
It is natural for people to wonder about the meaning of life. Some feel the need more than others, but it is fairly common. [Some people however could not care less.] The Talmud does not deal with meaning of life issues, so it is natural for people to look into the Zohar. The elephant in the room is the problem that the Zohar is a forgery. It is not what it claims to be. If from the start it had been made clear that saying over the ideas in the name of R Shimon ben Yohai was just a literary device, that is no big deal. But presenting it as actually being from R Shimon ben Yohai I think has to be considered less than honest.
The thing that makes it clear to me is עם כל דא a translation of עם כל זה. And עם כל זה is a phrase invented by the Ibn Tibon family of translators to take the place of "although". Before that ''although'' was אף על פי or אף על גב
[ I have however confidence that the Ari and Rav Yaakov Abuhaziera and Shalom Sharabi had important insights. Much of their ideas come from other sources --their own personal service towards God and other mystic books that came before the Zohar for example Sefer Yezira. There were plenty of mystics around during the Middle Ages.
[In any case , did you ever see anyone improve in their traits after learning the Zohar?]]
The thing that makes it clear to me is עם כל דא a translation of עם כל זה. And עם כל זה is a phrase invented by the Ibn Tibon family of translators to take the place of "although". Before that ''although'' was אף על פי or אף על גב
[ I have however confidence that the Ari and Rav Yaakov Abuhaziera and Shalom Sharabi had important insights. Much of their ideas come from other sources --their own personal service towards God and other mystic books that came before the Zohar for example Sefer Yezira. There were plenty of mystics around during the Middle Ages.
[In any case , did you ever see anyone improve in their traits after learning the Zohar?]]
17.3.18
16.3.18
Litvak yeshivas on השקפה world view issues
There is little or no emphasis in Litvak yeshivas on השקפה world view issues. The accepted approach is simple: whatever the Torah says, that is what we believe.
The emphasis is on learning Torah. This goes along well with the idea expressed in Bava Batra ברא יצר הרע ברא תורה תבלין.[God created the Evil Inclination but he also created Torah as a cure for it.] As R.Gershom explains there. Everyone has an opportunity to be delivered from the hands of the evil inclination. ילמד תורה ויהיה צדיק Learn Torah and you will be a righteous person.
[My own interest in world view issues is mainly personal. I realize not a lot of people share this interest with me. Still it seems important to get it right.]
The basic Mir Yeshiva approach "Learn Torah" seems a lot more important to me than world view issues. Just for clarity I should add "Learning Torah" means basically to take one tracatate of Gemara and to do to thoroughly for about a year with every single Tosphot. The "later on" people like the Pnei Yehoshua and Maharsha also seem very important to me even though neither one is emphasized in yeshivas. [I do not want to give the idea that I understood the Maharsha or Pnei Yehoshua. I would try to review the particular paragraph each about ten times or more and still only get a vague idea of what they meant.]
The emphasis is on learning Torah. This goes along well with the idea expressed in Bava Batra ברא יצר הרע ברא תורה תבלין.[God created the Evil Inclination but he also created Torah as a cure for it.] As R.Gershom explains there. Everyone has an opportunity to be delivered from the hands of the evil inclination. ילמד תורה ויהיה צדיק Learn Torah and you will be a righteous person.
[My own interest in world view issues is mainly personal. I realize not a lot of people share this interest with me. Still it seems important to get it right.]
The basic Mir Yeshiva approach "Learn Torah" seems a lot more important to me than world view issues. Just for clarity I should add "Learning Torah" means basically to take one tracatate of Gemara and to do to thoroughly for about a year with every single Tosphot. The "later on" people like the Pnei Yehoshua and Maharsha also seem very important to me even though neither one is emphasized in yeshivas. [I do not want to give the idea that I understood the Maharsha or Pnei Yehoshua. I would try to review the particular paragraph each about ten times or more and still only get a vague idea of what they meant.]
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