And can virtue be taught?

What is the proper education? And can virtue be taught? And does  education need re-adjustment as one leaves high school or college?

When I was young, I had a book about Abraham Lincoln that emphasized the fact that he was self taught,-- and that is definitely how I think about this issue.

However that is not to dismiss the need  for good learning partners.

In any case. my basic idea about education is that it does not stop after one leaves high school or college. Plus the basic structure I think should revolve around the four point system of Maimonides The Written Law (Bible), The Oral Law (Gemara and Tosphot), Physics, Metaphysics (by that the Rambam is referring to Plato and Aristotle).
My parents would add to this survival skills, outdoor skills, and learning a vocation. But Rav Shach I think would agree with all the above except the last one. From what I understood he held one should just sit and learn Torah until one gets married and at that point to simply take whatever profession that presents itself. And he certainly held one is allowed to receive the stipend that the State of Israel offers to anyone that wants to simply sit and learn [in some מסגרת or group].

[Allen Bloom and Allen Sokol have already pointed out the vacuum and emptiness of the humanities departments of universities .Allen Sokol wrote a paper of shear utter nonsense and it was accepted and published by a prestigious Philosophy quarterly. magazine-mainly because the jargon was right.

[The Metaphysics of the Rambam does not contradict the idea of learning the Ari and the Remak [Moshe of Cordoba ]. After all the Ari is really a more detailed version of the Neo Platonic System of Plotinus.]

[I can not say what the Rambam is getting at with his emphasis on Metaphysics. Though I am interested in the subject I can not see how coming to love and fear of God depend on learning Aristotle! But I say to myself that I figure the Rambam was a little more bright than me.]

[From what I can see universities are doing very well when it come to Physics for those who are talented but for those people like me that are not talented I think the best idea is to learn (like the Gemara says in Shabat 63 דרך  גירסא) to learn by just saying the words and going on.]

[The Gra held one ought to learn the Trivium and Quadrivium as mentioned by his disciple Rav Baruck from Shkolov who translated Euclid. ]

Praise be to God, the creator and source of all being.

U-80 mp3 U-80 midi   U-80 nwc

The Mir Yeshiva [of NY] approach

The Mir Yeshiva approach entails a large degree of humility. That is to say the awareness we really do not know how to teach or learn morality nor any of the big issues. The point is simple, "Learn Torah and act on what you have learned." There is no claim to supernatural powers or supernatural understanding of hidden things.
In fact most roshei yeshiva have a simple line they all say when asked about any subject what so ever that is not directly contained in the Gemara: "It is high things/ הויכע זכין." That is;- they plead  ignorance

But besides the basic line "Learn Torah", Reb Shmuel Berenbaum did have a few other things that were important to him,-- and he would say when asked. He held strongly of being in seder [session]. He held strongly about not speaking bad about anyone. That is he was not particularly interested in something was actually lashon hara [slander] or not in terms of the legal definition. And he held strongly of doing kindness when anyone was in need.

[On the other hand the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication seems to indicate that sometimes a few words of warning are in order.]





But for politics, philosophy, or anything else -  the general approach was "We do not know. So let's just sit and learn."




[I am not saying that this is my approach. I have opinions about everything under the sun. But I think the Mir approach is probably better. To me it seems the Rambam and Saadia Gaon thought the Neo Platonic approach was important enough and essential enough to Torah to write about it.]

Reb Shmuel did not hold highly however of university education. I asked him once about that and his answer was it is OK if it is to make a living.

The grandchildren of Rav David Abuzeira go to a yeshiva in Bnei Brak named after Avraham Kalmonoviz the founder of the Mir in NY --so I figure that is saying something.

Bava Batra 34

The case of the נסכא של ר' אבא is that a person grabbed an object from another person and one witness saw it. The person that grabbed the object said, "Yes I grabbed it but it is mine." R, Aba holds the law since he can not take an oath he must pay. מתוך שאינו יכול לישבע משלם. He can not take an oath because he  agrees with the witness that he grabbed it.

The Ri holds in the case of the נסכא של ר' אבא that there is no migo because if he would deny that he grabbed the object he would have to take an oath. [The Migo here is he could deny that he grabbed the object and we would believe him.  So we should believe him when he admits that he grabbed it but he claims the object belongs to him. The reason the Ri says this is not a good migo is that if he would  deny that he grabbed the object he would have to take an oath.]The Rivam holds there is a migo because otherwise why would Rav and Shmuel disagree with R. Aba? And the Rivam holds the reason R. Aba  does not go with the migo is because of גזרת הכתוב. So then what could the Ri answer to this?  I think the Ri would answer that the reason Rav and Shmuel disagree with R. Aba is not because of a migo but because of חזקת ממון.

The fact of the matter is that the Ri you can see holds that Rav and Shmuel do not think like סומכוס.
The Rashbam does hold the law is like סומכוס but you can see here that it is unlikely that the Ri would agree.

( I am just mentioning this because you can see this relates to Bava Metzia pg 100. The Ri you can see holds the person that originally held the object is not called מרא קמא here because there is a doubt if it belonged to him. But in any case if the law would be like סומכוס that would מרא קמא would not help anything anyway and they would have to divide. So at least we can agree that the Ri is not holding like סומכוס]





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The case of the נסכא של ר' אבא is that a person grabbed an object from another person and one witness saw it. The person that grabbed the object said, "Yes I grabbed it, but it is mine." ר' אבא holds the law since he can not take an oath he must pay. מתוך שאינו יכול לישבע משלם. He can not take an oath because he is  agrees with the witness. The ר''י holds in the case of the נסכא  של ר' אבא that there is no מיגו because if he would deny that he grabbed the object, he would have to take an oath.
[The מיגו here is he could deny that he grabbed the object and we would believe him.  So we should believe him when he admits that he grabbed it, but he claims the object belongs to him. The reason the ר''י says this is not a good מיגו is that if he would  deny that he grabbed the object, he would have to take an oath.]
The ריב''ם holds there is a מיגו, because otherwise why would רב and שמואל disagree with ר' אבא? And the ריב''ם holds the reason ר' אבא  does not go with the מיגו is because of גזירת הכתוב. So then what could the ר''י answer to this?  I think the ר''י would answer that the reason רב and שמואל disagree with ר' אבא is not because of a מיגו, but because of חזקת ממון. However the ריב''ם would not hold that חזקת ממון would be a good answer because the object was originally in the possession of the other person.

The fact of the matter is that the ר''י you can see holds that רב and שמואל do not think like סומכוס.
The רשב''ם does hold the law is like סומכוס but you can see here that it is unlikely that the ר''י would agree.


המקרה של נסכא של ר' אבא הוא שאדם תפס חפץ מאדם אחר, ועד אחד ראה את זה. האדם שתפס את האובייקט אמר, "כן תפסתי אותו, אך הוא שלי." ר' אבא מחזיק את החוק הוא שהוא לא יכול להישבע, ולכן הוא חייב לשלם. "מתוך שאינו יכול לישבע משלם." הוא לא יכול להישבע כי הוא מסכים עם העד. הר''י מחזיק במקרה של נסכא של ר' אבא כי אין מיגו כי אם הוא יכחיש שהוא תפס את החפץ, הוא יצטרך לקחת שבועה. הריב''ם מחזיק ישנה מיגו, כי אחרת למה רב ושמואל לא מסכימים עם ר' אבא? וגם הריב''ם מחזיק שהסיבה שר' אבא לא הולך עם המיגו היא בגלל גזירת הכתוב. אז מה יכול הר''י לענות על זה? אני חושב הר''י היה עונה כי הסיבה שרב ושמואל לא מסכימים עם ר' אבא הוא לא בגלל מיגו, אלא בגלל חזקת ממון. אולם ריב''ם לא יחזיק כי חזקת ממון תהיה תשובה טובה כי האובייקט היה במקורו ברשותו של האדם האחר.

אתה יכול לראות שהר''י סובר כי רב ושמואל לא חושבים כמו סומכוס. הרשב''ם מחזיק בשיטה שהחוק הוא כמו סומכוס אבל אתה יכול לראות כאן כי אינו  סביר שהר''י יסכים

Music for the glory of God.

U-79 D Major

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. ]

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. ]