There are a few references to Aristotle in the Musar book Obligations of the Hearts חובות לבבות. Sometimes they are hidden inside hints. One such place is in the Gate of Wholehearted Devotion Towards God. פרק ה section five.There he warns that for people that are knowledgeable in Torah can be tricked by the evil inclination if they do not know Aristotelian Logic because the evil inclination can come and use faulty logic to try to mess up one's understanding of straight Torah.
This idea of the Obligations of the Hearts shows me how and why the religious world got so messed up. They use faulty logic to misinterpret Torah.

Now it is possible to see how important it is to learn Tosphot, and the books of Rav Haim Halevi from Brisk and Rav Shach in order to get to straight Torah.

The first place in the Obligations of the Heart חובות הלבבות  where he says to learn the Meta-Physics of Aristotle in in his introduction. [That would have been well known in Muslim Spain where Rav Behaye ben Joseph Ibn Pakuda was writing but also in Christian Spain where they had the basic works of Aristotle.

The problem of insanity and delusions

In relation to the idea I brought in the previous blog I should add that LM vol I: 25 [ליקוטי מוהר''ן חלק א' סימן כ''ה] [in Rav Nahman's book] deals with the problem of insanity and delusions and I feel it is good to say that section every day for people that are afflicted with these problems.


I think this works a lot better that the pseudo sciences that were created to supposedly help people out of delusions but in fact reinforce them.

What Freud did was to model the human mind on the pattern of the steam engine and to claim that taking about sex helps people out of their mental problems. [Plus the important idea of blaming people's parents for all their mental problems.] Thus he could make a lot of money by doing nothing helpful. And this fraud continues today as a multi billion dollar industry.

At least saying over that short Torah Lesson in Rav Nahman's book does not cost a billion dollars nor much time. And from what i can tell, it actually works. Plus doing what he says there as a cure for delusions--to give charity to good recipients. [Or as the Boy Scouts have it--to do a good deed every day.] [Charity means not to give to any institution but to people you know are deserving.]

Rav Isaac Luria , to find one's proper spouse.

In the Ari, [Rav Isaac Luria] there are intentions which refer to each month. That means for each month of the year different names of God shine forth and are revealed. The names for Elul are אלף הי יוד הי יוד הי יוד הי. [with vowels thus: Eh Le  Fe - He Ye- Ye We De- He Ye.  Yi Wi Di Hi Yi Wi Ei Yi Hi Yi. (The "i" here is to be said in a way that rhymes with "me". )

These names are usually called by their numerical value 161 and 63.

To intend these names, Rav Nahman says is a correction for sexual sin and also helps to find one's proper spouse.

While the four letter name of God is not allowed to be said and it is a terrible sin to say the four letter name, still I think these expansions are OK to utter or even to sing. That seems to be the approach of Rav Avraham Abulafia when he brings his unifications of the name 72

When I did not have my proper spouse, I said over the two parts of Rav Nahman's book that discusses to intentions of Elul every day [ל''ם חלק א' סימן ו' חלק ב' סימן פ''ז] (LM vol I:6 an vol II:87) plus the two sections of the Torah that he also said were good for that same purpose שירת הים וקרבנות הנשיאים [Song at the Red Sea and the Sacrifices of the Princes in Numbers].
That in fact helped me to find my proper spouse but only after I had been doing that daily for almost a year.



In the Ari also there happens to be a long section on the intentions of the Song at the Sea which I would have gone over every day if I had the time. But since my time was limited I simply said over those four things daily. [That did not start in Elul. In fact I think it was around Hanuka that I began that. I figured that not only could I not find my spouse, but also there seems to be obstacles places in that direction that were not natural. So I figured the whole subject needed some kind of spiritual correction.]

[This idea was based on the idea of finding in Rav Nahman's book the section that deals with one's particular problem and saying that section over every day.]

Genesis and the Big Bang

There is a book Genesis and the Big Bang which did a nice job of showing how Genesis and the Big Bang do not contradict. However I generally think of Genesis more in terms of how Rav Isaac Luria looked at it in which case it is not meant כפשוטו in the literal sense at all. [Most people think Genesis is meant literally but certainly not the Ari nor the Rambam. The Rambam said the whole thing is an allegory.And he used that specific word. It is not just not literal but also it is like Aesops stories. They do not refer to the things in the story at all. [No lion or a fox or a horse,  nor even the tortoise can talk — but through them children may learn the business of life.]

There is  on one hand certain difficulties with Genesis and the Big Bang, so I tend to think that the approach of the Ari makes more sense. [If you are well versed in Torah, the book looks great in physics but weak in Torah. If you are a physicist, the book looks great in Torah and weak in Physics. Still it has done a tremendous service in the task of reconciling Torah with Reason.]

Obviously the Ari [Rav Isaac Luria] is not saying the same thing as the Rambam, but in any case he understands the entire Torah in a mystical fashion. That mystical way of understanding the Torah is the Ari's פשוט פשט (simple and literal understanding of the text.)
In his view the literal sense refers to the sepherot of Creation, but I can imagine that there is a sense of the verses that applies in each of worlds of Emanation, Creation, Formation, and the Physical universe.  In fact , come to think of it, would it not be simpler to say the very first verses of genesis refer to the Condensation צמצום and then to God's saying "Let there be light", referring to the קו וחוט דאור אין סוף? 

Though it is considered well known that Hillel II set up the calendar, still there is no record in the Gemara of his having done so. The Gemara would not have left this important fact out if it was so.]

There are dates brought in the responsa of the Geonim before Saadia Gaon that have days that come out not like the modern day Jewish calendar. Therefore the calendar that is in use is not halacha leMoshe MiSinai. [From Moses at Mount Sinai]  It was not in use until sometime right before Saadia Gaon.[It can not be tradition if the early geonim were not using it.]]
But when Saadia Gaon wrote about it, he used the Arabic word that means tradition. The Rambam thought he meant a law to Moses at Mount Sinai when all Saadia Gaon really meant was it was accepted. So the calendar seem to me to be not valid. Thus in figuring out when Rosh Hashana comes out I think it is better to go with Tosphot in Sanhedrin page 10b that says you go by the "molad" [conjunction]. [That means Rosh Hashana comes out the night on Sept 9. [That is Sept 10 is Rosh Hashana.]
[This will depend on your time zone. You have to see when the molad come out in your area. In Israel it turns out to be the night of Sept 9 which makes Sept 10 Rosh Hashana. It all depends on the actual conjunction.

[Though it is considered well known that Hillel II set up the calendar, still there is no record in the Gemara  of his having done so. The Gemara would not have left this important fact out if it was so.]
[The whole thing is just a misunderstanding of what Saadia Gaon meant when he wrote the calendar of his time  was traditional (using the Arabic word).  People though he meant Halacha to Moses from Sinai when all he meant that by his time it was the accepted practice to use it, 

Create new yeshivas that go specifically according to the Gra

There is yeshiva in the old city of Jerusalem that is on the name of the Gra. It occurs to me that to run a yeshiva and create new yeshivas that go specifically according to the Gra makes a lot of sense.
I have been writing about the great Litvak yeshivas in NY and Ponoviz but the Litvak yeshiva path is different from the straight Gra approach.
And I have seen enough of the Litvak world to realize that there is room for improvement. I think the major problems that exist are a result of not following the path of the Gra in more detail. Because of not following the path of the Gra there is lots of room for not nice energies [Sitra Achra energy] to enter.
And the greatness of the Litvak Torah world is anyway from the devotion to learning and keeping Torah with no frills --no additions nor subtractions, so why not just go all the way and simply declare once and for all that: "This yeshiva goes by the path of the Gra. Period. Here in our yeshiva we do not judge others or try to evaluate their paths. But here we go by the Gra. that is our path with no compromise."


[I have had my own share of troubles in the Litvak world, but it seems to me that these troubles were a case of the Litvak world not following the path of the Gra with enough conviction and consistency.]

[I knew the founder of the Yeshiva on the name of the Gra, Rav Zilverman  and his son Eliyahu Zilverman who was the rosh yeshiva for many years. It seems to me they were on the right track. In fact once when the older Rav Zilverman had one son son who was sick -very sick and people said he ought to go to get a blessing from the Gerer Rav, he refused and prayed to God instead.--and was answered.

Sitra Achra yeshivas

The most essential principle of the religious world is: "Use Torah to make money, but do not say that that is what you are doing." It is rare to find authentic Litvak yeshivas that learn Torah for its own sake and only accept money as a last resort in order to be able to learn Torah without interruptions.

It is not hard to tell the difference between the authentic Litvak yeshivas and the Sitra Achra yeshivas that use Torah to make make money or gain power and influence.