My own feeling about philosophy is that I gained the most by learning Musar [Medieval Ethics]. If I would have to recommend a philosophy book it would not be a book of philosophy at all but rather the basic canon of Musar books from the Middle Ages.

To me it looks like the world is divided into secularism and religious-ism. [That is not religion, but religious-ism-- the idea that salvation lays within religion.  Secularism is similar in thinking salvation lays in socialism and stealing money from the rich  in order to make the poor rich and the rich poor. ]

I do not like either alternative very much. Growing up in a more or less secular world, it seemed to me less and less that any kind of secular approach had "the answers" for the big questions. At the time there were lots of alternatives. Existentialism, Socialism, "shrink"-ism. All claiming the Truth.And able to convince millions of their claims. To me it all seemed ridiculous--and still does.

BUT the solutions of the religious world seem ridiculous from other directions. But at the time I thought I had found absolute truth in religion.  I needed a few knocks to burst that bubble.

Now I think my parents had it right from the start--balance, menschlichkeit--being a decent human being before anything else. The Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule.

In terms of a world view that includes more than that however, I would have to say that the medieval scholastics did what I think is the best job--that is to combine Reason and Faith. This started mainly with Saadia Gaon but it was a general approach of the middle ages, (e.g. Rambam, Aquinas, Anslem,...)
But then Reason itself came under attack by the school of idealism. That started with Descartes that divides Mind from Body. No one had an answer to this and Hume just pushed the knife in deeper. Because of this problem, Kant is important. 

My own feeling about philosophy is that I gained the most by learning Musar--especially the book of Navardok the Madragat HaAdam which talks about trust in God.
It is hard to get over the feeling that there is little or nothing in philosophy that is very insightful. The best of them all clearly is still Plato, Aristotle, and Plotinus.
I found a lot of common sense and benefit from three modern day thinkers: Kelley Ross, Steven Dutch, Michael Huemer.

A great king of Judah went on a seek and destroy mission to destroy idolatry and idolaters.

In most of the kings of Judah and Israel the issue of idolatry comes to the front. Yoshiyahu יאשיהו was one king that went on a seek and destroy mission through all Israel to find and destroy any and every drop of idolatry and or idolaters that he could find. Not just in Judah. [At that point the ten tribes had been exiled, but he went anyway all through Israel to get rid of all idols and idolaters that he could find.
[Go and check the verse.מלכים ב' כ''ג You will see that he went personally on this mission and he went all through the land of Israel.Chronicles II 34:7 וינתץ את המזבחות ואת האשרים והפסילים כתת להדק וכל החמנים גדע בכל ארץ ישראל וישב לירושלים ] You can ask why did he feel the need to go out on this seek and destroy mission? Maybe he could have stayed in his palace in Jerusalem and sat and learned? But as I mentioned above the issue of idolatry was then and is now too great to ignore.
[He was the great grandson of חיזקיה][In verse 19 it says he went also to Shomron and did this thought that is not in a area of Judah. Also in verse 20 it says he sacrificed the priests of idolatry on their own altars. Kings II 23:19-20. See also Chronicles II 34:33 referring to the same seek and destroy mission.




The trouble with this is that "idolatry" is today almost a useless label. It can mean anything to anyone. It can simply be used as a way to insult.
So I did spend a great deal of time with David Bronson learning the exact meaning of idolatry in tractate Sanhedrin.

My basic conclusion is that the the religious world is deeply into idolatry, and now I try to avoid them.

The issue really was addressed in the letter of excommunication that the Gra signed. But since that letter is universally ignored, there does not seem to be much one can do. Rav Shach also is more or less ignored. So if these two Torah giants are ignored, then what can a little nobody like me do?
[I ought to add that neither the Baal Shem Tov himself, nor Rav Nahman from Breslov were included in the excommunication. It was directly  towards the disciples of the Magid of Mezritch. In fact the fact Shem Tov himself is mentioned in a praiseworthy fashion in the sidur of the Gra.]



But it does occur to me what regular people like me can do. We can insist on it. Even though others think it is a small point, but those like me that know--can insist. We can refuse to have anything to do with idolatry what so ever. What seems like a small difference can be a big difference if one insists.

world of Litvak yeshivas

Learning Torah in an authentic way refers to the the intensity of learning. It might have some relation to learning in depth or perhaps learning fast like I have been saying. But the thing that makes the Litvak yeshiva special is the intensity--the feeling that every word of Torah is more precious than diamonds. On one's own I think it is hard to get the idea of what this is about. But once one has been in an authentic Litvak yeshiva for a couple of years, then even later the feeling and sweetness of Torah never really leaves one.

My own experience in the world of Litvak yeshivas was quite amazing. I believe that my future wife only came to me because of that context. She must have felt that I was involved in something outstanding and I guess she wanted to be a part of it. [She began writing to me when I was still in Far Rockaway in Shar Yashuv and then came to NY herself when I was at the Mir.

I mean to say that there is something "holistic" about the Lithuanian learning Torah world--that is that encompasses everything--all aspects of life. It is far from being just about learning Torah. It is about being a mensch, good morals, being  scrupulous in honesty in money matters. But learning Torah is the focal point that everything turns on.

Most of my efforts to get back into real authentic learning Torah were foiled. WHAT DOES IT MEAN "REAL LEARNING"? It is the intensity of learning

I noticed that Rav Shach in one of his talks says the main thing one can do for Klal Israel [The people of Israel] is to learn Torah.  The issue is not how much territory does Israel control. This idea of Rav Shach as is well known finds support in the books of the sages and a lot of the source material is found in the Musar book the Nefesh HaHaim.
But what I wanted to add is that in the book of Kings I. 9 verse 11 it says that Solomon gave to Hiram 20 cities in the Galil (Galilee) . So again we see this idea that the safety of Israel is not a matter of territory. [The Galil is divided into three parts, lower, middle, and upper where Safed is. So it was definitely Israel proper that Solomon was giving away.]

Though I do not learn much Torah anymore, I can see the point of Rav Shach.
It was a point that I first encountered in Shar Yashuv and later in the Mir. But I did not see much support for that point of view until I discovered the Nefesh HaHaim.

Part of the reason I do not learn much is that most of my efforts to get back in real authentic learning Torah were foiled and even backfired.
The Nefesh Haim [Rav Haim from Voloshin a disciple of the Gra] brings out this point about the importance of learning Torah and I am pretty sure that I was not so aware of it. After I graduated from high school I did want to learn Torah more seriously so I came to NY to Shar Yashuv. That is a yeshiva mainly known for being for beginners. But while there I was befriended by the later rosh yeshiva Naphtali Yeager and he showed me the depths of learning. That is the way you can see in my little booklets that I wrote on Gemara. Only later when I came to the Mir Yeshiva did I become aware of the path of Rav Haim Solovietchik.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN "REAL LEARNING"? It is hard to define. Mainly it is what you experience in a Litvak yeshiva. It is not just learning the gemara in depth as Litvaks do. It is the intensity of learning

mystic system of Sar Shalom Sharabi and R. Isaac Luria

The main system of Rav Sharabi you can learn in his book the Nahar Shalom. However I found for myself that simply praying with the sidur HaReshash for a few years helped me get a clearer idea of his system.[I ought to mention that I was praying with the sidur of the Reshash for the unification--not to gain better knowledge of his system.]
[There are two sidurs of Rav Sharabi I ought to mention. For a long time I prayed with the small one even though I knew that Rav Mordechei Sharabi said there were mistakes in it. And in any case I felt, it was less accurate than I needed. Then one great day I was in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem and discovered that in some private home there, the family was selling the actual large sidur of the Reshash.]

It is known that the Gra said that the Ari is speaking in terms of an analogy, not literal like he sounds.

The only one that got support from any world class mathematician was Leonard Nelson. That was the famous Nelson Affair file that David Hilbert kept in his office.

I do not understand why but the school of Kantian thought of Leonard Nelson was well known in the USSR, but almost completely ignored in the West.

[It is an odd fact that the only one of these that got support from any world class mathematician was Nelson. That was the famous Nelson Affair file that David Hilbert kept in his office.
An besides that we know Gauss was impressed with Fries and praised a book of Fries to a student that asked about it.


[I might mention that the correspondence of Godel indicates a kind of two tier structure of the world like the Neo Platonic school. To me it seems very close to Nelson.


[There are people who simply ignore the whole thing and want to go back to Aquinas like Ed Feser. The idea of finding in Medieval scholastic philosophers all the answers is perhaps a true point. There is something amazing about medieval thought. I have no idea what to say about that though.]

Also all of this just refers to philosophy. They all had something to say about politics but that does not seem to be where their insights were very great. On the Contrary--it was English thought [John Locke, De Foe] that seemed to reach the greatest heights when it comes to political thought. 

Michal the daughter of Saul

Michal the daughter of Saul was a kind of tragic figure. Clearly David was in love with her, and visa versa. When Avner ben Ner came to David, David had just one request to make of him, "Bring me back my wife Michal bat Saul." And she saved his life at least one time that we know about against her own father's wishes.

So the fact that she did not have children is sad. But furthermore --who were the descendants of Saul and the Givonim hung? It says in Kings II that five of them were the kids of Michal and then it names the father --the person that was the husband of Merav--her older sister! The Ralbag says that they were raised by Michal, but were not actually her kids. And that makes sense to me. And I can not think of any other possible explanation.