self justification is the source of all evil. For everyone makes mistakes.

For everyone makes mistakes. But the real evil occurs when people dig in to justify their mistakes.

Rav Nahman has this idea that it is good to look for the hints in events. But not always. For there is such a thing as obstacles for a mitzvah.


So to fight self justification the best thing is to look at when actual events showed you that you were wrong about some decision.

Why to fight self justification? Because it is not good to justify doing evil. So when you wrong the best idea is to repent on it instead of justifying it.

But how can you actually tell when your decisions were wrong? By events.

It is worth repeating that pantheism is not a part of Torah thought. In the Middle Ages--in all rishonim this simply never appears. On the contrary in the Rishonim the major idea is Creation Ex Nihilo. [The Torah holds that God made the world from nothing. He is not like a spider whose web is made from itself. 

But you can see this right away in the beginning of the Eitz Haim of the Ari also. This exact point is  reiterated a few times. Emanation does not contradict Creation Ex Nihilo. [An example: your son comes from you, but he is not you.]


[I have to go soon because this is the library here an they are closing soon. But you can look this up yourself and see that the whole emphasis in the Religious Jewish world on pantheism is a kind of fraud. --claiming that it is traditional Jewish Thought.

If they would be simply going with Spinoza that would be different. At least then there would be some justification. But that is not what they are saying. They are rather trying to import a pantheism into Torah though from the outside for a certain agenda they have.[That is to claim divinity for their  leaders.] Rav Nahman also noticed this and brought up the point about the evil leaders of the religious world many times in the Lekutei Moharan.[ e.g. L.M. Vol. I ch. 12 and ch 28. But also 61 and vol II ch 1 and 8 and other places I have forgotten.]

Fast learning of Physics

I have tried to take Physics out of the realm of the elite priesthood and show how it is for everyone.

Mainly by the idea of the Hidden Torah inside the work of Creation and also by the idea that you can learn it simply by saying the words and going on.
But that being said I admit there is  a place for review. In fact in Lithuanian yeshivas based on the path of the Gra and Rav Shach it is the regular schedule to do intense learning in the morning and fast learning in the afternoon.

[And though in these great places like the Mir and Shar Yashuv the way of deep learning is more or less along the lines of Rav Haim from Brisk, still I find that for myself review is the only way I can get into any kind of understanding at all.]

So in conclusion what I think is best is to have some sessions for simply saying and words and going on until one finishes the book and then reviews it again and again. But also to have one or two sessions where one does lots of review on the exact same page or else even goes to previous pages and works oneself up to place where he or she is holding.


You might laugh at this but I think that even talented people that have high IQ and do well in Physics--could also benefit from this.]

Dr Kelley Ross and Dr Michael Huemer both have a  libertarian approach to politics. Freedom in personal actions and also in economies. That is to say there is no right of government to steal from the rich and give to aggrieved bodies that want other people's money.

In terms of the American Constitution this is certainly the basis. But being in the former USSR I saw clearly how the kind of system that works in the USA just can not work for other kinds of people.
In places where there is not a kind of WASP mentality, you can not just import to other places the whole system of the USA Constitution that was the result of ages of thinking and conflicts in England on how a government ought to be run to gain liberty justice for all.

I saw first hand on why the Russians do not want a hostile Ukraine right next door to them. [You would not believe me if I told you how much thievery is embedded in the DNA over there.]


What brings this up today is that I am thinking that though Dr Kelley Ross is probably the best philosopher around, still I do not think the negative attitide towards Hegel is warrented[[even though I am no one to debate the issue.]

Besides that I do not see very clearly how the ideas of Leonard Nelson which deal with epistemology are all that incompatible with Hegel's Metaphysics.

[And besides that when it comes to pure politics to me it is clear that Hegel was trying to counterbalance the crazy ideas of the French Revolution that in fact led to chaos and the war of all against all. This is not all that different than Dr Ross and the founding fathers of the USA that also were trying to find  balanced system that would provide liberty but also security from criminals and war.

Rav Avraham Abulafia wrote that hidden in the first forty chapters of the Guide of the Rambam is contained the secret of the redemption.

Rav Avraham Abulafia wrote that hidden in the first forty chapters of the Guide of the Rambam is contained the secret of the redemption.
This includes the introduction. There the Rambam equates the work of Creation and the Divine Chariot with the Physics and Metaphysics of the Greeks.
And he repeats this theme in the Mishna Torah. That is in the first four chapters he gives a brief review of the chemistry and physics and metaphysics of Aristotle. [He does not say that that is all in those first four chapters. rather he says those chapters relate to that subject matter.] And he calls it "Pardes." Then in laws of learning Torah he says to divide the learning into three parts, written Law, Oral law and Gemara. Then he adds the subjects included in the Pardes (according to how he defined Pardes) are in the category of Gemara.

So to the Rambam, learning Physics is in the category of learning Torah. You have to draw the holiness in by being attached to God as you do the learning.  And you have to get in the habit of it.  As Aristotle says "Virtue is habit". You have to get to the point that if you have not learned Physics an Mathematics one day that you feel empty. You feel you have missed out on a little bit of truth.




[This you can see in Ibn Pakuda and the Maalot Hamidot. My impression is that this was a wide spread belief among the Medieval authorities --but not the Ramban (Nachmanides) or others of that school--like the Rashba.


[Honestly I can not see what the Rambam was thinking about Aristotle's Metaphysics. Maybe he actually meant to include Plato and Plotinus? And furthermore there seems to be some kind of tension in the Metaphysics about if as Marc Cohen wrote a few years ago in his article in the Stanford encyclopedia of Philosophy.

So to learn Physics and Mathematics connects one to the wisdom of God inside the work of Creation. But also it is on a level that avoids the problem of igniting the dark side inside of people when they become religious fanatics.

Revealing Torah straight on to people can often cause them to become worse people. This can be because of religious fanaticism. It lites a fuse inside of them that makes them forget what it means to be a mensch (decent human being). סם מוות למשמאילים בה [Torah is poison for those that learn it for profit or ulterior motives.]

So to learn Physics and Mathematics connects one to the wisdom of God inside the work of Creation. But also it is on a level that avoids the problem of igniting the dark side inside of people when they become religious fanatics. Or they start to use Torah for money and/or other alternative motives.


The idea is mainly this: There are ten statements by which the world was created that correspond to the ten sepherot. [Crown, Wisdom, Understanding, kindness, Judgment, Beauty/Truth, Eternity, Splendor, Foundation and Kingship.]

The first statement of Creation is called the מאמר הסתום the hidden statement which corresponds to the Crown. But it is hidden inside of creation. So its holiness is not visible.


The Baal Hasulam [commentary on the Zohar] makes a point that what is known from the Ari and the Remak is not what the sages call the secrets of Torah. [That is towards the end of his introduction to the Eitz Haim of the Ari.] I would rather not go into his points here right now, but in any case there is plenty of evidence that the Rambam held Physics and metaphysics of Aristotle to be the actual work of creation and the Divine Chariot. Besides he saying so openly, you see it throughout his works. It was not an afterthought. And also in his commentary of the Mishna (which he wrote when he was young) he says that from the beginning he was going to write such a book as the Guide. It was not some afterthought.]

Pride

Supremacy --pride is one of the deadly sins. So why is it so emphasized as a good thing?

You see this a lot in terms of the fallacy "All great people are..." (fill in the blank with your favorite ethnic group.)


They dress this in "self esteem". But in fact in the Bible and Talmud and all the books of Musar of the Rishonim pride is thought to be the root of all evil.
So why is this ignored? Because one of Freud's students [Alfred Adler] made pride to be a good thing. But it is not a good thing.