religious leaders

Even though Rav Nahman made it clear that religious leaders in the Jewish world tend to be demons (note 1)--that is from the realm of Evil. Still I think the problem is not the people but the system.

That is that the system is not really based on Torah at all but is rather based on a group dynamics that rewards fraud.


I noticed that the religious world tends to believe they are smarter and better morally than anyone else.
These two claims do not hold up to scrutiny. And they are not minor issues. The whole  raison d'être (reason to be) depends on these claims being factual. (note 2) As you can see in the Rambam in his reason for the commandments in the Guide for the Perplexed.


(note 1) For example in L''M I: 12. I:28  and many other places were he refers to Torah scholars that are demons. "The reason that some Torah scholars are against those who fear God is because they receive their Torah lessons form the demons" (LM I:12).  Another quote is" Torah scholars that are demons receive their Torah lessons from the "alfin hanefulin" [the fallen letters A"]

(note 2) See Talmud Bava Mezia 119 the argument between R Shimon Ben Yohai and the sages. The Rambam in Mishne Torah seem to decide the halacha in opposite ways. Once like R. Shimon and in another place not. But Rav Shach pointed out there is a third opinion R Yehuda and that the Rambam in consistant in deciding like him in all cases.

I was in Uman

 I was in Uman and needed an operation on my foot and the doctor there did a fantastic job.[Though as you can imagine that same hospital had a dreadful reputation from the time of the USSR.

Not to say I have any desire to go back. Ukraine was getting to be  a nightmare. I would be attacked in the middle of the day just randomly by people that recognized I was not a Ukrainian. There are too many criminals over there. 

A lot of the yeshiva world is about using Torah to gain power and money. Otherwise it would be more or less simple to simply stay home and learn Torah.
[You can simply buy a Shas and Rishonim and even Rav Chaim Solovietchik's Hidushei HaRambam and Rav Shach's Avi Ezri.] [I do not mean this critique to apply to the yeshivot where Torah is learned for its own sake, for example the yeshivot I was in the Mir of NY and Shar Yashuv. Certainly there are places like that in Israel --like Ponovitch. Torah for its own sake I agree with. Torah for the sake of making money I do not agree with.\ 




 But the religious world is kind of like a parasite that needs the secular world to survive. The religious are about as healthy for Klal Israel and  sores are necessary for the human body.

Not that it was always that way. But that is the present day situation. Probably you can understand from this why the Rambam wanted to make an iron wall between Torah and money.

Hints that come from Above.

There are hints in what happens to one that come from Above. This is something in the book of Rav Nahman that comes up in a few places.

[In one place Rav Nahman says that "God condenses himself from infinity to the place where one is and gives him hints about how he can return to Him." That is to say:  God is above logic and comprehension. But still he gives hints to every person --even one who has fallen from holiness completely and is totally absorbed into the evil realm, still He gives him hints how to return to Him in repentance. קול קורא במדבר.


So even though learning Torah is a great thing, still there is a higher level that I believe I was getting hints about that I should spend time and effort on.

It is kind of like the gemara brings about Rav Zeira [an Amora from the time of the Talmud] who fasted forty days in a row in order to forget the Talmud that was being written in Iraq [Babylon] in order to come to the higher level of understanding on the Jerusalem Talmud

From the Rambam and Ibn Pakuda I would have to say that Metaphysics and Physics are a part of Torah

It is not that I am unconcerned about Bitul Torah. It is more along the lines that the Gra said--that according to lack of knowledge in any one of the seven wisdoms, one will lack 100 times more in Torah. [As brought in to Introduction to Euclid by a disciple of the Gra, i.e. Rav Baruch of Shkolev].
There seems to be some kind of Achilles heel in the world of Torah when this aspect of things is lacking.

The actual opinion of the Rambam you have to get to in a more round about way. But it is hinted to in the commentary of the Mishna, in the Mishne Torah and in the Guide.

It seems that however the Ramban [Nachmanides and other rishonim would have disagreed. But still from what I can tell, the Rambam was right. The Ramban has some choice words for Aristotle!  But perhaps it is not so much that the Rambam was right as this is an are of the dinge an sich [things in themselves] where reason can not enter. For on one hand, I wished I would be able to sit and learn Torah all day every day for every second all my life. I was that attached to Torah. [] But then circumstances tore me from that and I have had to discover that point of Ibn Pakuda and the Rambam.

you have to take all the Neo Kantian as a collective whole.

Even in high school I had a lot of interest in Philosophy. But what philosophy was in those days did not seem very inspiring.  mainly it consisted of word analysis and the claim that there are no values nor truth. [The Eastern religions that were popular did not seem to have much going for them. That is how it seemed to me.] So I gravitated towards more ancient philosophies like Plato, Spinoza, and Chinese philosophy. Kant and Hegel were no where to be found. Not in the public library nor in the high school library nor even in book stores! Those were the  days of existentialism. It all seemed vacant of any content or meaning. [John Searle said rightly about most of twentieth century philosophy "It is obviously false". I could not agree more.]

So instead of Philosophy I went to Shar Yashuv and then later on the Mir and decided to put philosophy on hold. Eventually I picked up Spinoza again and in Brooklyn public Library I found an edition of the Cambridge Hegel. That is some of his major writings along with rigorous commentary.

At some point after going through the pre_Kantian thinkers I got to the point of realizing that Kant and Hegel are important. And that you can not just go back to business as usual in philosophy as if they were never around.

[This idea of the importance of the Kantians came after seeing a good deal of the pre Kant people that had some great points but also had problems. Just take a look at Leibiniz, Thomas Reid, Hume and you will see what I mean. I got the idea that Kant is important. What school of Kant? Reinhold, Maimon, Shultze, Fries. Or the Shopenhaur or even later Marburg or Leonard Nelson?
For  along time I have had the idea that you have to take all the Neo Kantian as a collective whole. It is hard to point to any one in particular as having all the truth..]


[Even though in the Guide of the Rambam, he does say that the Metaphysics of the Greeks is important, my feeling is that tis would have to apply to Kant also.]

It is not that I am unconserned about Bitul Torah. Rather that from the Rambam and Ibn Pakuda I would have to say that Metaphysics and Physics are a part of Torah

The Rambam held learning Physics and Metaphysics is a part of what one must learn every day

To make a synthesis between faith and reason was a major concern of the Rambam. However in his emphasis on learning Physics and Metaphysics [of the ancient Greeks as he says in the intro to the Guide] was not meant to provide answers for this issue, but rather as things that are in themselves a part of what one must learn every day. That is he saw these as part of the Mitzvah of learning Torah.--a view that was unique to rishonim [medieval people up until about the 1500's] but never comes up in achronim [later on people after the Beit Yoseph].

It is my feeling that the rishonim were right about this issue and I have trouble understanding why Rav Israel Salanter did not mention this in his Musar Movement program.