One of the advantages of learning in a Litvak Yeshiva is that you get an idea of the importance of learning Torah. You see learning Torah as a goal in itself and in fact as the supreme goal. Not as just another good thing to do.

One of the advantages of learning in a Litvak Yeshiva is that you get an idea of the importance of learning Torah. You see learning Torah as a goal in itself and in fact as the supreme goal. Not as just another good thing to do.

[This you can see in the Nefesh HaHaim of Rav Haim of Voloshin].

Another great thing about it is that you do not make learning depend on how smart you are. You realize learning Torah is for everyone.

But the question does come up what is included in this commandment? I think it is fair to say the entire Shas with Tosphot and the rishonim counts as "learning Torah."

But once you get past the Beit Yoseph [around 1500] then I am not so sure. After the Beit Yoseph it was just too easy for anyone to write books since the printing press was invented. So most of the achronim are just not up to par.

[I however have to put the Maharsha and Pnei Yehoshua into the category of Torah].

[And I add Physics and Metaphysics as I discussed elsewhere.]

The origin of Philosophy in ancient Greece actually started with the question how is change possible?

The origin of Philosophy in ancient Greece actually started with the question how is change possible? So it looks to me almost as if philosophy has come a full circle to the same question. [If there is no time, then nothing can change and therefore nothing can interact with anything else.] That is in Relativity, time and space are laid out in such a way as they are almost interchangeable except with a minus sign in front of time. In that way of looking at time, there is no particular value "the present". And if there is no present, then change is impossible since change can happen only in the present. 

But we also know Quantum Mechanics. And in Quantum Mechanics we have the two slit experiment and also the Bell inequality. [Bell's inequality is based on the Einstein Rosen Podolsky experiment.  ] if we only had Bell's inequality, then we might say that things can have effects far away instantly. Or we might say that nothing has a time or space value until it is measured. Since we know Relativity is true and also we know that Nature violates Bell's inequality so we know the second idea is true. Things have no time value until measured.  And this to some degree shows that Kant was right that time and space us how we measure things. They are dinge an sich--things in themselves that we have no window into. [What Bell's inequality shows is not strictly what Kant held, but it gets close. It shows that things do not have space time values until measured. But there is space time.

The present day calendar was directly adopted from the calendar of Meton in Athens. It is not even mentioned in the Gemara.

The present day calendar was directly adopted from the calendar of Meton in Athens. It is not even mentioned in the Gemara.
So the best idea is to go by the actual molad [conjunction].[As you can see brought in Tosphot in Sanhedrin page 10].
The Gemara does mention that "nowadays we know the time of the new moon" but does not say anything about a calendar. It could be referring to calculations already known in ancient Babylon about what time the "molad" [conjunction of the moon and sun occurs].(not to some hypothetical calendar that was used only in Athens)

Just to be clear --I am not arguing if the court [Sanhedrin] has the right to adjust the date of the new moon. (This can also be argued based on the Gemara in Sanhedrin page 10. But it is not what I am talking about here.) Here I simply mean that the Sanhedrin did not in fact adjust the calendar. If they would have you would except the Gemara to have mentioned it somewhere.

they do not learn enough Gemara.

The Catholic church is now involved in trying to redefine homosexuality in a way that makes it OK.
This just goes to show that they do not learn enough Gemara. After all a short glance at tractate Sanhedrin in the chapter called "Four types of death penalty" should clear up the issue. 

Impeachment

I think the treatment that President Trump has been getting is really disgraceful and that it will all work to undermine the Left. Hitting Trump is like hitting a solid rock with one's bare fist.

The rosh yeshiva of the Mir in NY, Rav Shmuel Berenbaum in the afternoon learned fast.

In the Mir Yeshiva in NY I saw that the rosh yeshiva Rav Shmuel Berenbaum in the afternoon learned fast. That is in the afternoon session which went from 400 PM to 8 PM. I had to walk by his seat in order to get to where my place was in the study hall. When I walked by his seat at 400 PM I saw he was holding on one page. Then when I walked by a few hours later I saw he had gone on about 20 pages. That is a lot since even just to read through a whole page [two sides] as fast as you can with rashi and Tosphot takes about and hour and twenty minutes.
So even though the Mir in NY was known as the place that learned in the most depth that must be referring to the morning session [from 900a.m. until 2 p.m.]

The point is that there seems to be no choice. Even those who want to learn in depth have to spend time learning fast. And those that learn fast seem to need to spend some time learning in depth or else risk not understanding anything.

This applies to Physics and Math also. At least, I see in my own case that I need two kinds of sessions. A fast one where I learn by just saying the words and hope that somehow the ideas will penetrate into my subconscious. And another kind of session where I do learn the same material over and over again until I get it.

The lack of learning in a Litvak Yeshiva is what causes people to give up on learning even things they want to learn but think that they can not because they do not understand.
In a Litvak yeshiva you get the attitude that you should learn even if you are not smart. And also you learn ways of learning that are effective so much so that even a block of wood could become a rocket scientist.


One very important aspect is to say the words=and not read in silence. One major reason for this is that saying the words gives one the fulfillment of the commandment to learn Torah as it says in Kriat Shema You shall speak of them." You do not fulfill the commandment to learn Torah by just reading. You must say the words at least as a whisper.

[However in a Litvak yeshiva (i.e. a learning and study hall based on the path of the Gra) usually thinks of learning Torah as being confined to the Written and Oral Law. What I propose is to expand this definition to Physics and Mathematics and Metaphysics. This is based on the Rambam who says this quite openly in the Guide for the perplexed and in Mishne Torah but I have seen this also in Musar books based on Saadia Gaon. (e.g. Hovot Levavot)




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Aristotle's Revenge.

Ed Feser has a book on Aristotle, Aristotle's Revenge.
This is apparently along the lines of the Rambam who held Aristotle was the best.
But from what I can tell Feser deals with how Aristotle would answer modern problems. [But also I should add he is building a system based on Aristotle and with insights from analytic philosophy. I do not think he is claiming to be simply explaining Aristotle.]

But there is a whole other train of thought by Kelley Ross going with Plato as he would modify Plato in the light of Kant and Leonard Nelson.

Then there is Michael Huemer who holds from idea that reason recognizes universals. He builds on Prichard. [This is really not all that different from Hegel]

These three strands in philosophy today seem to me to be much more in common than they differ in details.
All hold the same basic thesis that was stated simply by Dr Huemer: Reason recognizes universals (which includes moral principles) and that morality is objective