It might make sense for the USA Catholics and Evangelicals and Russia to join up to fight the forces that are trying to destroy Western Civilization.
I say this because when I was reading Thucydides I began to get an appreciation for the idea of of alliances. --even among people that are not exactly on the same page in everything.

[Russia is a part of Western Civilization since Peter the Great. So the USA and Russia ought to be natural allies.]

Most people in the USA are not Americans. While they might be American citizens but by the very fact that they hate America and are doing everything they can to destroy it means that they are in fact not Americans.
To be an American means to have a minimal degree of loyalty. The teachers unions, the welfare moms, the fem-nazis, the socialists are not Americans in any authentic sense.
Therefore real Americans ought to be aware that they are at war with an enemy that is already in the gates. 

Each true tzadik has some important lesson to tell us all

the problem with identity politics in terms of religion is that one can not believe  what is true based on the religious group one wants to belong to. A good example is Jesus. To believe anything good about Jesus in the slightest way takes one out of  some religious groups. I never thought much of identity politics. I thought it is more important to believe what is true and let the cards fall where they may. Jesus merited to certain aspects of holiness. People that believe in him  receive something of that holiness into their souls.

For every real authentic tzadik merits to some aspect of holiness, but not all aspects.

Rav Nahman merited to reveal the tikun Haklali the ten psalms that one says in order to correct sexual sin. 16, 32,41,42,59, 77,90,105, 137, 150.
That also does not mean that he got everything. He did also merit to show the importance of learning fast by saying the words and going on.
But clearly that is not all there is to it. The Litvak yeshiva that emphasize learning in depth by depth iyun clearly get to a depth and understanding of Torah that people that just learn fast do not even imagine can exist.

Each true tzadik has some important lesson to tell us all. But just as it is important to find the true tzadikim it is much more important to run away from the false pretenders.And to recognize who they are. That is why I keep on emphasizing the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication.  To believe in that, can save one from much evil.
Rav Nahman also makes a point of the importance of identifying whom is really an authentic tzaik and to avoid the Torah scholars that are demons.

So in terms of coming to true Torah, clearly the only way is through the path of the great Litvak yeshiva that go according to the Gra. However one must be careful not to disagree with Rav Nahman.


[This idea actually comes up in the 13 stories of Rav Nahman about the king and his servants that all got dispersed by a whirlwind. The tikun come when they all come together.]

spiritual issues

Almost all discussion of spiritual issues is bitul Torah [waste of time from learning Torah]. As Aristotle said it is the mark of a wise person not to ask for more precision in any subject than teh subject merits. It is like asking if a person is a 89.0012% tzadik or perhaps 90.000% tzadik.
Almost all discussions are along the same lines. speculation about what no one knows anything about. and besides that adds nothing to help one be  a better person.
[The trouble with spiritual issues is that they are in an area that is beyond reason. That is an area of value that leads to internal contradictions.]

[You can see this idea in Rav Nahman in the very end of the LeM in the left out portions. There he brings the idea that at the beginning of creation the midot [sepherot] were spreading out without limit.
That includes Wisdom [Reason]. Then God  set a limit for reason --where it could not go past. So when people think to use their reason to understand spiritual issues they are going into an area where reason can not enter and just ends up with self contradictions.]

[This is an essential part of the thesis of Kant also.]

Bitul Torah. [That is the idea that when one can learn Torah he must do so.]
Bitul Torah is a very different idea than the California idea of the supreme importance of having fun.

So is learning Math and Physics Bitul Torah? Well obviously not if it is for the purpose of making a living. But the question is if they are included in "learning Torah". [But I am not very happy with this approach since not everything one can do to make  a living is OK. It has to worthwhile in itself.]
The accepted answer among many rishonim would be that they are not. Nahmanides [Ramban] and his whole school of thought would have said no. This shows up in later books of Musar also.
However there were some rishonim that said yes. Rambam, Benjamin the Doctor author of Maalot HaMidot}, and Ibn Pakuda.

I have thought about then the question that comes up often abut the fact that Math and Physics are hard. On one hand you have "derech Girsa" saying the words in order from the beginning to the end and then review. That is however only one part of learning. Learning I think always has two parts, bekiut and Iyun. [(1) fast, (2) in depth].

So what would the in depth part be? Clearly review, but what method of review would work? I recall at the Mir I used to try to take every section of what ever I was learning like the Pnei Yehoshua and go over it ten times or more. That seems about the best way to do in depth learning.


The ten times review and go on I heard first in Shar Yashuv of Rav Shelomo Freifeld. Later at the Mir in NY I heard about this concept from others. But I think in stead of going on it makes sense to go back page by page. Then times a page then the previous page and then the previous.

Now it is the Reds (the Marxists) that have already taken over the Congress and the Education and the courts. There is literally no one left to stand for freedom except Americans themselves.

Bunker Hill I think is an important moment in American History because that is when Americans decided they were not going to be slaves to the King nor to Parliament.
That is to say that Parliament was treating the Americans as people they could simply tax. The king, King George refused to intervene.
So they declared independence. Or treason if you look at it in that way. But however you look at it they were not going to be slaves.
Thus, the same issue has come up again. The Congress, the Senate, the courts are all treating Americans as their personal lap dogs. Americans have to go along with every possible insanity. You know the list. And woe to anyone who stands up for what is right and true.
So the issue again has arisen. Stand up to the powers that be, or be free? Which will it be? 

But things are not as simple as they were then. The issue is to identify the enemies. It is not longer the English Parliament. Nor the Red Coats. The soldiers of England. Now it is the Reds (the Marxists)  that have already taken over the Congress and the Education and the courts. There is literally no one left to stand for freedom except  Americans themselves.

[slowly wearing down the USA by a constant small wounds. Never a open fight

The Fabian approach of the communists [slowly wearing down the USA by a constant small wounds. Never a open fight], was revealed in private meeting of Communists in Berkeley in around 1993. [I forget the exact year.] So adoption of standards to wear down and break American resistance to Communism took place by infiltration into all sections of industry, university and government. The plan was to constantly knock down Christian-American traditional values.
I can see that process is finally completed. That is why the next stage of takeover is to take to the streets and start the violent communist revolution. That is stage 2.

[Being aware of this does not really help anything, since values are inside of people. If Americans no longer retain the core Christian values that the USA was founded on, then there is not much one can do.] If they go to church, then all they hear anyway is leftist agenda. Accepting of all the communist points, and rejection of everything of the Bible.

[Not that I agree with everything Christians say. Some things seem right, and other things seem wrong. For example the concept that: "Jesus is the same as God" seems obviously wrong. But also the idea of his being simply a prophet seems wrong also. Prophecy stems from (Victory) Netzah and Hod (Splendor) [two sepherot of Emanation], but that does not mean the soul of a prophet comes from Emanation. However, there are souls of Emanation like the Patriarchs, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, David. The Ari said also the soul of Rav Haim Vital. And a soul of Azilut (Emanation) is "divine". Since between God and Azilut (Emanation) there is no curtain. And based on Rav Avraham Abulafia, my opinion of Jesus he was from Azilut. [Light of Kindness (Hesed) contained in the in the vessel of Foundation (Yesod)].

Another area where I disagree with Christians is events like the disciples in the field picking corn. If the grain no longer needed the soil and was already ripe, then that is not a "work". So it is hard to understand what the complaint might have been. But it would not have been that the disciples were desecrating the Sabbath. What probably happened is you had a bunch of the usual sort of insane religious fanatics (of which there are plenty of examples nowadays) looking for something to complain about, while at the same time not really having any idea of the actual law. Nosey neighbors.

[There are other examples. mixing mud with water is subject to an argument in the Rosh. Some rishonim hold mixing water with dirt is desecration of the Shabat; others hold it is permissible. See the Rosh. Washing the hands is another example. The Sages say מים ראשונים מצוה מים אמצעים רשות מים אחרונים חובה the washing before the meal is a good thing. In the middle of a meal, it is permissible. After the meal it is an obligation.