issue of Jesus

The issue of Jesus is difficult because I think no one gets it right. Or perhaps the Muslims are the closest. But they also I think get it slightly off.

The issue really fits well with the way most sages were thinking in Neo-Platonic terms until the Aristotelian revolution occurred in the 1200's. 

So with all the mystics of the Middle Ages you have this distinction between higher world of Emanation and lower worlds. [Though they will not call it by that name.] 

The problem is loaded vocabulary. Christians say either you believe Jesus equals God; or if not, then you believe he is a "mere man". 

They discount the possibility of someone being not God;-- but also not "mere man".

This comes up in the mystics of the Middle Ages. There are souls of Emanation like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph.

[In short the idea is that of there being higher spiritual worlds. (That would be עולם המלבוש. אדם קדמון, עקודים ,ברודים, נקודים, אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, עשיה.) So souls that have their root in Emanation or above would be thought to be "divine" in that their souls receive from the infinite divine light with no screen. 

And sometimes these souls merit to bring some sort of blessing into the world for the benefit of others as we see with Moses. This kind of approach would apply to Jesus also  being from Foundation [that is the light of Kindness in the vessel of Foundation]

The difference between Emanation [Azilut] is as the name implies the world of Emanation receives the light of God without a screen  ("מסך"). 

And the idea that the sepherot of Azilut (Emanation) are divine is straight from all the mystics of the Middle Ages. And that means that any soul of Azilut (Emanation) would be divine. Not God, but rather an overflow of the light of God.

Learning Torah, not speaking lashon hara, honor of parents

It is good to keep track of what you have done right and wrong. Especially the wrongs. The reason is that help to repent. Personally I have noticed a few areas where I need repentance. But before I mention them I what to say that at first before you have done anything it is hard to know the right path. But after a few years you might noticed that some course of action or path they you choose based on insufficient information is in fact wrong.

So some of the things that I can see I was not sufficiently careful about: (1) learning Torah. [However the meaning of learning Torah is more limited than what most people are aware of.. They think anything written in Hebrew about issues of Torah is Torah. That is not how I define it. To me Torah is limited to the Oral and Written Law. I.e, the two Talmuds and midrashim. [2] Lashon Hara [slander] . [3] Honor of my parents.

Some commentary on this can be considered a part of learning Torah. But nowadays things have gotten way out of hand. [In fact the very definition of Sefarim Hizonim [outside books] is books that explain Torah in ways not directly from the two Talmuds of midrash. That is openly how the Rif and Tosh define it. So math books are not "sefarim hizonim"[outside books] . 

Also it occurs to me that the herem that was signed by the Gra ought to have been heeded just because of "faith in the wise" אמונת חכמים [emunat hachamim]. But also the more so since time has shown him to be 100% correct. 

 

Natural man is a primate. A smart primate.

It is somewhat disconcerting to see that Thomas Jefferson had tremendous faith in the common man. And the inherent goodness of the common man. As many people in WASP [White Anglo Saxon Protestant] societies did, they thought that goodness that was grafted onto natural man is inherent. [Stuart Mill made the same mistake.]

Thousand of years of society believing in the Law of Moses, made Western Civilization. Not natural man. Natural man is a primate. A smart primate. Good at using his intelligence to get what he wants. Instrumental reason, not moral reason.

But when it came to the issue of people attacking the USA, he was unequivocal. Exterminate them. So he was no dreamer in the clouds. If people want peace,-- well that is one thing. But people that want war, he was clear what to do about it.

This is a good lesson for today. There are people that want to bring down the USA. Thomas Jefferson would have not doubts about what to do with them.   [The issue came up when settlements on the borders of the USA in it smaller extent then were being systematically attacked.]

common sense.

Often a tzadik merits to one but not more than one main idea. Some "Aitza" piece of advice that can help all others.
But this goes further than just tzadikim.
Mozart wrote a lot of music but there  was only a few of a major masterpieces. Eine Kleine Nacht Musik. The Jupiter Symphony. The Magic Flute.

Rav Nahman actually merited  to a few major pieces of advice for people that each one is in itself a masterpiece. Private conversation with God, Tikun Klali, Seder HaLimud.

My own dad had a  wealth of great invention that he came up with while working for the USA government. But I would have to say the major thing that my parents had that is a contribution to all mankind [if one can get a handle on its essence] is their kind of common sense. Or balance.  There is something to learn from every great person. And furthermore there is a kind of common sense how to avoid the frauds..

Trust in God.

Trust in God involves an awareness that human life is inherently hard. There are customs that help but even with all the customs and good habits still there the basic fact does not change that things are hard. [For example speaking the truth at all cost, is great habit and and help and protection. But in the long run it is limited.] The only thing that can really help is God's will. He has to want to help. And if He wants to help, then help will come.But to gain this can only come indirectly. There is nothing one can do that will bring help automatically. Rather all one can do is hope for God's help. But there is one thing that in fact does bring about that God should want to help. That is trust.
So the best idea in all situations is to gain an attitude of trust in God.

[I have mentioned this subject before. The major areas of clarification about it comes from the book of Navardok Madragat HaAdam, The Obligations of the Hearts, and the Gra on Mishlei. And also Rav Nahman in the Lem II in the lesson concerning Shavuot. There Rav Nahman explains the idea of "making a vessel" for the blessing to have something to flow into.]


One thing you see in Chovot Levavot [Obligations of the Hearts] is that there is a difference between medicine cures and working for a living. He treats these two areas differently. On the subject of a cure and King Asa's seeking doctors, Ibn Pakuda [the author of Obligations of the Hearts] says the sin was to seek doctors at all. [That is as surprise since most people think that one can seek doctor's help but trust in God. The Obligations of the Hearts does not go with that possibility. But when it comes to making a living, he is on board with making effort. So it must be that he is thinking the cure issue and the making a living issue are separate.] 

Human worth

Human worth depends mainly on deeds. Evil deeds makes that value disappear. Treason, the present day attempt to overturn the USA to turn it into a communist dictatorship with the whites being the slaves is not a good deed. So everyone involved in this attempt, or even agrees with it by silence, has lost their human worth.
So what needs to be done is to get rid of the so called Democratic party which is really just an attempt to overthrow the USA. 

If gentiles think they have moral codes better than the Bible, well their moral codes anyway change with the direction of the breeze every ten years.

Sex is an important issue but hard to get right. Rav Nahman of Uman suggested a correction for sexual sin --saying the ten psalms 16,32,41,42,59,77,90,105,137, 150.
But as Sefardim noticed during their 2000 year exile in Muslim lands that the only real way to get to sexual purity is by being married immediately that one comes of age.

[In some areas this was necessary for other reasons.]

That is as soon as the boys were 13 and the girls 12, they were married off. Usual the actual arrangements about who marries whom was made many years before that. Just the actual marriage only happened by the boy was 13 and the girl 12.

And even though the men could marry many women, still the arrangement was usually just one wife to one man. 
In Torah law, a man can have many wives and even many girl friends. And in fact we see many great people in the Bible had several wives and concubines. Like Kalev ben Yefuna [Chronicles I 2:46] [Caleb, the friend of Joshua ]

If gentiles think they have moral codes better than the Bible, well their moral codes anyway change with the direction of the  breeze every ten years. and then they think their ideas of morality are eternal,

[Marriage in Torah is not a "sacrament." It does not make sex holy. Nor even allowed. What it does accomplish is to make obligations on the man and other obligations on the wife. The same act of sex that is permitted after marriage is also permitted before marriage. The only difference is to the Ramban it is permitted period. To the Rambam there is lacking a positive command to marry. That is however not prostitution. So Christians have things about sex very mixed up.
That is what comes from lack of study of the Old Testament. When Christians talk about study of the Bible, they never get into the exact laws of the Bible.