Litvak Yeshiva world. It is really better not to have anything to do with the religious world as long as one is not able to discern between real Torah and the phony Torah of the Sitra Achra.

 It is hard to figure out the Litvak Yeshiva world.  The best way I can see is based on Howard Bloom's idea about a super-organisms and the social "meme". In other words it is not just a place to learn Torah but rather a place to absorb Torah. The trouble is that in any area of value there is always the pseudo areas that surround it. That is not only in Torah, but in Music, and almost any discipline.

For every authentic science there are surrounding it pseudo sciences. [Something gone into by Steven Dutch but his blog is gone.]

So it is really better not to have anything to do with the religious world as long as one is not able to discern between real Torah and the phony Torah of the Sitra Achra. That is one reason certainly the Gra signed the herem [letter of excommunication.] The reason is like it says by Esau that when he saw his wives were not pleasing to his parents Isaac and Rivka he married two more wives that would be pleasing to them.--But he did not get rid of the first two. So the first thing is flee from evil סור מרע and only then  can one do good עשה טוב. That is a verse in Psalms 34 "Flee from evil and do good".--in that order סור מרע ועשה טוב.

People generally associate the Gra and Rav Shach with the religious world but that is not accurate. They followed Torah. The religious world on the contrary follow their interests and the appearance of Torah to trick fry secular yidden [secular Jews] into giving them money. That is a big difference.

 

peaceful protest

 peaceful protest

Ketuboth 9 side B. If someone marries a girl, and then says he found she was not a virgin, whom do you believe?

 If someone marries a girl, and then says he found she was not a virgin, whom do you believe? [She says she was a virgin.] That is easy. The Gemara in Ketuboth says on page 9b that you believe him since, "No one makes a wedding celebration just to ruin it the next day." But the Gemara says that is only because the Ketuba is not from the Torah, but rather a decree of the sages. ["They require a ketuba and they believe him if he says he did not find her a virgin."]

The Ramban [Nahmanides] asks: So if it was from the Torah, why would she be believed? Anyone coming to court with a document that has  a condition in it has to prove that the condition was fulfilled.

Rav Shach explains the question  and answer of the Ramban based on the gemara in Ketuboth page 76. Two people exchange animals,  It comes out that you have two "hazakot"חזקות [ conditions or state of things]. One "hekat hashta" חזקת השתא [the way things are now you infer that that is the way they were in the past--and extend it as fr as possible] and the other hazaka חזקה from the start. [That is the way things were in the past you assume they keep on going until you know otherwise]  If they work against each other, then you need some other kind of proof. [You see this also in the beginning of Nida]. 

So the Ramban answers that she has a hazaka חזקה and also a majority רוב. That is why she would be believed.

[The Gemara that Rav Shach brings says: Two people exchanged animal A with animal B. The owner of A took possession of B. But when the owner of B went to take A he found it dead. Rav Yehuda said the owner of A has to prove that A was alive at the time of the deal. Rami said no. The owner of B has to show it had died before.]

So now we understand the Ramban. If the Ketuba would be from the Torah, then you would believe her that she was a virgin because the is no Hezkat  hashta [status now]against her original "hazaka meikara" [original status] . Plus a "rov" majority (Most girls get married as virgins). But without that, you would need her to show that she fulfilled the condition of the marriage --that she was  a virgin when she got married. That would be like Rav Yehuda in Ketuboth 76.

So in simple English, the cases with exchange of two animals and the case of the marriage are different. In the case of the animal case, there is חזקת השתא [present status] that works against the חזקה מעיקרא [prior status]. Animal A is not alive so we push that back in time. So to Rav Yehuda, we ask the owner of animal A to show that the animal was alive at the time of the deal. But in the case of the marriage, there is no חזקת השתא [present status],  since she is now anyway not a virgin. So all there is is חזקה מעיקרא --and that is exactly what the Ramban [Nahmanides] says: since there is a חזקה מעיקרא [prior status] we would believe her.

,,

the Litvak world comes out a million times better than anyone else.

 At the two Litvak yeshivas I was in in NY --Shar Yashuv and the Mir, I was aware of Rav Nahman of Uman and Breslov to some degree. And found his teachings to be helpful and inspiring.  The odd thing is later I got much more serious about following Rav Nahman's path and was involved in the group of Rav Shick in Safed.The funny thing is that I would have expected the moral level of people involved in Rav Nahman [Breslov] to be so much higher than anything else that there would be  a clear advantage to following this "Breslov path."

But based on my experience I have to say that the Litvak world of the Musar Yeshivas is hands down a million times more moral and decent than anything I have seen elsewhere. However I do also see the great advantage in the teachings of Rav Nahman. But more on a personal level than as a group. 

I know I have no data on this but my impression is that of you would take the most minimal measures of morality --not to lie, and not to cheat, or scam I would say this is how the test would come out. You measure the times a person has the opportunity to lie and does not lie even to his advantage, and divide that by how many times he has the opportunity. Same with cheating. Same with lying and and same with scamming. You would get a mathematical ratio. So based on my experience (and I think everyone would have to agree) there is no question, the Litvak world comes out a million times better than anyone else. That makes a difference because you can not have holiness without good character traits. Being a "mensch" is the minimum starting level towards holiness.

Without that nothing can start.  

There was a lot of "Hizuk" encouragement I gained from Rva Nahman's books, but to jump ship off the Litvak world was a mistake. I was thinking I was going to find a group on some kind of higher spiritual plane and that was a miscalculation.]

X12 E flat major

 X12 mp3 E flat major  x12 midi   x12 nwc  As you can see in the second part I have done a different kind of variation on the main theme that I have not done before. That is I take the main theme and do a symmetric transformation on it.. But if that really works--I am not sure. 

There is a difference between keeping Torah as opposed to being part of the religious world.

 There is a difference between keeping Torah as opposed to being part of the religious world. In fact, there is a kind of fraud in the religious world in that the major effort and drive is to get converts. But the hidden message is that the converts will then be the servants of those that are already religious.

The trouble is that the religious world keeps external rituals, but gains evil character. So trying to get people to join is really not in the category of  a good deed.

It might be that the religious think they are righteous. But they are not. They are religious, not righteous.

[ The closest to pure Torah is the Litvak yeshivas, but there the Sitra Achra also has some hold.]

To understand the issue it might be helpful to take note that just simply "being religious" in itself tends to be  a problem. It is to easy to get it wrong and fall into fanaticism.

You can understand this based on the idea of Dr Kelley Ross [of the Kant-Friesian school of thought] that there is an array of "value".So the values of knowledge and beauty are not along the same lines as value of attachment with God. But  that area of spiritual value --can  fall into its opposite. That is the case with every positive value. When it decays it becomes its opposite.

Millie Weaver from InfoWars Arrested

Knowing a bit about Trotsky, nothing the Left does surprises me.

That is anyone against the Marxists at this point is subject to arrest.

 Infowars reporter Millie Weaver. Infowars 

But I ought to add here that nothing that is going on in the USA is a surprise because Americans do not believe even their own eyes until they see it on the Internet or CNN. So truth and facts matter--but only the truth and facts that are reported on CNN and being taught in high schools and "Gender Studies." 

So to see the USA turn into a Marxists State is expected.