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26.8.20

 The area of review in the thought of Rav Nahman of Uman and Breslov is ambiguous. We know exactly how he held one ought to learn as in saying the words and going on. But that is the "Bekiut" aspect of learning. The fast learning. But what about "Iyun". He clearly held from its importance as you can see in the LeM volume I chapter 78.  

One suggestion I have and I have tried  a few times myself is that once you get to the end of the book [whether Gemara or midrash or the natural sciences] to go back page by page from the end towards the beginning. This has the advantage that you are doing review before you have had a chance to start forgetting. And forgetting is almost inevitable if you go right back to the beginning once you have gotten to the end. But in this way of review page by page from the end towards the start --that way you are doing review with a short time from when you first learned the material.

25.8.20

We need to rethink the Civil War.

 


How is it possible to know the South the right? There is some evidence. E.g., Baltimore, Portland, Newark, Detroit. etc. That is you see the results or Emancipation and then you have evidence that it was not right. 

DO HOME OWNERS HAVE A RIGHT TO PROTECT THEIR HOMES?

I cannot see the question. In the Torah there is  a law הבא המחתרת in Exodus. That is the verse about one who breaks into into the home of someone else -- the owner has a right to shoot them. Self defense does not need Miranda warnings.

So when BLM come into a neighborhood, we know they are not there to sit down and have a chat.

 There is a "Yeshu" mentioned in the Talmud who is criticized.

The Rosh [Asher] wrote that that does not refer to Jesus. [The Rosh was a Rishon]. The "Yeshu" mentioned in the Talmud was a disciple of one of the middle "zuggot' pairs mention in Pirkei Avot. [Yehoshua ben Perachia] So that is right in the middle of the second Temple. That is about 150 years before Jesus. Yeshu was not an uncommon name. [Where the Rosh wrote this? I seem to recall seeing it at the end of Gitten but maybe it was somewhere else.]


I mean to say the Talmud says openly exactly who it is referring to--that is the disciple of Yehushua ben Perachia. That means it can not be referring to the Yeshua of the NT.


I might just add the point that "Hagada" even in the Talmud itself is not binding. The idea of the Talmud is to get to the laws of Torah, not stories. That is not to say that the stories are not interesting. Interesting yes but fundamental and binding? No. As the Ramban and other Rishonim already made this point long ago.

I know people think Torah is all about interesting stories. But in fact it is not. It is about laws.

to learn Torah. That is the Oral and Written Law. But the difference is that I add to that also Physics based on the Rishonim that did include that in learning Torah.

The truth is that I am a bit pessimistic about the USA. "Whom the gods want to destroy first they make insane." So the trans-sex thing is the insane part. What comes next is what we are seeing in Portland. The communists trying to destroy the USA. But not like the Cold War. For the Communists to attack the USA they needed to be able to get through 7500 miles from Moscow to the USA. Now the war is at our doorstep. Literally. But how to fight such a thing? The falsification of the history of the USA has been going on for a long time. And people swallow it hook line and sinker.

Will no real Americans stand up anymore?

But this does not seem exactly like an attack on the USA. Rather it seems like an attack on Western Civilization.

As for what to do. My basic approach is based on what I learned at the Mir in NY--that the cure for almost any problem is to learn Torah. That is the Oral and Written Law. But the difference is that I add to that also Physics based on the Rishonim that did include that in learning Torah. 
[I noticed this idea also in the beginning of the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach where he says that nowadays there is nothing one can do but simply to increase learning Torah.]
However I wanted also to add that "learning Torah" does have a limited definition. Mainly it means the actual books written by the Tenaim and Amoraim which contain the actual record of the Oral Law. But these can include some commentary. So for example I would learn a lot of the Maharsha and Tosphot in order to understand the Gemara.


23.8.20

to learn the Federalist Papers to gain an appreciation for the unique gift of the Constitution of the USA.

 It might sound lame, but my recommendation for the USA is for people to learn the Federalist Papers by James Madison, Alexander  Hamilton, and John Jay in order to gain an appreciation for the unique gift of the Constitution of the USA. I mean go through the Federalist Papers from start to finish.

I MEAN INSTEAD OF "AMERICAN HISTORY", LEARN WHAT AMERICA IS ALL ABOUT IN THE FIRST PLACE. History is so easily distorted according to what ones agenda is. After all, it would be like reporting on N.Y. City. To show your agenda is right, you do not even have to lie. All you need to do is selectively report the incidents  that fit your narrative. [I mean lots of things happen every day in  a city with millions of people. What you report on, depends on what you want to show.]

But the one flaw in the Constitution is the desire of people to get other people's stuff. If you bring into the USA enough people that hate the rich, and do not want to work to better themselves, but rather to take away from those that have worked, then nothing can save the situation.