Belief in God is rational. Everything has a cause. So unless there is a first cause, then you would have an infinite regress. And then nothing could exist. Therefore there must be a first cause. Therefore God, the first cause, exists. QED.
12.10.20
Rav Shach noticed an argument between Old Tosphot ([תוספות ישנים] )and the regular Tosphot plus Rambam that most people have not noticed. [Old Tosphot is the version of Tosphot before the final editing.]
In a case of מוציא שם רע (slander) a נערה מאורסה [engaged girl from 12-12.5 ] that has had sex with someone other than her husband gets stoned at the entrance of her father's home. [That is engagement makes her married. "Kidushin" what makes her engaged, and the Hupa is when she comes into her husband's domain;--but she is still married at the engagement. Nowadays, engagement is just an official agreement to get married. That is different from "kidushin".]
But there is also a case of a engaged girl that gets stoned regularly, not at the door of her father's home.
That is when she did not fool him. That is she might let's say have committed adultery when engaged, but after that told her husband and still witnesses come. So there is regular stoning, not at her father's home.
The difference we know from Tosphot [תוספות ישנים] is if she fooled him. [Based on Rav Shila in Ketuboth pages 45 to 46.] That is,--lets says she had sex before the Chupa and then goes through with the Chupa without telling him. Or there was Chupa and she had sex and then sleeps with her husband after that. In these cases to Tosphot she fooled him so she gets stoned at her father's home.
But in Mishna Torah [Laws of forbidden relations chapter 3. Halacha 8 and halacha 10] there are the exact same situations except the difference between regular stoning and stoning at her father's house is if the later case is מוציא שם רע [slander]. That is her husband calls to witnesses and askes them to testify for him.
11.10.20
Rav Yaakov Emden and the Zohar.
Rav Yaakov Emden was the beginning of looking at the Zohar in a way that would precede academia.
He decided that some parts were probably authentic documents from ancient sources like ספרא דצניעותא.
Besides that, it is mostly midrashim translated into Aramaic, and has a basic idea that is taking one word to mean the shechina and another word to mean tiferet. It also takes plenty of previous mystics of the Middle Ages [like the Ramban himself] and translates them into Aramaic,
I did not find all that terribly inspiring. I have to add that the mystic tradition never started with the Zohar, but rather with Sefer Yezira, and there were plenty of mystics around in the Middle Ages way before the Zohar. [e.g the Ramban.]
But I would not think to spend time on it because of the phrase עם כל דא a medieval innovation of how to say "although" instead of the regular אף על פי. [How can an invention of the Middle Ages be in a book by R. Shimon ben Yochai? Answer: It is not. The book was written during the Middle Ages. The "Im kol da" is the smoking gun that shows when it was written.
So it is not from R. Shimon Ben Yochai.
[In short, the original events were thus.-- Isaac from Acco was in Spain, and met up with Moshe De'Leon and asked him about the Zohar. Moshe had been selling it page by page claiming it was from an ancient manuscript. So Isaac asked him about this, and said that people were claiming that there is no original. Moshe swore, "May G-d strike me down if I do not have an original manuscript, and I will show you when you come to my home." They had met up in a different city. On the way to his city Moshe de'Leon, in fact, was struck down, but Isaac continued and got to his home where his widow was. He offered to her a large sum of money just to see the original manuscript. She said, "There is no such thing. Rather he (Moshe DeLeon) was writing it from his head."]
9.10.20
There are certain values that are embedded in the holy Torah Private property is one. This is hard to miss in the tractates that are learnt in Litvak yeshivot, Bava Kama, Bava Mezia, Bava Batra.
The idea of taking from rich people is mere theft.
Theft is not a side or periphery issue in Torah but right in the Ten Commandments.
So there is not way a honest Jew can vote for the Marxist agenda.
You can not vote to steal money from people and then think you are a good Jew.
8.10.20
The nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court,
As long as she is a nominee of President Trump, the Left will stop at nothing to try to destroy her. I do not think the Catholic thing is the major issue. The real issue is she is not a Marxist. She believes in the Ten Commandments. And to the Left, that is damning evidence.
The Left ought to just come out with it and ask:
"Judge Barrett, have you at any time obeyed your husband. Yes or No?"