I am not sure why there are so many problems in my life or in other peoples' lives. Mainly I think the problems come from sin. But it helps to know which sin so that one can repent. So what I do is to try to think back in my life to see exactly what were my sins so as to know what to repent on. That approach can help others also.

That is to say,-- that when you see things not going well, you ought to think back in your life to try to discover what exact sins triggered the problems.

I can do this fairly well in my life. I can recognize not listening to my parents, leaving the Land of Israel, leaving the good advice of Rav Nahman, and also pushing off a kind of state of inspiration. But clearly others have all kinds of other sorts of sin. And I think that with a little thought most people can discern what sins they need to repent on. But I am not saying that these are my major sins. Also I am not saying that one  can easily discover what their major sins are. Rather I think that if you repent on the things you know you need to repent on, then (in that merit) I believe God reveals to one what further sins he or she needs to repent. on.

[What do I say that problems come from sin? Because in the Musar book Shaarie Teshuva [Gates of Repentance] of R. Yona, he brings from the Gemara that אין ייסורים בלי עוון ("There are no troubles without sin.")

You Can't Turn a Whore into a Lady · Rebel Son.

Listen to me friend I know her kind
She'll just tear up your nerves if you fall for her
So just walk away and leave her behind
'Cause when you fall in her lap, you're falling in her trap
And she'll rob you blind of your last dime

She'll lie to you and leave you
With nothing but depression
A heartache and sorrow and shame

 

To Rav Shach when we say R Shimon goes by the reason for the verse

 To Rav Shach when we say R Shimon goes by the reason for the verse that means when both are written, the reason and the isur [[prohibition] then we go by both. So when it says by a king not to have more than 18 wives because she might tilt his heart away from God -- that means we go by both the letter of the law and also the reason.

That is how Rav Shach explains the contradiction in the Rambam where in general he does not go by R Shimon. [Well, no one does because that is R Shimon against the sages. That is the reason the Tur does not decide like R Shimon either.] But in the debate if one can not marry any girl from the nations that worship idols [עכו''ם] or only a girl from the seven Canaanite nations-- it is R. Shimon who says all nations (that worship idols) are forbidden. So why does the Rambam decide the law like that against the sages? Answer (of Rav Shach): because the letter of the law means all nations, and there R Shimon forbids all nations because of the letter of the law.

On the way by from the sea, I thought about this and asked myself,  "What about a widow?" There we know R. Shimon says one can take a pledge from a rich widow. And then I realized what Rav Shach means. He means to say that when both the isur (prohibition) and the reason are written, then R Shimon goes by both. But if only one is written, then he goes by the reason. 

This is the opposite of R Yehuda. For to R Yehuda, if only the prohibition is written then he goes by the letter of the law,-- but if both are written, then he goes only by the reason for the verse. That is why he say a king can marry as many women as he likes as long as they do not turn his heart. 

[This is  a three way debate. It is R Shimon who goes by the reason for the verse always. Do we know the reasons for the verses? Yes. No one in the Gemara disagrees with that. If that would be in doubt, then the sages would bring that objection against R Shimon and ask him, "but we do not know the reasons for the verses." And in fact what are the reasons? they are spelled out in Sefer HaHinuch from a disciple of Nahmanides. Generally they are these: peace of the state, to lessen pleasures, to get rid of idolatry, to gain good character.]

 There is something very odd about judges in the USA. I would not be surprised if somehow the Frankfurt school had a hand in getting Marxist ideas into the legal system in the USA. I used to think it was from the KGB, but now I think that the infiltration was too vast and comprehensive for it to be from the KGB. It has to be from the inside. And from where else but the Frankfurt school in Columbia University? That is where the main policy makers of the the American education system were trained.

 I had a chance today to look at the last Torah lesson Rav Nahman of Breslov said in his lifetime the Le.M. vol. II, chapter 8, and I thought to bring here a few of the ideas he mentions there. 

One idea he says is not to give rebuke because unless one has great merit, because he can make things worse by giving rebuke in the wrong kind of way.\אף על פי שתוכחה היא דבר גדול ומוטל על כל אחד להוכיח את חברו כשרואה בו דבר שאינו הגון אף על פי כן לאו כל אחד ראוי להוכיח כמו שאמר ר. עקיבא תמה אני אם יש בדור הזה מי שראוי להוכיח כי כשהמוכיח אינו ראוי הוא יכול להביש את השומעים את תוכחתו  ["Even though rebuke is a great thing and it is incumbant on every person to rebuke his friend when he sees in him something not proper ,still not everyone is fit to rebuke as R. Akiva said, 'I would be surprized if there was anyone in this generation that is fit to give rebuke,' because when the one who gives rebuke is not fit, he can cause damage and make ugly the souls of those who hear his rebuke."

 x43

"revival of the dead"

 I think about the issue of the "revival of the dead" that you see it very clearly in Ezekiel. You have there the valley of bones and then God telling Ezekiel that that whole event of reviving those people was a sort of preliminary example of what would be eventually with all Israel. That is, that He would bring about the revival of the dead for all Israel.

So that means when the Gemara asks How do we know revival of the dead from the Torah, it must mean how do we know it from the Five Books of Moses. They can not be asking how do we know it from teh Prophets.