I just noticed in the LeM of Rav Nahman vol. I 64 the subject of the limitation of reason which comes up in Kant. The way Rav Nahman deals with this is in relation to the "Halal Hapanui" the empty space.

[You have to say two opposite things about it. One: That God withdrew his presence from within for otherwise there would have been no room for the creation of all the worlds. But it did exist and nothing can exist without God creating it and so God presence was there.] Kant reached his conclusion about the limitation of reason from John Locke that said there   are primary characteristics and secondary. Kant noticed even what Locke thought were primary really also depend on the observer. So what really is the "ding an sich" [thing in itself]? There we have the limit of reason. Now reason is not limited to what can be observed. Nor just what is contained in definition. It can perceive universals. It can figure out synthetic a priori. But the limit is conditions of possible experience.

 Right in the beginning of Bava Metzia in Tosphots and on page 7, there is raised the issue of when the law is to divide, when "who is stronger", when we say it should remain as it is until Eliyahu comes.

So one of the issues is this a document of a loan is in the hands of a middle man and he has forgotten who gave it to him, the lender or the borrower. There we say it should remain where it is until Eliyahu come.

Rav Shach asks why is this any different from an object that was given to a middle man to help until the people that gave it to him come to get it. And he has forgotten who gave it to him and he gives it to one and pays the other since it was his fault for not writing it down or remembering who gave it to him. 

The answer of Rav Shach I admit is a bit  hard to understand. The document he says has a category of a verbal loan and that makes sense since the only difference between a verbal loan and one in a document is the borrower can say "I paid" in a verbal loan. The written loan he can not say that because the lender can ask, "Then why do I still have the document?"  [So in the case the document is in the hands of teh third party the lender can not say that.] Still it is hard to understand why here also we do not say it is the fault of the middle man for not writing down who gave the document to him.

 x44 F minor

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.