Makot page 5 the Gemara

 In tractate Makot page 5 the Gemara says that the regular laws about witnesses that have been refuted applies even in in cases that require lashes. [So the false witnesses do not get makot unless the sentence was already decided. That is the case was settled to give lashes to the innocent person and after that other witnesses came and to those witnesses "How could have seen that felony in such and such a place when you were with us in another place that whole day?"

This is a question on the Rambam that writes if an innocent person was given lashes because of their false testimony, they get lashes. This is a question because the general law about false witnesses is that they get the punishment they wanted to give only if they tried to give it but not of it was actually preformed.

The Minhat Hinuch, Rav Akiva Eiger, and the Pnei Yehoshua all answer that the Rambam holds they get lashes because of the verse לא תענה ברעך עד שקר thou shalt not testify false witness against thy neighbor. 

But that does not answer the fact that the gemara says to receive any punishment for false testimony one needs the regular laws of false witnesses -that includes "as they planned, not as they did." שאשר זמם ולא כאשר עשה

Rav Shach brings an different answer to try to explain the Rambam from the book "HaMeir LaOlam" that we say אין עונשים מן הדין [We do not give a punishment because of a "all the more so"] only in the case of a death penalty. [The idea of that answer is that normally you would say if witnesses wanted to give a punishment and they turn out to we liars then they get that same punishment then all the more so if they actually succeeded in getting that innocent person to get the punishment. But we do not say that in the case of a death penalty because the is a special traditional teaching] "as they planned, not as they did." שאשר זמם ולא כאשר עשה.

However Rav Shach shows from the Tosefta that this answer does not hold because the Tosefta holds that   [We do not give a punishment because of a "all the more so"] even applies to all other areas like laws about money. However Tospfot [in the very beginning Bava Kama]does hold that there is an argument between our Mishna and the Tosefta about this very issue.

Rav Haim of Brisk has a different answer for the Rambam. He says that lashes is different from the death penalty or a monetary fine. lashes needs to be done in a legal court and if not it is just hitting. So even if the false witnesses did get the penalty to be applied to the innocent person, that still is is in the category of "they planned to do but did not do." Rav Shach however asks on this for they never plan on giving a legal penalty to an innocent person. In any penalty they know they are lying. They simply want either to have the person get the death penalty or lashes of whatever. And if they succeeded then they succeeded. So in all cases it is  a case they would not get that penalty. So in conclusion there does not seem to be any answer for the Rambam.

  

learning secular studies

 Rav Nathan, a  major disciple of Rav Nahman did not hold from learning secular studies at all. And that is clearly what he understood from Rav Nahman. However that might be the aspect the was conveyed to him by Rav Nahman. For the Le.M of Rav Nahman says that there are deep secrets of Torah hidden in the physical world. [Not just the spiritual aspects.] LeM Vol. I, chapters 1, and 56. Vol. II, chapter 96.

The trouble with secular studies is that most are junk. Unless one is learning practical things like automobile repair or natural sciences, the vast majority are just a way for universities to drum up some cash

[In Hovot Levavot [The Musar book called Obligations of the Hearts by Ibn Pakuda] SharHaBehina chapter 3 you see the spiritual aspects in things is not the same as the wisdom in them.]

[It is fairly clear in the rishonim [mediaeval sages] that follow the line of Rav Saadia Gaon that Physics and Metaphysics are aspects of learning Torah. But there are plenty of other rishonim that hold just the opposite. An argument of rishonim "these and those are the words of the Living God". So there can not be any final decision. Both are valid, even if the custom is to follow one or the other.] 

older music files -a piece called mathematics and a few others

 Music piece named "mathematics"    [mathematics nwc file]

Music piece named "Black Hole" mp3 [the music line of the math piece was written in Uman, but then put together in NY. Same with this next piece.]

[Black Hole midi file]

[These are pieces from a few years ago. The next one, x77, is recent.]

x77 A Minor This was written last week. As you can see these and most recent pieces are just small sketches. 

No one in Rome could hold any position without being elected- at least during the time of Cicero.

 Western Civilization is based on a hierarchy of competence. So while all groups have a pecking order, the pecking order of the West is based on competence. You hire a plumber because of what he can do and how well he can do it. [So as Jordan Peterson points out that all groups going back  even to lobsters are based on a hierarchy, still the West is unique that it is based on competence. That is why people like Captain Cochrane [one of the most successful captains that fought against Napoleon] succeeded in English society. So where does this come from? I think this goes back to ancient Rome. Tarquin the Elder went to Rome because in Etruscan society there was no room for his talents. Rome (even way back then) was based on competence. And that is what led to its greatness.["Greatness" does not mean they were sweet. But they did not expand into a world of other peoples minding their own business. (You really think all the other peoples the Romans conquered were peace loving?) All the others were  much the same--bent on power and conquest, except in one detail. The Romans won.]

[Steven Dutch pointed out that even so, even though people want a society based on competence and merit, they do not want it purely based on that. They want a little leeway. And Rome was not purely competence based. It was half patrician and half plebian. So while the leaders of the plebs were probably chosen by merit, the senate could only be by born patricians--even though they also had to be elected by the people [citizens which included patricians and plebs]. No one in Rome could hold any position without being elected- at least during the time of Cicero. However, I should add that one was not elected to the Senate. He was first a Questor, and to that position he needed to be elected by the people, and then when that term was up he automatically became  senator. But to be a questor in the first place meant one needed to be elected. 

This is the age of disappointment.

 This is the age of disappointment. One example which shows this is the case of a Muslim born and raised in Canada and because of the regular kind of search for values that teen ages go through he became radicalized. As part of this process he went to Syria. But just seeing the kind of society that Syria is got him to start asking himself if what he got himself into is really all that better than Canada. But that would not have been enough to change his mind. He needed the mental tools to be able to deal with the cognitive dissonance. So one day a wise old Muslim sat down with him and asked him what is "jihad"? The answer the youth said is the holy "fight". So that wise man said ''No. The word for "fight" is a different word. Rather "jihad" means a different kind of internal struggle. So that youth gained a sense of  balance, and helped to prevent terrorist attacks in Canada.

This is a good example of what many people go through. The experience is universal. Some with Scientology, some with the Adi Da group.

So this got me to thinking that I found something that really was great, but I really could not stick with it: that is the straight Litvak Torah path that I saw at the Mir in NY. I tasted the "real thing."   

But that is quite different from the religious world which is more or less along the same lines as Scientology or Adi Da. All I am saying is I did discover that there is such a thing as authentic holiness in the Torah path of the Gra and Musar.

[However, experience in the religious world is likely to be disappointing since the emphasis in the religious world is money, power and being the top dog and keeping the plebeians like me in a semi slave state to support them. Only in rare places like Ponovitch or the Mir is the actual standard the Torah. The is no connection between Torah and the religious except in show and in verbiage.]

x75 music file

 x75 mp3  x75 nwc

x75 midi file 

skirmish lines between Kant and Hegel

 I feel that the skirmish lines between Kant and Hegel  are like the battles lines between the trenches between the Germans and the French and English troops of WWI. They just seem unmovable after years of battle. And so philosophy got tired of that battle, and just went on to other things. Not that the issues were ever resolved.

But some of the issues seem important. One is the unfortunate rise of scientism;--in that some that think only what science can measure and define can be real. But faith issues also seem to have come up. People think that faith in stuff makes it so. That seems just as unfortunate as the first flaw of scientism.

What seems important about Kant is the definition of the limits of reason, [the very name of his book indicates this.] But also it is important to keep in mind the Middle Ages and the synthesis of faith and reason. Thus reason can inform us in what we ought to believe.