The major reason why some rishonim [mediaeval authorities] hold one ought to learn Physics and Metaphysics is that they see this as the fulfillment of the commands to love and fear God. So the issue does not depend on talent. Rather they see these two subjects as an integral part of Torah. But as you can see in the Guide for the Perplexed that they were referring to these subjects as understood by Aristotle. But they have gained in the meantime. So I think that today one ought to learn Physics up until String Theory. Metaphysics is a bit less well established --exactly what it includes. I suggest Kant, Fries, Leonard Nelson.  [There is a certain tension between this school of thought and Hegel, but both seem to have good points.]

  Kelley Ross has a  great web site introducing the approach of Kant and Fries 

SPERBER also has a nice essay on this

I can see why the testing system that you find in school is important to some degree. You do not want unqualified people teaching Physics or other subjects. On the other hand, tests can be frustrating and can discourage people. 

My feeling is that everyone can learn Physics and Mathematics, but not everyone can be a physics professor. 

The first thing one needs is the idea that it is important to learn, even for one that is not particularly talented.  Why is it important? Mainly you see this in חובות לבבות ומעלות המידות ומורה נבוכים Obligations of the Hearts, Greatness of Good Character, and the Guide for the Perplexed.

[Ibn Pakuda, Binyamin the doctor, and Rambam/Maimonides.] In particular the Rambam spells it out in the Guide in the parable of the country of the king at the end of vol. III or vol. IV [I forget which].

The next thing one needs is to say the words and go on from beginning to end. That type of fast learning is brought in Gemara, and Ways of the Righteous, and also Rav Nahman of Breslov brings it in Conversations of Rav Nahman 76.

Then the next thing is review. But I have not figured out about review if there is any one method. Myself I go back page by page. But review might have other methods.

  

 It seems to me that I ought to mention a bit of my background. I was at two very great Litvak yeshivas that walk in the path of the Gra: The first was Shar Yashuv in Far Rockaway for what I think was 3.5 years. The second year was tracate Chulin. The third was tractate  Ketuboth. Then for half that year was tractate Yevamot. Then I was at the Mir in NY also for about three years and then Israel. During the time I preparing for Israel, I got interested in Rav Nahman of Breslov. And during that first period in Israel, I was pretty much going with the path of Rav Nahman--that is a lot of going out into the forests doing "hitbodadut" [that is private prayer and talking with God in one's own language.].  Looking back on it all it seems to me that I would have done better to stick with the straight Torah approach of the Mir and the Litvak yeshiva, and tried to combine that with the great advice and ideas of Rav Nahman. 

That is to say,- I think it would have been better to try to stick with the great aspects of the path of the Gra--in terms of learning Torah and Musar, and to combine that with the good ideas of Rav Nahman. 

There is a tendency with Breslov to get off the track of learning Torah and straight Torah. Not that this was any fault of Rav Nahman himself, but there does seem to be that sort of danger. The mistake is understandable since the actual letter of excommunication of the Gra is not well known and who it applied to. What I suggest is that letter of excommunication is valid and yet does not apply to Rav Nahman as you can see if you see the actual language of that letter.  I think the actual herem is valid and yet does not apply to Rav Nahman.

z9 music file

 z9 F Minor   z9 in midi

 I think that the worship of dead people that permeates the religious world is some sort of idolatry. The reason I say this is that you can see in the Rambam that he defines idolatry as the worship of any being at all besides the First Cause. So worship pf dead people probably fits with that definition.

 The worship and love the religious have for the dead takes over their souls and bodies and they become zombies.=people with dead souls. 

That would be the reason for the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication. He apparently thought worship of dead people is not in accord with Torah.

 Gerard 't Hooft [Physics] has an interesting idea that Quantum Mechanics is due to variables that move very fast. Not hidden variables. Nor any pilot wave. And in his theory space time itself is quantized. So how do you get from here to there? Maybe by worm holes? I mean to say that the connections between space might be worm holes. [This worm holes that connect between black holes in the core of atomic particles  I think was suggested by Robert Penna in NY [I should mention that I saw this idea of Robert Penna in a paper by Salwa Alsaleh whose papers I was reading.]

 Emma Goldman wrote a book that was against the Bolsheviks. Her Disappointment with Russia she called it. Socialism sounds good until it is put into practice.

But I was never impressed with Socialism the first place because I always felt that no matter how good a theory seemed or how logical it was, if the facts showed it is wrong, then it is wrong.