the USSR stood for the union of soviet republics. Yet the actual soviets were defunct after 1920. There were no more trade unions.

 It is an odd fact that that the USSR stood for the union of soviet republics. Yet the actual soviets were defunct after 1920. There were no more trade unions. Trade functions were incorporated into the Bolshevik party and under the control of political commissars. While strikes were the prime tool to bring down the previous government, a strike during the time of the USSR was straightforward  treason-and punished accordingly.

bitul Torah

Rav Nathan,  the disciple of Rav Nahman made his way to Israel about 11 years after Rav Nahman died. The first stop after was Istanbul where he encountered a middle man that cheated him. He was aware of this but since he could not speak the language he had no choice but to go along with it. People there in Istanbul told him later the story of a fellow who was a tremendous "matmid" [diligent] in learning Torah. (Leib Ashkenazi) who some years before that also had been cheated. He bought a ticket and entered the ship to wait for its departure. He waited for a long time until he decided something was "off". He went to find out, and it turned out that that ship had been out of service for years. So he went to the person that sold him the ticket and said, "For the loss of the money I forgive you. But for the bitul Torah I do not, and surely God will give you what you deserve." [Soon after that the cheater died.] {Autobiography of Rav Nathan vol II. paragraph 105] [Bitul Torah refers to the sin of being able to learn Torah but not doing so. A loose translation would be "wasting  time from learning."]

You can ask why did this catch my attention? It is because you usually do not hear about the problem  of bitul Torah anywhere except in the Litvak world. And in fact in most of the Litvak places I have hung out in, most people would be learning Torah even if there was no such sin as bitul Torah. The people that I knew in Shar Yashuv and the Mir would be learning Torah even if they would have no reward for it at all. There is some inner essence of Torah that one can be connected to that goes beyond the borders of this world. The reason for this is that one needs to be connected in some sense to the Gra.[as are  Litvak yeshivot]. When one is connected with the Gra, the light of Torah gets through to one's soul.

asking secular Jews for money

 The religious world asking  secular Jews for money is the greatest of all possible spiritual levels. Even though they say that "learning Torah" is their goal, the actual  goal is to get money from secular Jews --i. e that means  the show and pretense of keeping some rituals of  Torah. Emphasis on rituals provides a disguise for this fraud. And there is a tendency to present their leaders as super smart,  where as reality shows the religious leaders are stupid, and use the appearance of Torah to provide a a show

You can count on religious Jews begging for money--and why? For the purpose they they uphold the whole world in their merit. [Thus they say.]

Religious Jews have discovered that by a show of religiosity, they can get money from secular Jews. Therefore the main emphasis is on a show of rituals.

increase in parasites

 Global warming seems to affect the seas in such a way that there is an increase in parasites.  Most people have heard of this in terms of fish in the North Sea -and Salmon. But they can get under the skin of people also. The way to deal with this is this: If you see something that looks like a sore after going in the water it is possible it is a parasite. These sorts of creatures do not like to be squeezed. But just squishing them is not enough. After squishing that area one should apply alcohol.

[The squishing is to get rid of the protective liquid they set up as a defense. You have to get rid of that liquid first. Then rub the  alcohol into that area --and that gets rid of the parasites.]

[If this does not seem  like the subject for a blog let me mention the Gemara in Hulin סכנתא חמירא מאיסורא "One must be stricter about danger than prohibitions."

Most secular studies are bitul Torah.

 Most secular studies are bitul Torah. As for the issue of making a living, Rav Shach said one should learn Torah until one is married, and then just take whatever job presents itself. [But Physics and Math would be considered as a part of learning Torah according to the Rambam in the Mishna Torah where he says one should divide the day into three: the Written Law, The Oral Law, and the Gemara- and he adds the subjects he brought in the first four chapters of Mishna Torah are in the category of Gemara] [The Rambam and Ibn Pakuda  also hold this idea with Metaphysics. What Ibn Pakuda means is clear--right there on the first page of the Chovot Levavot. But later on Metaphysics went beyond Plato and Aristotle to include Kant and Hegel. 

Rav Nathan, the disciple of Rav Nahman of Breslov got to Israel. The disciples of the Gra were the people that extended hospitality to him.

 Rav Nathan, the disciple of Rav Nahman of Breslov got to Israel. The first place he visited was Safed. The disciples of the Gra were the people that extended hospitality to him. These were not simply Litvaks. They were the actual disciples of the Gra. See "The Days of Rav Natan " vol II, paragraph 134.  It is hard to know if Rav Natan was aware of this.  The head of that group in Safed was Rav Israel of Shkolev and he was a direct disciple of the Gra.

 Another interesting fact about Rav Nathan. On his way to Israel he was cheated by someone who was supposedly helping him get a ticket. And his trip was delayed because of this. Then after R. Natan became aware of this he said something so characteristic of the Litvak mentality I can not refrain from writing it down. על הכסף אני מוחל לך אבל על הביטול תורה שגרמת לי איני מוחל  ובוודאי השם ישלם לך לפי גמולך  ימי מוהרנ''ת For the money I forgive you. But for the Bitul Torah that you caused to me I do not forgive you. [That is for the time I could have been learning Torah but was wasted because of you, I do not forgive you]

  People will always look for prior events in someone's life to explain why they turned to crime.   Yet as any parent will tell you--kids are different from the very first day they are born.  Maybe some of that is DNA. Maybe some of it is from the the inborn soul. [In modern idiotic thought, the soul is non existent. This is due to a very unscientific idea called "scientism" that only what science knows is true. And that view is the opposite of science which assumes that we do not know, and tries to find out what we do not know. Science itself does not assume it is all knowing.  So on one hand, I can see why the Left tries to create a situation in which there is no hierarchy. Everyone has the same amount of stuff- so that their external experiences will all be the same. {Thus "equality"  in the amount of stuff is the goal of Leftists.} Still this disagrees with the inherent differences in DNA and in the soul. And it ignores lobsters which also have a hierarchy as Jordan Peterson points out. [as do all mammals] The hierarchy of lobsters does not come from capitalism. And Communism did not get rid of hierarchies and who would be on top and then second to that etc. Trotsky found out the hard way that Communism did not get rid of hierarchy. He had a simple word to say for him to be the top. He was the leader of the Petrograd Soviet. And that was the top soviet in the USSR and was offered the top job. [He was offered by Lenin to be to leader of the USSR.] He declined because he believed the only hierarchy should be the working people as opposed to the welfare recipients. [i.e the non workers]. He di not think anyone should be on top\except the Central Committee.

The Communist ideal did not lead to an increase in prosperity and freedom which were its stated goals. [This is in spite of the fact that many people in czarist Russia wanted stability before freedom  and prosperity which is why they supported the Bolsheviks]