Gravity and Quantum Entanglement

 Lemaitre I think was the first to notice the connection between Gravity and Quantum Entanglement. This later was called ER=EPR and by Susskind you see there is an approach in which there are worm holes between entangled states. But in a paper sometime after 1930 [after Lemaitre predicted the Big Bang] he wrote that only after there were enough quanta round could space time begin to exist.

 This was basically forgotten until Yaakov Beckstein saw that the area of a black hole is the same as its entropy. --suggesting that black holes have entropy which means that there is a connection between curved space and ensembles of entangled states.

[But in 1972, when he showed this, not one knew what the entangled states were.] Only much later did Susskind come along and show that ER [worm holes]= EPR [quantum entangled states]

bitul Torah

In the path of the Litvak yeshivot, you do not find an emphasis on what you would call secular learning. And that is for good reason. Since thee is a sin of "bitul Torah",[which is greatly emphasized in the chazal [sages]. ["bitul Torah" means not learning Torah when one can.]

They do see that learning a secular subject as a means to make a living is OK, but it is better to trust in God.

There is also an approach where wives of very serious learners decide  to help with making money along with the kollel check. 

This is all very admirable. It is good and proper to learn Torah with self sacrifice.

The only place where I differ is that some  subjects I believe are not secular at all but rather God's wisdom as revealed in the work of Creation.[Physics, Chemistry, etc. The natural sciences.]

Incidentally the best Litvak yeshivot I know about are Ponovitch and the places that were started by former students of Ponovitch.

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Litvak Yeshivot

 I wanted to discuss my yeshiva experience along with my thought concerning Litvak Yeshivot.

I think that it would have been very difficult or perhaps impossible for me to come to any conception of what Torah is about without being in Shar Yeshuv [of Rav Friefeld] and at the Mir in NY [where I learned a lot from Rav Shmuel Berenbaum.] 

So you might think I should recommend Litvak yeshivot. However later disappoints somewhat damped my enthusiasm. 

But personal disappointments I figure ought not to dampen the reality that for true and authentic Torah the only possible address is a Litvak yeshiva based on the approach of the Gra and Rav Shach.

[And I should add here that in spite of my disappointments I still try to learn Torah when I can manage to grab a minute. And I still hold from the prime importance of learning Gemara and Tosphot.\

When the modern armies left and the cargo stopped arriving, the "Cargo Cult" was a religious attempt to reproduce the invocations and effect the continued blessing of the gods. Not surprisingly, it didn't work.]

 A lot of religious practice is from a phenomenon  noticed by Robert Sapolsky. He noted that pigeons are among the most superstitious of animals. You do not need to train them for this. They do it automatically. They do some kind of action before getting a piece of bread. They later when they are hungry, they will keep on doing tat same action endlessly until they get another piece of bread. Most of religious practice falls into this category. It is not from the realm of holiness nor from the Sitra Achra [Dark Side].It is just a natural phenomenon among people to think that some rituals will bring them their piece of bread.

But not all religious actions. Some is from the Dark Side. or from group think. They follow the heard thinking they will get the shiduch [match].

And on the opposite end of things, there is such a thing as sincere service of God. Not rituals, Actions and deeds that do truly unite one with the Divine.

The question one must always ask oneself is if his or her actions are really sincere, or or they like the pigeons? or perhaps, Heaven forbid, motivated by the Dark Side.

Rav Nachman wrote [LeM I I thinking [perek 25] דע כי האדם צריך להוציא את עצמו מן המדמה (Know that one must take oneself out of delusion) For too much religious rituals are from delusions. Cargo cult rituals. [The original Cargo Cult developed in New Guinea after World War II. During the war, the Melanesian locals, who lived at a mesolithic or neolithic level of culture, saw airplanes arrive and disgorge vast quantities of "cargo." They did not understand that these things had to be manufactured and that the airplanes themselves were artifacts. They believed that the planes and the cargo were gifts from the gods, brought down to earth by ritual invocations. There were incidents where the crew members of aircraft were murdered because the locals thought they were no more than supernumeraries to the divine operation. When the modern armies left and the cargo stopped arriving, the "Cargo Cult" was a religious attempt to reproduce the invocations and effect the continued blessing of the gods. Not surprisingly, it didn't work.]

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That is to say a woman who is married is the person with whom adultery is possible. Both for her and the adulterer. But it is not possible to have adultery with an unmarried woman. See Chronicles I in the second perek, verse 46

 Adultery means not to have sex with a married woman , but does not mean a man can not have many wives [or even girl friends.] For example in Chronicles I in the second perek, verse 46 we find Caleb ben Yefuna had a few wives and a few girl friends. And most rishonim go with this. [See the Ramban/Nahmanides and the Raavad.] The Rambam however forbids a girl friend but only as an isur asey איסור עשה [a negative command derived from a positive.] But all other Rishonim go with the Ramban that it is allowed.

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