The issue of state's rights

I see the present state off the "woke" [that that the USA is founded upon black labor and that whites are inherently evil] as a result of the Civil War. I mean to say that there is such a thing as group actions. So while individual people may be great, still the general direction of the slaves has been to destroy the USA. The fact that it has taken a long time does not mean that the effort has nor been real.

The Talmud says, "One who does a favor for one who does not have gratitude is as one who worships an idol [throws as one at Mercury]."How many do you know who have gratitude towards the USA for freeing them?

The issue of state's rights is thus: The Constitution was written to give to the Federal government certain rights--powers-. For example :to collect taxes. Without that the states were almost at war one with the other and certainly not paying the war debt of the War of Independence.  So the Constitution gave powers to the Federal government. But in the Bill of Rights it was stated that any powers not reserved for the Federal government belong to the states or individuals. [That is the ninth and tenth ammendment]. It removes itself from the question of what rights states or individuals have. It says "WE do not know". Maybe (it holds) in the future more rights or less rights might be found for states or individuals. We do not know. All we are doing is to give to the Federal government certain rights. Maybe all individuals including slaves have a right to be free? Maybe nor. We do not know. This Constitution does not deal with questions we do not know."

["Whosoever accepts on himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government and the yoke of the way of the earth (work) is removed from him."

   In a time when there is so much stuff going on, you might ask what to do? I discussed this with David Bronson a few times (over a few issues) and his answer was always along the lines of,  "Let's sit and learn Gemara".  Or one time I was asking such questions, and he brought up the mishna  כל המקבל עליו עול תורה מעבירים ממנו עול מלכות ועול דרך ארץ. ["Whosoever accepts on himself the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government and the yoke of the way of the earth (work) is removed from him." [That does not mean to be begging  for money.]

  When I asked a question, "What can a father do for his children to guide them?" he brought this idea of Rav Nahman that when a father repents on his sins, thoughts of repentance enter into his children.

  Another time I brought up this subject and he brought an event mentioned in the Gemara. There was an extreme tax brought on the city where  Judah HaNasi lived. He said, "All problems come from people ignorant of Torah." [You can ask on this from the Gemara in Shabat that says all problems come into the world because of "judges of Israel"] There is no contradiction as we see in Hulin. perek 7 that  all problems in the world come from תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודאיים Torah scholars that are demons.[Le.M I:12 and I:28]

So how do you tell?  By the criteria of "Lishma" [those that learn Torah for its own sake]. Some people accept money to learn Torah, but their intension is to learn. They only accept money because that is the only way they can spend their days learning Torah. These  are the true good  Torah scholars. They are the Litvaks. [Those that walk in the path of the Gra.]--(However I admit that even in the Litvak world there can be phonies. But the general type--the group characteristic is that of Torah for its own sake.]

there are things that are not worth the trouble to argue with people about.

 David Bronson explained to me that there are things that are  not worth the trouble to argue with people about. It is that certain things are set in their DNA. {I was asking about the conflict between Israel and the Muslims.] But this can be applied across along long lines of issues.

It is best just to learn Torah and see what the Law of God has to tell us and to recommend to others to do the same.

Stll, with all that there is an "inyan" [a thing] about to "object". That is even if no one will listen, still one must object to wrong--at least to make one's position clear. [That is from the event of the Concubine of Giva. What I mean is on the second day of the war, (end of Book of Judges) God was asked if to continue to make war on Binyamin, and He agreed. Why? Because no one in Binyamin objected to the murder of the concubine. To punish the evil doers was not the issue. The issue was to punish the whole tribe because they did not object to evil.

However, I still think this is a one time event. You object and make your stance known and then get back to learning Torah.]   

authentic Torah and Gra [Eliyahu of Villna]

 The importance of the Gra [Eliyahu of Villna] is that he defines  pure straight authentic Torah with no additions or subtractions. This is very different from the religious world which worships dead people; but does it with religious clothing so that it looks authentic 

the religious world is idolatry.

 One of the not so minor problems with the religious world is idolatry. This may not be obvious at first to people that are sunk into it, but if you think about it you can see that worship of graves of tzadikim is a problem. I am not saying this is easy to be gotten rid of. You really need someone like king Yoshiyahu that went all over Israel destroying every last remnant of idolatry. And of course the problem with fighting evil is that one suffers for it.  Somehow after that, he got a dumb idea in his head to fight the king of Egypt and lost. And his kingship was pretty much the end of kings of the house of David. His children were the ones that the king of Babylon killed and destroyed the Temple, and the glory of that Temple has never returned.

That shows how powerful the kelipa of idolatry is. Still if the Torah stands for anything, at very least it stands for not doing idolatry. There is no choice but to fight it, no matter what the consequences are. 

My parents definitely saw the evil of the religious world, but I did not understand what they were saying. I wanted to go to an authentic Litvak yeshiva based on the Gra, but did not see how the religious counterfeit religiosity that the Gra us against, had seeped into it.

just by saying the words one can come to understanding of the Torah in its depths.

 על ידי אמצעות הדיבור יכולים לבא לתבונות התורה לעומקה  This is is an amazing insight from Rav Nahman that just by saying the words one can come to understanding of the Torah in its depths. [Le.M.vol I:11]

If you combine this with Le.M vol I 61 על ידי אמונת חכמים יכולים להוציא משפטינו לאור  [by means of faith in the wise, our judgment can come into the light.] then you get this: Start with the fact that the Rambam was wise. And that he included Physics and Metaphysics in the category of learning Torah [in laws of learning Torah], then just by saying the words of your Mathematics and Physics textbooks, you come to understand them.  [This does not diminish the importance of review as Rav Nahman himself brings in sefer HaMidot. Rather it leaves the question of how much review and how much of "girsa" {just saying the words} as an open issue.]  

So why do people not do this? Because they do not have faith in themselves. See the LeM of Rav Nahman 86 where he talks about that when people have little faith, they need hard services. I.e., just like when there is a time when government is is trying to destroy faith that one needs even to give up his or her life on the slightest infraction, So when there is little faith one needs hard services.

Rav Nathan [a disciple of Rav Nahman] asked him "then what about me who I think I has faith?" Rav Nahman brought the Chazal [statement of the sages] מיעוט אמונה בעצמן גורמת בזבוז שחלונם של צדיקים What causes the destruction of the table of saints in the next world? The lack of faith they have in themselves.

[In our context that means one does not need hard methods to become a rocket scientist. But why people do not do this is because they think they do not understand--when in fact they really do. Just that the understanding is hidden inside and absorbed until much later it is fruitful.]

Of course we all know that "Girsa" is brought in the Gemara itself and is widely known in all he great Litvak Yeshivot. It is more or less practiced as such in the afternoon session from 4PM to 8PM. Yet Rav Nahman adds an emphasis and the further insight that just by saying the words, the ideas are absorbed

See the verse in Proverbs chapter 8 verse 11 concerning Wisdom"כל חפצים לא ישוו בה"".And the Jerusalem Gemara explain this thus: Even the desirable things of Heaven are not equal to it. And the Gra {Eliyahu from Villna] shows that everyone word of Torah (an wisdom) are more than equal to even all of the other commandments combined together.

music file z63

z63  I would try to put the orchestra instruments in this where they belong here but I have no midi to mp3 access. z63 in nwc format