Kant held that the issue of causality does not apply among dinge an sich (things in themselves) and in fact Physics is formulated in such a way that things know to move to lower energy levels [the Lagrange formulation]. So even though causality is true, it seems that physics is in fact showing that in a deeper sense causality is not fundamental. 

So even though causality is true and even true locally, still the general way Physics is formulated nowadays with idea of things tending towards lower energy levels, [and how would that poor electron know about that?] shows that there is some level of reality that is transcendent

(things in themselves) means things without the characteristics that we the observers attribute to them. That is: the way they are without our contribution.

Why get into a shooting war? There already were plenty of close calls with the old Cold War. And it is a miracle that did not end in disaster..

 In the American Civil War, you did not have neighbors attacking neighbors. This is not the case in the Ukraine. The situation is such that such scenarios are probable. Such was the case when the czar abdicated. People that thought their neighbors were on the other side of the fence [Either the Reds [communistic] or the Whites [for the Czar] would murder.. And some cities would welcome a return of the old USSR. [as many people told me ].And other cities would not. The dividing lines are not set.

So I think that the USA ought to not intervene. 

Why get into a shooting war?  There already were plenty of close calls with the old Cold War. And it is a miracle that did not end in disaster.. 

The problem is that people do not understand the Ukraine. It is not the East that is divided. It is every single neighbor that has heard a word for the last 30 years about the "good old days of the USSR" is now going to try and destroy that neighbor. It is a civil war like nothing the West can imagine. Plus there is some strand of DNA in the Ukraine that tends to criminality. So to have USA troops over there is unwise.

Every word of Torah is "equal to them all" (i.e. all the other commandments).

 Where you see the idea of every word of Torah is equal to all (other commandments) is in the Yerushalmi on the mishna in peah תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם אפילו דבר אחד של התורה. "Learning Torah is equal to them all (other commandments),"--and the Yerushalmi says there, " even one word of Torah."

But this leaves me in a sort of contradictory position, for on one hand I think learning Torah [Oral and Written Law] is the greatest of all the commandments, still I do not think people ought to be paid money for doing so. To me it is like having trust in God. Trust in God is also a mitzvah [as brought in many verses]. But would you pay someone to have trust in God?

[ I might mention, that the strict definition of the Oral Law refers to the actual books written around the time of the Talmud. רבינא ורב אשי סוף הוראה As the Gemara says: "Ravina and Rav Ashi are the end of the period of teaching and deciding the law." So what comes later is second hand. So while the rishonim are important in order to understand the Oral Law, they are not the Oral Law.] 

כמו שאין תוספת וגירעון בתורה שבכתב כן אין תוספת וגירעון בתורה שבעל פה--רמב''ם באגרת

[When I  was in Shar Yashuv (of Rav Freifeld), I discovered this idea of the importance of every word of Torah. That lite a fuse under me. Later circumstances dampened my ardor, but I still wish that I could be learning Torah.]  (Incidentally he emphasized doing every chapter or portion of what one learns ten times. In Shar Yashuv they were very much into learning in depth. I now appreciate that much more than I did then, because I have that people that d not get the in depth sort of learning when young, never get it.]

[There is a difference between the Oral Law and explanations of the Oral Law. So while the actual Oral Law is only the books of the sages of the Mishna and Talmud, Tosphot would be in the category of what explains the oral law. 

b100 b101 music files [these two I wrote sometime around 2000 A.D. The e files I think I wrote later around 2003. --using the nwc music writing program. Later transferred to midi . Then eventually I got access to mp3, but no longer.]

 I thought to share some old music files. So here is one from a few years back b100 mp3  [same in midi file b100 here is another b101.[b101 midi file]  And another e36 mp3. e36 midi file Here is a old P file also from around the year 2000. Here is another old e file.e34mp3 [e34 midi file]

i1 mp3 file (i1 midi file) 

and here is a file I am not sure if it is worth sharing b98 mp3 [b98midi]

here is gem I totally forget writing at all:j90mp3.j90midi

And others j81 j47 j2 file j3 file j6 [j6 midi file] i89 [i89 nwc file] (This i89 was almost finished but forgotten. I now had just add the last few measures.]) j10

Why share now? you might ask.  I do not know.  I was just writing it for me. [And it would take a lot of time to see what is worth sharing, and what would be worth sharing with editing. And besides tons of files were lost. 

 

music file i69

i69   (This seems to be a midi file, but it sounds like mp3) . Here is the nwc program file that it was written in:i69  [written in 2013]

[I have no new ideas, so i thought to share something from times long ago.] 

Why do I write music when the Gemara in Gitin forbids music vocal and instrumental? Tosphot says there this refers to drinking halls. And when i find a rishon to depend on, I usually depend on him. [Especially Tosphot who is always right, as David Bronson once told me.] [Tosphot is the most exact and logically rigorous of the Rishonim].--but also the most difficult.

 תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם That is there is a mishna in tractate Peah: that brings a list of the commandments that have no lower limit. E.g., charity. That means even the smallest coin. [It does not mean that one ought to give just the smallest coin. Rather that even with the smallest coin one has done a good deed.]And after that list it brings, "learning Torah is equal to them all." The Gra explains that even with one word of Torah, one has fulfilled the commandment of learning Torah.

The Rambam brings in laws of learning Torah that the things that he explained in the first 4 chapters of the Mishna Torah that are called "Pardes"  (Physics and Metaphysics as he explained in greater detail in the Guide for the Perplexed) are in the category of the Gemara  [That is learning the Oral Law in depth.] So  every word of Physics is included.

in the South, the government became federal, not local.

 

 Two things you see. The South was right that slaves would become welfare dependents.[They said that it was white people that were taking care of them because they could not take care of themselves. ] Also they said the slaves would try to destroy the USA as we see today.

But the great lesson of the Civil War is the endurance of the USA Constitution and this kind of government. And the ability of this kind of government to tackle difficult issues.