b-100 midi file

Even if I recommend the  greatness of the Litvak yeshivot that are based on the Gra, I was never really able to find my place in such institutions. But Rav Nahman held from this principle that even though I might not be a "איש כשר" decent person, that does not mean that I ought not to desire that my friend should not be an decent person. In all books of Muar that I know about, it is suggested that by helping others come to Fear of God, I might also merit to fear of God. כל המזכה את הרבים, אין חטא בא על ידוץ

However I do admit that I am reluctant to recommend anything "frum"[religious], since the Dark Side has so deeply penetrated into every aspect of the religious world.

But if  you would have a place that would be following the Gra and Rav Israel Salanter [Musar], then I would have no problem with giving that my highest recommendation, and support. But as we all know, there is nothing in the religious world that follows the Gra except a few place few and far in between.

And I really loved the whole experience of learning Torah within the context of the Litvak world. But I was derailed,  and my own lack of commitment to sitting and learning Torah might have contributed to that lack of being able to do do so. It takes a certain degree of commitment to learn Torah--no matter what-in order to succeed in this.[Like the event  with R. Yochanan and his friend. The had no food, They and their families were in dire straits. They thought to leave sitting and learning Torah and to go and do business. Then R Yohanan heard behind the wall they were sitting at-The angels: "Let's push this wall over them since they are thinking of leaving learning Torah." R Yochanan heard them, The other did not, 

So what seems to me is that the Gra was right and the fact that the  religious world ignores his signature on the letter of the herem is what has caused to religious world to fall into idolatry and extreme wickedness.

 B-98 midi file. written around 2005 b98 mp3 b98 nwc

 Learning fast depends on self confidence that even if you do not think you understand, still the learning gets absorbed. This is certainly the point of Rav Nahman in his Conversation of Rav Nahman  number 76.

This is well understood in Litvak Yeshivot where the afternoon session is devoted to learning fast. [The morning hours from 10:00 A.M. until 2:00 P.M. are for in depth learning.]

All this is well known. The only thing I wanted to add is that this applies to STEM learning also.

That is to review the whole Physics text from start to end, word by word a few times before going back to do in depth review. [And the different session of in depth learning should be like I heard in Shar Yashuv--to review each sub section ten times.] That could be for a paragraph or a chapter.]

I have not been reviewing the LeM of Rav Nahman recently, but if you look you will see many places in his book where he indicates that the hidden wisdom of God is contained in his works of Creation. I count not even count how many times Rav Nahman hints to this idea. So when you learn Math and Physics, you are learning God's wonders. 

Now I think for the sake of clarity, the Rishonim who hold by this approach [who are certainly not the majority][That is mainly Ibn Pakuda and others that followed the approach of Saadia Geon. ] , still those that do hold from this also hold from MetaPhysics. But I have been reluctant to mention this part of their approach for the same reason, I never went into Philosophy myself (even though it interested me)--that is this: for the last 2500 years, Philosophy has not come up with one single solved problem. Zilch.  And especially 20th Century philosophy was in total free-fall.

  e2 midi file [e2 in nwc]  [e2 mp3][A midi file is possible for anyone to download and see the notes.] [finished Dec. 3 2006]]

I have been looking for old files to share with people.

b-105 [also written in 2006] ][b105 in nwc]\b105 mp3 e-39  e39 nwc  e39 mp3

r87  r87 nwc  r87 mp3

Why the Gemara does not use the opinion of Raba to answer the difficulty between the two gemarot Avoda Zara 23b and Rosh Hashana 13a

I was walking by the sea shore and it occurred to me why the Gemara does not use the opinion of Raba to answer the difficulty between the two gemarot avoda zara 23b and rosh hashana 13a.

The Gemara in Avoda Zara asks why did Israel have to burn the trees that were worshipped when they entered the Land of Canaan? After all the land was given to Abraham and אין אדם אוסר דבר שאינו שלו.["A person can not cause to be forbidden that which doesn't belong to him."]

Well, you might have answered like Raba that an idolater has acquisition in terms of money. So he does own the trees. [And the Gemara does not answer that. Why not?] אין לעכו''ם קניין בארץ כדי להפקיע מידי תרומה ומעשר אבל יש לו קניין לגבי דיני ממונות--כגון לחפור בורות

And the Gemara in Rosh Hashanah 13a asks, "How could Israel bring the offering from the grain they found in the Land of Canaan after they first entered. Did not that grain belong to the Canaanites?"

Well the simple answer might have been like Raba--that an idolater does not have acquisition in the land in terms truma and tithe!  

The answer is this: If you hold an idolater has acquisition in Israel in terms of laws of money, but in terms of truma and tithe, then we have one more issue. There is an argument about this but one opinion is that if he has acquisition, then the land becomes not Israel and thus the truma is not truma anyway. [So you could not use this opinion of Raba. After all the grain does belong to the idolater--because the actual land is his unless bought back by a Israeli.]

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I was walking by the sea shore and it occurred to me why the Gemara does not use the opinion of Raba to answer the difficulty between the two gemarot avoda zara 23b and rosh hashana 13a.

The גמרא in עבודה זרה asks why did Israel have to burn the trees that were worshipped when they entered the Land of Canaan? After all the land was given to Abraham and אין אדם אוסר דבר שאינו שלו. Well you might have answered like  רבה that an עכו''ם has קניין in terms of money. So he does own the trees. And the גמרא does not answer that. Why not? And the גמרא in ראש השנה י''ג ע''א asks, "How could Israel bring the offering from the grain they found in the Land of Canaan after they first entered. Did not that grain belong to the Canaanites?"Well the simple answer might have been like רבה that an עכו''ם does not have acquisition in the land in terms תרומה and tithe! The answer is this: If you hold an עכו''ם has acquisition in Israel in terms of laws of money, but in terms of תרומה and tithe, then we have one more issue. There is an argument about this, but one opinion is that if he has acquisition, then the land becomes not Israel and thus the תרומה is not תרומה anyway.  So you could not have used that opinion of רבה to answer the question how could Israel use the grain to bring the עומר?

שואלת הגמרא בעבודה זרה מדוע נאלצו ישראל לשרוף את העצים שסגדו להם כשנכנסו לארץ כנען? אחרי הכל ניתנה הארץ לאברהם ואין אדם אוסר דבר שאינו שלו. ובכן אולי ענית כמו רבה שלעכו''ם יש קניין מבחינת כסף. אז הוא הבעלים של העצים. והגמרא לא עונה על זה. למה לא? ושואל הגמרא בראש השנה י''ג ע''א איך יכלו ישראל להביא את המנחה מהתבואה שמצאו בארץ כנען לאחר שנכנסו לראשונה. האם התבואה הזאת לא הייתה שייכת לכנענים? תשובה פשוטה אולי הייתה כמו רבה שאין לעכו''ם רכישה בארץ  בתרומה ומעשר! התשובה היא כזו: אם אתה מחזיק עכו''ם יש רכישה בישראל מבחינת דיני כסף, אבל מבחינת תרומה ומעשר, אז יש לנו עוד סוגיה. יש על זה ויכוח, אבל דעה אחת היא שאם יש לו רכישה, אז הקרקע הופכת להיות לא ישראל ולכן התרומה היא ממילא לא תרומה. אז לא יכולת להשתמש בדעה זו של רבה כדי לענות על השאלה איך יכלו ישראל להשתמש בתבואה כדי להביא את העומר?

All I am saying here is that the Gemara in both places is going like R. Elazar. And at least we know now why. 

I mainly hope to walk in the path of my parents

 I should make clear that I mainly hope to walk in the path of my parents, not just because of the commandment of, "Honor your father and mother," but because they were in fact great people. And the sages, in fact, deal with the [more common] issue when one finds that his or her parents are somewhat less than admirable.[See the Tur.] They hold that, "Honor your father and mother" is not a blank check. It just so happens, in my case that I had every reason to walk in my parents path, and to hold that that is what the Torah required of me. 

But I was thinking about this the other day, and it occurred to me that just because one can not run a four minute mile, does not mean the one who does 4.5 is not also great. So even though the exact path of my dad was not really open to me, I think I could have still tried my best. [I imagine that I really could have gone to Cal Tech as he did if I had had the understanding of this being desirable. But in those days long ago, there was a general mood of specially going against one's parents as being the admirable thing.] 

And even with all of that, I still believe that going to Shar Yashuv in NY, and then the Mir were great choices-- where I did learn authentic Torah. The only Torah that is worth learning. After all, one needs the real thing. Only later did it occur to me to make up for my deficit and go to Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

I want to add here a note about Musar. Though my parents had a clear idea of what it means "to be a mensch" [decent person], that is not obvious to most people like myself. That is why we all should learn Musar--the books on ethics from the Middle Ages. Otherwise we get it into our heads that our own obsessions constitute morality. The basic set of Musar is known but here I want to bring the basic titles שערי תשובה, חובות לבבות, מסילת ישרים,אורחות צדיקים [Gates of Repentance, Obligations of the Hearts, Paths of the Righteous, Ways of the Just]That is the basic group. There is always added a fifth but it is not clear what that fifth is. Some add the Sefer HaYira that is attributed to Rabbainu Tam. Some add the Sefer HaMidot. I would like to add the books of the Gra, the Geon of Villna, and of the disciples of Rav Israel Salanter.] (Altogether these give a clear idea of what it means to be a decent human being.)