not to hurt feelings אונאת דברים

One is required to hear every word of the Scroll of Ester. The interesting fact about this is that in the Mir in NY the person that read the scroll was from the old Mir in  Europe. But he read in such away that you could barely hear him. Even if someone coughed or scratched their shoe, you lost the whole thing.   So instead of going through that, I went to Rav Avigdor Miller's place next door. In the meantime people complained to Rav Shmuel Berenbaum, that few people could fulfill their obligation. But year after year, Rav Shmuel refused to replace that fellow. Why? So as not to hurt his feelings. [Or in Litvish jargon שלא לפגוע בכבודו של בן אדם 

Of course this was an important maxim at the Mir, but this is just one example.

Yu might ask, in a completely justified way, "How was that permitted?"I would imagine that it comes from גדול כבוד הבריות שדוחה לא תעשה שבתורה."Great is the honor of creatures for it pushes away even a prohibition of the Torah." Plus: אונאת דברים היא לאו דאורייתא "Hurting with words is a prohibition of the Torah."

Not to be stubborn about anything in the world.

 שלא להתעקש על שום דבר שבעולם Not to be stubborn about anything in the world. This I noticed last night in the book "The Life of Rav Nahman". He brings there that this is like when a teacher telling the child "Remember! Remember!" Eventually the child begins to think the  proper translation is "Remember."

Still one must have a hierarchy of values. What is the thing to emphasize and which ones are the things not to to be stubborn about. 

For the Gra, the thing to emphasize is learning Torah and this makes a of of sense to me.

 

 i28  in midi

 e74 music file written around 2011

 i37 Music file [i37 in midi format] written Jan 2013. i37 in nwc

My Musical approach was developed to a large degree by my dad who gave me records of Mozart, and also the high school music teacher, Mr. Smart who had this sort of infectious love for classical music that I think got into me.

 I realize that the USA rose to power because they placed the major emphasis on competence. The ability to do stuff. So people like my dad who were good at inventing stuff were rewarded.  Gender studies did not count for anything. So to me it seems clear that for the USA to retain its position, it must reemphasize STEM studies.

But many people have trouble with STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering Mathematics] So what I think to solve this problem  is '"to say the words and go on." To learn the subjects even if you think you do not understand.  מה גורם לצדיקים שיתבזה שולחנם לעתיד לבוא? מיעוט אמונה שהייתה להם בעצמם "What causes to the righteous that their table is ruined in the future? The lack of faith they have in themselves."You have to have faith in yourself--that even though you think you do not understand, to believe that you really do, and that the learning is absorbed.

 I realize that if learning and understanding Torah is not a goal to someone, then the idea of Rav Nahman of saying the words and going on will not amount to much--or to anything. One has to have had the will and desire to learn Torah, first in order for this to matter.

And that goal I can not relate well to people. The best I have been able to come up with is the Kant Friesian approach of Dr. Kelley Ross, about the importance of knowledge that we know, but not by the senses nor by reason. But even though this kind of knowledge is close to faith, it is not the same.

It was more or less invented to bypass problems that Kant never solved about how we know the categories. [Kant has a list. That is his own list but more or less it is like quantity, quality space time causality which are closely related to Aristotle's ten categories   ] [Kant's argument is surprisingly unconvincing..] ]

And this school of thought has had an odd sort of history. starting with Fries. That ended soon. Then Fischer sunk the last nail into it. Then Leonard Nelson revived it, while against Relativity. That was corrected by Gretta Hermann who was great in many ways, but was not going with Nelson on major points. And I have a tremendous respect for this school of thought, but I just can not agree with the total dismissal of Hegel that is a fundamental axiom. To me it seems that Hegel is simply dealing with different issues.