After high school, I went to Shar Yashuv in NY and then the Mir. I learned a lot from both the great rosh yeshiva in Shar Yashuv, Rav Naphtali Yeager and the rosh yeshiva of the Mir, Rav Shmuel Berenbaum.

But I was a wild card sort,  and could not stay put. So even when I tried to get back to the straight Torah path of the Litvak Yeshiva World, I did not manage to reinsert myself into learning Torah.

So I went instead to the Polytechnic Institute of NYU to major in Physics. Yet, I always have a tinge of regret that I did not just stick with the straight Litvak approach. And this actually reminds me of the events that led up to R. Yochanan [of the Gemara] becoming the great sage that he was. When a young man he was learning with his learning partner, and they were in extreme poverty. So they thought perhaps it was time to get up and find a job. They were at that time sitting by a wall. R. Yochanan heard the angels saying one to the other, "Let us knock this wall over them, because they are thinking of leaving off learning Torah to find work."   The other angel said, "No. Let's leave them alone because one of them will stick with it no matter what." R Yochanan heard this exchange, His learning partner did not. So R Yochanan stuck with learning while the other went out and became a business man.

 There is a lot of sort of dumb stuff going on, like many that think war with Russia is a good idea  but I think it is better not to comment on it because Rav Nahman said אף על פי שתוכחה היא דבר גדול ומוטל על כל אחד להוכיח את חברו כשרואה בו דבר שאינו הגון, אם כל זה לאו כל אדם ראוי להוכיח  Even though rebuke is a great thing and it is an obligation on everyone to rebuke their fellow man when they see in him something not proper, still, not everyone is fit to rebuke.

[This seems to be a difference between Rav Nahman and the Gra. To Rav Nahman the emphasis is to say nothing unless one is sure to help the situation by means of rebuke. To the Gra one at least has to say one time his or her opinion that what the other s doing is wrong.

 The very first Litvak Yeshiva I was at [Shar Yashuv in N.Y.] emphasized learning in depth along with lots of review. And recently I have noticed that this seems to be a  correct approach for me. I might go through a Tosphot or a piece in the Avi Ezri or the Chidushim of Rav Haim of Brisk and not understand a word even if I do it lots of times. The only way that I seem to be able to get the idea is when I go through it from beginning to end, and the next day I do it again and so on and so forth the next day--- and this might go on for weeks or a month.  I know this is not how anyone else learns, but this seems to work for me. 

And I noted this idea of review also in Mathematics and Physics. It seems to help if I do one whole section many times over a long period of time.

Later I was at the Mir for a few years and there the emphasis was a bit different with the afternoon being devoted to fast learning. There that was not just saying the words and going on, but it was fast in that one would do Tosphot a few times and then go on.

 z-53 music file

 I have been looking at the situation in the USA with woke-ism and it occurred to me at first thought to blame Paul. The reason is that he first introduced "no Torah law" [anti-nomianism] into Christianity  But then I took note of the Catholic Church which did try to keep Natural Law for centuries. And that is not so far in principle from Torah Law which also has this idea that the commandments are given with a purpose. Only in Torah Law there is an argument whether you go by the reason for the law דורש טעמה דקרא or by the law as stated [I recall this from Bava Metzia page 119 but it is a famous argument found all over the place.]

Still it is hard to imagine that things could have gotten so wrong without Paul introducing the idea of  no law anti-nomianism in the first place

The Torah and the religious world are opposites. This can be known by experience. But it is hard to know why? But if I can express the question clearly, perhaps that might go a long way towards gaining an understanding of the issue.  

The first thing to note is that there is an complicated process by which people people accept certain belief system, and it rarely has anything to do with their stated motives for it.

And these belief system interact. They do not exist in isolation. If the USA would  have been destroyed by wokw-ism, then other systems would not have a foot to stand on.

So to express the problem properly I would like to say what are the major principles of Torah. These are Fear of God, good character, learning Torah. Attachment with God  the Land of Israel. What does good character mean? The Torah goes into detail about this. For we know to desire the money of another is a terrible trait. Yet people still do it  and excuse themselves because they do not know the laws of Torah concerning what truly belongs to one and what does not.

The religious world on the other hand hand is tribal religion with group identity being the prime directive. But in that is the trap. For the Sitra Achra (Dark Side) disguises itself in mitzvot as Rav Nahman brings in the first chapter of the LeM. היצר הרי מתלבש במצוות The Evil Inclination is dressed in mitzvot. But it is all in order to destroy one. Thus we find that many times the very teachers of religion themselves are demons as we also see in the LeM of Rav Nahman concerning תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודים 

 Torah scholars that are demons. The idea is this: there are people that want to serve God but do not know how. But because of their previous sins, even when they want to serve God, the Satan sets up religious teachers from the Dark Side

 z-54 midi file music file