Rav Shach's Avi Ezri Laws of Loans. Rambam 13 halacha 4. Tractate Shavuot page 44 side B

רב שך באבי עזקי הלכות מלווה ולווה. פרק י''ג הלכה ד A lender has an object as a משכון for a loan of 100  and loses it בלי אונס. He says it was worth 50 and the borrower says 75. The lender  takes an oath it is not in his possession and the borrower takes an oath on how much it was worth and pays the 25 besides that that he owes. We have an argument between the רמב''ן and the ר''ן if the borrower has to take an oath on how much the object was worth. This is all clear.  But what has been bothering me is  this. Even though the lender has to take an oath on how much the object was worth, but let's say he does not take an oath. Then what? Anyway the borrower is taking an oath on how much he says it was worth and pays the rest. But the lender without the oath maybe would not get even that? Or maybe the borrower has to pay anyway what he admits he owes. Or gets 25 and pays 100? But then the borrower is taking an oath and getting money which is the opposite of an oath of the תורה which is when one takes an oath and does not pay and it is also not in the category of things that one takes an oath and gets paid which is a hired worker. 

רב שך באבי עזרי הלכות מלווה ולווה. פרק י''ג הלכה ד' למלווה יש חפץ כמשכון להלוואה של 100 ומפסיד אותו בלי אונס. הוא אומר שהיה שווה 50 והלווה אומר 75. המלווה נשבע שבועה זה לא ברשותו והלווה נדר כמה זה שווה ומשלם את ה-25  שהוא חייב. יש לנו ויכוח בין הרמב''ן לר''ן אם הלווה צריך להישבע כמה היה שווה החפץ. כל זה ברור. אבל מה שהפריע לי זה. אף על פי שהמלווה צריך להישבע כמה היה שווה החפץ, אבל נניח שאינו נשבע. ואז מה? בכל מקרה הלווה נשבע כמה הוא אומר שזה שווה ומשלם את השאר. אבל המלווה בלי השבועה אולי לא יקבל אפילו את זה? או אולי הלווה צריך לשלם בכל מקרה את מה שהוא מודה שהוא חייב. או מקבל 25 ומשלם 100? אבל אז הלווה שבועה ומקבל כסף שזה ההפך משבועת התורה שהיא נשבע ולא משלם וגם זה לא בקטגוריית הדברים נשבעים ומשלמים. שהוא שכיר.

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Rav Shach's Avi Ezri Laws of Loans. A lender has an object as a guarantee for a loan of 100  and loses it. He says it was worth 50 and the borrower says 75. The lender  takes an oath it is not in his possession and the borrower takes an oath on how much it was worth and pays the 25 besides that that he owes.

 I know I have not been blogging and also not learning Torah. However  there is one small thing that I have been thinking  and puzzling about. It is in Rav Shach's Avi Ezri Laws of Loans 13:4. You have a lender who has an object as a guarantee and he loses it in such a  way that he is obligated. [There are ways in which he would not be obligated for example: robbers.] So we have an argument between the Ramban {Nachmanides} and the Ran {Rabbainu Nisim}if the borrower has to take an oath on how much the object was worth. This is all clear. 

  But what has been bothering me is  this. Even though the lender has to take an oath on how much the object was worth, but let's say he does not take an oath. Then what? Anyway the borrower is taking an oath on how much he says it was worth and pays the rest. But the lender without the oath maybe would not get even that? Or maybe the borrower has to pay anyway what he admits he owes. Or gets25 and pays 100? But then the borrower is taking an oath and getting money which is the opposite of an oath of the Torah which is when one takes an oath and does not pay and it is also not in the category of things that one takes an oath and gets paid which is a hired worker. So this case seems confusing to me.

 

 

Those inside the palace are the physicists.

 I have not been blogging in part because my mental energy I have been trying to direct towards Physics and Mathematics which I find needs a lot more energy and effort than I originally thought. The major emphasis in this direction comes from the Guide for the Perplexed. It is mentioned off hand there and in other places in the Rishonim [mediaeval authorities.], but the one place that makes it clearer is the parable of the King in his palace [end of vol III] There is a king who rules of a vast country. And there are many levels of closeness with the King. Those outside the country are barbarians. Those inside are ruled by Divine Law. Those around the Palace are those that learn and keep the Talmud. Those inside the palace are the physicists. Those with the king himself are the prophets and philosophers.

Though this message is in many other places in the medieval authorities, here  it is without ambiguity.

However there are also many Rishonim that do not hold from this at all. To them learning Torah means Gemara and the other books of the sages of the Talmud-not science. 

However I was forced out of the yeshiva world, and found that I had no choice but to learn to make a living with no help from anyone. So I decided to take up Physics at NYU. Since then, I am not longer at NYU and do not even do Physics for the sake of making a living. But I wanted to make clear that if I had not found this opinion in the Rishonim, I probably would have chosen a different path. The fact that Ibn Pakuda and the Rambam hold from this path, made it make more sense to do the Physics thing rather than hang out where I was not wanted.

 

 

 

 

 Rav Nahman of Breslov makes a distinction between learning halacha and reading ["שונה" {Shone}] halacha.

Learning means you go to the source in the Gemara and see how the law is derived. "Reading" means to read it and go on. 

And this later category he says is what makes Torah Scholars the are demons in the Lekutai Moharan [LeM] vol. I chapter 54. [Learning halacha means learning it with its sources in depth. That is in Lekutai Moharan vol I chapter 62 paragraph 6 and chapter 286]

There he says that the "כוח המדמה" power of delusion is always looking for a place to settle upon. And when that power of delusion finds someone who reads halacha, it settles there. And so it is important to never hear words of Torah from these demonic Torah scholars since their ideas in Torahh contain more evil than good. That is to say that even though their words are about Torah so they contain some good, still that good is less than 50% so the evil is the majority and cancels the good.