There is an argument about when to celebrate the festivals. Generally, people go by the calendar introduced by Meton in Athens. This got accepted during the Middle Ages as being ''halacha leMoshe miSinai'' [given to Moses at Sinai.] [note 1] However it is not mentioned in the Gemara [Talmud]. My approach is go by Tosphot in Sanhedrin page 10 side b where the molad [conjunction of the moon and sun ] is considered as the start of the new month.[When the Talmud says that nowadays we know the time of the new moon in several places it does not say anything about the calendar. It just says we know the time. nor is Hillel II mentioned in the Gemara in connection with any calendar.] So that the day of the molad is rosh hashanah. And the best way to celebrate rosh hashanh is to learn Torah. [i.e., to spend the day learning Gemara, Tosphot, Maharsha, and the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach] [note 1] In the responsa of the geonim there are plenty of dates which do not correspond to the calendar--thus showing that the calendar was accepted later. The meton calendar got to be accepted as halacha lemoshe misinai because saadia geon wrote a responsa in Arabic that it is part of the tradition. the word in Arabic means for ''what is heard''. Sadly the meaning of Saadia Geon was misunderstood. People thought he meant “handed down by tradition going back to Moses at Mount Sinai.” The actual word means the body of traditional knowledge handed down generation after generation (i.e., the Oral and Written Law). but this misunderstanding got imbedded and solidified and concretized

 i have been pondering a difficult section in the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach that brings a question of Reb Chaim of Brisk. The issue is a courier brings a divorce doc and says, "In front me it was written and in front    of me one witness signed." Rav Huna said either all in validation of the doc or all by the decree of the sages [that said he has to have seen both witnesses signing.] Reb Chaim of Brisk asks that  we see in Bava Batra pg 165 that one witness verbally and one in writing is considered a valid validation of the doc. [So what is the objection of Rav Huna? after all, it has been validated. ]Rav Shach brings a Ran [Rabbainu Nisim] that says one witness verbally and one in writing is considered a valid validation only when it does not concern laws that involve felonies that result in physical punishment. It applies only in cases of monetary disputes .

Still I think it is best to get through Shas a few times before doing the Ari {Isaac Luria}.

My intension in learning the Arizal [Rav Isaac Luria] was because I had seen in Rav Moshe Haim Lutzato [Ramchal] the emphasis on doing so in a small booklet attached at the end of Mesilat Yesharim, (Pri Eiz Chaim). So my intension was not for mystic powers or enlightenment. It was simply to continue my studies in the Oral Law. However, there were good side effects and not so good. A side benefit was that many of the questions that people have on the Written Torah evaporated since the Ari explains all the verses of Torah in a mystic fashion, and he considers this to be the פשוט פששט simple explanation. Still I think it is best to get through Shas a few times before doing the Ari {Isaac Luria}.

 Referendum if to join the Russian Federation. I had a friend in the Ukraine whose daughter was in the Crimea at the time of that referendum,  and she  became a Russian citizen instead of Ukraine. From my experience I can not see the people of those eastern regions as objecting to Russian citizenship. I think they will vote unanimously to join Russia.

 When Litvak yeshivot mean to learn in depth, I think most people do not really understand what they mean. Even to me it seemed ridiculous. The first week in yeshiva you learn at most one page of gemara, And that does not mean to learn the commentaries at all. It means that there is inherent in the gemara itself that amount of depth that it takes at least a week of about 5 hours per day [in the morning session] to even begin to scratch the surface. And I freely admit that this really requires a very high IQ in the first place to see this. So when I was there just by force of circumstances I would read through all the commentaries that I could get my hands on. [For example the Shita Mekubetzet on the first page of Ketuboth is about twenty pages of tiny close lined print] but that was because I really was not on the level needed to see the depth on my ow,. And in fact never got there until many years later I began learning with David Bronson in Uman. and then I started getting the idea. [You can see a bit of this in my two booklets on Shas and Bava Metzia.]

 z90 midi music file

Rav Nahman said there is a evil inclination in the service of God of going overboard. It is hard to know what are the exact parameters of this. I for one took myself to study of the Ari while at the Mirrer Yeshiva in N.Y., and this certainly can be considered to be going overboard. After all, right at the Introduction of the Eitz Chaim, you have the warning and oath of Rav Chaim Vital that no one should look at his book who has not fulfilled the set of enumerated conditions. Take a look at them, and you will see that no one who has looked at that book can possibly have fulfilled those conditions in the last couple hundred years. No one is fasting from after Shabat to the next kidush.[Not to leave the subject in the middle, let me say that the issue still is unclear to me --since after all I think that this learning helped me in many ways. Still, I jumped in too soon, and still needed to do a lot more of Shas]. At any rate, I do think that learning the Ari for some time helped prepare me for the Land of Israel, and the amazing light which shines there. So I would have to say that Rav Shmuel Berenbaum was right when I asked him about this sort of learning. He said, "First finish Shas." I said, "I already did." He said, "Do it again." [Of course when Reb Shmuel said, "First Finish Shas", he did not mean the way some do it. Rather, he meant in depth (beiyun) with Tosphot, Maharsha.]