Even though I think that learning Torah [Gemara Tosphot Maharsha] is the greatest of all service of God the environment for this activity is a Litvak Yeshiva but for some reason I have never been able to find my place in any such institution.  So as second best, I try to do this at home. But it is hard to match the energy of an authentic Litvak Yeshiva --the energy that one gains by sitting in one and learning.

At some point I realized I was not welcome in the yeshiva world. So just from pure desperation I went to the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and majored there in Physics. After all I needed some way of making a living and had discovered a little before then the opinion of many Rishonim that Physics and Mathematics are a part of learning Torah. This is the opinion of many Rishonim, but you can see it most clearly in the Rambam in Laws of Learning Torah where he says - ''The things called 'Pardes' are in the category of learning gemara.'' And what is 'Pardes' they are defined by the Rambam in the first four chapters of the Mishna Torah and at the end of those chapters he writes the things discussed in these four chapters are in the category of what the Sages called 'Pardes'.'' [Those 4 chapters are Aristotelian physics and metaphysics. The Rambam is even more explicit in the intro to the Guide where he says the things are what the Greeks called physics and metaphysics.]

[I had been at the Mir in NY but then came to Israel. My time at NYU was after all that.

 I also think that to learn Musar on Rosh Hashanah is important. Also that even though it is unspoken, it must be  that Reb Israel Salanter must have had in mind the fact that strange an foreign trends were taking over the world in general, and the world of Torah  in particular.   So he saw Musar as a cure for the evil doctrines that were taking over in the world of Torah. [''Musar'' refers to the books of ethics written mainly during the Middle Ages]

 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.   

 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 was because I had seen in Rav Moshe Haim Lutzato [Ramhal] the emphasis on doing so. That is in a small booklet attached at the end of Mesilat Yesharim. (pri aiz haim) So my intension was not for mystic powers or enlightenment. It was simply to continue my studies in the Oral Law. However, there were side effects. One was when I got to Israel, the light that shines there did enter my soul in a powerful way. Another 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.]