Stoning is the most severe punishment in Torah and you can tell what things are more stringent than others if this is said in the Torah to be the punishment. Idolatry is one of these. 

[I was reminded about this because i walked into a breslov na nach sort of place and opened up the mishna in sanhedrin]

but it also occurred to me that things can be idolatry even they do not qualify for the full punishment. this is like on Shabat when there are plenty of things which desecrate the Sabbath even if they do not get up to the level of the full punishment. a simple example i if one picks up an object in a public domain but puts it down in a מקום פטור [a non obligated place].   

So what this means is that there is plenty of stuff which is going on in the religious world which i idolatry even if it does not reach the level of full liability.

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 z95 

A Mishna in Shavuot says that one who curses another transgress a negative prohibition. and the Gemara Yerushalmi asks if he gets lashes for that?". The friends [peoples sitting in the Beit Midrash study hall] said, "No, because it is  a prohibition that has no act in it." R Yose said but switching one sacrifice for another and swearing a false oath also have no act in them and still he gets lashes.

I have been thinking about this Yeruhalmi. To me it seems clear R Yose is saying לוקים על לאו שאין בו מעשה one can get lashes for a prohibition that does not have an act in it. But that does not seem to be the way the Rambam and Raavad understand this subject because both say there is lashes for this prohibition and also agree that one does not get lashes for a prohibition that does not have an act in it. So they both go with R Yose but apparently for some other reason. I would imagine because of the Babylonian Talmud where there are special reasons why swearing and switching get lashes: one  is a verse, the other is an act and cursing is also a verse והפלא

What is hard to understand here is the Raavad  point to the Yerushalmi for the source of his law and there does not seem to be anything there that indicates what he says--that cursing is liable to  lashes only when using the special name of God [in laws of Sanhedrin ]. Also the Rambam seems also to be problematic since he says even using names used for God like "The Compassionate" is liable and that does not seem to e what that verse indicates.

 I would like to recommend learning  and finishing the two Talmuds and the Midrahim. But the way I have in mind i to finish the Two Talmuds with Tosphot, Maharsha and Maharam of Lublin [printed below the Maharsha]. But this is not to suggest minimizing learning in depth with Reb Chaim of Brisk and his students [Birckat Shmeul etc.  ] up until Rav Shach and his Avi Ezri.

Plus the basic learning of Physics and Mathematics that I have mentioned on this blog [QFT, String Theory, Algebraic Topology.etc.]

This might sound like a lot, but if one does not waste time doing other stuff, there i plenty of time for this.

But how to do this if one does not understand everything? You ay the words in order and go on and what i not clear at first will eventually become clear aa you go on further..

And you do not need to be in any special place to do this. Doing this at home is better than anything else with no one around to distract you from the learning.

[Also I wish to add that the best way to do this is a half page of Gemara with Rashi and Tosphot and Maharsha per day.

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 spiritual enlightenment. when the infinite light of God  shines on a person that doe not mean they have knowledge. Rather that is כתר the light of the crown to each one from where ever their root soul is from. [There are ten sepherot. the crown is only one] אשרי מי דעייל ונפיק  Happy is he who come in a goes out as is said about R, Akiva. .

 I was in Breslov Na Nach and opened The Life Of Rav Nahman where I read that he said the famous religious leaders of his time did not know Torah so they had to compensate with their show of religiosity. There is a point to this that you can see nowadays  that the real Torah scholars that sit and learn Torah all day in the Mir and Ponovitch are completely unknown. 

I mentioned this later in Bresslov and it wa pointed out to me the several torah lessons that rav nahman said to warn to stay away from the famous religious leaders מםורסמים של שקר

 I wanted to mention that the situation in Ukraine is different than that of Taiwan. Ukraine was a province of Russia ever since they decided to be under the Russian Tzar Alexei. That i it has been a part of Russia for more than 300 years. Taiwan was never a part of China.

But there i something more to it than that. Ukraine tends to have a lot of people that would rather be under Russian rule a I found out to my great surprise when I lived there for many years and very often asked people what they thought of the present rule from Kiev as opposed to rule from Moscow.   But no one in Taiwan wants to be be under the boots of China--especially after they saw what happened in Hong Kong.