I see the world sleep walk into WWIII. and i can not see how anyone can win. but no one listens to me. so i think the best I or anyone can do to help save mankind from disaster is to learn Torah in depth. But sadly, while I see that some people learn Torah, it is mixed with the cyanide of the sitra achra [dark side] that the Gra saw is Torah of the kelipot [Torah scholars that are demons]and therefore put into herem [excommunication].
Belief in God is rational. Everything has a cause. So unless there is a first cause, then you would have an infinite regress. And then nothing could exist. Therefore there must be a first cause. Therefore God, the first cause, exists. QED.
27.1.23
Argument between Jacob Fries and Hegel
The main argument between Jacob Fries and Hegel is about how to get beyond Kant's iron wall between ''what's out there'' and what is ''in here''. To Fries this is by immediate knowledge which does not come through reasoning through any principles nor any senses. [This includes space and time which to Kant are synthetic a priori. ] To Hegel this is by the dialectic process of what is commonly known from Kant's phrase thesis anti thesis synthesis.
To a large degree, Kant was taken in by Hume who limited pure reason to detecting contradictions in concepts. He repeats this limitation often enough but strangely just assumes it from his experience from teaching Euclid. but that is not to say that there i no difference in types of reasoning from unpacking definitions to reasonable assumptions.
26.1.23
בירושלמי בפאה פרק ב' משנה ה. רב שך על הרמב''ם מתנות עניים פרק ב' הלכה י''א Yerushalmi in Peah chap 2 Mishna 5
I was at the sea again, and it occurred to me on the way back that there is something hard to figure in the Yerushalmi in Peah chapter 2, Mishna 5. My question is this. Let us say one cuts down the whole field up until the one part of sixty (that he is supposed to leave as peah ("corner of the field"). Then he cuts one more stalk. Then the Yerushalmi says the obligation of peah goes on the fifty nine of sixty. Why could he not still give peah from the one part of sixty (1/60 part) anyway? The reason is supposed to be that now it is obligated in truma and maassar. But it was anyway obligated in truma and maasar!?
Could it be then that the Yerushalmi considers the measure of one part in sixty to be from the Torah?
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There is something hard to figure out in the ירושלמי in פאה פרק ב משנה ה. My question is this. Let us say one cuts down the whole field up until the one part of sixty (that he is supposed to leave as פאה). Then he cuts one more stalk. Then the ירושלמי says the obligation of פאה goes on the fifty nine of sixty. Why could he not still give פאה from the one part of sixty anyway? The reason is supposed to be that now it is obligated in תרומה and מעשר. But it was anyway obligated in תרומה and מעשר!? Could it be then that the ירושלמי considers the measure of one part in sixty to be דאורייתא?
בירושלמי בפאה פרק ב' משנה ה.
רב שך על הרמב''ם מתנות עניים פרק ב' הלכה י''א
יש משהו שקשה להבין בירושלמי בפאה פרק ב' משנה ה'. השאלה שלי היא כזו. נגיד אחד כורת את כל השדה עד החלק האחד משישים (שהוא אמור לעזוב כפאה). ואז הוא חותך עוד גבעול אחד. ואז הירושלמי אומר שחובת פאה הולכת על החמישים ותשע מתוך שישים. למה בכל זאת הוא לא יכול לתת פאה מהחלק האחד משישים? הסיבה אמורה להיות שעכשיו זה חייב בתרומה ובמעשר. אבל ממילא היה חייב בתרומה ובמעשר.האם יכול להיות אם כן שהירושלמי מחשיב את המידה של חלק אחד משישים דאורייתא
25.1.23
One girl said to me at the beach that everything depends on from whom you learn. This was prompted by another girl saying she was majoring in criminology and gender studies where upon I explained about the Frankfurt School and the roots of woke and gender ideology. The students listening had never heard any of that. They had thought gender stuff had emerged full grown like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. To locate the flaws in any system, it helps to identify the underlying and hidden assumptions. [For example one major [unstated] assumption in Marx is the labor theory of value. Take that away and the whole structure falls. You can not extract "excess value" is there is no "excess value", only market value.
I do not recommend learning the left-Hegelians and Marxists but it just happened that I picked up some knowledge of this just by reading Hegel and his defenders and retractors
24.1.23
My son Izhak held with the idea of learning in depth [also with fast learning--saying the words in order and going on but the to go back over that chapter many times.] ], and this message was conveyed to me by the Litvak world over the years, but it was not until recently I have taken this advice seriously [But there were some periods when I did more than ''just saying the words and going on.'']
However, whether in learning Gemara Tosphot or the Achronim like Rav Chaim of Brisk, Rav Shach or in Math and Physics, I am hoping to in fact concentrate on לימוד בעיון learning in depth. [But I ought to add that this is not meant to diminish the importance of ''bekiut'' fast learning--i.e. saying the words in order and going on. This complements the learning in depth. In the Litvak world this is understood in such a way that the morning hours are set for in depth learning and the afternoon hours are set for fast learning. ]
I also hope to print a few copies of my little booklet on Shas that my son helped me to write.
The West thinks they can attack Moscow with no response,
It is astonishing that the West thinks they can attack Moscow with no response, Is not that exactly what Japan thought in its attack on Peal Harbor. They also were unaware that a response would come. Do not people know that Russia will respond?--The flaw comes from the fact that people do not understand why Russia took parts of Ukraine, and the strategy of not attacking to destroy, but to convince. But if the West attacks Russia, the response will not be to convince, but to really attack.
[I would hope that there would be a bit more understanding about the situation. few people in the West have actually lived in Ukraine or have talked with average people on the street. the lack of understanding is shocking. So on one hand they do not know what the average babushka selling vegetables in the market think. but they do not know why Russia is taking back what is their's in their opinion and the opinion of many in Ukraine that are now fearful of expressing this. nor do they understand that the approach of Russia towards people that consider themselves to be Russian and Russia consider to be Russian will be different if they are attacked and Moscow decide to retaliate with nuclear submarines off the coast of California and New York.
in philosophy and politics it helps to trace the genealogy of ideas [and systems]. "Woke" and "gender"? studies stems directly from the Neo Marxist Frankfurt group [the 1960's One Dimensional Man] which comes from the Left Hegelians and the Labor Theory of Value. Without the background the ideas of woke gender seem new and dazzling.