Even the critics of Musar(--the movement of Israel Salanter to get people to learn Jewish books of ethics from the Middle Ages-) admit it brings one to fear of God.  In fact that is their major criticism of it. They don't like the fact that it brings one to fear God. They think that is a bad thing. So no one is disagreeing with what Musar accomplishes. Rather they don't like what it accomplishes if done with the proper fervor and intensity.

Some people might think that fear of God is a bad thing.

Highly recommended spiritual groups: The Lithuanian Yeshivas in New York, Mir, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat. But for these places you in general need to have some knowledge of Talmud. For beginners in NY I would recommend Shar Yashuv.In Israel the best is Ponovicth. But that is known anyway as the MIT and Cal Tech of all yeshivas.

Less recommended  are almost any other Litvak Lithuanian yeshiva.
But cult places are to be avoided at all cost. They are dangerous cults (as the Gra pointed out).
But they have charisma, and people get spiritual highs from cults. Even so they are traps.
Sadly, some people feel that dangerous cults are only found in Hindu or Buddhist  groups. They feel anything Jewish is Kosher and the more Jewish and strict it is the more kosher it is. The truth is just the opposite. The more strict they are the more likely they are to be a cult. Especially when they parade their Jewishness.

The Rambam has a parable

The Rambam has a story inside the Guide about learning Physics and Metaphysics. It is the parable of the Kings palace. In short in the parable you have a country of a king in which people differ in their closeness to the king. there are people outside the country, inside, in the capital city, around the palace in the outer part of the palace and in the inner part.
The parable refers to how close people are to God. There the Rambam puts philosophers and scientists in the palace with God.
But he also makes a condition that they need to be facing God.

This comes mainly from learning Talmud. I believe in free market and family values.And any Jew that believes in Torah I highly recommend to vote Republican no matter who the candidate is.

Just for a lesson about what happens to when you attack the Republican Party whose symbol is the elephant.:

A bathing bull elephant got a painful surprise when a 13-foot crocodile chomped down on his trunk at a South African game reserve.

American tourist Ashley Lewis, 31, snapped amazing photos during her Dec. 26 trip to the Sabi Sands reserve of the reeling bull elephant rearing up on his hind legs with the croc latched onto his trunk.

“We had been sitting in our truck on the riverbank. Suddenly, about 300 yards upstream we heard loud and frantic trumpeting from an older bull elephant,” Lewis, a fitness marketer from Michigan, told Barcroft Media.

The elephant was bathing with his herd in the river when a crocodile lurking just below the surface sank its teeth into his trunk.

“The elephant reared up and down, taking the croc with him as if he was waving around a toy,” Lewis said.

The stubborn reptile loosened its grip only after the elephant slammed it to the ground, bashed it with his knee, and gouged it with his tusks, Lewis said.

The elephant then booked it out of the water, and is expected to make a full recovery, Barcroft Media reported.

The fate of the crocodile is unknown, but reserve rangers believe it likely suffered serious injuries.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/05/foolish-croc-chomps-down-on-elephants-trunk-regrets-it/

It seems to me that when I was at Walt Disney's "Its a small world after all," I got the impression that he was saying that people differ in dress, but all biological differences are irrelevant.

This came up because of my question about elite schools. The idea of my learning partner was that the USA is not elite enough. 

This seems to me to relate to the fact that most species have changed within the last 10000 years And the human species is also evolving into different species. Perhaps many different species. But at minimum we can see the major differences with be three. Whites. Blacks. Muslims.

The differences in species start with race and can come about by one groups being separate from another group for enough time. It does not matter why one group is separated from another. But it is that separation that causes the species to diverge.
This may not sound like Sunday school, nor John Locke. But it is simple biology.

In the Talmud, Sanhedrin, 62b.

Rabbi Zachi said there is something stricter about the Sabbath Day than other commandments of the Torah. For if one forgets concerning the Sabbath, and does two acts of work, he brings two sin offerings; and if he forgets about the other commandments, and does two acts, he brings one sin offering.
This is part of a whole discussion. But for now I wanted to make note of an amazing question.
It is the fact that the Gemara asks on Rabbi Zachi, and even as the Gemara tries to answer him, it still remains clear that the Gemara is unhappy with his statement. 
It asks, 
"What is he talking about? If one forgot two types of work on Shabat--so that he is liable twice, but also for other commandments if he eats blood and fat he is also liable twice. If on Shabat he did one type of work twice, he is only obligated once, but also if he ate blood twice also he is only liable once."

Then the Gemara tries to claim his statement is referring to idolatry and that will bring a support to Abyee.

But what is wrong with what he says at simple face value? We know on Shabat there is חילוק  מלאכות, division of work. He forgets two kinds of work he is liable twice. This we don't have any arguments about. If he forgot two or more areas of his beard he is not supposed to shave, then he is liable once. There is no division of work in other commandments.
This questions comes from my learning partner. And I can tell you don't bother looking at Tosphot or the Maharsha. No one addresses this. This is one thing I have found out about him. Often he will think of questions that should have been obvious but for most people are not.

You might ask maybe he means he forgot Shabat? Then he is in fact only liable one.


סנהדרין סב: רבי זכאי אמר יש חומר בשבת מה שאין כן בשאר מצוות. בשבת אם עשה שתי מלאכות בהעלם אחד הוא חייב  שתי חטאות משא''כ בשאר מצוות. הגנרא שואלת על איזה מצב הוא דיבר? אם הוא עשה טחינה וקצירה בהעלם אחד שזה חייב שתיים כמו כן בשאר מצוות אכל חלב ודם הוא חייב שתיים. אם עשה שתי פעולות  טחינה שזה חייב אחת כמו כן אכל דם ודם וחייב אחת. יש פה קושיה גדולה. מה שרבי זכאי אומר  בדיוק גמור. בשבת יש חילוק מלאכות משא''כ בשאר מצוות. בשבת אם עשה שתי מלאכות בהעלם אחד-היינו ששכח שתיהן- הוא חייב שתיים.  אם שכח ואכל שני מיני חלב הוא חייב אחת.

To make this clearer: the Gemara is treating the works of Shabat as separate mitzvot. But they are not. They are only part of one mitzvah--Shabat.

I am not saying there is no answer here, but it eludes me for the moment. [Two years later I am pretty sure I never found an answer.]

When I was in high school I felt I needed more of a challenge. The school I was in was going too slow for my taste. [Today looking back on it it is hard  to see what I was thinking.] In any case, my parents made the efforts and found an elite private school that had very high standards and feed into the Ivy League school in the USA. After they accepted me, when it came time to make a final decision to attend or not I backed down. This gives me a little perspective on what an elite school is.

I now have a little perspective on some mistakes I made in life after  that. Because a one time I was in a very good yeshiva in NY--the Mir. And then I got involved in Breslov. And I must have been thinking that by leaving the Mir and joining Breslov that was coming close to a true tzadik. Yet now I see that leaving an Ivy league yeshiva to join a mass movement is not the same thing as coming close to a tzadik. In fact now it looks to me just the opposite. Joining Breslov in no way implies one is coming close to a tzadik. In fact, what ever fear of God one has before he joins, he will probably lose because of the nonsense people say. \?