As a family, we were  Reform Jews. We did all the regular Reform Judaism things. We went sailing and skiing, and visited Israel, and learned Torah, and kept the mitzvot to the best of our ability, but did not turn mitzvot into a means of making a living or making money. But I must mention that my parents were a hard act to follow. I think in some way each one of us three brothers took one specific area of the values of my parents and developed that --but not with the balance that my parents had.
Torah and Judaism were important to my parents, and that area of value I went into with a fervor.
But as for the areas of value of being self reliant and being a "mensch" (decent moral, ethical human being) my brothers did a lot better with than I.


I think Reform however even then was going in directions that my parents recognized were not exactly like Torah

The faith of the Torah is Monotheism-not Pantheism. הבעיה עם פנתאיזם היא זה: הטבע הוא לא אלוהים. ואלוהים הוא לא טבע.אין לו חומר. הוא לא עשוי משום חומר, ולכן שום דבר לא יכול להיות עשוי מהחומר שלו.

The problem with Pantheism is this: Nature isn't God. And God is not Nature. He is the creator of nature. He has no family relationship with humans. So there is no blurring, no soft boundary between humans or a tzadik and the Divine.


 The faith of the Torah is Monotheism-not Pantheism.
 God transcends nature. As the sovereign of all realms, God isn't by nature bound to any particular realm. Nature certainly becomes the stage of God's expression of his will. He expresses his will and purpose through forces of nature in the Torah. But nature isn't God himself. He's not identified with it. He's completely different. He isn't kin to humans in any way either. So there is no blurring, no soft boundary between humans and the divine

That is that God created the world something from nothing-not from his own substance. He has no substance. He is not made out of anything and therefore nothing can be made of his substance. And he is separate from the world and not a part of it. Holiness belongs only to God not to any other being like a tzadik. But God can make something holy. He does this when that thing becomes separated from the world and is so to speak owned by God. This is the concept of holiness  of the Torah. Purity is something else. It is the permission to touch something holy or to come into the holy place. Purity is not the same thing as holiness. But a lack of purity forbids one from touching or eating something holy. I think it is important to keep the most basic and essential beliefs about God of the Torah in mind.

הבעיה עם פנתאיזם היא זה: הטבע הוא לא אלוהים. ואלוהים הוא לא טבע. הוא היוצר של הטבע. אין לו שום קשר  משפחה עם בני אדם.  אין גבול רך בין בני אדם או צדיק והאלוהי. אני רוצה להזכיר כהערת שוליים שהאמונה של התורה היא האמונה באל אחד-לא פנתאיזם.  אלוהים מתעלה מעל הטבע.  הטבע מבטא את רצון הבורא. אבל הטבע הוא לא אלוהים עצמו. הוא לא מזוהה עימו. הוא שונה לחלוטין. הוא לא קרוב משפחה לבני אדם בכל דרך שהוא. אז אין טשטוש, ואיו גבול  רך בין בני האדם ואלוהים. זאת אומרת שאלוהים ברא את העולם יש מאין, ולא מהחומר שלו. אין לו חומר. הוא לא עשוי משום חומר, ולכן שום דבר לא יכול להיות עשוי מהחומר שלו. והוא נפרד מהעולם ולא חלק ממנה.
 אבל אלוהים יכול לעשות משהו קדוש. הוא עושה זאת כאשר דבר שהופך להיות נפרד מהעולם והוא נכנס בבעלות של  אלוהים. זהו המושג של קדושתה של התורה. טוהר הוא משהו אחר. זה הרשות לגעת במשהו קדוש או להיכנס למקום הקדוש. טוהר הוא לא אותו הדבר כמו קדושה. אבל חוסר טוהר אוסר אחד מלגעת או לאכול משהו קדוש. אין זה מתקשר לקברי צדיקים.
אני חושב שזה חשוב לשמור על האמונה הבסיסית והחיונית ביותר  באלוהים  של התורה בראש הכל.

For the Glory of the God of Israel, the God of my father and mother, Philip and Leila Rosten.

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I discussed the problem of making a center of Torah [with my learning partner] and he was not impressed with the need for such a thing. He thought a person's responsibility is to learn and to keep Torah himself. That is to go out a buy the Babylonian Talmud  with Rashi, Tosphot, the Avi Ezri, and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's Chidushei HaRambam and just plow through them at home.

There is some point to supporting Torah, but it is like shooting in the dark. Most of the places you give your money to are going to be scams. Unless you are in a place nearby and you walk in and pray there and see what is going on up close and personal, then there is no more chance of your money going to support real Torah than if you would just throw it into the wind and hope some worthy person will pick it up and find it.

Music written for the glory of God

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Since it is hard to depend on the idea that the area you live in will somehow magically turn into a place of Torah the best thing is to at least make your own space into a מקום תורה a place of Torah as best you can.
I don't know how things are in California but in NY most of the necessary books for this were very cheap. When I first got to yeshiva it was suggested to me to get the Rashba, the Ritva the Ramban and my own tractate. And I also got myself an entire Shulchan Aruch and Tur. Even though i was on a stipend of an average yeshiva student and had very little extra cash these books were simply to get.

There are some cities that it just does not work to make them into a place of Torah. LA is a perfect example. All the the insane religious world  there are the Sitra Achra [Demonic]. Somehow the Dark Side possessed LA in a hidden way the same as they did in Baltimore. I have no idea how N.Y. managed to get world class yeshivas all within walking distance of each other and other cities are wastelands.

Baltimore was once a candidate for being a Torah center.  It had in it a Torah sage.

For some reason it seems to me that it is harder to make a place of Torah than meets the eye.

Apparently it is not just a matter of throwing money at someone who is claiming to be learning Torah.
I never realized this. I was in a Baal Teshuva Yeshiva in NY that by all rights should not have been a Torah center. It might have been some place intent on brainwashing collage kids. But for some odd reason it turned out in fact to be  place of Torah. This was Rav Freifeld's place Shar Yashuv.One possible reason might have been the teachers. Naphtali Yeger, Rav Forest, Rav Rabinovitz, each a Torah giant in their own right.

And of course Brooklyn was blessed with authentic sages. Rav Hutner, Rav Kalmanovitch, Shmuel Berenbaum etc. So it does seem that to make a place of Torah you really need a Torah sage. You can't just throw money at a bunch of nobodies and expect results. Israel would seem to be a good example of this phenomenon. Bnei Brak is well known as a Torah center. It would  seem to be no accident that the greatest sage of that generation, Rav Shach was there. [Take a look at his Avi Ezri and you will see what I mean.]