Two levels of reality is what we get with Plato. And this has a parallel in Kant.

There is a person with rulership over the whole generation in a hidden way but openly has no  one listening to him.There  is the idea of authority of the Sitra Achra. There is such a  thing as authority of the Dark Side which is hidden.

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Fear of God is a good thing according to Isaac Blazer. I mean to say it is more than good--it is beneficial. It helps to solve human problems.  At least that is the idea I got from reading the first page of his book אור ישראל The Light of Israel.
The idea is that to work on fear of God solves at least some of the problems that people are looking for answers to.

That is it is not just a good thing but that it has practical benefits --even beyond what people would automatically think.

And it is a truism that reality is often different from what common sense dictates. When farmers are interested in fattening their pigs they fed them non fat milk. Who would have thought?


I could bring some further proofs for this but let me say that this is a theme that comes up in the Old Testament also. In the Old Testament it is mentioned a few times that all God wants from a  person is to fear him.

But we know that coming to fear of God  has lots of obstacles in front of it.


My suggestion is this to create something like Israel Salanter's Beit Musar. That is a study hall that is for learning Classical Musar only. Or even better to have a study hall that is for Musar and Gemara. Nothing else is allowed. Nor is anyone paid to learn. Paying people to learn makes Torah into a business. The worst kind of business because it is based on fraud.  We know learning Torah for money is a sin. So because try to pretend there is some mitzvah in this. If you have to pay someone to learn Torah then their Torah is not worth a penny. And not only that but then they will try to get rid of people that are learning Torah for its own sake and say they are not getting paid because they are not on their high level of learning. It is one big disaster. The main thing to know is by giving people money to learn Torah you are just making things worse. If on the other hand you see someone who is learning Torah for its own sake--to them it is  mitzvah to help.

The seventh year. Shemitah. The argument between Rav Shach and Rav Isaac Soloveitchik. Trumot I:5

I wanted to say over again the argument between Rav Shach and Rav Isaac Soloveitchik. What I want to make clear is the fact that Rav Soloveitchik has mainly two things in the Rambam which indicate that he is right.

The actual argument between them is about what is the area of the Land Of Israel obligated in in those areas that were not settled by Jews returning from the first exile in Babylonia. To Rav I.S. those areas are obligated in all obligations of the land of Israel. Rav Shach agrees with that but adds those areas are also obligated in tithes to the poor.

The proof of Rav I.S. is that the Rambam says Amon and Moav give tithes to the poor.  And he is clear that Amon and Moav are not the same thing as the area of the Land Of Israel  that was not settled by Jews returning from the first exile in Babylonia. [That means we can't use Rashi nor Tosphot to answer this Rambam. ] The other proof of Rav IS is when he says what obligations those areas of Israel are obligated in he says they did not "patur" (make not obligated) them from Trumot and maasrot. This is in clear relation to areas that they did "Patur". So from the straight reading of the Rambam it looks like Rav IS is right. But when you trace things back to the Gemara it looks like Rav Shach is right.

The Gemara brings the statement that is a halacha le'Moshe MiSinai that Amon and Moav give tithes to the poor on the seventh year. But then as a proof it brings this statement דאמר מר הרבה כרכים כיבשו עולי מצרים ולא כבשו עולי בבל שקדושה ראשונה קדשה לשעתה ולא קדשה לעתיד לבא והניחום כדי שיסמכו עליהם עניים בשביעית. To the way of Rav IS this does not seem to make any sense. How do you know Amon Moav give maasar ani? Because some cities in other areas give ספיחים. Not only is there no connection but the the sense of it is why is there a decree to give in place X? Because they did not make a  decree in place Y! To Rav Shach the connection is simple. In both place one gives tithes to the poor. 

I am getting more and more convinced about the idea of making a מקום תורה [place of Torah] and place of Torah in every city. The idea of learning Torah at home just does not seem practical.  I think there might be different reasons why the idea of making a place of Torah does not usually work. Yeshivas as we know are rarely places of Torah, and shuls never. But the reason for that is because they don't want to be. Kollels are just ways of making money by pretending to be a benefit to some community.

None of these things have anything to do with Torah. Not because it is hard to make a makom Torah--[place of Torah] but because people don't want to learn.
 If people would want to learn Torah for its own sake [not for pay] then it would be the simplest thing in the world to make a makom Torah.

A nice picture I found on the internet