The world responds to one's character. The way you control your character is two fold. Getting right opinions. That is learning Musar [Mediaeval Ethics].

Each problem seems to have actually  two parts. Part is  their flaws and the other part is the flaws of how the world treats them. And each of these is divided into two parts. One's own flaws are 1/2 his own fault for making bad choices. The other part is internal things not in one's control. The world's fault is partly just the way the world is with everyone. Capricious. The other part is the part that when it sees good it retaliates with evil. The part you can control is only your own decisions. You have to start making good choices.

The world responds to one's character. The way you control your character is two fold. Getting right opinions. That is learning Musar [Mediaeval Ethics]. That gives right opinions or at least closes to objective truth more so that one would get by the Crowd and the Mob. And this also gets absorbed into the self.

q98 e33 e39 e45 orchestra e46 etc. music files

q98 a song to God e33   e42  e39  e45 orchestra  "Orchestra" was written when I was about 16. You can see the effect of my being in a high school orchestra.

q98 was recent [it still might need some editing.]. The e series was around 2006-2010


e46
g5   e47

Black Hole  q94
 mathematics

1) "Seeing the wisdom in God's creations" in the mediaeval code word for learning Physics and Metaphysics. If you only see this in the חובות לבבות Duties of the Heart , you can miss this.  Refer to the Guide of the Rambam who says this openly. But you can see it also in מעלות המידות by Binjamin the Doctor --one of the classical books of Musar.


2) The idea is  learning these subjects is a good value in itself  The books of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam  show two values in learning the natural sciences.
 To the Rambam learning Physics and Metaphysics is the fulfillment of the highest mitzvot in the Torah, i.e. Love and Fear of God.

3) Later this was hidden. Even though all books of Classical Musar refer to this approach of Saadia Gaon and the Rambam, it is obscured by people that do not want this information to be widely known.

4) The Torah is clothed in the Creation. So when you learn about God's creation, you are learning God's wisdom.

5) See: Rambam beginning of the Guide, and beginning of Mishna Torah. {Plus הלכות ת''ת ברמב''ם איפה שהוא כתב והעניינים הנקראיים פרדס בם בכלל הגמרא}

6) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the ten statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those ten statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. [as brought in the Tikunei HaZohar] And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.


7) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. In Physics are hidden secrets of Torah. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.
Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in it s higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.


8) The Rambam defines the "Work of Creation" מעשה בראשית and work of the "Divine Chariot" מעשה מרכבה in the beginning of the Guide for the Perplexed . In the Guide itself he tells us what is the purpose he sees in these--the Work of Creation to come to fear, and the Work of the Divine Chariot to come to love. And this approach of the Rambam is quoted virtually verbatim in all later books of Musar.]

9) The question is how is this jump from knowledge of physical things or mathematical things helps one to make the jump to God? Clearly the Rambam holds this does help to make that jump, but how?
[See Schelling and Jacobi who dealt with this problem.]



10) To justify this approach of the Rambam I would like to bring together a few ideas:

We find that God's glory does not extend everywhere. That is even though His glory "fills the whole world," there are places where his glory does not reach. וכבודי לאחר לא אתן. I will not give of my glory to idols. Now we find that it says in a verse that God created the whole world for his glory. לכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So his glory is the root and life force of everything that exists. So what about those places where his glory does not extend? They get life force from the hidden statement (מאמר הסתום). "In the beginning God created heaven and earth."  That is hidden because it does not say "He said." [In nine other acts of creation it says, "He said."]

So the areas  the most hidden from God get their life force from the highest levels of holiness.

And when one turns to God from those areas and calls out "where is the place of his glory?" Then he returns to the highest statement of creation.

In Math and Physics there is no open numinosity. But there is the hidden statement by which the world was created. So when one turns to God there, and learns for the sake of Heaven, he brings up all the creation to God.


Appendix:
a) Maimonides held that Torah is only the Written and Oral law. But two of the commandments of the Torah are to love and fear God, and these Maimonides held were only possible by learning Physics and Metaphysics. [He was referring to the two sets of books by Aristotle called the Physics and the other called the Metaphysics].


b) But there are different levels of revelation of Torah.
The world was sustained by the Ten Statements (עשרה מאמרות) before the Torah was given [ten times it says ''And God said'']
But these statements were hidden. Then the ten trials of Abraham were a first step towards the revelation of Torah. The ten plagues on Egypt were the next step to make it possible to reveal the Torah. Then the Ten Commandments were the actual revelation of Torah. [The idea of the plagues was that one has to get rid of evil before the good can be revealed.]

 But because the Torah is in everything, it is possible to serve God with everything.

c) Knowledge of this sub-level comes not by sense perception, and not by logical deductions, but by non intuitive immediate knowledge.

d) in this world is hidden holiness; and even in the lowest regions in spirituality is hidden the highest holiness that comes from the hidden statement of creation. 

e) To put this all together you have to start with the idea that the goal of Torah is to come to love and fear of God. Then you need the idea that the the world was created by the Ten Statements of Genesis, and thus those statements are the life force of all that is in the world. And that those Ten Statements are the clothing of the Ten Commandments. And the highest statement is the first one "In the beginning God created heaven and earth" in which it does not say openly God said. It is the hidden statement which is the life force of everything and everywhere where God's glory is hidden.
Thus Torah is God's revealed wisdom, and Physics and Metaphysics is his hidden wisdom.



f) There are people that if exposed to straight Torah will not be able to accept it. This explains also how often it is better for people to learn the natural sciences rather than open Torah, because זכה נעשית סם חיים, לא זכה נעשית לו סם מוות. By being exposed to open Torah, one can become worse. And in fact this often happens before our very eyes.

g) Also seeing the wisdom inside ever aspect of creation binds ones soul to the purpose of that individual creation which in its higher source is close to the purpose of all creation which is God's glory.


h) The Rambam has  story inside the Guide about learning Physics and Metaphysics. It is the parable of the King's 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.

anti Israel and anti Jewish sentiments

The problem with anti Israel and anti Jewish sentiments is serious. German women are discovering that it is uncomfortable to walk on the streets with Muslims. They don't feel like getting raped. And that is understandable. You would think that there would be some sympathy for Jews in Israel who also feel uncomfortable with Muslims on the streets. They don't want to be blow to smithereens. And that is also understandable. But the plague of Muslims in Germany and in Europe does not evoke much sympathy for plight of Jews in Israel. The reason is "חן" (literally: grace or attractiveness).

That is, Jews don't have "חן" [grace]. And this is a powerful thing. When a person or a group has grace in your eyes, then everything and anything they do get excused. Logical reasoning does not come into play.
And when a group has no grace, then even when they are right by all objective standards, nothing they do can help.

The solution to lack of grace is to learn Torah in a Lithuanian Authentic Yeshiva.  Some people learn Pseudo "Torah" but it is superficial. That does not lead to grace. Only Torah in depth does that. And I can't explain what that means except you have to see it done in an authentic Lithuanian yeshiva.

[It is not looking up achronim [commentaries written after the Shulchan Aruch of Joseph Karo]. I can't really explain this very well. You have to see it done on your own. You can however get an idea of what this means by looking up achronim, but looking up what they say is not the same thing as doing it yourself. If you are in NY in Brooklyn, then you get simply walk over to the Mir, Torah VeDaat, or Chaim Berlin and sit in for the Rosh Yeshivas classes. But if you are not in NY. then I don't have much of an suggestion. I am pretty sure this is what they do in Ponovitch. Other places probably don't do this, nor know what it is either. Most other yeshivas are for shiduchim [to get offered a good marriage match ] or parnaah [to make a living by using the Torah] or other things. Almost none are for learning in depth except NY yeshivas.

Which brings me to the obvious conclusion that it would be in everyone's interest to start yeshivas that are devoted to learning Torah in depth--not the superficial way that is common.. And the result of this I predict would be powerful. It would give Jews "grace." And when people have grace, then a lot of problems disappear.
[This does not mean to learn Kabalah. That is not the same thing as learning Torah in depth. In fact the general result of learning Kabalah is delusion. It is rare to find someone become more of a "mensch" from it. There were rare individuals like Bava Sali that could benefit from it but  that is not the rule.And then you have people that really are on the level to be able to learn it and then the Sitra Achra goes all out to destroy them. So in any case it seems like  a no win situation. Either one is ready and then gets entangled in a fight with the Sitra Achra that he is not ready for. Or he is not ready and then he gets delusions.]

polynomic theory ofvalue as in the Kelley Ross Approach]

The major questions about values are: 1) When values conflict what to do. 2) How to decide what is a good value.  3) Even if something is a good value does it apply to this specific individual?

[I am assuming here a polynomic theory ofvalue as in the Kelley Ross Approach]

If there would be only one value then this would not be relevant.  The Rambam held one should do one of two things learn Torah or be involved in an honest vocation.


My own conflicts in the areas of value I solve by the common sense approach of my parents and with input from the Torah, Talmud and Musar books. That basically boils down to the idea of learning Musar (mediaeval ethics) books of Israel Salanter because Musar really resolves these issues very well.  With Musar you get resolution of areas of conflict and hoe to apply the values of the Torah to yourself. So what I recommend is to attend a Musar Litvak kind of Yeshiva for about four years to get the basic approach of Torah embedded in one's self.

Ideas in Bava Metzia
On Bava Metzia page 104
I was looking over what I wrote about cleanliness and uncleaniless and leaning. I think at least at the end of that essay I need to explain that when I was putting the opinion of the Ri and Rabbainy Shimshon together I was intending to explain Rashi. That is leaning in the case of a strong  or weak tree with not make the person that is leaned on by the Zav to be unclean. Only if the Zav moves him as in the case of the weak tree.

Now I think I needed to do this from several reasons. One is that to answer my very first question what kind of unlcleaniness gets transmitted by leaning? After all that is what Rashi says in the case of the weak tree. So I needed the Rash [Rabbainu Shimshon to get some kind of uncleanilness to be by leaning. And then I needed the Ri [Rabbainu Isaac] to get that kind of uncleanliness to only make food or drink unclean. With these two ideas together I hope to explain that Rashi.

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On ב''מ ק''ד ע''ב
I was looking over what I wrote about טומאה וטהרה והשענה and leaning. I think at least at the end of that essay I need to explain that when I was putting the opinion of the ר''י and ר''ש together I was intending to explain רש''י. That is leaning in the case of a strong  or weak tree with not make the person that is leaned on by the זב to be טמא. Only if the זב moves him as in the case of the weak tree.

Now I think I needed to do this from several reasons. One is that to answer my very first question what kind of טומאה gets transmitted by השענה? After all that is what רש''י says in the case of the weak tree. So I needed the ר''ש to get some kind of טומאה to be by leaning. And then I needed the ר''י  to get that kind of uncleanliness to only make food or drink טמאים. With these two ideas together I hope to explain that רש''י.

 ב''מ ק''ד ע''ב כשאני  משווה את דעתם של ר''י ור''ש ביחד אני מתכוון להסביר רש''י. כי הוא השענה במקרה של עץ חזק  לא עושה את האדם טמא, הגם שהוא נשען על ידי זב. רק אם הזב מזיז אותו כמו במקרה של העץ החלש. עכשיו אני חושב שאני צריך לעשות את זה מכמה סיבות. אחת הוא שכדי לענות על השאלה הראשונה שלי איזה סוג של טומא  מועברת על ידי השענה? אחרי הכל זה מה שאומר רש''י במקרה של העץ החלש. אז אני צריך הר''ש כדי לקבל קצת סוג של טומא להיות על ידי השענה. ואז אני צריך הר''י כדי לקבל תוצאה שסוג כזה של טומאה רק מהפכת מזון או משקה טמאים. עם שני הרעיונות הללו יחד אני מקווה להסביר רש''י

A lot of what Torah is about is laws. The concerns about Torah are mainly about keeping the Law of Moses more that interpretation of the text. But there are also elements of Divine service.

With prayer the hidden self [ding an sich] gets connected with God. It is kind of  away to reach one's own essence and tie it to God. And besides that, I have seen enough people that learn Torah that are far from human perfection.


The basic way to do this is to pack a lunch and go off into the wilderness for a whole day and spend the whole day talking with God. If this is not possible then while you are walking down the street is a perfect time to engage in private conversation with God. One good idea about this is that the evil side disguises itself in good deeds. When people convince themselves they are doing some great mitzvah it is usually a heinous crime. The world would be a lot better off if people would stop doing mitzvas and simply be a selfish as possible. The way the evil side gets people is by conniving and convincing  them that they are doing some good deed. People doing mizvot is the destruction of the world. The Gra said it is better to sit in your room and twiddle your thumbs than to go about and look for mizvas to do. [See Sidur HaGra.]