political power in the hands of the unjust

Socrates once had a chance to debate a person of great political power in Athens. Socrates thought that political power in the hands of people that do not know the difference between justice and injustice is a bad thing. He brought an example of Cleon an orator that had convinced the Athenians to execute all the males of some city that had rebelled. The decree was recalled when the Athenians came to their senses and sent a ship to overtake the first ship that had the first set of orders.

Religious teachers are stupid. It is possible to generalize about groups of people. To say one can't is absurd. You might as well say you can't generalize about child pornographers. Or you can't generalize about pedophiles. How can you say they are all bad. No. I can say they are all bad.

Religious teachers claim to be able to understand the Talmud.That is clearly false to anyone who has ever asked them a question about anyplace in the Talmud.

They always lie about what the Torah says because they are trying to change Torah into a recipe for making people give them money. They will claim whatever clams people like to hear about anything besides this one basic point.

It is possible to generalize about groups of people. To say one can't is absurd. You might as well say you can't generalize about child pornographers. Or you can't generalize about pedophiles. How can you say they are all bad. No. I can say they are all bad.


People in Litvak (Lithuanian) yeshivas certainly do know the material well, but all practicing religious teacher not only are stupid when it comes to the Talmud but also do not care what it says. They just want to continue their pretense in order to preserve their status quo in which they get all the perks and the working people have to bow to them. They make good money off of rituals.
{See Animal Farm in detail by George Orwell.}



There are two reasons for saying this. One is Rabainu Yona. That is his is the opinion that Lashon HaRa (slander) does not apply to truth unless the damage caused by it would not be according to the din (law) of the Torah. That is in plain English Lashon Hara (slander) to him is specifically on lies. Truth (true slander) is only forbidden because of collateral damage. [See the Chafetz Chaim Vol I chapter 4 and Vol I chapter 7.] In this case, the damage the religious teachers cause is so vast and encompassing of every single Jewish home, that there is no choice but to make this public. And the Chafez Chaim decided like Rabainu Yona.[That is in chapter 7 he makes this clear even though he uses the language of the Rambam in the beginning of chapter one. For some reason I do not understand the Chafetz Chaim did not mention this argument between the Rambam and Rabainu Yona openly. This is very curious to me.]

But I think that even the Rambam would agree here. Even though to him Lashon Hara is on truth still to warn people about a danger that they otherwise would not be aware of I think he would agree is permissible and even praiseworthy. [Otherwise the only time you could even warn someone would be in Bet Din. You could not even warn your own teenage children about avoiding some bad cult. What the Rambam might do is go a completely different route than Rabainu Yona. That is he might say מומר לדבר אחד אינו מומר לכל התורה כולה a person that does not keep one mitzvah is not a person that keeps no mitzvot. But he is still a "mumar,"  and thus lashon hara on him is allowed. It is allowed not because it is true but because the prohibition of lashon hara does not apply.]

That is to say: You have trusted the religious teachers until now. How did that work out for you? If you think they ruined your life, you are not alone. And they get this power from the pretense of knowing the Talmud.


Stupid is not the same as dumb. Dumb is just Dumb. But Stupid implies a kind of damage that they do. Stupid jerks telling others about Morality and ethics just can not have a good end to it.

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There are two reasons for saying this. One is רבינו יונה. That is his is the opinion that  לשון הרע does not apply to אמת unless the damage caused by it would not be according to the din (law) of the Torah. That is in plain English לשון הרע  to him is specifically on lies.  אמת true slander is only forbidden because of collateral damage. See the חפץ חיים חלק א' פרק ד'  ופרק ז. In this case, the damage the religious teachers cause is so vast and encompassing of every single Jewish home, that there is no choice but to make this public. And the חפץ חיים decided like רבינו יונה. That is in chapter שבע he makes this clear even though he uses the language of the רמב''ם in the beginning of chapter one. For some reason I do not understand the חפץ חיים did not mention this argument between the רמב''ם and רבינו יונה openly. This is very curious to me.

But I think that even the רמב''ם would agree here. Even though to him  לשון הרע is on truth still to warn people about a danger that they otherwise would not be aware of I think he would agree is permissible and even praiseworthy. Otherwise the only time you could even warn someone would be in בית דין. You could not even warn your own teenage children about avoiding some bad cult. What the רמב''ם might do is go a completely different route than רבינו יונה. That is he might say מומר לדבר אחד אינו מומר לכל התורה כולה a person that does not keep one מצווה is not a person that keeps no מצוות But he is still a מומר  and thus  לשון הרע on him is allowed. It is allowed not because it is true but because the prohibition of  לשון הרע does not apply.


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And  you could ask but he is still בכלל עמיתיך? So לשון הרע still applies to him? Answer Yes לשון הרע still applies to him but not on that one מצווה that he is not doing. 

But after a while I saw many of the cult's (that the Gra signed the excommunication on) obsessions with rituals was not coming from Torah, but from psychological defects that manifested themselves in many other ways.

There is a kind of schizo personality that is overly interested in religious matters

I tried to judge people that showed this tendency on the scales of merit. After all, the Torah is by its very nature all encompassing. But after a while I saw many people's obsessions with rituals was not coming from Torah, but from psychological defects that manifested themselves in many other ways.

So like Sapolsky I ask, "What does this mean?"  Even if there was one case in history of someone considered a tazdik who was merely suffering from some chemical problem, what does this mean?

"Religious leaders tend to be the most fervent and the most accomplished at carrying out the rituals."


If it is real, then there has to be some connection with menschliechkeit human decency. If that connection is not there, that is a sure sign the rituals are coming from a schizo personality.
And since, by and large, the relationship between rituals and human decency is inverse, therefore the majority of ritual-people are coming from either following a schizo personality, or they themselves are schizo.

The Schizo ritual obsessed  I think is an evolutionary strategy of nature. It has amazing reproductive advantages. It is the schizoid leaders of the cult that the Gra signed the  excommunication on that have the most reproductive success.

My Dad and the path of Torah and Science. He would not have put it in that way. He would have said "menschlichkeit"--"Be a decent human being." But much more. To be a mensch is to be honest loyal trustworthy hard working etc. All things that my father and mother were.

My Dad as a rule showed me his places of work. I went to visit the factory where he was producing his invention, a super sharp copying machine called the "copymate." Then we moved to Beverly Hills and his new place of work was very far away. (We were there for the high school. And was  a great school. My friends were super achievers, and I was a distant second place in everything I did.)
But I still managed to visit his place of work once. It was on an upper floor in the TRW building where he was working on a laser beam for the sake of satellite communication for the SDI project. I showed interest in science myself when I was young and also in elementary school. But in high school that interest went out the window. My interests were at that point in other directions like Philosophy and Music. Here is a piece I wrote then



But today I think the problem was that I did not have a good method for learning science. Still for me to have gone into science would have taken a lot of time. Nor was I aware of the Rambam's opinion about science at the time. I do not have pictures but here is a link to the Life Magazine article about my Dad

In high school I had a continuing interest in science but it was hard to do well in anything because of time constraints. I felt pulled in lots of directions. Not just philosophy and Music, but I found all my classes interesting and worthwhile. I wanted to do well in all of them. But there was the same old problem of time. I tried to solve it by applying to a private school, and  a college, and UCLA where I could concentrate on one thing alone. But nothing came of it. 

[I was accepted in all three places but did not have the guts to actually leave home.]

 By the time it came time to chose a career, I thought going to Mir in N.Y. made the most sense-- because it appealed to my philosophical side.  In other words, I was able to concentrate on one thing, and in fact the one thing that I really loved--learning Torah. 


My father and mother represented Torah with Derech Erez.
But I admit there are some people that sit and learn Torah all day and succeed. Rav Shach clearly held from the basic Litvak yeshiva model: learn  Torah and everything else will work out.


I never mention my mother because my Mom and Dad functioned as one unit. There was never a case where one or the other said I have to ask what the other one would say about this. Their coordination was extremely fine tuned. They always knew and agreed with what the other would say on any issue. They never argued. They never disagreed. And they loved each other and us kids with intense self sacrificing lobe as parents ought to be.


Appendix:

He entered active duty on July 20, 1944, and was an aircraft engineering officer 4823. His medals were the American Campaign Medal, Army of Occupation Medal and World War II Victory Medal. He served 1 ½ years in the US and almost 8 months in Europe. He left active duty on September 29, 1946. His serial number was 0 872 281. He was promoted to captain just before he left the US Army, and served in the US Army, Headquarters and Base Service Squadron 413th Air Service Group 40th Bomb Wing United States Air Forces European Theater. In the US, he served at Great Bend , Kansas and was in charge of maintaining 6 B-29 aircraft for the unit. He supervised the work of 75 enlisted men. In Europe, he was a civilian personnel officer. He served 8 months in the European Theater of Operations (France, Germany and Switzerland ) with the 413th Air Service Group and was in charge of 1500 German civilians, supervising 1 officer and 20 civilians. He spoke German fluently at the time.

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I terms of Torah what I suggest are the books of Rav Shach.

I terms of Torah what I suggest are the books of Rav Shach and Reb Chaim Soloveitchik. And  the basic Musar books I think you should know. There is a set of the classical Musar books the are the Chovot Levavot, אורחות צדיקים ספר הישר של רבינו תם. There are also a few books from the direct disciples of Reb Israel Salanter. מדרגת האדם אור ישראל. That is Reb Israel had one disciple Joseph Horvitz from Navardok and Isaac Blasser. 

Not everything the people say that sounds like Musar (Ethics) should be accepted as Musar. 


You see Musar itself is based on certain world views that the rishonim [mediaeval authorities] had. So even if you do not see them discussing their world views in their Musar (Ethics) books, still there is a strong connection between their world view and the Musar they wrote. So learning only the Musar means often people pick up world views from other sources without knowing it. So I see learning the Emunot VeDeot of Saadia Gaon and the Guide of the Rambam as being very important. 

I think the main reason people support Trump is they are thinking of the kind of freedoms that had before the Federal Government began intruding in every single aspect of private life.

What Donald Trump has done is launch a full-scale anti-Federalist counter-revolution. Many of his backers reject the idea that the Federal government has any power at the State or local level. They call for the repeal of Constitutional amendments that have increased the power of the Federal government, like the 14th, 16th and 17th. What they ultimately want is to recreate a free world. To paraphrase Michael Moore's documentary, "Dude, Where's My Country?" The Donald Trump answer is "The people you took it from are taking it back."