Isaac Luria has a modification of the theory of ideas of Plato and the Neo Platonics. Just because some people take the Ari in wrong directions does not mean there is nothing to be gained from him.
I was troubled for some time by the fact of the Zohar itself not being from Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai but I think there is much to be gained from the Ari himself.
I will try to take a minute here to describe my own world view in short terms. In short I take the idea of Kant that there is a limit to pure reason. Beyond that there is the world of the form, [or ideas as Aristotle called it.] That realm has a hierarchy.  Forms of necessity. Areas of more human interest with have less strict forms and more numinous content. But there are areas of the world of forms that are more formal like Mathematical logic. These areas are not completely of bound to human reason because of their formal content.
But even those areas of formal content depend on a kind of knowledge which  reason perceives

Organized schizophrenia is not the same thing as being careful in keeping the commandments of the Torah.

Organized schizophrenia is the over emphasis of rituals in the religious world.

This is not the same thing as being careful in keeping the commandments of the Torah.
Organized schizophrenia is when you have had in the past some charismatic figure who was a schizoid personality type obsessed with ritual preparation of food and cleaning rituals and sex.
And because he was in control enough of his obsession to make sure to do them only at the right times and places he gained a following as being a holy man. [That is he was only schizoid, not schizophrenic.]
So these rituals gained acceptance and became obligatory.
So far this is well known. I have added nothing here to what is well known and commonly accepted.

We can see this tendency in the religious world. Mainly with the groups that are obsessed with rituals and  sex and food preparation and cleaning rituals. But this can be traced back further. See the Sidur of Saadia Gaon and the order of prayers of the Rambam. We can see how things just kept getting added on and added on until there is no time left in the day to do anything,-- especially not learning Torah.

But what I wanted to add today is an idea from the מסילת ישרים Paths of the Just by Rav Moshe Chaim Lutzatto. That is that the outer affects the inner. Thus by extra strictness in חומרות added restrictions which were added on by some schizoid personality and became accepted by the whole social organism one becomes himself schizoid.

Appendix: This is well known concerning Pesukai DeZimra--the part of the morning prayer before the blessings on Kriat Shema. But the reason I mentioned the sidur of Saadia Gaon is the the first blessing of Kriat Shema itself is about three lines. The opening blessing, a short sentence, and the closing. ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם יוצר אור ובורא חושך then about ten words after that. And then ברוך ... יצר המאורות

So the problem seems to be be that the leaders of the religious community tend to be schizoid personalities that gain their fame from their fanatic addiction to rituals. It is a great thing that the Na Nach groups have noticed this problem. And in fact Reb Nachman himself made a note of the fact that often the leaders of the religious are demonic and so urged caution in this regard. My own approach is that I have been hurt so much and so often by the religious community that I simply refuse to have anything to do with them because I figure at this point the Sitra Achra has just taken over the whole thing lock, stock and barrel. I get panicky just by seeing them because of the kind of damage they have already caused me.

To Hagai the prophet during the years of Darius came the word of God. He told Hagai that the people are saying, "It is not the right time to build the house of God." So God told Hagai to ask them, "You have time to sit in your houses and plant your vineyards, but you do not have time to build the house of God?"

You have to get the context right. The First Temple was ordered by God to be built while the Jewish people were still not even in the Land of Israel yet. You can see this in the later parts of Exodus. In those later parts of Exodus you can see God ordering the Jewish people to build a temple and bring daily offerings there. And later in Leviticus you can see many kinds of sacrifices that are to be brought there and the words are used חוקת עולם an everlasting law.

Later the Temple was destroyed by the King of Babylon. So what we have here in this later prophet is the idea that the Jewish people should rebuild the Temple in order to keep God's Law, the Law of Moses.

The house of God here is not a synagogue. It is the Temple in Jerusalem. And this is not personal nor subject to individual interpretation. It is a straight forward order by God to build the Temple.

Darius is famous in the Old Testament. He is also the King or Persia that had the famous run in with the Athenians.. The Athenians supported a rebellion of Ionian a Greek colony in Italy that was under Persian rule. The Athenians burnt the ships that Darius had sent to squelch the rebellion. When the messenger told him the Athenians had burnt his ships, he asked "Who are the Athenians?"
He swore to burnt Athens to the ground, and started the First of the Persian Grecian Wars
Presumably. by that time, he knew who the Athenians were. His expedition to conquer Greece included about a half a million men. It was the greatest armada the world had ever seen up until. Nothing stood between him and total conquest of ancient Greece except 300 Spartans.



His work to conquer Ancient Greece was stopped but his work to rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem earned him  honor and mention in the prophets.

One reason to go into the Navy is to learn how to be a man, a mensch. There is something about learning how to be a man that one does not get by books of Musar or even by learning Torah.

This does not apply to any armed forces, but rather to armed forces that are devoted towards righteous causes.
But people that learn what it is to be honest and reliable and upright and trustworthy from books alone never end up with these traits.

The last person you want watching your back in a survival situation is a religious teacher.  A religious teacher will be the first person to betray you to the enemy.Much less be trustworthy.


The main profession that the religious world learns is how to ask others for money. That is their main goal in life. How to get money from others.


The way they do this is sneaky. They pretend to be doing public service by getting people to  do meaningless rituals and then expect to get paid for that. They also make yeshivas that are frauds. They pretend we are all one big happy family but then when one is on board the ship and no longer is able to learn an independent livelihood they throw off the pretense and it becomes about being their slaves.

Kitzur Shulchan Aruch [Abridged Shulchan Aruch]

The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch [Abridged Shulchan Aruch] is a good book in many ways. It does give a basic synopsis of practical laws. But it has a flaw that it says to go to  religious teachers when in doubt.  Religious teachers are not honest. You can not trust them about anything. I do not know why this is but they can be trusted to do as much damage to you and to me given the slightest chance. And they have no idea of Torah law either. If in doubt about some particular case of Torah law, the only choice is to go to the Gemara directly. [Even going to the actual complete Shulchan Aruch of Yoseph Karo does not help, because you anyway have to go to the Gemara to see how the law is applied and understood.
There is no skipping of this step. However, when one has learned the subject in the  Gemara thoroughly, then the actual Shuclan Aruch with its commentaries is a useful tool.

r66 D minor

Definition of a religious teacher: an idiot that thinks he is smart and in fact smarter than anyone else and therefore people ought to give him money.

 Perhaps one of the most ugly and perfidious concepts is that somehow  religious teacher are righteous, loving and virtuous. 


They work  politically and economically  for  destruction of secular Jews and Baali Teshuva and the State of Israel.


You are told in a constant sensory assault that these religious teachers who cannot do for themselves and live off the charity of secular Jews, it is your duty to lug the ever burdensome dead weight across your own back until you are satisfactorily broken, beaten and demoralized.

Definition of an  religious teacher: an idiot that thinks he is smart and in fact smarter than anyone else and therefore people ought to give him money.


The farther you stay away from this class of creeps, the closer you will be to God and to the holy Torah.