I have a problem with twisting the ideas of medieval scholars to make them fit with modern conceptions.  With no new evidence all that matters is how rigorous ones logic is. And in moral affairs there can not be new evidence. You can not derive an "ought" from an "is." Moral proposition requires moral principles that can not be derived by empirical evidence.
And when it comes to rigorous logic,  people have been denying the validity of reason or using circular reasoning since the end of the Middle Ages. They simply can not compare with intellectual giants. This is in the Jewish world also in terms of whom we call "Rishonim" medieval Authorities.) However where you can criticize medieval people is in the axioms.  Sometimes they use beginning principles that are self evident. That is the only place where they are sometimes weak. But even there if one is willing to dig deep he can find the kernel of truth in what they wrote.

I heard this idea of the importance of Rishonim from Motti Friefeld [the son of Shelomo Friefeld] and from what I have seen later it makes sense. It is the general approach of Authentic Litvak Yeshivas and by examination of Rishonim as compared to achronim it is easy to see that this approach is correct. [However some achronim are useful in order to help understand the Rishonim.  Personally I have always loved using the Maharsha in that way, and in later years I found Rav Shach's Avi Ezri to be very helpful in that way.

A nice video that applies to yeshiva

The yeshivas know this. You don't learn a vocation producing something that people need.
What you are saying when you go to yeshiva is I want to world to create  a job for me.

Th reason yeshivas are opening up is the bosses are saying if you can get the money out of these stupid kids parents and out of the State of Israel, then come and teach here. All you will do at the best if you get hired is to re-teach stupid "vorts" [stupid homilies] on the Parsha and tell everyone how they need to support you because it is the greatest mitzvah to support yeshivas. [Which it is not. To be paid for learning Torah is against the Torah].
And they will sell you out for a dime when it come time you need their help.
If they are willing to sell out the Torah,  why do you think they will refrain from selling you out?


And what will you learn? You will learn to blame the goyim and the State of Israel for your lack of success in life.
And you are going to want them to pay you for their supposed guilt. If you are baal teshuva and you believe them when they make believe they are your friends you are dork.

All religious teachers do is lie in order to get other people's hard earned money. And then claim that is what the Torah says.

If we would be talking about places that learn Torah for its own sake then none of this would apply. But the reality is they are about using Torah for a vocation even the kollel's. After all they are getting paid for learning -- are they not?

Religion is virtue Olympics

Religion is virtue Olympics. First one has to prove how strict he is in rituals. They he gets the scepter to rule over everyone else. The religious teachers are the equivalent of of the taskmasters that were set over the Jews in Egypt. The only difference is the religious teachers claim the authority of the Law of Moses to enslave the Jews. And the only way one can tell this is a deception is by knowing the Law oneself.

So learning Torah has two advantages. One is to know and to fulfill the law of Moses. The other is so that one can not be "taken for a ride" by fraudsters that claim to know it and interpret it in such a way that basically means everyone should be their slaves.

Stand against Tyrants and Tyranny!

Just to be clear I hold from the Oral and Written Law of Moses very highly, but I do not think the people that claim to teach it are honest. And the proof is in the pudding. Just compare their actions -not their words with the Law of the Torah and you will see there is no correspondence.

Of course if we were talking about the great Litvak Yeshivas, like Ponovitch or Brisk I would not say this. But the real authentic yeshivas are the exceptions not the rule. In the authentic yeshivas people certainly learn true virtue.--at least to the degree that virtue is teachable.

r87 g minor This might need a lot of work. I had to finish it fast because of all the crazy interruptions in the place I am staying. I was afraid if I do not finish it fast, it would not get finished at all. Still it seems to have some merit and I hope God grants to me some idea of how to edit it.

Pick your friends wisely. Pick your enemies even wiser.

Pick your friends wisely. Pick your enemies even wiser.

Falling into some group is not something that just happens on its own. One makes a choice. And then discovers it is easier to fall into something than it is to all out of it.

A good deal of my own enemies,  chose to be enemies for reasons unknown to me. I did not choose them. They hurt me and my family in secret as much and as often as they could all the time pretending to be my friends.

Some kinds of evil are easy to identify. Muslims clearly want to kill all infidels.  But there are other groups whose evil is harder to identify as they pretend to be friends. [I have found religious teachers to fit into this later category.]


Winston Churchill once said, "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a positive reference to the Devil in the House of Commons." The logic of this should be obvious. Churchill recognized (rightly) that maintaining Britain's liberal order was worth allying with the devil. No one went to war with the Nazis just because of the tactics they used. They primarily did it because they couldn't stand the idea of living under a Nazi regime. I can't stand the thought of living under the "quasi-totalitarian"  regime of religious teachers. They have shown themselves to be predictable as enemies towards moral and normal Jews. They think their black clothes gives them some kind of air of superiority. 

 Their opening gambit is to throw normal Jews  under the bus, so the enemy will appreciate the fact that they have shown themselves to be  reasonable fellows who follow principles.

The kinds of damage religious teachers did to me and my family were because we were not aware of them as enemies. If we had been aware they never could have succeeded in inflicting the kinds of damage that they did.

What sincere people that love the Law of Moses, the Oral and Written Law could do would be to make  a clear distinction between themselves and religious teachers. I have said this over before to people but my suggestion was ignored until now. If people understood my point they would make a clear difference between religious teachers and the Litvak Yeshiva World (good - as long as they keep the religious teachers out.)

Some people have suggested that there is a kind of war against man by the Dark Side. The Sitra Achra סיטרא אחרא and this seems a reasonable assumption. But then the question is how to identify what aspects of my own life are results of enslavement to the Dark Side?

Where can you see the influence of the Samech Mem? [Satan]?


So how to avoid the Satan is an important question. How to identify what there is in one's life that comes from the Dark Side. People can be working for the Dark Side and not know it. But they can be made aware of it when they see problems in their life. Problems one has are often reflections of what one is doing wrong.


Often one lets the Satan into his own life because he buys into some pre prepared package.  For example he buys into the 
religious narrative and thus accepts everything that is accepted in that society though some aspects of the Sitra Achra have penetrated it.  But he does not pay attention because he thinks by buying into it he will have a shiduch and a living. So he does not question.

The trouble with the religious world is that it is one thing to have a shaman. A schizoid personality type that is admired. It is another thing to put a schizo-typal personality in charge. 


I mean to say the best ideal of control of a community is as Aristotle said an Aristocracy--the rule of the best. What you have in the religious orld is the rule of the schizo typal personalities and the rule of the stupid.

So I do not hold by going to graves of tzadikim mainly because of the Ten Commandments. Monotheism. That is I am trying to get to a basic kind of keeping of the Law without adding on things or subtracting things  that  are not part of the Law

r85 F Sharp Minor    [r85 in midi]