r5 F Major 3-4 time    [r5 in midi format]

It hard for me to imagine the whole Yaakov Abuchatzeira thing disappeared into thin air.  While it is true we don't have anything anywhere near the Bava  Sali, still I recommend going to see his descendants and getting a blessing and also going to anyone descended from that family on the festival days and Shabat. During the week I recommend learning Gemara and Musar at home or in a local Beit Midrash {study hall for Gemara  only.}

I had a close friendship with a grandson of Bava Sali, Shimon Buso who was a teacher in the Ponovitch branch in Jerusalem for a number  of years and I knew the whole Buso family pretty well. It is a good idea to get a blessing from any of them.


Of course if you are in the vicinity of an authentic, Litvak yeshiva then by all means learn there and support it--if it is the real thing and not just an excuse to ask secular Jews for for money.

I might make a list of the good yeshivas--Ponovitch, the Litvak yeshivas in NY, Brisk and their branches.[The NY ones are Mir, Torah VeDaat, and Chaim Berlin.] {I did not mention Tifrach because as far as I know it stems from Ponovitch, so it is included automatically.]
If you are not in the area of any of these then make your own yeshiva at home. Get the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach, the Chidushei HaRambam of Reb Chaim Soloveitchik and learn them on your own.

Some have brought up the subject of Zionism as a form of nationalism. Also "Self determination."
But self determination does not seem like nationalism. Nationalism is defensible with Hegel. But self determination is incoherent. What is the group? This was noticed right away when Wilson proposed self determination as a principle. It automatically leads to conflict. However nationalism is  perfectly legitimate and can be defended by Hegel.  [But then you would have to defend Hegel, which I think is possible and even desirable. ]


I believe the point was raised right away after Wilson stated this principle. Self Determination has not lower limit, and no upper limit. It is a simply a principle that gives a way for people to make trouble when they don't like the way things are going. Serbia is one good example. Nationalism however is something that is defended by Hegel. So one would have to see exactly what kind of nationalism he is defending and why. Certainly he is not saying self determination for everyone. He means a kind of nationalism that has associated with it an upward vector. It is not stationary.

Reb Aaron Kotler and Zionism

 I was in Israel and at the time identified with the Ultra Religious.  And then I saw a book of Aaron Kotler and saw  that he said דינא דמלכותא דינא "the law of the country is the law." So I realized then that my anti Zionist stance was mistaken. Reb Moshe Feinstein also said the same thing. Since then I have been supportive of the State of Israel.

ADL Anti defamation League  I have seen them defend things I thought were not very good. I forget exactly but I seem to recall they wanted to ban celebrations of Christmas and the Ten Commandments and such things. I would assume they might have something to do with the banning of the Confederate Battle Flag in the South. That suggests to me they must be Democrats. They seem to be on some kind of crusade to wipe out morality and values.

Notes

Reb Aaron Kotler was a very great Torah sage who had learned I think in Kletzk and wrote a very good book on Shas and a book of Ethics. The book on Ethics is where I saw this opinion of his.

I really can't tell who was greater, but Reb Aaron is considered to have been as great as Reb Moshe Feinstein or perhaps greater. My own experience with Litvish gedolim was confined to Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY. That is Reb Naphtali Yeager and Reb Shmuel Brudny, Reb Shmuel Berenbaum, the author of the Sukat David and Reb Shraga Moshe Kalmanovitch. My impression of all of them is very high. I think Reb Shmuel Berenabum was the deepest thinker and I think Naftapli Yaeger is the most rigorous.

The person that probably was the greatest of that generation was Rav Shach in Ponovitch.[He wrote the Avi Ezri which is an amazing book.]

Nowadays there is not much left. For guidance, the best people around are probably the descendants of Reb Yaakov Abuchazteira and Bava Sali. [Though I admit I am not  aware of who is who. I know Shimon Buso -a grandson of Bava Sali, but that is about all.]

s20 A major    s-20 in midi format

Religious teachers get sexual pleasure

Religious teachers get sexual pleasure out of being the Alpha male in the room even when they are not actually have sexual intercourse with the women.

It is the good feeling men get when they receive approval from women. It is part sexual (He thinks: "She’s happy with me, so maybe I’ll get lucky"), and part seeking approval from mommy. This same motive can manifest in seemingly opposite actions. A religious teacher who sets himself up as the only real man in the room is seeking the adulation of all of the women in the congregation. He wants their attention and approval all for himself, and is jealous that another man (their husband) would receive what is in his mind rightfully his. On the other side we have the more straightforward groveling beta male, who thinks by lowering himself (along with all other men), he will gain women’s approval.

Both strategies work in that they generate the "high". However, only the Alpha Male religious teachers receives sexual attention from the women they are posing for.

I can imagine many people have suspected this but not been able to put it into words. It tends to lower the desire to go to church when you realize that you are feeding into the Alpha Male's sexual pleasures.

vindictive ex-wives

Here is an amazing comment I saw on blog called judgybitch.com in answer to a feminist.



" I've thought long and hard on your remarks before composing this reply. Unfortunately you are right that a growing number of children are growing up fatherless here in the US and in the UK, innocent casualties of the divorces imposed on them by their mothers and fathers.
I will only speak as a divorced father and no one else. During the divorce process (in the mid 1980s, not recently) I was told by my attorney that in 98% of the cases, the mother was automatically awarded primary custody; my wanting to fight her in court over custody for my kids was an almost sure loss for me. He was right.

Being the stubborn bastard that I can be sometimes, I STILL wanted to fight for my children regardless of what the lawyer said. Ah, then during a very brief meeting with one of my soon to be ex-brother-in-laws it was told to me that if I persisted in contesting for custody of my children, I would be accused to sexually abusing them to ensure I would remain in the justice system until bankrupted. This was not a veiled threat, but plainly spoken to let me know the cost. So to answer part of your remarks; I would have dearly LOVED and cherished the opportunity to raise my own children.


" Why not make a father raise the child if the mother is financially unable to." I only wish to god that I could have had the chance to raise them myself, no one would have had to twist my arm to provide for my own little ones.

Please, before thinking that men can easily walk away from their kids, consider that they might be forcibly driven away by the vindictive ex-wives, and not of their own choice."