Jewish religious teachers desire control.

Religious teachers desire control.

Their statements are subtle but the reality is to get you to accept their interpretation as a continual revelation from Hashem {God}  and the need for you to come under their control. The religious teachers present themselves as gurus to Jewish people. To people that are supposed by them, unable to know the truth and understand the times by the Law of Moses, but in need of intense and constant clarification by the religious  leadership of what God is saying to us by what He didn't say. 


The trouble is that people are afraid of calling these religious groups by their proper name: cults.


Besides that above mentioned thought I had a few more thing I wanted to say today that are kind of relevant. One is that cults vary by measures. So for example Litvak yeshivas might seems to exercise  some measure of control but that does not make them a cult but rather human institutions that do their best to teach and keep the Written and Oral Law of Moses. That is legitimate. In my first yeshiva Shar Yashuv there were even more aspects of control, but it was not a cult but rather an effective institution designed and built to further the learning and keeping of the Torah. I have to say I think the level of learning was at least as great as the Mir Yeshiva in NY.

The other thing I wanted to add is that sometimes even a rel cult can be a lot better than other cults. It is all a matter of perspective. So if someone is involved in some Buddhist group that does not bother me when I realize there are many much worse things.  

 So I am trying to defend the idea that the Torah was given by God to be necessary and sufficient. No need for frauds. No need for magic "sugulot." No need for Occult teachings.Using mitzvot as "segulot" magic means of getting God to do our will is just as much Occult as witchcraft.

To claim a revelation or a miracle represents an attempt, essentially, to add new content to the Torah.

    Many today would affirm a stern rebuke to kabalistic pretenders: "The pretending to extraordinary revelations and gifts of  Ruach Hakodesh [Divine Spirit] is a horrid thing, a very horrid thing." 
 What is the reason ? Simply because, in history, miracles have come to signify the additional revelation of qualitatively new  doctrines, principally, in Torah. To claim a revelation or a miracle represents an attempt, essentially, to add new content to the Torah.
    The modern conflict over the cessation of miraculous gifts has antecedents as old as the fairly sophisticated arguments of Talmud. But the cessationist doctrine found its classic expression in these ways 1) The essential role of the miraculous is  to accredit normative Torah doctrine and its bearers. 2) While God may providentially act in unusual, even striking ways, true miracles are limited to epochs of special divine revelation, i.e., those within the Torah and prophets  period. 3) Miracles are judged by the doctrines they purport to accredit: if the doctrines are false, or alter authentic Torah doctrines, their accompanying miracles are necessarily counterfeit.


The role of miracles in the religious Jewish world is universality in order to add doctrines to Torah and to promote some kind of idol worship of some religious mad man.  The trouble is not the Sitra Achra--miracles from the Dark Side but rather miracles from the Intermediate Zone which is a mixture of good and evil.The fact that it has good in it makes it hard to discern.

I do not want to seem too dogmatic about the basic world view  of Torah. Rather it is when the world view of Torah is replaced by a completely foreign ideology of worship of people and then they call that "Torah," then I get riled up. In any case, I am happy to express these ideas here to give clarity to why the Gra signed the excommunication חרם. I mentioned this before but here I gave a little bit of insight I hope to why he signed it.

(Isaac Luria)

While I have great respect for Rabainu the Arizal (Isaac Luria) , still his path and teachings definitely lead into idolatry and the Sitra Achra [Dark Side] by means of the slippery slope. How many people have you seen that became more compassionate and decent people because of learning the Ari?

The trouble is not that it is liable to misuse and misrepresentation. Rather that it almost automatically falls into misuse and delusions.


The truth be told I have no idea how mysticism got to be considered a legitimate part of Torah. The fruits seems to be uniformly bad. What is wrong with just learning and keeping the Law of Moses straight and simple? [That is the written Law of Moses plus its Oral Commentary, the two Talmuds Bavli and Yerushalmi.]


The trouble is that there is a difference between Torah and mysticism. Torah is not about mystic experience. The whole inner essence of what it means to learn and keep the Torah is  opposite of mystic experience. And yet the mystic approach is the default position of the religious world.
[That is either to gain mystic experience; or to believe in some religious crazy person;s ecstatic experience and revelations. That nut case's delusions then become so important they take the place of authentic Torah. They become more authoritative that the holy Torah]



I saw plenty of "kabalists" and teachers but never the slightest bit of truth or even simple human decency in any of them. With no offence intended towards the Ari himself, I think it is best to avoid.

When Bava Sali came from Morocco to visit Jerusalem [cira 1970] and accepted the people for blessing and advice he gave instructions to not let any "kabalist enter."

The trouble is today all teachers along supposedly along the lines of the Ari are deceivers and frauds and know little if anything about the holy Torah or even the Ari's system. It is all part of the New Age Movement.


The basic ideas of the kabalah are not all that original. The "sparks of holiness" idea is from the Gnostics. The "Tzitzum" is from the pre Soctratics. The ten sepherot from Ptolemy, etc. That does not invalidate it, but it certainly to me makes it a lot less interesting.

And why people appeal to its authority? That is in order to get people to worship their mini gods, religious people that they follow. The do this by pretending to some secret knowledge.


 The answer to this is from the Gemara circa Sanhedrin 65. "What is the difference between him and us?" [The Gemara there brings an argument. If a  person says "serve me" he obviously gets the death penalty for being a seducer to do idolatry. The question is if someone says "yes." One opinion is the person that said "yes" was just making fun of him because "What is the difference between him and us?" The other opinion is the one who said "yes" does get the death penalty. ]

The trouble is nowadays there are too many false religious leaders that have been absorbed into the intermediate zone. The kelipa that is a mixture of good and evil.

The trouble seems to be השחתת המידות destruction of good character traits when one gets involved.


 The Zohar itself was accepted by sincere people. Still it is not from R.Shimon Ben Yochai as אם כל דא is a medieval expression invented by the Ibn Tibon family and it appears all the time in the Zohar.


Some suggest it was written by גילוי נשמת ר' שמעון. That does not seem much better because of the problem of דורש אל המתים. In any case the fact that sincere people were fooled does not mean it is legitimate.

People do have  a world view whether they like it  or not. See the CPR of Kant. Kant's ideas can be further expanded by means of Howard Bloom. That is besides the eye glasses that we must see the world by [space an time and the categories,] there are world views that we adopt. Bloom uses the idea of the meme. That is a constellations of beliefs around a central belief. This does not have to be conscious. The more pervasive and powerful the beliefs are the more one is unaware that he has them. They seem simply obvious.


You  could use this idea to provide an argument for learning Musar [Mediaeval Ethics.] That is to learn the classic books of the middle ages חובות לבבות אורחות צדיקים שערי תשובה along with the writings of the Gra, and the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach. That is in order to gain a Torah perspective.

Many people have been greatly impressed by  cults. Designed to be an introduction to the Torah through talks, video presentations, small-group discussions and a special weekend-away, lots of synagogues are now employing cult approaches  as part of their outreach.

Cults have been a run-away-success, and their fame has spread far over the whole world,

  Cults have been adapted so as to be accessible to young people, and have also proved versatile enough to be used in prisons, schools and places of work.

Are the popular cults leading people astray?

Synagogues in  cities and rural areas have found cult teaching sufficiently flexible for their needs. Future plans for expansion suggests that cult teaching is very much here to stay. What is more, many people claim to have been helped through going to cults  and believe they has bought them an understanding of God and how to respond to Him. Accounts of wonderful things that have happened to individuals abound; In the light of all this, surely there cannot be anything wrong with it?

With so many in today's society gripped by materialism and atheism, can cults be anything other than  good things? As young people become hopelessly enmeshed in a godless culture, should we not applaud the efforts of cults and help make them a success?

We wished that the answers to these questions could be an emphatic Yes. But closer examination of cults prevents such a clean bill of health being given. Why this concern? There are vital reasons I would like to bring to your attention.

1. The God of cults is not the God of the Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 

Cults quote from the Torah a lot. But for all this, they do not present us with the God who has revealed Himself in the Torah. There is much we could say about the God of the Torah. He is the Creator of the universe and the one who upholds it and maintains it. He is a great King and Sovereign over all He has made. We are challenged to ponder:

" To whom then will you liken me. Or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of his might and the strength of his power; Not one is missing." (Isaiah 40:25-26)



Now of course much more could be said. But you will have to search hard and long in cults to find a God that resembles the One just described. Nothing about Him as Creator, nothing about Him as a great King. He is assumed to be everything.


5. The Ruach Hakodesh (unholy spirit) of cults is not the Ruach Hakodesh  (holy spirit) of the Torah.

It is because cult's unholy spirit is the agent for giving to people an 'experience'.

The main focus for this is the cults People doing cults are told to expect all manner of things might happen to them.



This is all very interesting but it has nothing to do with the Torah.  Nowhere are any phenomena such as these attributed to the spirit of God. Cult's unholy spirit appears to work in ways that lie outside the confines of Torah. Whoever it is that people are 'introduced' to at the cults, it is not the Holy Torah.



For all their efforts, cults do not help us to know God. They do not describe the true and living God for us. They does not diagnose man's condition accurately enough. They substitutes an un-Torah view of God. To cap it all, the whole issue of Torah is grievously misunderstood.


The needs of our souls for the living waters of the Law of Moses and life-saving truth are far too precious and important to be ought down to this level. WE need the unvarnished truth of the  Law of Moses.


To leave someone believing they are in Torah when they are not is an awful prospect. Yet that is what we are risking using defective tools such as cults, 'having a form of rituals but denying  Torah  We must do better. Failure is too high a price to pay.

s60 E Flat Major  s60 in midi   s60 in nwc format

“social justice.”

An Italian priest, Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio,  wrote a book about the need for recovering the ancient virtue of what had been called “general justice” in Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, but in a new contemporary form. [ See Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio, S.J., Theoretical Treatise on Natural Right Based on Fact (1840-1843).] He gave it the term “social justice.” The term was given prominence by Antonio Rosmini-Serbati in La Costitutione Secondo la Giustizia Sociale in 1848. (Hayek, Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 2: The Mirage of Social Justice, p. 176. http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/Social-Justice-Not-What-You-Think-It-Is#_ftn7#_ftn7)


First: many promoters have brought in the Torah to validate this practice. They claim Torah is teaching socialism. Second: The United states governmental system, is not perfect, it was based on some Torah principles and the overarching theme was to give freedom, self - governance to individuals, not government control over the minute aspects of our lives, especially on our finances. This was different than every other government existing at the time.

One of the main framers of our constitution stated: “To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it” (Thomas Jefferson, letter to Joseph Milligan, April 6, 1816).


Social Justice = Theft via the government. 

Though my family went to Temple Israel in Hollywood [which is a great place], still when the message about social justice was announced there my mother and father were cold in their reaction. They did not think that the Torah was about social justice but rather about real justice. "Thou shalt not steal,"  is an important principle even if the theft is done by means of government.

I should mention that in the Torah there is מעשר עני the tenth of the crops that go to poor people on the 3rd and 6th year of the Shemita cycle plus the fact that on the Shemita anyone can come into one's field and gather what grows by itself. 

This however is not a blank check for the government to take what it wants and redistribute it to those that vote for it.