23.11.16
Musar {Torah Ethics} and Halacha.
My approach to Musar is to emphasize the classical books of Torah ethics from the Middle Ages. That is what would be called the rational approach. The more mystic approach which got into Musar I tend to think was an unfortunate detour. No offence to the Ari {Isaac Luria} but that approach tends to fanaticism and delusion. When I was more involved with Musar I tried to go through all the basic set of the books written by the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter and this I still think is important.
[When Bava Sali came to Yerushalim on on of his first visits and people came to him to get a blessing he told his gabai [servant] not to let any kabalist in.]
My approach to Halacha is to learn Gemara and to depend on דינא דתלמוד the law of the Talmud. Only after learning the subject in the Gemara itself does it make sense to me to look up how the Tur Beit Yoseph understands any given subject. There are no short cuts. And see the Nefesh haChaim "אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא". "The only thing that matters is the law of the Gemara." He wrote this to a rav that he knew had made a wrong decision.
The thing to be careful of is religious people that use the appearance of Torah to hide their cults.
In any case to come to fear of God which is one of the major goals of Musar is not solely by learning Musar but Physics and Metaphysics also as the Rambam stated clearly in the Mishna Torah and the Guide and hints to in many place. Musar is important but to the Rambam it is not the real source of fear of God.
[When Bava Sali came to Yerushalim on on of his first visits and people came to him to get a blessing he told his gabai [servant] not to let any kabalist in.]
My approach to Halacha is to learn Gemara and to depend on דינא דתלמוד the law of the Talmud. Only after learning the subject in the Gemara itself does it make sense to me to look up how the Tur Beit Yoseph understands any given subject. There are no short cuts. And see the Nefesh haChaim "אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא". "The only thing that matters is the law of the Gemara." He wrote this to a rav that he knew had made a wrong decision.
The thing to be careful of is religious people that use the appearance of Torah to hide their cults.
In any case to come to fear of God which is one of the major goals of Musar is not solely by learning Musar but Physics and Metaphysics also as the Rambam stated clearly in the Mishna Torah and the Guide and hints to in many place. Musar is important but to the Rambam it is not the real source of fear of God.
22.11.16
[frivorce] frivolous divorce
I went through this [frivorce] (see this link) in around 1990. This left me with not just a personal problem but also an intellectual problem. That is how to synthesis the information in order to create a more accurate worldview and then to act properly based on this new world view. I never got very far with this, But i found an approximate solution based on the opinion of Maimonides and Rabbainu Yona from Granada. That is to concentrate of personal improvement and not look at what is wrong with others but rather to find what is wrong with me and to seek to improve myself. That is to learn the Law of Moses, Physics and Metaphysics. That is I attributed my problems to some kind of lack of understanding and some kind of attitude problem and some kind of lack of good character within myself. I figured if I could change myself for the better then the whole world would change for the better. But I needed an accurate idea of what is good character. So I needed to synthesize information that I was getting from reading the Law of Moses (Written and Oral) and reading about the world and also experience.
Appendix:
(1)(The main thing is not to affix blame on anyone but rather to work on self improvement and to stay away from evil people that will harm you and your family if given half a chance. This is part of the Mizvah of not saying Lashon Hara which comes in the same place in the Torah along with the mizvah do not stand by the blood of your neighbor. That is there is an obligation to warn people about dangerous people-which means mainly religious teachers whom I find to be highly dangerous for marriage and families.]
(4) [When the Rambam Maimonides refers to Physics and Metaphysics he says he is talking about these subjects as understood by the ancient Greeks.] My opinion about it is it would include Kant and Hegel.
My impression always was there is a big difference between authentic Torah at Lithuanian yeshivas,- and the false Torah of the Sitra Achra of the religious world. [Reb Nachman did warn about religious teachers an considered them as a rule to be quite evil. His term for them was "Torah scholars that are demons תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודים" This sounds harsh but in fact seem like an accurate description of the vast majority of them.]. The main difference is that the ultra religious world makes up tons of rituals which have nothing to do with Torah and they claim it is Torah. The Lithuanian world tends to focus on what the Torah actually requires.
Appendix:
(1)(The main thing is not to affix blame on anyone but rather to work on self improvement and to stay away from evil people that will harm you and your family if given half a chance. This is part of the Mizvah of not saying Lashon Hara which comes in the same place in the Torah along with the mizvah do not stand by the blood of your neighbor. That is there is an obligation to warn people about dangerous people-which means mainly religious teachers whom I find to be highly dangerous for marriage and families.]
(4) [When the Rambam Maimonides refers to Physics and Metaphysics he says he is talking about these subjects as understood by the ancient Greeks.] My opinion about it is it would include Kant and Hegel.
My impression always was there is a big difference between authentic Torah at Lithuanian yeshivas,- and the false Torah of the Sitra Achra of the religious world. [Reb Nachman did warn about religious teachers an considered them as a rule to be quite evil. His term for them was "Torah scholars that are demons תלמידי חכמים שדים יהודים" This sounds harsh but in fact seem like an accurate description of the vast majority of them.]. The main difference is that the ultra religious world makes up tons of rituals which have nothing to do with Torah and they claim it is Torah. The Lithuanian world tends to focus on what the Torah actually requires.
21.11.16
The Closing of the American Mind
It was Allen Bloom [The Closing of the American Mind] that thought there was a direct contradiction between two opposite flows of thought enlightenment and anti enlightenment that were coming int direct collision in the USA universities in the 1990's. His solution was to learn the Republic of Plato along with what was called the great books.
Why would he have not mentioned learning Torah? Certainly the Gra would have. Is it possible that he had noticed that Torah alone does not produce the kind of answers he was looking for?
It seems the Gra and the Rambam both must have seen the same.
The program of the Rambam would be to learn the יד החזקה the Mishne Torah, Physics and Metaphysics. The Gra said that to the degree that one is lacking any knowledge of the seven wisdoms to that degree he will be lacking in knowledge of Torah.
So they are both thinking of a polynomic theory of value. Torah provides an "in" into Numinous value. But they wanted a balance of values.
Why would he have not mentioned learning Torah? Certainly the Gra would have. Is it possible that he had noticed that Torah alone does not produce the kind of answers he was looking for?
It seems the Gra and the Rambam both must have seen the same.
The program of the Rambam would be to learn the יד החזקה the Mishne Torah, Physics and Metaphysics. The Gra said that to the degree that one is lacking any knowledge of the seven wisdoms to that degree he will be lacking in knowledge of Torah.
So they are both thinking of a polynomic theory of value. Torah provides an "in" into Numinous value. But they wanted a balance of values.
20.11.16
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an amazing book but I think a little unfair to the Middle Ages.Work then was being done on lots of fronts like Faith and Reason and lots of areas. Progress was being made that made things later possible. One example that comes to mind is water technology. That was a total Medieval invention. And when electricity was discovered it was easy to transfer from water to electricity.
It is common to find people that do not respect the Middle Ages. One of my first lessons in yeshiva as to correct me from that attitude. "Rishonim" are not just considered more logically rigorous than achronim. They are in fact more logically rigorous.
It is common to find people that do not respect the Middle Ages. One of my first lessons in yeshiva as to correct me from that attitude. "Rishonim" are not just considered more logically rigorous than achronim. They are in fact more logically rigorous.
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