Old Testament

My feeling is if the Old Testament occupies a central place in national life, then God, home, school and government are kept together, everything else good and right will happen. Remove the Bible, and civilization topples and crumbles into dust.

Brett Stevens: The question then becomes whether the Bible is the cause of that unity, or merely a common conduit that unites the other necessary parts.

Avraham Rosenblum says:

1. I would have to go with the former option based on the little I know about European and Roman History. I know this can be argued both ways, but it is simply my impression. Personally, I just can not see Western Civilization without the Bible [and Plato and Aristotle] as the foundation stone.

Early America felt also the Bible to be the main thing.  Americans up until 1920 saw the USA as Bible territory and wanted to defend it in that way. 

The trouble is with people that want to wipe out God and the Bible from the Earth.

[Just for the record, I am not against the New Testament. I think rather that Christians have misinterpreted Jesus. That is they go with Paul instead of with Peter and James as you can see in the Recognitions of Clement, the first pope of Rome. Furthermore, I see Jesus in a positive sense. This positive sense is not hard to define for myself because I learned the books of Reb Nachman from Uman, so I have a idea of what a "tzadik" (Jewish saint) means. But that concept can be hard to explain without that background.  In short, let me try to explain. It means a person that is in connection with some Divine trait in the world of Emanation. Thus, that person brings a certain kind of light or revelation into the world. Thus, I see Jesus as being a kind of Jewish Tzadik along the lines of Shimon Ben Yochai, Chanina Ben Dosa, or the Gra.

This idea I base mainly on a mystic Avraham Abulafia. [The favorite subject of Professor Moshe Idel at Hebrew University.] It has been awhile since around 1992 the first night of Hanuka that I was going through the micro films that had the writings of Avraham  Abulafia, and I came across this opinion of Rav Abulafia. I was so shocked that I could not move out of my seat, even though I had to go and light the Hanuka lights. [I was aware that Rav Abulafia himself was subject to debate. Still the opinion of Reb Chaim Vital (who quotes the books of Rav Abulafia at length) weighs a lot with me. And besides all that,-- I was aware of the opinion of Rav Yaakov Emden in his famous essay on this subject. Another important consideration is: acta non verba, deeds not words count. That is to say,-- that if I had not gone through a whole set of difficulties before that time, I would probably not have been open to the ideas of Rav Abulafia. I had to have seen where  deeds  did not correspond to words, and then seen where deeds corresponded to words. After seeing that clearly on a statistical significant basis, not a random basis, then I was much more open to accepting the words of Rav Avraham Abulafia.


Appendix: (1) I am aware that the Recognitions of Clement has a good deal of debate on it. But I am basing my opinions about this on much more. In my opinion you can see this in the NT itself.

(2) You can nowadays check up the opinion of Rav Abulafia since in the meantime someone made a printed edition of all of his works. You could also simply get the first book of Professor Moshe Idel at Hebrew University which  was in fact his Ph.D thesis. 

(3) The literal meaning of verses of the Old Testament is important. אין מקרא יוצא ידי פשוטו. Still sometimes its meaning is not literal. Like when Kind David said in Psalms "I am a worm and not a man."

(4) For what I mean by Emanation: the idea is based on the Ari Isaac Luria, but it is rather simple. It means a higher world (or pipeline) of God's holiness. One should not worship any tzadik, however belief in a tzadik brings a kind of blessing or flux into oneself. It is the same kind of thing that we believe in the prophecy of Moses or Samuel, but we do not worship them.

Some people are not very happy about Jesus because of the massacres of Jews during the Middle Ages,[e.g. 1240-1246 in Germany until stopped by Innocent IV on July 5, 1247 by letters he wrote to all German and French bishops demanding a stop to the persecution and redress of the wrongs..] There were a lot and they were horrific. Still abusus non tollit usum. If not then little could be justified.

The approach of the Rambam (Maimonides)

The approach of the Rambam (Maimonides) is pretty clear. The Oral Law, the Written Law, Physics and Metaphysics. I mean that it is easy to miss this message if one learns only the commentary on the Mishna and the Mishne Torah יד החזקה. But you can not miss this message in the Guide for the Perplexed. (It is in the Mishne Torah also but you have to know where to look.) The thing that makes this hard for people is they think if they do not understand every word they can not go further. Or they think it is only for smart people.
But as the Rambam makes clear, the mitzvah of learning Torah is for everyone young and old smart or dumb. The only way I can see however that this is possible for myself is by the method of learning brought in the Gemara Shabat,, to say the words and go on and not even care of you understand on the first reading. For you will understand after reading the material a second and third time etc.

[What I do with some texts is to get to some point in the middle an then do the chapters in reverse order as a kind of review. That is let' say the book has 600  pages. What I do with some books is to get to page 100 and then do the section in reverse order but still in the way of just saying the words and going on. For example lets say the last chapter I did was chapter 10 with ten sections. What I dd is 10.10. Then 10.9; then 10.8, etc. This I found best for texts in Math and Physics and I also did this for the writings of Isaac Luria.

T3 E flat major  [T3 in midi]

objective morality and Torah

My approach to Torah mainly depends on the idea of Kant and Schopenhauer of the Ding An Sich. That is an area of value in which pure reason [un -derived from experience ] can not enter.

That is to say that there is an area of objective morality that is not dependent on the observer. That is to say,-- that even though this world is radically subjective [The electron has no value, spin or otherwise, until measured.] that does not bear on objective morality. Objective morality is rules --universals. Those are objective.]

Thus I look at any person doing an act that is objective good and moral as a good person. So I look on Torah as revealing morality, not as creating morality. This is very much along the lines of the Rambam that has two levels. First Natural Law as revealed to Abraham and then later to the Ancient Greeks. Then the Law revealed at Mount Sinai.--That is a higher degree of Revelation.

But that also means that I do not negate all spiritual experiences at all. Rather I believe that sometimes God can inspire a person in unforeseen ways in unforeseen paths. Prophecy and the Divine Spirit do not have to follow human ideas of what is proper. Just the opposite. However as I wrote in the last few essays, most of spiritual experiences are from the wrong side of things. Still there are such things that are real and from God.

religious world

In the religious world there is something seriously wrong.  What it is, is not at all clear,, but there seems to be some underlying problem that many have noticed, but offer different suggestions about what is the problem and what to do about it.  That makes it hard to recommend Torah as a practical path since keeping Torah for most people means to join the religious world and that is clearly a terrible mistake because of the aforementioned previous problem that no one seems to be able to define. 

I myself have offered a few suggestions, but I have not really gotten to the basic problem. The best suggestion I can see is to stick with authentic Torah as taught and practiced in the well known great Lithuanian yeshivas, like Ponovitch, Mir, Chaim Berlin, and Torah VeDaat.

If you are not in the area of an authentic Litvak yeshiva, the best thing is to stay home and learn Torah on your own. That is getting through the Old Testament, Two Talmuds, Musar books [medieval ethics based on Torah]. 


But even though the religious world claims to be doing Torah, there is something under the surface that is clearly not kosher and very very wrong --even though there is no clear indication of what it might be.


Part of the problem is fake religious organizations which undermine authentic Torah values.  [Most Jewish religious organizations are pure poison, and thoroughbred cults of the most pernicious type.]

[Once I was part of the yeshiva of Rav Freifeld, Shar Yashuv in NY, and later the Mir. I soaked up the words of Torah like a fish that can not be out of water. But that world is what is called the "Yeshiva world." It is very different than the religious world that is the home of the Dark Side. But there is no well defined border between them, so the demonic forces of the Dark Side have also penetrated in to many yeshivas.] Nowadays I go to no synagogue, since I think they have been taken over by the Dark Side.
[New comers are largely unaware of this, and thus become victims of the cult by not being street smart.  תקרובת ע''ז אסורה בהנאה. By becoming victims of the cult or the Leviathan, they no longer can escape and their lives are finished even if they do manage to escape in time. As the Sages said "things sacrificed to an idol remain forbidden forever."]

 In fact, most yeshivas today I would have to say are cults. The best thing is to follow the basic path of the Rambam at home on your own- learning the Old Testament, and the Oral Law [the Two Talmuds plus the books of Musar {Torah ethics}, Modern Physics and the Metaphysics of Aristotle.] 

For an introduction to the Law of Moses it is good to learn the Mishne Torah of the Rambam page by page along with the Keseph Mishna of Rav Joseph Karo, and in a separate session to go through the entire Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.  As for the ethics of Torah, the main thing is the book of the Middle Ages, Obligations of the Heart חבובות לבבות by Bechayee Ibn Pakuda.

As for Physics, the main thing is String Theory, but it takes some background to get there. The main background is Quantum Field Theory. (The best way to get to that I am not sure of. As for myself, I learned a lot of Joos's book Theoretical Physics, and I think it was good preparation for me, because it did a very thorough job on waves, and in fact I used it to help me in my talks  at Hebrew University on Differential Equations.)

Concerning Metaphysics, obviously the Rambam was referring to the books of Aristotle by that name, but I also recommend the books of Kant and Schopenhauer.

The Torah itself--the Old Testament should be read in Hebrew and finished at least once. 
In fact that is my idea about mitzvot. That there is such a thing as doing a mitzvah completely. Thus the mitzvah of Torah learning means to finish the entire Oral and Written Law at least once. [Tenach, Two Talmuds with Tosphot and Maharsha, Tosephta, Sifra, Sifri, Torah Kohanim, Midrash Raba, the Rambam with Avi Ezri and the Keseph Mishna, Tur, Beit Yoseph and all the books of Musar of the Rishonim and the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter

All the above I believe ought to be in every public school and be taught as part of the curriculum. [They already teach The Book of Job  very well, but the whole Old Testament should be taught as they do in Israeli public schools.] The aspect of the Oral Law that should be in public schools is mainly Tosphot. That is to learn how to analyze a sugia with Tosphot. [That is "to learn how to learn."] But I do not believe in tests when it comes to Torah, because I believe that is using the Torah for personal gain. [Most everything else they teach in public schools should be thrown out. Especially the Humanities and Social Studies departments as already mentioned by Allen Bloom in The Closing of the American Mind.]

So I foresee  a kind of religious revival that is necessary, but not one based on the Bible alone but rather this Four Part System: The Old Testament, the Oral Law, Metaphysics and Physics.  But this revival would have nothing to do with the present day religious Jewish world which is pure poison. Rather it would be in connection with Reform and Conservative and Zionist Judaism.

But the world of religious Judaism is totally wicked and depraved. The Torah is desecrated there in deed while honored in word.

Witchcraft and heresy and political desire to overturn the government are related.
The rise of witchcraft was oddly enough after the middle ages at the beginning of the age of Enlightenment and was highly connected with the desire to undermine the rule of kings and princes.

To see this documented look here

What I wanted to bring out is that this was highly related to the enlightenment project of overturning the rule of kings.

That is witchcraft became subsumed into political movements which were directed to overturn the established order.

And this has continued until today. The KGB in fact was very aware that in the USA and in any society there are always a good number of malcontents that want to overthrow the established order.
The policy of the KGB was to encourage these elements in the USA and to give them funds in the hope of overturning the USA.

In any case even after the KGB is no longer around their effects are still apparent.

crackpots

The main trouble in the religious world is crackpots that try to bring you into their "thing."
And they always target people that are interested in that particular area, but not able to tell the difference between authentic value and pseudo value and fraud.
But this problem is pervasive and ubiquitous in the religious world.  

The main job of  a Jew is not to get fooled by these charlatans and their groups, no matter how respectable they try to make themselves seem. In fact, the more respectable they try to make themselves, all the more dangerous they are. 

Some groups, which are  content   with being  fringe  groups are  mainly OK, because they do no pretend to be other than what they are.

But in any case, for the sake of one's soul, it is best to avoid all the crackpots.
[The religious world  is prone to this for the exact same reason that make them religious. Most religious people have schizoid personality disorder. That is they are sensitive to that area of value of holiness and unholiness. But since most of this world is evil as the Ari (Isaac Luria) says therefore the vast majority of the religious are open to the areas of value of unholiness that they mistake for holiness. Thus their favorite slur is to call someone they do not like as "insane." Not "evil". It is  a classic case of projection." 
The best approach to Torah is balance. That is,-- one ought to learn and keep Torah, and be sensitive to the holiness area of value. But with balance along with the other areas of value.