Counter Enlightenment

Hamann (Johann Georg Hamann) and Joseph de Maistre were pretty much counter Enlightenment with the later emphasizing the Catholic Church.
Allen Bloom seems to have taken the question of Enlightenment versus Counter Enlightenment as not being settled.
 Kant and Hegel held the Enlightenment had some things right and some things wrong. That is they saw the Counter Enlightenment had some things right and some things wrong. So they saw the middle approach not as a compromise but as a solution.


Hegel was I think the equivalent of Aquinas and Maimonides in looking for a balanced approach between Revelation and Reason . So in that sense he predated the thinkers that thought a middle path between Enlightenment and Counter Enlightenment was proper. And he had the larger "nation" in mind-but not any nation, but one founded on principle of Justice and Freedom. Not as Popper thought the Prussian state, but rather in an explicit quote he was thinking of the USA. [See  Walter Kaufmann on Hegel.]

It is not the case that the USA is solely John Locke or Enlightenment. It has had and still has a strong religious foundation base on the best of the Judaic-Christian civilization of Europe and the best of Athens and Rome. There is no need to disparage it.The election of Trump I thinks shows this very well.

Karl Popper was unfair to Hegel and this led to Dr. Kelly Ross [of the Kant Fries School] also being unfavorable to him.  Popper thought Hegel was responsible for the totalitarian regimes his saw in his days. But he was right to the degree that Marx did borrow from Hegel. In university courses that were preparation for work in the KGB, Hegel was taught and was considered an important step before Marx [along with Feuerbach]. In USSR universities they credited Hegel with the "moment in time" idea, but clearly Marx borrowed a lot more than that from him. So the Left using [or misusing] Hegel is not new and it continues. But the reason is because the right simply ignores Hegel. 


The religious world tries to present an image of a just society. That is why the "Shabat table" is such an important factor-because it tries to convey this image to naive Reform and Conservative Jews. The truth is it is a terrible horrific nightmare. It has all the elements of Kafka short story. You want a free and just society? I can not think of anything better than any society based on the constitutions of the USA which is totally different from the French and European kinds of systems based on Rousseau. It accepts the importance of faith and simply makes a proper dividing line between it and the state. There is some kind of Achilles  heel or stumbling block in the religious world that the authorities, the teachers of Torah, are  demons sent to punish us. There seems to be no respite from the but to escape towards secular society which respects your basic rights. 
The last person in the world you want your wife of children talking with is some demonic Torah scholar of the religious world.  [The Torah itself is holy, but the trouble is the Sitra Achra has found ways of usurping it by pretending to be keeping it by extensive rituals and black clothing of that is supposed to mean they keep Torah. The uniform fools people. (In fact, any uniform fools people as Dr Michael Huemer pointed out. Some kind of make believe uniform was created and a when a person dressed in it told some to put an extra nickel into a parking meter, people were much more inclined to obey than if the same person dressed in normal clothing told them the same thing. As long as they need you the pretense will continue.) But as soon as you are down an out on your luck, their true face will reveal itself. They are traitorous lying scum.

The religious world is one vast altar that requires a constant sacrifice of naive Reform Jews. On that Altar which all that
is living Reform Jews, "Zionim" Zionist Jews, Goyim must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until all is extinct.

 This is not the time for  forgiveness because these demonic Torah scholars are people who have not repented, these are people who are trying to destroy you and are quite willing to harm your family and your children in the process. Take them down and take them out without hesitation. If you have any  working under you, fire them. Above all, understand that the normal rules of live and let live are no longer in effect. 

But at the same time, it is important to learn and keep Torah in the authentic way. Either on your own, or to find true allies. There are Torah True Institutions like Ponovitch and the Great New York Litvak Yeshivas and the Bnei Akiva schools. The only issue is to remove the satanic demons that dress up like authentic Torah scholars.

Bitul Torah is a sin. That is not learning Torah when one is able is a sin.

To me it seems like the package deal of learning Torah along with trust in God makes things go better. That is you might not be sitting and learning Torah all day, and you might not have complete trust in God but if you have a little bit of both I think that creates a tidal wave of success.

That is to say in theory perfect trust in God ought to work, but in  a practical sense there seem to be some limits to have far one can take this. Similarly learning Torah in theory ought to be all day every second. [That refers to either the written Law--the Old Testament, and/or the Oral Law which means simply the books of the חז''ל "Chazal" the sages.That last category is means The Two Talmuds, the Halachic Midrashim and the Agadic Midrashim.] In any case there are limits to how much one can learn Torah. But putting both ideas together makes a working combination.

The idea of התמדה in Torah is well founded. It comes from the idea that Bitul Torah is a sin. That is not learning Torah when one is able is a sin. Thus there are plenty of things one needs to do --to learn a vocation, to get married etc. But everything one needs to do needs to be weighed on the scales of "Bitul Torah"--that is "Is this other thing a mitzvah that can not be done by anyone else?" If not then it is forbidden.
[I would be amiss if I did not mention that Physics and Metaphysics as mentioned by the Rambam are not Bitul Torah but that does not leave the door open for any and all secular activities or studies. It is a specific provision stated by the Rambam and implicit in most Musar books from the Middle Ages. ]


Popper blamed  Hegel for totalitarian systems- unfairly. Yet in one way his was right that Hegel was used by the USSR. In University courses for preparation for work in in KGB, Hegel was taught and considered as a favorable preliminary step towards Marxism in that Marx borrowed some major concepts of his and the left still does.

trust in God and learning Torah

There was something really great about the whole idea of trust in God and learning Torah that really worked. This was the way that Navardok spread. The idea was that if one takes on himself to learn Torah, then all his other needs are taken care off. This was actually mentioned by Reb Israel Salanter in the magazine he published in Vilnius. But he was careful not to emphasis any particular aspect of Musar, because he thought every person will find what they need in it. But Joseph Jozel Horwitz went with this idea to the limits. And it worked. The idea in a nutshell is God helps those who depend totally on him, not those that depend on their own actions.
This I found really works mainly, if you do not put it to a test. And at a certain point in my life I did not want to go too far with trust {Bitachon} because I did not want a situation in which I thought I needed something and not get it and that might reflect baldly on faith itself.
This approach I still feel is  a viable option.
To get a good idea of this approach it is best to get the actual book of Navardok which is one of the classical Musar books to come out of the Musar movement.

Bitul Chametz (nullifying leaven bread)

It is a true point that Tosphot holds Bitul Chametz (nullifying leaven bread) is from hefker הפקר (abandoning) as he says in Pesachim page 4.
That is he holds that when we say on the day before Passover. "All the leaved bread or leaven itself that I own is הפקר (abandoned) like the dirt of the earth," we mean it is הפקר (abandoned). I do not have any Gemaras to be able to look up anything, but off hand I think we can see plenty of questions that just jump out at you even without thinking. First of all the dirt of the earth is not הפקר abandoned. Almost all wars in human history are fought over the dirt of the earth--land.
But that is not all. Neither Rashi nor the Rambam hold from this idea of "hefker." And from what I recall there is some kind of argument in Nedarim if Hefker needs to be in front of a witness.
And  a further question comes up is what about יאוש [letting go] which comes up about lost objects? Is this hefker here in Passover the same kind of thing as "giving up" on a lost object?
That is,-- with lost object we do not need the guy to be מפקיר. Just the fact that he gives up, that makes picking it up not longer in the category of stealing.
And what about that long Tosphot in Ketuboth about when we say דברים שבלב אינם דברים? {"Things in the heart are not things".} While here we say מבטלו בלבו ודיו he is nullifies it {the leaven} in his heart and that is enough.
The questions just keep piling up. What about that whole Sugia in Pesachim circa 93-94 where the Gemara says one does not get מכות (lashes)  because it is a לאו ניתק לעשה?

Incidentally, that whole thing about דברים שבלב אינם דברים comes up about a fellow that wanted to go to Israel and sold his property with that in mind and then changed his mind. The question there comes up in terms of when do we say things in the heart are not things--and  if there was some condition on the sale then he needed to say it and when do we say one needs a תנאי כפול כבני גד וראובן
[Sorry, I do not remember where that Tosphot is. Last time I saw it I was in Israel in Netivot and I wanted to look it up concerning אין אדם מקנה דבר שלא בא לעולם]
I seem to recall that Tosphot said we only say דברים שבלב אינן דברים only when his heart and his words or actions contradict each other-so that would at least take care of one of the above mentioned questions.



 I mean to ask if  ביטול חמץ is from הפקר and is a fulfillment of  אך ביום הראשון תשביתו שאור מבתיכם then how is this an מצוות עשה?
In any case the opinions of Rashi and the Rambam here also need some work.

Ari, Issac Luria

I have a great deal of respect for the Ari, Issac Luria but  I also am aware that almost all people that claim to follow him and his path are demons. Reb Nachman hinted to this often in his Lekutai Moharan. This is in itself a good reason to avoid the religious world in its entirety.

Reb Nachman's statements in this regard are not well known because they are hinted at in his published books but explicit in the השמטות on the חיי מוהר''ן which was only printed once a long time ago by the Na Nach group.. However I have heard that that actual השמטות were collected [by Rav Shmuel Horvitz] and are available in print in the bookstore on Rechov Salant in Mea Shearim.


I should mention that the חרם signed by the Gra --if you actually take the time to read it, did not apply to Reb Nachman which is why I feel free to read his books. But in terms of what the Gra did actually forbid I believe is forbidden and remains forbidden because of the same problems that Reb Nachman saw. To ignore the signature of the Gra is to invite insanity. And every time one ignores it, he or she invites another drop of insanity into his or her soul.

[The Ari is quite an amazing thinker and I think it was in part by learning his books that when i got to Israel the Divine Presence started shining on me and my family.  Eventually I pushed that away since I did not feel the ability to remain attached to God on that level. It was just a bit too much for my poor soul.]



[In terms of learning the Ari I feel besides his basic works there are a few schools of thought later on which are fine commentaries of the Ari like the books of Rav Yaakov Abuchatzeira, and the Rashash (Shalom Sharabi) and the Ramchal.]

Music T30

t30 D major

Purim]

Xerxes is as far as I know is אחשורוש [from Purim] because that is how the name is pronounced in Persian. [Achash-vei-rosh]
He had two dreams telling him to attack Athens and all of the Hellenes. That was after he had thought to do so anyway. His chief adviser told him not to do so. At night he saw a handsome man standing over him telling him if he does not attack Greece he would lose everything just as fast as he gained everything. Then he had a second dream along the same lines. And then his put his chief adviser in his royal robes, and sat him down on his throne at night to sleep. The same man came to his adviser and said "Are you the one who has been telling Xerxes not to attack Athens? You are jerk." Or something along those lines.[I forget the exact words.]
When he attacked his allies were numerous. Everyone thought he would win and joined him. No one joined the Hellenes. Even those that had agreed to ally themselves with Athens stayed away from the battle to see which side would prevail.
300 Spartans and about 4000 other men from other parts of Greece stopped about 1/2 a million men.
And the Spartans would have won if not for one betrayer who showed the Persians and alternative route to get behind the Greek lines.



Xerxes was the last great king of Persia and from then on its glory and might fell.

He was murdered by the chief of his armed guards.