The Torah's world view is Monotheism. That is: that God created the world something from nothing, and He is not the world, nor is the world Him.

The basic idea of the verse אתה הראתה לדעת כי השם הוא האלהים אין עוד מלבדו (You were shown to know that the Lord is God, there is no other besides Him.) is actually explained simply in the beginning of the Mishne Torah (of Maimonides). [הלכות יסודי התורה פרק א' הלכה א-ד] That is that God's existence is independent of anything else. The existence of everything else depends on the existence of God. It does not mean the way people commonly take it to mean nowadays as a support for the Bhagavad Gita.

I mean to say that the Torah's world view is that of what is called Monotheism.That is that God created the world something from nothing, and He is not the world, nor is the world Him.

This all goes to show how right Reb Israel Salanter was about Musar. For in Musar one gets the basic orientation of the Torah. 

[In Israel, in Rav Montag's yeshiva I had an opportunity to demonstrate this. I was talking with some of the "kollel-lite" guys that were learning in kollel, and this subject came up. I had two stones in my pockets. I asked them about one of them, "Is this stone godliness?" "האם האבן הזאת אלקות?" They remained uncommitted. They must have thought I had something up my sleeve. I then took out the other stone and put the first one on the floor and smashed it with the second one. It made such a noise that the entire beit midrash looked up-including Rav Montag.
I asked them, "Did it just break godliness?"האם עכשיו שיברתי אלקות? 
[I do not recommend this demonstration because part of the first stone flew out and it could have hurt someone. That would have then brought up the question: "Is godliness is dangerous?"]

Most supposed Torah scholars are demons as Reb Nachman pointed out. Once they decide to use Torah for money they lose their holy soul and become possessed by forces from the dark side.]

Not enough credit is given to Kant when it come to his insight that when pure reason goes into an area of  "the thing in itself" (dinge an sich (plural)) it comes up with self contradictions. Kant intended this insight to be expanded. Not just to be understood in the limited philosophical form he put it in.
 Thus Kant himself applied it further. He said when a person looks into his own soul and psychology that creates in him mental illness because the "self" is in the realm of the dinge an sich. [That in itself was an important insight. It was by this awareness that one is only conscious of the surface of the self--not what is inside it that gave Kant the ability to overcome solipsism.

Thus it seems clear to me why learning Torah presents the kinds of problems that one generally encounters. The reason now seems simple. It is in the realm of the dinge an sich.
The only way to come to Torah is to be able to jump over the questions. To come to appreciate Torah is much more important than the amount of time spent learning it.
The question typically are sometimes contradictions in the issue of "parnasa" how much time to spend on a livelihood as opposed to how much time spent of learning Torah. There are also questions that arise from phony people that pretend to learn Torah and yet are not at all moral or decent.[Most supposed Torah scholars are demons as Reb Nachman pointed out. Once they decide to sue Torah for money they lose their holy soul and become possessed by forces from the dark side.]
The way you can see this in the Ari [Isaac Luria] and Rav Shalom Sharabi is  the צימצום applied to all the midot (sepherot). Thus when the צימצום occurred it happened even in wisdom. So there are areas where wisdom can not venture into. [That is how the Reshash explains  the צמצום at the beginning of the נהר שלום  based on a reading of the Ari.]

One trouble is also the very common problem of people being thrown out of yeshivas. There are many causes of this-sometimes justified and sometimes not. One thing that makes this disturbing is the fact that many yeshivas present themselves as "open door" places to the public. That is the face they present when trying to collect charity. But the big picture is more simple. It is hard to merit to Torah and to do so one has to overcomes the mental blocks, questions about, "Why should one learn Torah?" So if it would not be one kind of question or problem it would be another, because there is not way to merit to Torah without jumping over the questions and ignoring them and simply saying "people are people are primates" and simply decreeing on oneself to sit and learn Torah as much and even more than what is possible.

[What I meant to say here about Rav Shalom Sharabi is that he mentions the doubt of Reb Chaim Vital about if the צמצום  was only in כלליות or also in פרטיות. And the Reshash says there that this doubt of Rav Chaim Vital was only at the beginning of his learning from the Ari, but later it was clear to him that it also applied in פרטיות. Reb Nachman brings this same point also. He says like the Reshash that the צמצום contraction happened in all the traits -for example wisdom. So there is a limit to how far reason--even pure reason can extend.]

noble savage myth

I wanted to mention that I think the problem in England is the noble savage myth that was popularized by Rousseau. They think they have found the noble savage in Muslims. They hate their Christian past but can not shake it off, so instead they cater to Muslims and by they get the feeling of spiritual release from the constraints of the Bible. I know I am not stating this properly but they main idea is I think England and France's infatuation with Muslims is highly psychological and not at all based on reason but rather the deep "Id"--more or less discovered by Nietzsche.

rebellion against religious authority

The problem of religious and secular authority and abuse of authority has been around for as long as there has been any kind of human or even primate groups. [Jane Goodall noticed this in primates.]
In history the first time this problem is recorded is in Herodotus. There the question of Democracy versus Monarchy is always just under the surface. Democracy is not a modern option. It is been around for a while. Maybe not has long as monarchy but it has been around. Athens suffered under kings and thus choose democracy. Persia had suffered under Cambyses and the Magi and thus was almost about to choose democracy at the advice of Otanes. The modern approach to democracy began with Calvin. In him and in Luther the problem of abuse of religious authority and abuse of secular authority always looms on the horizon. Calvin is the beginning of the modern day version of representative government --but with a major difference. To him there is not a separation of church an state except in functions-- not as some hypothetical legal dividing line. All are under God's Law and God's Law encompasses all facets of life. But to Calvin the option of rebellion a against  authority when it abuses God's Law always exists. [This really began with Luther in terms of rebellion against religious authority when it is abusive. To Calvin the problem is more in the area of abuse of secular authority.



The ramifications of all this took a long time to get into the Jewish world. But in time also in the Jewish world the problem of authority became an issue. And it still is.
The major reaction of abuse of religious authority is Reform Judaism. The reaction of abuse of secular authority resulted in the State of Israel. Both are results of legitimate complaints about intolerable abuses of authority by religious leader and the anti Semitic government of the Czar and Europe's monarchs.

The result today of reaction to abuse of religious authority tends to be what is called חוזר בשאלה return to question.

But the big picture is not the problem in the Jewish world of abuse of authority but rather the larger question of abuse of authority in all human history--and what is possible to do about it?

My impression is that Luther was right about what to do concerning abuse of religious authority. Though for sure he was the polar opposite of a saint, still his basic idea is valid--get back to Torah.
In other words to learn and keep Torah is an individual responsibility. How better can I put it? Though Luther was including the New Testament in his approach I still feel there is a great message in what he says. But from my point of view the main thing would be instead of the NT one should learn the  Law of Moses [Written and Oral] and keep  it. That is this depends on the individual.
That is to learn the Old Testament and the two Talmuds in depth and with rigorous painstaking work on every page.
This in fact became the approach of the Litvak yeshivas--to simply learn Torah and do what it says. This was the Litvak solution to the problem of abuse of authority. To throw out the phonies and charlatans and get back to what the Torah in fact says.

[The trouble that I see is that it takes some kind of merit to learn Torah. Without some kind of specific merit, obstacles arise that are not surmountable. The evil inclination always comes into the mind telling one how much better it is to do other things. One always finds other things preferable. So what to do? To pray to learn and appreciate Torah. Even one word of Torah is in my eyes a great merit..]

music file T 65

T65 A flat major mp3    t65 in midi   t65 nwc  t60 mp3  t60 midi   t60 nwc

T 66 music file

t66 in mp3    [t66 in midi]  [t66 in nwc]As I said before I spent a lot of time trying to learn from the greats. like Mozart. One idea I borrow here is to go to the 6th instead of the expected 5th towards the end.
Another important idea of Mozart is to leave the tonic in the bass, while the higher goes to the dominant.  I have wanted to use this idea often but was never able to until this piece  right towards the end.

a conflict between good and evil

It is not so simple that there is a conflict between good and evil in this world. There is this conflict, but there is also a conflict between social memes. Certain memes-sets of social and moral information get into people and at a certain point these values become hardwired into the person. Not just that-- but also in groups that accept a certain meme of set of values--in the history of that group you can see that set of values coming to fruition--both the good and the bad values.

So it is not just important to use reason and common sense to identify the right set of values-but also the groups and their sets of values [which are often hidden from public view.]

The trouble is even when you think you have found the right set of objective values and a good group  that will lead you to the good in this world and the next,- the dark side has found a way to penetrate that very group. The trouble in not just the attacks on the Holy Torah from outside. These attack are serious enough. But the greater danger are the attacks on Torah from the inside--people that openly hold with Torah and yet are agents of the Devil.

Some of the principles I have found to be important are sometimes tied to one particular person that embodied that value. In any case I realized I have kind of a long list so for my own sake, I want to jot down some of the things I think are of crucial importance.

(1) The Avi Ezri of Rav Shach which contains the essence of what it means "to learn Torah."
(2) To speak the truth at all cost.
(3) At the Mir in NY I learned a very importance principle of not to steal--which means in a strict sense: not to touch that which does not belong to you. [Nor to acquire things by fraud or force etc,]
(4) From the Rambam and my parents I learned the importance of learning Physics and Mathematics.
(5) From the Gra and the two great Litvak NY yeshivas (that I was in) I learned the importance of learning Torah. [That is the Oral and Written Law--Tenach(Old Testament) and the two Talmuds.]
(6) From the book of Navardok I learned the importance of trust in God without doing any effort.

[These are not just picked at random out of  a hat, but a short list of things I have seen and found to be important and that lead to the good and the light. I know there are lot of competing memes- and principles that people say are important, but these are the ones I have seen work towards the good and the light. ]
 From experience and from just being around in the world I learned that many of the other so called great principles of life or other causes are mainly fraudulent.