"Famous spiritual leaders that are a lie"

The most well known warning that Rav Nahman of Breslov said about Torah scholars that are demons comes from the ליקוטי מוהר''ן חלק ב פרק א
אך  צריך לידע ולהכיר את המפורסמים  כי יש כמה מפורסמים שהם בשקר והם רק על ידי עזות כמו שאמרו חז''ל עזותא מלכותא בלא תגא
"...but one must recognize the famous spiritual leaders that are a lie, for there are many famous spiritual leaders that are fakes and they come to this by arrogance as the Sages said, 'Arrogance is power without a crown'"

This warning is almost universally ignored except by the Na Nach group. The reason they are especially careful in this is that Rav Israel Odessar gave it a particular emphasis and said about מפורסמים של שקר This basic idea: "פרוסם = שקר" [famous = lie]

But you can see elsewhere in the writings of Rav Nahman is that he does not mean they have no powers. Just the opposite. They have vast powers of the Sitra Achra but it all comes from the Dark Side.

[Even though Rav Nahman does not give many details I think it is usually fairly clear to what kind of Torah Scholar demon he is referring to.]
I think all Litvak yeshivas in Europe were immune to this problem since they were learning Torah for its own sake--not for money. But nowadays the problem seems to have gotten even inside the straight Torah world. So what is one to do? I try to play it safe and stay away from the religious entirely. They reason is once one has walked into any of their places, the dust clings to him even when he leaves.

lose weight

There is a way to lose weight for those who need this. Beets and Garlic. I have mentioned this before but now just for a reminder: raw beets right away in the morning with eggs or טחינה or anything with some oil. Also the way to eat a piece of raw garlic is this --slice it into tiny pieces and then swallow the whole thing with a glass of water as you you were swallowing a pill.

[The beets in the morning cause one to not be hungry unless in actual need of food.]]

In any case, if we take the idea of receiving advice from a tzadik as important as brought in the book of Rav Nahman from Breslov and his advice is to learn fast, that would seem to settle the issue.

My first yeshiva was Shar Yashuv of Rav Shelomo Freifeld. He emphasized he idea of review ten times of what ever Tosphot or page of Gemara one is doing. I heard that from him directly and also from his son Motti Freifeld.

And in fact I tried doing that but the fact that I felt I needed to make progress created a great deal of conflict. I had already seen the idea of learning fast by just saying the words and going on which is brought in אורחות צדיקים an anonymous Musar sefer from the Middle Ages.

So during my three year period in Shar Yashuv I had a kind of compromise. Not review ten times nor just saying the words but review of everything twice and then going on.

I am not saying that is the best idea. Rather what I suggest is the kind of learning that was done at the Mir yeshiva in NY where the morning learning is in depth and the afternoon is for fast learning.

So I feel there is a place for both. That is after you have gone over a subject fast a few times then to sit and do the in depth approach.

I feel also that the idea of praying to understand also is important.

In any case, if we take the idea of receiving advice from a tzadik as important as brought in the book of Rav Nahman from Breslov  and his advice is to learn fast, that would seem to settle the issue.

Furthermore he also emphasizes the idea of belief in the wise and certainly the Rambam comes under that category. And the Rambam emphasized learning Physics and Metaphysics. So putting it all together we have now a method of learning Torah and Physics that is applicable and practical-- learn as fast as possible--just say the words and go on.

My Dad's work on Infrared and lasers at TRW

 Mainly I know it was laser communication that he was working on but the actual spy satellite itself with my Dad's technology was not launched until about May, 2001. They used Dad's technology that he developed at TRW. The thing that delayed it was that TRW lost all government contracts after the KGB got to the files.[The Falcon incident.] But TRW hung onto the files until recent around 1994 TRW came into the  satellite thing again--with lots of protests. Still TRW stuck with it and was eventually  awarded a contract.

That was incidentally how my Dad got involved with TRW in the first place. The call to try and recruit my Dad for TRW came almost immediately after TRW was awarded a government contract in 1966.


I think originally TRW must have hired him because he was the inventor of the infra red camera at Fort Monmouth in NJ.
The original 23 reconnaissance satellites developed at TRW
are the basis for the American Early Warning System which uses infrared to detect launches. But by the time my Dad took me to see his work at TRW he was already doing laser communications. Here is a picture from Life Magazine from July 26, 1954

Some information about what my Dad was working on at TRW

USA spy satellites during the Cold War


TRW

Here (Los Angeles), close to the major contractors for the spy satellites, such as TRW at Redondo Beach, California, and also the major launch site, Vandenberg Air Force Base, the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office) is principally headquartered. (p.249)

In mid-December 1966 the contract for the [new SIGINT satellite program] was awarded to TRW, and the sensor kit went to Aerojet Electrosystems. Twenty months later, on August 6, 1968, the first of the series, designated DSP code 949 [DSP=Defense Support Program], was secretly shot aloft from the Eastern Test Range at Cape Carnaval, Florida. (...) The satellite was placed in an extremely high, 22'300-mile geosynchroneous orbit. At this height, the speed of the satellite would be almost exactly that of the earth, thus allowing it, in effect, to hover over a single spot on the earth's surface near the equator. Perched over Singapore, the long-nosed bird could "see" almost half the earth, including most of China and western Russia, but missing northernmost Sibiria. (p.250)

Under the National Reconnaissance Office framework, the CIA awarded the contract to TRW, which put together the satellite in its windowless M-4 building at Redondo Beach. It was the same facility that built the early-warning DSP Code 949-647 satellites, but, unlike it's predecessors, Rhyolite was pure SIGINT. (p.254)

---

Apparently believing that satellites at extreme geosynchronous orbits were incapable of intercepting signals as directional as their very-high-frequency (VHF) and microwave band used for the transmission of telemetry data, the Soviet Union never bothered to encode telemetry. This reportedly changed in mid-1977, about six months after the USSR learned about Rhyolite from a jerk janitor (sealing secrets to the KGB) working at TRW. (p.255)

-- James Bamford: THE PUZZLE PALACE, 1982. 


Also see

https://fas.org/spp/military/program/sigint/overview.htm




I actually saw the lab where my Dad was doing his work for this. I guess he could bring his kid. It was all top secret. It was laser communication. And this is the first time I have seen such a thing mentioned in print:http://edition.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/05/18/spy.satellite/index.html 


[The first years if work at TRW were for the Infrared satellites. They had obviously contacted and hired my dad because he was the inventor of such a kind of system at the Army base in Monmouth Fort in N.J. as you can see in the Life Magazine article concerning that,- July 26, 1954]

laws about lashon hara [slander]

In the laws about lashon hara [slander] what is an apikorus [heretic] comes up.  Yet what is an apikorus [heretic] seems to me to be unclear. There is the three way debate between the Rambam, Joseph Albo and the Abravenal about how many principles of faith are really required.

[That is not necessarily the same thing as Torah  from Sinai. A person might believe the Torah was given by Divine inspiration but not necessarily the whole thing at Mount Sinai.

[The Rambam also is exacting in his words--one must believe in Torah from Heaven, and says nothing about Torah from Sinai.]

I think that the Rambam was right for considering Islam to be Monotheism-not idolatry.

I think that the Rambam was right for considering Islam to be  Monotheism-not idolatry. Even if there are troubles with Islam today, that does not seem any different that the troubles with violent Islam in the days of the Rambam. And even so the Rambam said what ever the problems with Islam are, that does not mean to deny that it is Monotheism. [That is, it is not idolatry].