Mathematics and Physics

The way I see Mathematics and Physics is that they are the hidden Torah inside of the work of Creation. That is they extend from the מאמר הסתום [The Hidden Statement of the work of Creation] so the holiness in them is hidden. And that is for a benefit,- since there are people that if they would learn Torah, they would become worse people (as the Sages said סם מוות למשאילים בה [Torah is a tree of life to those that learn it for its own sake, and a poison of death for those that learn it for alternative motives.])[the hidden statement refers to the first verse of Genesis where God created theworld but it doe not say "He said" as it does by the rest of Creation]

This I would not say on my own but for seeing this in the Guide of the Rambam. There he has a parable about a great king in his capital city. Inside the city is his palace. Those that are outside his country are barbarians. Those in his county are those that have laws. Those that are close to the palace are the "Talmudiim" those that learn and keep Talmud. Those that are inside the palace are the physicists.
Those in the inner parts of the palace are the prophets and philosophers. [He is referring to ancient Greek Philosophers. Not to present day ones.]

[Though I saw this kind of thing in the Obligations of the Heart and other Rishonim. Still I never saw it with the degree of clarity that the Rambam brings to this issue.]

However since they are hard most people do not learn them. For that reason I suggest the סדר הלימוד method of learning saying the words and going on. You can see this method of learning in the Gemara ( in tractate Shabat and other places) and the אורחות צדיקים.

I also see a place for review in Mathematics and Physics besides sessions of just saying the words and going on. But I am not sure of how much to emphasize review and how much to emphasize "Girsa"[saying the words and going on.][the way i think is best is to go through the book you are learning from beginning to end four times,  ]

Religious fanaticism

Religious fanaticism is a result of some kind of parasite taking hold of the brain.
But these are not physical parasites. They are memes. Units of social order.

To see this more clearly it is helpful to look at Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle. But at the time of Howard Bloom this was stated without the information that came to light about parasites being able to take over one's mind. as in Toxoplasmosis.

But false and evil memes do get around and do try to get into people's heads.


Howard Bloom  is more or less going with the idea of the super organism which attempts to get people. Once it gets them it imprints its meme into their neural network in a way that can not be taken out afterward. But in the time of Bloom the studies by Sapolsky and others about parasites taking over one's brain were unknown.

But to me it seems clear this is what is going on in the religious world. And this explains the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication. For the Gra realized this and decided to take a drastic measure even though he was ignored afterwards.

It is sad that Rav Shach also was ignored even though he pointed out the same problems.

I ought to add that keeping Torah should have has nothing to do with religious fanaticism.However for some reason it is the insane fanatics that have the reputation of keeping Torah. But a close examination will show that the religious world is basically a fraud. They use Torah for show, rather than keep Torah.

Kollel

Kollel was an invention of Rav Israel Salanter. It was meant to get over the hurdle that people would learn Torah up until the time they got married and then either had to find work or be supported by their father in law or begin to use Torah to make money. None of these options seemed very good.
So he created what was supposed to be temporary fix by extending the independent yeshiva concept into married years.

[I am getting ahead of myself. Yeshiva as an independent institution was recent. It was begun by Rav Haim from Voloshin. Before that there was no such thing. The situation was simply that the unmarried teenagers of the city stayed and leaned in the local synagogue under the supervision of who ever was chosen as the religious leader of the city that got a salary for his efforts.
This was not accepted at first and in fact the Rav of Mir brought a lawsuit against the person that started the Mir Yeshiva that was independent of his leadership and control.]

To me it seems that using Torah to make money is not a very great idea. And Kollel and yeshivas themselves which were meant to get out of the problem of mixing Torah with money seem themselves to have become a sort of business. --[Though they started with good intentions.]

However there are exceptions to this rule. The Litvak yeshivas which more or less follow the original design of Rav Haim of Voloshin and Rav Israel Salanter seem very good to me. But these kind of straight  litvak yeshivas seem to be rare and exceptions to the rule.

[this issue has always been important to me, but i would not knock people that depend on a kollel check to be able to learn. just for me, that did not seem like a good idea.]

My own feeling about kollel is that it depends on the kind of person one is. If a life of learning Torah for its own sake makes sense to you then it is  a great thing. But if it is being used as a "good guys" country club where freinds get to gossip the whole day, then it seems like a waste.

I wanted to go a little into Kelley Ross's Theory of Value.. [Which seems to be original even though he attributes his theory to Kant and Leonard Nelson.]

The thing that I wanted to add is that areas of value which in his theory are formal have little content.

For example formal logic. The sentenses are more or less empty. A can stand for anything. B also. But if A is true and A implies B then B is true.

But as you approach areas with more value you have less form. For example morals. Moral are what would be called universals as Michael Huemer says. But there is no algorithm to figure them out.

But you do not see this in the Rambam. In the Rambam Physics and metaphysics are both a part of learning Gemara. That means they come under the category of learning Torah.

So what I suggest is not that they have the same numinous value as Gemara. Rather that the Avoda [kind of service]  involved in Math and Physics to to draw numinous value into it.
This is more or less how the Rishonim said to learn this kind of thing--to intend by that learning to merit to love and fear of God.



I mentioned a few years ago that besides the areas of positive value of Kelley Ross I think there is are equal and opposite areas of negative value. In science that is pseudo science.

But further I think these areas of negative value are parasites that can not exist without positive value. That is why you always see the Dark Side trying to get inside of straight Litvak Yeshivas. The Dark Side can not exist without sucking the life energy of True Torah.
See examples of parasites that can not exist without mind controlling their hosts

Two very important principles I learned from the books of Rav Nahman from Breslov

Try never to be in debt and never to ask favors from people. Never to be in debt is a very important principle. 
I recall That i picked these up from the book of Rav Nahman called Sefer HaMidot.

The idea of not being in debt I recall had to do with repentance. That is--he said that if one wants to repent he should be careful not to be in debt.

The other principle I recall came from a statement in the Gemara in Yoma. 

The Oral and Written Law (Gemara and Five Books of Moses) seems to be one area of value among many areas of value. [I.e. It addresses issues of objective morality not beauty, or courage, or mathematics etc.] 


And when any area of value decays its decays into its opposite. [ Torah is a numinous area of value. To see this clearly look at Kelley Ross. Though you can see a many area theory of Value in Hegel also. But since Hegel wants to combine them-it is harder to see there.  The areas of value what Kelley Ross would call numnious would be in Hegel's  areas of Essence. Hegel has Notion being the synthesis of Being and Essence.
You can see this also in the Rambam who has two areas of value Moral and Intellectual. [Not just in Pirkei Avot but also in Mishne Torah Laws of Repentance where he says Olam Haba [ones portion in the next world] depends on both deeds and wisdom]

Nahman from Breslov

The critique on religious leaders permeates the entire book of Rav Nahman from Breslov [The LeM. Lekutai Moharan  Vol I. ch 8, 12, 28 etc] .and by implication the entire religious world that "follows the leader."

But this is not new. In the Talmud itself you have similar statements. In Tracatet Shabat towards the end: "All troubles that come into the world come only because of the judges of Israel."And a wife of a Pharisee is among the destroyers of the world. אישה פרושה היא מן המכלה עולם 

Rav Nahman sees in the religious world and religious leaders a particular kind of problem that is not the same as simply faulty leadership.

My impression is that the exception to this rule are the great Litvak yeshivas. I had very positive experiences both in Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY. And I am pretty sure that they are not all that unique but that most Litvak yeshivas follow the same basic pattern of simply trying to keep the Torah as straight and simple as possible.
But even when I was there I was aware of this penumbra of kelipot that surround them and attempt to infiltrate.


One important source about this problem with religious leaders that Rav Nahman calls Torah scholars that are demons is a book that is out of print. That is the חיי מוהר''ן the Life of Rav Nahman. The השמטות. The deleted parts. Now even though some of the deleted parts were put back in but not all. Rav Shmuel Horwitz's השמטות של החיי מוהר''ן [deleted parts of The Life of Rav Nahman] was only printed once and sold in the Breslov bookstore near Rehov Salant in Jerusalem Mea Shearim.