w53 F Minor  w53 in midi  w53 in nwc format

Henry Kissinger held the peace of Westphalia was the political. It established the sovereign states of Europe. But from the point of view of the people at the time it was religious. Protestant versus Catholic. The Enlightenment thought as political [as the idea of getting rid of kings and priests and putting intellectuals in charge.] did not play a role as far as I can see.
The modern world with limited [or no] monarchs, and little role for religion from what I can see is a result of the English Glorious Revolution.

[Not that I think to go back to the way things were.]

From my point of view I think that one of the great benefits of trust in God is you stop worrying about politics or thinking you or "the people" control it.

It is well known that the main emphasis of Navardok was on trust in God. But he did not settle for the idea that he would sit and learn and God would take care of the rest. Rather he encouraged others also to learn Torah and trust in God.

That was from the advice of Rav Israel Salanter that he ought to concern himself with the needs of others. [He said in that generation that the troubles were so great that this was needed.]

But no school of Musar thought using Torah to make money was the proper approach. People certainly gave to Navardok but he never asked.

So it is a good question what one [let's say] wants to sit and learn Torah [not learn a profession] today? And I do not know a good answer to this question. I heard that Rav Shach said one should sit and learn and then when he gets married then to do something [anything] for making a living.

But none of the above are the reasons I bring up bitachon [trust] now.
The reasons I bring up the subject have nothing to do with when and how to make a living.
Rather I am thinking of a short note in Rav Nahman's book Sefer HaMidot that by trust in God good thoughts are drawn to one. על ידי בטחון נמשכים לאדם מחשבות טובות which to me seems to be a tremendous idea. [Of course it is well known that everything in the sefer hamidot has some source in the Gemara but simply Rav Nahman collected them in a short simple way].
It is common with Rav Nahman that he connects things in such a way that if you have a particular problem and you do not know how to deal with it, then you can find in his writings some connection to some other thing. So when you work on the other thing you get the first thing solved.

{I was also thinking of Rav Nahman's idea of how to learn what is known as "bekiut" which usually means going through a lot of material in the second half of the day. [That was how it was understood in the Mir and Shar Yashuv.] But Rav Nahman's idea of bekiut was not the usual type. For him it meant to go very fast. As fast as possible. [In the Conversations of Rav Nahman 76]. I think there is a element of trust in God to learn in such a way. [Also I am thinking that the idea was another idea mention in the major nook of Rav Nahman the LeM. There is intellect in potential and intellect in actuality. [I for get the actual chapter. I think it was around Vol I:25 or 24 or around there]. I think learning fast and getting through the book you are doing many times is learning in such a way that you get intellect in potential. Then by in depth learning, it becomes actual.

In terms of the argument between Hai Gaon and the Rosh [R Asher] [In Rav Shach Laws of Marriage 19: law 19.] it seems to me that Hai Gaon must have been thinking about the fact that in the Gemara the law is Lots of land נכסים מרבים the boys inherit and they support the girls. A small amount of land all the profits [rent or fruit in farm land] goes to support the girls but if they sell, then the girls lose. The ambiguous thing here is what happens if they sell when there is lots of land?  The Rosh thought obviously it is the same thing. The girls lose. But Hai Gaon may have thought that the girls would get the proceeds of the sell even in the law of the Gemara--before we even get to the decree of the geonim that the Ketubah can be collected from movable property.

I mean the Rosh has a point that proceeds of a sell of an object is not usually thought to be in place of an object unless we would be talking about maasar Sheni or some kind of חלות קדושה


What I think here is that Hai Gaon must have thought that when the Gemara says if the boys sell when there is not much property that the sell is anyway valid that that does not exclude the girls from getting the proceeds of the sell--even from teh law of the Gemara itself

The way I see learning is that it ought to be divided half time for Physics and half for Gemara. And the way I see doing both is both "Iyun" [in depth and lots of review] and "Bekiut" [to say the words as fast as possible and to finish that book many times. At least four times.
Gemara we already know why to learn. It is a commandment. Learning Torah is not just a positive commandment but to not learn when one can is "bitul Torah" which is a sin. That means to say that even though one fulfills the command by a small amount of learning, but that does not allow one to stop learning if he is not required to do so for "parnasa" [making a living] of other reasons doing commandments that can not be done by others.
If fact Bitul Torah is a concept which is almost unknown.
The Physics is because of the Rishonim that hold it is part of learning Torah. [Ibn Pakuda [author of the Obligations of the Heart, the first Musar book] and others. This is an argument among Rishonim. However I think those that hold this way were the way to go in this subject.]





So my approach is not to emphasize Metaphysics even though the Rambam highly recommended the Metaphysics of Aristotle.  Nor is my approach to recommend learning Rav Avraham Abulafia, or the Ari [Isaac Luria]. Not even the books of the Gra, or Rav Nahman. All these have great ideas, but I do not consider them as something to spend time and effort on.
So I see them as what you would call "reading". That is: they are informative. But not something to be spending time and effort on. Rather,-- they are more for one's "down time." Not exactly to relax--but close.
Some things I just do not see as being all that informative or valuable.

w52 F Major 

conditions by which natural science can flourish

You see in most rishonim that learning natural science is a part of Torah. You see this in the Chovot Levavot and the Mishna Torah in the very first chapter that by learning the works of God one fulfills the first commandment to love God.

There are certain conditions by which natural science can flourish. There have been plenty of societies that had the exact same intelligence as Western European. But no where else did natural science flourish because the conditions for it to come into its own did not exist. 

Most societies never developed conditions where science was possible. And all human societies started at the same starting line.