One girl said to me at the beach that everything depends on from whom you learn. This was prompted by another girl saying she was majoring in criminology and gender studies where upon I explained about the Frankfurt School and the roots of woke and gender ideology. The students listening had never heard  any of that. They had thought gender stuff  had emerged full grown like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. To locate the flaws in any system, it helps to  identify the underlying and hidden assumptions. [For example one major [unstated] assumption in Marx is the labor theory of value. Take that away and the whole structure falls. You can not extract "excess value" is there is no "excess value", only market value.

I do not recommend learning the left-Hegelians and Marxists but it just happened that I picked up some knowledge of this just by reading Hegel and his defenders and retractors  

  My son Izhak held with the idea of learning in depth, and this message was conveyed to me by the Litvak world over the years, but it was not until recently I have taken this advice seriously [But there were some periods when I did more than ''just saying the words and going on.''] 

However, whether in learning Gemara Tosphot or the Achronim like Rav Chaim of Brisk, Rav Shach or in Math and Physics, I am hoping to in fact concentrate on לימוד בעיון learning in depth. [But I ought to add that this is not meant to diminish the importance of  ''bekiut'' fast learning--i.e. saying the words in order and going on.  This complements the learning in depth. In the Litvak world this is understood in such a way that the morning hours are set for in depth learning and the afternoon hours are set for fast learning. ]

    

I also hope to print a few copies of my little booklet on Shas that my son helped me to write.

The West thinks they can attack Moscow with no response,

 It is astonishing that the West thinks they can attack Moscow with no response, Is not that exactly what Japan thought in its attack on Peal Harbor. They also were unaware that a response would come. Do not people know that Russia will respond?--The flaw comes from the fact that people do not understand why Russia took parts of Ukraine, and the strategy of not attacking to destroy, but to convince. But if the West attacks Russia, the response will not be to convince, but to really attack.

[I would hope that there would be a bit more understanding  about the situation. few people in  the West have actually lived in Ukraine or have talked with average people on the street. the lack of understanding is shocking. So on one hand they do not know what the average babushka selling vegetables in the market think. but they do not know why Russia is taking back what is their's in their opinion and the opinion of many in Ukraine that are now fearful of expressing this.  nor do they understand that the approach of Russia towards people that consider themselves to be Russian and Russia consider to be Russian will be different if they are attacked and Moscow decide to retaliate with nuclear submarines off the coast of California and New York.    

 in philosophy and politics it  helps to trace the genealogy of ideas [and systems]. "Woke" and "gender"? studies stems directly from the Neo Marxist Frankfurt group [the 1960's One Dimensional Man] which comes from the Left Hegelians and the Labor Theory of Value. Without the background the ideas of woke gender seem new and dazzling.  

midot tovot good character would not be known to be an essential part of Torah except for Rav Israel Salanter. Religious feeling would be directed toward ritual. but the importance of musar goes far beyond  the awareness of the importance of good character but also in defining it. sfor pne thing the rishonim were particularly good at was painstaking rigorous  thinking and that kind of thinking i needed in order to understand what the Torah in fact considers good character and not to decide it baed on whim or personal bias.

Fat

 Fat. At one point, a few years ago, I was over weight, and this was cured by פת שחרית morning bread, raw beets and eggs right away in the morning [right after doing a few sessions of learning]. Then a jog. The beets thing does not seem practical right now, but I am thinking of starting again that פת שחרית morning bread, [morning bread is brought in the gemara as being very helpful for a whole array of problems.]

 There is something that is odd about the religious world, but it is hard to know what. Maybe the problem what Rav Nahman [Breslov]  noted about Torah scholars from the Dark Side [sitra achra]. But I am unsure if that is all. While on one hand, the express belief in Torah is good, But when the actions show that belief is hollow and a façade, --that tends to cause '' hilul hashem'' i.e. questions on Torah that they supposedly represent. [I avoid the religious world mainly because of personal experience. I think that if they already did as much harm to me and my family as they could then why trust them again?   Lie Charlie Brown thinking every time that Lucie  could be trusted not to remove the football at the last second when he wa no longer in a position to back out.                   ]