In the beginning of Roman history there is an event that is brought about ''the gods that avenge parents''.[This was the event that caused the downfall of the last Roman king at which it became a republic.] While on one hand, we do not believe in  other gods, but we are also aware that God has angels and archangels  that are appointed over certain tasks (as is brought in the Gemara). To be aware that there are Furies that will never forgive nor ever forget can be helpful to remind one that there is a Judge and there is judgment, people may think they have no responsibility to honor and obey their parents and to blame all their troubles on their parents as Saint Freud taught. And even their parents may forgive and forget. But the gods that avenge parents will never forget  nor forgive and will always collect payment- sooner or later , because they are the ''Furies''--the gods that even the gods of Mount Olympus fear. No sacrifice can appease them. No  prayer can turn away their wrath.

A dimension where time goes backwards and entropy also goes backwards

 In String Theory there are 26 dimensions that have to be curled up to make our  dimensional world. This is promising because only in String Theory is there a viable theory  of quantum gravity. Also there i the advantage of no need for artificial steps to get re-normalization. In these extra dimensions I think there  must be some in which time goes forward and entropy also goes forward. But there must be one in which time goes backwards and entropy goes forward. Also another in which time goes forward and entropy backwards. And another in which time goes backwards and entropy also goes backwards. The reason for  i partly based on Feynman who put forward a paper in 1948 about time reversal and later some people suggested entropy reversal. Even later Georg Ryzanov suggested showed in unpublished papers that the values of electron and proton mass result automatically from these assumptions.

His mechanism for the physical process which would resutt in this was flawed, but it would work well in the context of String Theory'

I spent a lot of time with the papers of Ryzanov but have no more of them and I think they might be lost. It i ad because he showed amazing results in hi equations  

      

scroll of Ruth

In the scroll of Ruth it looks that Ruth was subject to Yibum. That is curious. When he was the wife of Mahlon, she was not Jewish.  How then would yibum apply? Plus Yibum is only for brothers from the father. Not uncles.

The whole discussion between Boaz and Ploni Almoni would have made sense if they were brothers of Mahlon, not Elimelech.

Plus what was that about if Ploni would buy the field then he would have to marry Ruth?

Just to be clear Yibum is when when one brother marries but then dies before he has children. Then one of hi brothers takes the wife [so that his memory will not be lost. Children that that net brother will have ill be considered a children of the first brother.]  

 

 Robert Hanna does a great service to philosophy in showing the flaws of all USA and British ''analytic'' philosophy of the 20th century. And he is quite right about the ''Forward to Kant'' approach, but he does also acknowledge the great contributions of G. E. Moore [who forms the approach of Michael Huemer]

Still, I am waiting for someone to acknowledge Leonard Nelson and Kelley Ross.   It must be that too much of the lashon hara [slander] of Husserl stuck. [i.e., psychologism].   

 It does take a certain kind of sense or intuition to feel the importance of learning Torah and I think that it is something that  needs to be nourished, for it can be lost. This is the reason I think that the sages said one should marry only the daughter of a Torah scholar. For (as it was said in the great Litvak yeshivot): "If one's wife wants him to learn, he will learn; and if she does not, he won't." The wife of Rav Kinyevsky one time when he was learning  told a visitor to come back at a later time when the Rav was accepting visitors saying "Do you want my husband to be an am haaretz?"[i.e. "ignoramus" ]

I actually wanted to marry the daughter of a talmid chacham [Torah scholar] for that very same reason, but did not succeed. The interesting thing is that my wife [Leah/aka Paula Finn]  did have a great sense and intuition about the importance of learning Torah, even though she was not really a daughter of a Torah scholar. But that is not so clear in itself for her father [Bill Finn] certainly had a sense of the importance of trust in God and in learning Torah though he was a working guy.

So, to conclude, I think it is more important to marry someone with a sense of Torah rather than someone who is publicly learning, but might be doing so just because it is a way to make money nowadays.

 

the reasons for the signature on the letter of excommunication(herem): Monotheism and not to do idolatry,

The major theme of  Old Testament is Monotheism and not to do idolatry, You can see this especially in the chapters f Deuteronomy from about chapters 4  to 10 and in the events surrounding the kings of Judah and Israel.  I was reminded of this today listening to the events surrounding  the anointing of Yehu. [He was anointed king in order to wipe out the house of Ahab --because they did idolatry, Not because of Jewish identity. For King Ahab was as Jewish as can be. But in the eyes of God, Jewish identity makes not the slightest bit of difference. What matters to God is only one question: did Ahab serve idols or not,   Of course in those days this was an easier question to answer. Nowadays they dress idols in Jewish garments and that is supposed to make it ok. 

For anything besides God can be an object of idolatry, It does not have to be a statue. It can be a person even true tzadikim. All the more so fake tzadikim. This is in fact one of the reasons for the signature on the letter of excommunication(herem). That is  the reasons of idolatry.

Spiritual vision

  Spiritual vision is not unknown. If it was totally illegitimate then the Gra would have said so. And Rav Yaakov Abuchazteira used to call the Ari [Isaac Luria] ''our teacher''. But there is something parasitic about mysticism that seduces people away from straight faith and reason. [Sri Aurobindo refers to the danger of mysticism as the "Intermediate Zone"] 

Aurobindo asserted that spiritual aspirants may pass through an intermediate zone where experiences of force, inspiration, illumination, light, joy, expansion, power, and freedom from normal limits are possible. These can become associated with personal aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfilment, and even be falsely interpreted as full spiritual realization....  Those who go astray in it may end in a spiritual disaster, or may remain stuck there and adopt some half-truth as the whole truth, or become an instrument of lesser powers of these transitional planes. According to Aurobindo, this happens to many sadhaks and yogis

Humans are stupid, and the stupidest think they know how best to run everyone’s lives in minute detail and are bound and determined to force the rest of us to go along with their stupidity.