27.1.17
Divine light
God's light and salvation is not confined to dogmas and theology.
In any case, my basic approach I would like to define as mainly the path of my parents. That is more or less conservative Judaism, but with a special emphasis on learning Torah. The Jewish religious world itself is believe is filled with demonic spirits, especially the leaders and the books also.
The Litvak world at the time I was there I thought was however very good, but nowadays I try to stay home and mind my own business. Something seems to have gone haywire even with the greatest of the yeshivas.
So my path has is more or less what the Gra, and Reb Israel Salanter, and Rav Shach were teaching. If there is any place around today that walks in that straight Torah path I would have to say that is great, but as I said something seems to have gone wrong.
That is: they have become businesses. Greed has destroyed the yeshiva world.
Th frum world is full of counterfeit Torah.
[One practical thing to do would be to throw out all the books of the cult the Gra put into cherem/excommunication and also any book that quotes them. I am ignored. Fine. But I have said what needed to be said.
In any case, my basic approach I would like to define as mainly the path of my parents. That is more or less conservative Judaism, but with a special emphasis on learning Torah. The Jewish religious world itself is believe is filled with demonic spirits, especially the leaders and the books also.
The Litvak world at the time I was there I thought was however very good, but nowadays I try to stay home and mind my own business. Something seems to have gone haywire even with the greatest of the yeshivas.
So my path has is more or less what the Gra, and Reb Israel Salanter, and Rav Shach were teaching. If there is any place around today that walks in that straight Torah path I would have to say that is great, but as I said something seems to have gone wrong.
That is: they have become businesses. Greed has destroyed the yeshiva world.
Th frum world is full of counterfeit Torah.
[One practical thing to do would be to throw out all the books of the cult the Gra put into cherem/excommunication and also any book that quotes them. I am ignored. Fine. But I have said what needed to be said.
Psychology is a profession that attracts mentally ill and sadistic personalities.
I would not out much stock in any particular psychology handbook. I may not know exactly what is wrong with it but that whole so called "science" is mainly pseudo science. Something is deeply wrong with that whole profession.
One possible problem is that it is the prime example of pseudo science. It is not falsifiable. But that just seems to be the beginning of the problem. The major problem is their main result is to take normal people and make them mentally sick. That is there seems to be some internal evil that characterizes the whole profession. [They seem to have the ability to inject true mental illness into healthy people and by that to force them to keep coming to them for some imaginary cure.]
The main problem seems to be it is a profession that attracts mentally ill and sadistic personalities.
I think the goal is to define all of humanity as psychologically sick except for psychologists.
The disciple of Israel Salanter Isaac Blazer wrote the best cure for sickness of the soul is Musar bringing that idea from the Rambam in the Rambam' Musar book Eight Chapters. Why Musar? Mainly Musar is about being a mensch a decent human being. It reveals that that is what the Torah is about. This is hard to know and even harder to fulfill. But since the religious world itself is mainly satanic the best approach is to learn on your own or in Reform and Conservative synagogues but avoid the religious world. [Unless you happen to be in the area of an authentic Litvak Yeshiva or a Mizrachi yeshiva.]
If you need confirmation of this view take a look at all the people that count the mitzvot, not just the Rambam and you will see that all there are plenty of the 613 that have to do with good character. So good character is from the Torah itself--not just from the words of the scribes.
In any case the religious world is very evil and very sick and they may hide behind Torah but the essence is wrong.
[Musar mainly refers to Mediaeval books of Ethics like the Obligations of the Heart. There are also books from the disciples of Israel Salanter which are very good.]
One possible problem is that it is the prime example of pseudo science. It is not falsifiable. But that just seems to be the beginning of the problem. The major problem is their main result is to take normal people and make them mentally sick. That is there seems to be some internal evil that characterizes the whole profession. [They seem to have the ability to inject true mental illness into healthy people and by that to force them to keep coming to them for some imaginary cure.]
The main problem seems to be it is a profession that attracts mentally ill and sadistic personalities.
I think the goal is to define all of humanity as psychologically sick except for psychologists.
The disciple of Israel Salanter Isaac Blazer wrote the best cure for sickness of the soul is Musar bringing that idea from the Rambam in the Rambam' Musar book Eight Chapters. Why Musar? Mainly Musar is about being a mensch a decent human being. It reveals that that is what the Torah is about. This is hard to know and even harder to fulfill. But since the religious world itself is mainly satanic the best approach is to learn on your own or in Reform and Conservative synagogues but avoid the religious world. [Unless you happen to be in the area of an authentic Litvak Yeshiva or a Mizrachi yeshiva.]
If you need confirmation of this view take a look at all the people that count the mitzvot, not just the Rambam and you will see that all there are plenty of the 613 that have to do with good character. So good character is from the Torah itself--not just from the words of the scribes.
In any case the religious world is very evil and very sick and they may hide behind Torah but the essence is wrong.
[Musar mainly refers to Mediaeval books of Ethics like the Obligations of the Heart. There are also books from the disciples of Israel Salanter which are very good.]
problems in life are spiritual
From my point of the problems in life are spiritual, and the solutions come from learning Torah [that is the Old Testament, the two Talmuds and Musar (mediaeval Ethics)], repentance, worship, and holy living. For the secular people the problems of life are material and thus best addressed with money, technology, and good policy.
For me the adversary is Satanic demons and organized well funded demonic charismatic teachers of Torah religion instead of authentic Torah. To secular people the adversary is lack of education and unjust structures and systems.
For me the world is an "enchanted place," full of secret connections where the central issue is how to do God's will. (How to get right with God according to the holy Torah.) For the secular, the world is a material place that can be improved by reason and science.
For me the best human future (for all people) is being in accord with God's will and loving one's neighbor. For the secular, the better human future is some form of material well-being.
For me the adversary is Satanic demons and organized well funded demonic charismatic teachers of Torah religion instead of authentic Torah. To secular people the adversary is lack of education and unjust structures and systems.
For me the world is an "enchanted place," full of secret connections where the central issue is how to do God's will. (How to get right with God according to the holy Torah.) For the secular, the world is a material place that can be improved by reason and science.
For me the best human future (for all people) is being in accord with God's will and loving one's neighbor. For the secular, the better human future is some form of material well-being.
26.1.17
Christians are uniformly against the Talmud
Christians are uniformly against the Talmud for little reason. They might not burn it for the same reason they do not burn the Communist Manifesto. But the attitude is roughly the same.
This comes directly from a statement in the NT, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."
Then comes a long tirade against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. A well deserved tirade, I must add.
The prushim פרושים in fact are considered highly related to the Baali HaTalmud [authors of the Talmud] as we can see in many historical documents (Hippolytus) that people in general divided Israel into three parts Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees. The curious thing is that the gentiles did in fact distinguish between the different groups of Essenes. But here between the Prushim and the people that were involved in keeping the Oral and Written Law they seem to have not made any distinction. [Christians in fact were generally considered just a subsection of the Essenes].
From my point of view this all seems curious because the פרושים (Pharisees) and the Baali HaMishna and Talmud ([authors of the Mishna and Talmud]) are not the same group as we can see all the time in the Talmud itself. The Prushim may have held by the validity of the Oral Law, but so did the Essenes, and so did Jesus himself. Some braitot (outside teachings, i.e. teachings outside of the Mishna) brought in the Talmud in fact were borrowed from the Essenes. [This type of thing gives rise to the constant occupation of the Talmud to figure out which braitot (outside teachings) were legitimate and which were not.]
At any rate, the clear critique of Jesus was against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, not against the Oral Law as close examination of his statement will show. Plus his little noticed statement "The Pharisees sit on Moses' throne,- so all that they say and teach that you must fulfill." (I should not neglect to mention that the Talmud and Mishna have parallel critiques of the hypocrisy of the Prushim which I mentioned in other essays.)
The thing which bothers me about all this is that one is required to keep the Law of Moses. It was not replaced, nor done away with. So along with throwing out the Law of Moses, there seems to be little or no concern about what it actually means -- until it gets into an area that Christians are particularly sensitive about because of their level of disgust at certain a practice forbidden in the Law of Moses.
Natural Law comes into play here as Aquinas did by using the ideas developed by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides (the Rambam). Still, all in all, neither Natural Law nor Divine Law have had much popularity in Western Christianity for along time. Christians as a rule go to Paul to decide what is forbidden according to "Scripture." They certainly never go to the OT (Old Testament) nor to the actual words of Jesus, since the actual words of Jesus would just make things a million times more strict than the Law of Moses. That is something no one wants even to consider.)
In any case, my basic position is that the Christian distaste for the Talmud is completely uncalled for, and based on a simple mistake in understanding the NT.
On the other hand, if their critique was on the charlatans and demonic teachers that pretend to teach and keep the Talmud, then their critique would be justified. For that reason I avoid the religious world like I would avoid a leper colony. But that is people misusing the Talmud. Abusus non tolit usum. Abuse does not cancel use. If you have authentic Lithuanian types of yeshivas in your area, then fine. But if not, then I would avoid the religious world at all cost. Go to Reform, Conservative, or Mizrachi synagogues.
What does this mean in a larger Christian context? I admit that from my point of view, I see Peter and James as more valid than Paul. Still issue of the Talmud is a separate question.
Most Christians see Paul as representing the most valid understanding of Jesus, while Peter and James are basically lukewarm. Still that does not seem to have any bearing on the issues I discussed up above. [ See this book which goes into the issue. But this was already noted by many authors that I have seen. Not the least the Recognitions of Clement.] However it is clear from the New Testament itself that Peter and James disagreed with Paul completely and held his approach of anti Torah was against Jesus himself. James could not have been more clear: one is required to keep every single command in the Old Testament from A to Z. And that means all the commandments not just the Ten. There are lots of commandment in the Old Testament that are not in the category of the Ten and they were openly told to Moses that they are for all time for example the commandments pertaining to the Building of the Temple and the bringing of sacrifices.
This comes directly from a statement in the NT, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees."
Then comes a long tirade against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. A well deserved tirade, I must add.
The prushim פרושים in fact are considered highly related to the Baali HaTalmud [authors of the Talmud] as we can see in many historical documents (Hippolytus) that people in general divided Israel into three parts Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees. The curious thing is that the gentiles did in fact distinguish between the different groups of Essenes. But here between the Prushim and the people that were involved in keeping the Oral and Written Law they seem to have not made any distinction. [Christians in fact were generally considered just a subsection of the Essenes].
From my point of view this all seems curious because the פרושים (Pharisees) and the Baali HaMishna and Talmud ([authors of the Mishna and Talmud]) are not the same group as we can see all the time in the Talmud itself. The Prushim may have held by the validity of the Oral Law, but so did the Essenes, and so did Jesus himself. Some braitot (outside teachings, i.e. teachings outside of the Mishna) brought in the Talmud in fact were borrowed from the Essenes. [This type of thing gives rise to the constant occupation of the Talmud to figure out which braitot (outside teachings) were legitimate and which were not.]
At any rate, the clear critique of Jesus was against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, not against the Oral Law as close examination of his statement will show. Plus his little noticed statement "The Pharisees sit on Moses' throne,- so all that they say and teach that you must fulfill." (I should not neglect to mention that the Talmud and Mishna have parallel critiques of the hypocrisy of the Prushim which I mentioned in other essays.)
The thing which bothers me about all this is that one is required to keep the Law of Moses. It was not replaced, nor done away with. So along with throwing out the Law of Moses, there seems to be little or no concern about what it actually means -- until it gets into an area that Christians are particularly sensitive about because of their level of disgust at certain a practice forbidden in the Law of Moses.
Natural Law comes into play here as Aquinas did by using the ideas developed by Saadia Gaon and Maimonides (the Rambam). Still, all in all, neither Natural Law nor Divine Law have had much popularity in Western Christianity for along time. Christians as a rule go to Paul to decide what is forbidden according to "Scripture." They certainly never go to the OT (Old Testament) nor to the actual words of Jesus, since the actual words of Jesus would just make things a million times more strict than the Law of Moses. That is something no one wants even to consider.)
In any case, my basic position is that the Christian distaste for the Talmud is completely uncalled for, and based on a simple mistake in understanding the NT.
On the other hand, if their critique was on the charlatans and demonic teachers that pretend to teach and keep the Talmud, then their critique would be justified. For that reason I avoid the religious world like I would avoid a leper colony. But that is people misusing the Talmud. Abusus non tolit usum. Abuse does not cancel use. If you have authentic Lithuanian types of yeshivas in your area, then fine. But if not, then I would avoid the religious world at all cost. Go to Reform, Conservative, or Mizrachi synagogues.
What does this mean in a larger Christian context? I admit that from my point of view, I see Peter and James as more valid than Paul. Still issue of the Talmud is a separate question.
Most Christians see Paul as representing the most valid understanding of Jesus, while Peter and James are basically lukewarm. Still that does not seem to have any bearing on the issues I discussed up above. [ See this book which goes into the issue. But this was already noted by many authors that I have seen. Not the least the Recognitions of Clement.] However it is clear from the New Testament itself that Peter and James disagreed with Paul completely and held his approach of anti Torah was against Jesus himself. James could not have been more clear: one is required to keep every single command in the Old Testament from A to Z. And that means all the commandments not just the Ten. There are lots of commandment in the Old Testament that are not in the category of the Ten and they were openly told to Moses that they are for all time for example the commandments pertaining to the Building of the Temple and the bringing of sacrifices.
Bava Metzia page 112
Bava Metzia page 112. You have an artisan that fixed a vessel and asks 2 shekalim for his work. The owner of the vessel say the agreement was for payment of one shekel. One braita says you believe the owner and the other says you believe the artisan. Rav Nachman bar Izchak says the difference is when there are witnesses you believe the artisan because the owner has no migo (literally "he could have said...") to say לא היו דברים מעולם-I never saw you before. I wanted to say the reason Rav Nachman bar Izchak says this is that he can not make a difference between if the vessel is movable or not. That is he hold even when it is movable the owner still has migo to say I do not know you because he might think the amount the artisan is asking is more than the actual worth of the vessel. I mentioned in my notes that I believe Rava disagrees with Rav Nachman bar Izchak and holds the difference is the case you believe the owner is when the vessel is not movable and so he has a migo.
[You can look at the notes but the simple and short of it is that Rav Nachman bar Izchak was going along with Rav and Shmuel that hold you believe a worker that says he was not paid only when there were witnesses that he was hired. Rava disagreed with Rav and Shmuel so I was suggesting that Rava also would disagree about the artisan and give a different answer that Rav Nachman]. That train of reasoning led me to find support to Rav Joseph Halevi that holds a migo is causes one to be believed to say he does not have to pay money but does not absolve from an oath. The idea was there are versions of the braita about the artisan and the owner in which you believe the owner. One is you believe him with an oath and the other is without an oath. The one with an oath would be like Rav Joseph HaLevi and the other like the Ran [Rabainu Nisim who holds a migo also lets one of the hook of taking an oath.]
I might add one thing I did not mention in my notes. This all occurred to me because I realized that almost every migo has something working against it. Just like in the Torah we have מודה במקצת הטענה נשבע because the Torah is thinking he wanted to deny everything but he would rather not because אין אדם מעיז פניו בפני בעל חובו. That is if he had denied everything he would have been beloved so why not believe him when he admits only a portion? Answer because a person does not have arrogance in from of someone that did for him a favor. So the Torah put an oath on him. [I wrote that the argument between Rava and Rav Nachman bar Izchak is when you say a migo. I forgot what I meant when I wrote that. But today it occurred to me that the above idea is what i might have meant.]
[You can look at the notes but the simple and short of it is that Rav Nachman bar Izchak was going along with Rav and Shmuel that hold you believe a worker that says he was not paid only when there were witnesses that he was hired. Rava disagreed with Rav and Shmuel so I was suggesting that Rava also would disagree about the artisan and give a different answer that Rav Nachman]. That train of reasoning led me to find support to Rav Joseph Halevi that holds a migo is causes one to be believed to say he does not have to pay money but does not absolve from an oath. The idea was there are versions of the braita about the artisan and the owner in which you believe the owner. One is you believe him with an oath and the other is without an oath. The one with an oath would be like Rav Joseph HaLevi and the other like the Ran [Rabainu Nisim who holds a migo also lets one of the hook of taking an oath.]
I might add one thing I did not mention in my notes. This all occurred to me because I realized that almost every migo has something working against it. Just like in the Torah we have מודה במקצת הטענה נשבע because the Torah is thinking he wanted to deny everything but he would rather not because אין אדם מעיז פניו בפני בעל חובו. That is if he had denied everything he would have been beloved so why not believe him when he admits only a portion? Answer because a person does not have arrogance in from of someone that did for him a favor. So the Torah put an oath on him. [I wrote that the argument between Rava and Rav Nachman bar Izchak is when you say a migo. I forgot what I meant when I wrote that. But today it occurred to me that the above idea is what i might have meant.]
Four elements and the problem with the the fifth element. There are many fundamental concepts in kabalah which come from Ancient Greek Science. I wrote a whole essay about this once long ago [That essay called Ten Sepherot in some blog entry]. The "Aether" was one of the first times I noted this. So what my learning partner suggested was the Greeks got it from the Kabalah. But then that just makes it worse. Since it is wrong, then it was the Kabalah that mislead the Greeks.
Aether is not the same thing as space. If someone had suggested that empty space is a thing in itself with nothing in it, then that would have been an insight. But that is never what anyone is referring to when they talk about the four elements and then the fifth one.
I went into some detail about this in terms of the ten sepherot and the ten orbits of the planets and sun around the earth from Ptolemy and Medieval science. But I brought a lot of other things along teh same vein but with less detail. Still the point is the same.
Aether is not the same thing as space. If someone had suggested that empty space is a thing in itself with nothing in it, then that would have been an insight. But that is never what anyone is referring to when they talk about the four elements and then the fifth one.
I went into some detail about this in terms of the ten sepherot and the ten orbits of the planets and sun around the earth from Ptolemy and Medieval science. But I brought a lot of other things along teh same vein but with less detail. Still the point is the same.
25.1.17
Demonic synagogues.
Demonic synagogues. Do not judge a book by its cover. They might be raking in money by the barrel-full but that means nothing.
[That is a theme that sometimes come up with Reb Nachman but his main point is that the teachers are bad. He usually does not focus on groups.] False friends and false teachers tend to be the problem. And when they are bold and fearless they are worse. False teachers have all the virtues. They have every good quality but truth.
The Satan has all the gifts. They demonic synagogues will promise every type of good thing that they can in fact deliver, Parnasa money, shiduch [wife] but when payment time comes to pay, the toll is awful. There are no free gifts. It is at the cost of one's soul.
There is pseudo Torah, phony Torah. Or as Reb Nachman called it תורה של הסטרא אחרא Torah of the Dark Side. This what the demonic synagogues teach and it makes money and has enormous success. People are not what they appear to be.
While focusing on the negative I might as well mention the basic things that are Torah from the Bright and Holy Realm. The trouble is the Dark Side uses every means to seem to be kosher. What every kind of learning I could recommend they will jump at.
[The only kind of places I would go to would be Reform or Conservative synagogues or Litvak yeshivas. The religious world is devoted to many forms of worship of the dead, and keep Torah in clothing and appearance alone.]
[That is a theme that sometimes come up with Reb Nachman but his main point is that the teachers are bad. He usually does not focus on groups.] False friends and false teachers tend to be the problem. And when they are bold and fearless they are worse. False teachers have all the virtues. They have every good quality but truth.
The Satan has all the gifts. They demonic synagogues will promise every type of good thing that they can in fact deliver, Parnasa money, shiduch [wife] but when payment time comes to pay, the toll is awful. There are no free gifts. It is at the cost of one's soul.
There is pseudo Torah, phony Torah. Or as Reb Nachman called it תורה של הסטרא אחרא Torah of the Dark Side. This what the demonic synagogues teach and it makes money and has enormous success. People are not what they appear to be.
While focusing on the negative I might as well mention the basic things that are Torah from the Bright and Holy Realm. The trouble is the Dark Side uses every means to seem to be kosher. What every kind of learning I could recommend they will jump at.
[The only kind of places I would go to would be Reform or Conservative synagogues or Litvak yeshivas. The religious world is devoted to many forms of worship of the dead, and keep Torah in clothing and appearance alone.]
Around twenty years old one's destiny is fixed
The reason I think my parents understood the importance of college is that at around twenty years old one's destiny is fixed in stone. What you are doing then and the crowd you are with will more or less determine your future. So my own situation to some degree was fixed by my decision to go to yeshiva in New York as opposed to University.
[You do need to learn Torah. You do need to get through the whole Oral and Written Law. But that is a separate question from yeshiva.]
And this same principle applies to every single person. You can not start at forty what you did not start at 20.
So the very nature of the frum religious world is highly relevant to the discussion of whether to go to yeshiva or to learn a vocation.
Whether it is good or bad or a mixture is important to know since joining almost any yeshiva and being that at the age of twenty will largely determine everything that happens later.
And to back off and try to sound impartial makes no sense since this is not an academic question. Whether people like it or not, what they decide at twenty will determine everything that happens in their life from then on.
My general impression of the religious world is pretty low and I know of no one in the religious world itself that would disagree with me. However there are a few remarkable yeshivas that I think are on the right track an those are the well known Lithuanian kinds of yeshivas based on the path of the Gra.
[You do need to learn Torah. You do need to get through the whole Oral and Written Law. But that is a separate question from yeshiva.]
And this same principle applies to every single person. You can not start at forty what you did not start at 20.
So the very nature of the frum religious world is highly relevant to the discussion of whether to go to yeshiva or to learn a vocation.
Whether it is good or bad or a mixture is important to know since joining almost any yeshiva and being that at the age of twenty will largely determine everything that happens later.
And to back off and try to sound impartial makes no sense since this is not an academic question. Whether people like it or not, what they decide at twenty will determine everything that happens in their life from then on.
My general impression of the religious world is pretty low and I know of no one in the religious world itself that would disagree with me. However there are a few remarkable yeshivas that I think are on the right track an those are the well known Lithuanian kinds of yeshivas based on the path of the Gra.
24.1.17
demons
The whole subject of demons is important since they come up in the Zohar and often in the Agadic parts of the Talmud. The Torah forbids dealing with them, but they exist. In the Torah, people that are in contact with the spirit world are called אוב וידעוני מכשף ומעונן קוסם ודורש אל המתים. [who seek the dead, witches, etc] The Torah is amazingly strict about this. For example, we find in Devarim 18:10-11 (Deuteronomy ch 18 verses 10-11) the Torah goes through a list of all the different kinds of ways people get in contact with the spirit world. The shocking thing is how much of this is accepted as kosher in the religious world. The spirits {or as they are called שדיים} run all the synagogues and all the religious denominations in the world.
There are people born with an inherent gift to get information from the spirit world. The last one ודורש אל המתים ("one who seeks the dead") is common in the religious world. They think they are actually in communication with some spirit of some saint, but the spirit of the saint is in Heaven, and all these people talk to are demons that are super smart and know all there is to know about that tzadik (saint) and about the future.
[These all get the death penalty. I forget which one. (There are four types.) You should look up the Mishna in Tracate Kritut to find out which one applies.] The whole subject actually comes up in שמות Exodus 22:18 with the verse מכשפה לא תחיה and also in ישעיהו Isaiah 8:19
Everyone knows the story of Saul and Samuel. But few know the the reason he died was because of the event of not wiping out Amalek and also for seeking a familiar spirit as brought in Chronicles I 10:13-14 even though the last sin was not mentioned as the cause of his downfall in the book of Samuel.
One story brought in the Gemara was about one fellow who went to sleep in a graveyard and heard the spirits talking to each other and he found out what crops to plant that year. The spirits always give useful information but in the end they extract payment of one's life and family in this world and then in Hell.
The religious world presents a picture that looks similar to Torah in a few select rituals. It sounds like Torah in some ways. But instead of directing their service towards God it is directed towards idolatry.
People want to hear good stuff and how they are OK and if they join the club everything will be good for them. Secular Jews are largely at fault for this because they accept the frum (religious) narrative and all te money for yeshivas comes from secular Jews. If not for the monetary support and the compliant acquiescence of Reform and Conservative Jews the whole rotten structure of religious world would collapse.
There are demons that get into the head. This is the main problem.But there are many other types.
And the spirits have information that is not available to us. In the religious world every indication that someone has extra knowledge of the future or miracles it is assume they get it from the Bright Side. This assumption is usually false. Most of what are called "tzadikim" are people in connection with the dark spirit world and thus get amazing powers and knowledge.
There are people born with an inherent gift to get information from the spirit world. The last one ודורש אל המתים ("one who seeks the dead") is common in the religious world. They think they are actually in communication with some spirit of some saint, but the spirit of the saint is in Heaven, and all these people talk to are demons that are super smart and know all there is to know about that tzadik (saint) and about the future.
[These all get the death penalty. I forget which one. (There are four types.) You should look up the Mishna in Tracate Kritut to find out which one applies.] The whole subject actually comes up in שמות Exodus 22:18 with the verse מכשפה לא תחיה and also in ישעיהו Isaiah 8:19
Everyone knows the story of Saul and Samuel. But few know the the reason he died was because of the event of not wiping out Amalek and also for seeking a familiar spirit as brought in Chronicles I 10:13-14 even though the last sin was not mentioned as the cause of his downfall in the book of Samuel.
One story brought in the Gemara was about one fellow who went to sleep in a graveyard and heard the spirits talking to each other and he found out what crops to plant that year. The spirits always give useful information but in the end they extract payment of one's life and family in this world and then in Hell.
The religious world presents a picture that looks similar to Torah in a few select rituals. It sounds like Torah in some ways. But instead of directing their service towards God it is directed towards idolatry.
People want to hear good stuff and how they are OK and if they join the club everything will be good for them. Secular Jews are largely at fault for this because they accept the frum (religious) narrative and all te money for yeshivas comes from secular Jews. If not for the monetary support and the compliant acquiescence of Reform and Conservative Jews the whole rotten structure of religious world would collapse.
There are demons that get into the head. This is the main problem.But there are many other types.
And the spirits have information that is not available to us. In the religious world every indication that someone has extra knowledge of the future or miracles it is assume they get it from the Bright Side. This assumption is usually false. Most of what are called "tzadikim" are people in connection with the dark spirit world and thus get amazing powers and knowledge.
23.1.17
Demon spirits. The Dark Side and the Intermediate Zone.
The Dark Side and the Intermediate Zone. דורש אל המתים. מנחש ומעונן etc. The Torah actually forbids interaction with the spirit world. A lot people are looking for spirituality and by that open a door to the the spirit world.
While on this blog I have tried to mention the good aspects of Torah. but the religious world of Judaism is sadlly is filled with demonic spirits.
Spirits are very good at making up false religions and appearing to people in the guise of some tzadik. [People think they are safe by listening to false spirits, but then they fall suddenly.] ]
Islam is a good example of a "familiar spirit" that appeared and gave a very complicated mixture of truths and falsehoods.
Demon spirits mislead people. They make people feel good. People want spiritual things, so the false spirits take advantage of this.
The spirits can also come in through a family tree. So even if you have never been involved in any familiar spirits, still they can come in through the fact that somewhere in the past their ancestors were involved in them.
This mainly came into Judaism through the events of the Shatz, but it continue in different forms until today. The best thing is to avoid the religious world since the familiar spirits there can come into a person just by being in the same synagogue.
[Some examples of demon spirit inspired things: Yoga, astrology, modern music, mysticism, psychology etc. That is spirits reveal true things in order to get people involved bad stuff.]
The trouble with all this stuff is that it involve spirits from the Dark Side, and in the Torah most of this stuff gets the death penalty. So even if people are doing their occult necromancy in the name of the Torah still that does not make it OK.
The tendency of philosophy has been to deny all metaphysical phenomena, but that is not my approach. I go rather with the Rambam Maimonides approach which accepts Metaphysics but does nothing to discern between the Bright and Dark Sides.
My approach to these issues is that it is hard to discern. I would say most spiritual phenomena are from familiar spirits and not from holiness. But that does not mean people with familiar spirits do not have vast powers and knowledge of the future. Rather they do, but it is not from the Bright Realm.
While on this blog I have tried to mention the good aspects of Torah. but the religious world of Judaism is sadlly is filled with demonic spirits.
Spirits are very good at making up false religions and appearing to people in the guise of some tzadik. [People think they are safe by listening to false spirits, but then they fall suddenly.] ]
Islam is a good example of a "familiar spirit" that appeared and gave a very complicated mixture of truths and falsehoods.
Demon spirits mislead people. They make people feel good. People want spiritual things, so the false spirits take advantage of this.
The spirits can also come in through a family tree. So even if you have never been involved in any familiar spirits, still they can come in through the fact that somewhere in the past their ancestors were involved in them.
This mainly came into Judaism through the events of the Shatz, but it continue in different forms until today. The best thing is to avoid the religious world since the familiar spirits there can come into a person just by being in the same synagogue.
[Some examples of demon spirit inspired things: Yoga, astrology, modern music, mysticism, psychology etc. That is spirits reveal true things in order to get people involved bad stuff.]
The trouble with all this stuff is that it involve spirits from the Dark Side, and in the Torah most of this stuff gets the death penalty. So even if people are doing their occult necromancy in the name of the Torah still that does not make it OK.
The tendency of philosophy has been to deny all metaphysical phenomena, but that is not my approach. I go rather with the Rambam Maimonides approach which accepts Metaphysics but does nothing to discern between the Bright and Dark Sides.
My approach to these issues is that it is hard to discern. I would say most spiritual phenomena are from familiar spirits and not from holiness. But that does not mean people with familiar spirits do not have vast powers and knowledge of the future. Rather they do, but it is not from the Bright Realm.
I assume the business atmosphere in the USA will probably change for the better now. Until now business owners were getting slapped with more and more taxes and regulations, and so did not want to hire. The trouble with hiring anyone in such an environment is they can sue if they do not get hired; and if they get fired, they can also sue.
I believe now business owners will be more open to hiring people
I believe now business owners will be more open to hiring people
The American Civil War
The Civil War was religiously motivated. That is each side thought that the message of Christianity was more or less what they were saying were their motivations. But they did not say it was because of Christianity but that was the unspoken undercurrent. My opinion is that slavery is included in two commandments in the Torah. That is there is a positive command in the Old Testament to judge according to the laws of slavery. That is many things in the Old Testament have lots of details. But you do not count each detail as a separate command. So the whole idea of slavery is a positive command.
The Constitution was supposed to work with people that had values based on the Bible. I think that at least Jefferson thought that education also would be necessary. But this fact is little noted in the West. Much political debate assumes the kind of people that were weaned on Bible stories. It was noted this flaw in utilitarianism also. They assume something that is not at all to be assumed.
[The reason this is not usually stated is that Divine Law has not been accepted West for a long time. Nowadays even Natural Law is also not accepted.
This is the same today. The whole left wing of the protestant church is just as much anti Torah today. They are the ones that are upset that lots of Americans want to get back to the traditional values of the Torah
This is the same today. The whole left wing of the protestant church is just as much anti Torah today. They are the ones that are upset that lots of Americans want to get back to the traditional values of the Torah
The Constitution was supposed to work with people that had values based on the Bible. I think that at least Jefferson thought that education also would be necessary. But this fact is little noted in the West. Much political debate assumes the kind of people that were weaned on Bible stories. It was noted this flaw in utilitarianism also. They assume something that is not at all to be assumed.
"Frum community" [the religious community]
The Hegelian idea of the State is very different from that of Howard Bloom and Hobbes. To Hegel the State is the manifestation of the Divine Idea on earth [borrowed as such by Rav Kook and to a lesser extent by Herzel.].
To Howard Bloom it is an idol. (The Leviathan.)
To go into this might be a good idea but for now let me just say to the "frum community" [the religious community] the prime mitzvah is to be part of their community. To my way of thinking, the primary sin is to be part of the frum community. It is pure idolatry, and has nothing to do with the holy Torah. It is the Lucifer Principle that swallows one's soul and absorbs it into the idol, the dark side (sitra achra). The way they get one to join is by promising things: (1) money and (2) a shiduch and (3) outward appearance of Torah. [The religious world sadlly is filled with familiar spirits.]
The way to be saved is by "יאוש" to give up all hope. Not to keep on hoping everything will be fine if you join them [as they tell you]. Just the opposite. To realize that the ways things are is the way they are supposed to be. Things did not work out because God was trying to get you to a broken spirit. To die to the things of this world and to live for Him alone.
The way to live for God is to learn and keep the Torah, the Old Testament and the two Talmuds that provide the rigorous painstakingly worked out explanation of how to go about keeping Torah. But that has nothing to do with the frum world which is a deception and scam and filled with familiar spirits and kundalini spirits.
If you let the frum community into your life, they will steal you blind (of your spouse and children and money) and leave you to rot in the wind, because they have no conscious and no soul. [As I know myself and have heard from Meirav, the major of a frum city {Bethar} in Israel, in exactly those words: "They have no conscious" אין להם שום מצפון.] [I recall Merav had another term he used for the frum world "חיות" animals while referring to his position of having to deal with them as major of the city..]
The appearance of observing Torah is a scam in order to get money out of secular Jews. You have to inspect what kind of people are the fruits of these communities. If the fruit is rotten, you know the community itself is sick and demon filled.
However I must make an exception for the few sincere places that truly try to keep the Torah with no pretense like the great Litvak Yeshivas in NY (Mir Torah VeDaat, Chaim Berlin) and a few in Israel like Ponovicth. [The Mir in Israel is not a yeshiva but a bus station. Most yeshivas in Israel are just businesses and have unclean spirits.] The good places are the Mizrachi types of places like the "Merkaz" of Rav Kook. I think the name they go by is "Bnei Akiva."
[I should mention that the Mizrachi Rav Kook path mainly appeals to me because it is in essence the path of learning the Oral and Written Law of the Torah plus Physics and Metaphysics plus learning a vocation. ]
(I should mention the most essential commentary Torah book on the Rambam is the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.]
To Howard Bloom it is an idol. (The Leviathan.)
To go into this might be a good idea but for now let me just say to the "frum community" [the religious community] the prime mitzvah is to be part of their community. To my way of thinking, the primary sin is to be part of the frum community. It is pure idolatry, and has nothing to do with the holy Torah. It is the Lucifer Principle that swallows one's soul and absorbs it into the idol, the dark side (sitra achra). The way they get one to join is by promising things: (1) money and (2) a shiduch and (3) outward appearance of Torah. [The religious world sadlly is filled with familiar spirits.]
The way to be saved is by "יאוש" to give up all hope. Not to keep on hoping everything will be fine if you join them [as they tell you]. Just the opposite. To realize that the ways things are is the way they are supposed to be. Things did not work out because God was trying to get you to a broken spirit. To die to the things of this world and to live for Him alone.
The way to live for God is to learn and keep the Torah, the Old Testament and the two Talmuds that provide the rigorous painstakingly worked out explanation of how to go about keeping Torah. But that has nothing to do with the frum world which is a deception and scam and filled with familiar spirits and kundalini spirits.
If you let the frum community into your life, they will steal you blind (of your spouse and children and money) and leave you to rot in the wind, because they have no conscious and no soul. [As I know myself and have heard from Meirav, the major of a frum city {Bethar} in Israel, in exactly those words: "They have no conscious" אין להם שום מצפון.] [I recall Merav had another term he used for the frum world "חיות" animals while referring to his position of having to deal with them as major of the city..]
The appearance of observing Torah is a scam in order to get money out of secular Jews. You have to inspect what kind of people are the fruits of these communities. If the fruit is rotten, you know the community itself is sick and demon filled.
However I must make an exception for the few sincere places that truly try to keep the Torah with no pretense like the great Litvak Yeshivas in NY (Mir Torah VeDaat, Chaim Berlin) and a few in Israel like Ponovicth. [The Mir in Israel is not a yeshiva but a bus station. Most yeshivas in Israel are just businesses and have unclean spirits.] The good places are the Mizrachi types of places like the "Merkaz" of Rav Kook. I think the name they go by is "Bnei Akiva."
[I should mention that the Mizrachi Rav Kook path mainly appeals to me because it is in essence the path of learning the Oral and Written Law of the Torah plus Physics and Metaphysics plus learning a vocation. ]
(I should mention the most essential commentary Torah book on the Rambam is the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.]
22.1.17
I had a few little pieces of advice I wanted to share. I had lost everything. And yet God still kept me and protected me. The religious world was truly full of snakes and scorpions and I had put all my eggs into that basket. So when the true nature of the religious world revealed itself in all its nasty, perverted glory I found it necessary to hold onto certain basic things.
These are the two things I recommend. (1) Speak the truth at all cost. (2) Say the 13 principles faith of the Rambam every day. I used to do this right when I got up in the morning.
So I believe hanging on to faith and truth are sufficient to bring others through their difficulties also from my own experience.
The religious world should really be called the world of delusion. They keep telling you and themselves everything will be fine if you listen to them. First of all they are lying. They do not have the holy Torah.
[I do make an exception for the authentic Litvak yeshivas like Ponovitch and Brisk. If you are not in the area of a place of real Torah then the best thing is to learn Torah at home. That is the Tenach and the two Talmuds. [If you have been through it once then to do Tosphot.] [I should add that my general approach is that of the Rambam to emphasize the learning of the Oral and Written Law and Physics and Metaphysics. The short way to do that is to do the Mishne Torah with the Keseph Mishne and modern Physics and the Metaphysics of Aristotle.]
There is nowadays a great need to discern what is true tradition and what is false. With the great profusion of false Torah from teachers of the dark Side, it is necessary to limit the set.
The religious world should really be called the world of delusion. They keep telling you and themselves everything will be fine if you listen to them. First of all they are lying. They do not have the holy Torah.
[I do make an exception for the authentic Litvak yeshivas like Ponovitch and Brisk. If you are not in the area of a place of real Torah then the best thing is to learn Torah at home. That is the Tenach and the two Talmuds. [If you have been through it once then to do Tosphot.] [I should add that my general approach is that of the Rambam to emphasize the learning of the Oral and Written Law and Physics and Metaphysics. The short way to do that is to do the Mishne Torah with the Keseph Mishne and modern Physics and the Metaphysics of Aristotle.]
There is nowadays a great need to discern what is true tradition and what is false. With the great profusion of false Torah from teachers of the dark Side, it is necessary to limit the set.
learning Mathematics
For me in learning Mathematics, I found a lot depends on understanding certain key concepts. I was in Hebrew University trying to restart math [because of the Rambam's opinion as I mentioned earlier] and I was looking at math and physics books. A certain girl, Michal, came over to me and explained the basic concept of a derivative. That is, she showed the basic way that Newton had come upon the concept, and then showed how it in fact worked to get the derivative of x^2 to be 2x by taking the limit. [She actually sat down with me and showed me step by step the exact derivation.]
That one basic concept turned out to be the key concept that later made Calculus clear to me.
Same went for Algebra. It made no sense to me either until I think it was the same girl that showed to me how 2 (x+y)= 2x+2y. Again it was one simple key concept that made everything clear.
Again in Quantum Mechanics I really had no idea what was going on on until one day I stumbled across a book by Eyal Buks from the Technion in Israel that said simply the inner product is equal to the delta function (that is one when both vectors are equal, and zero otherwise.).
[I am not saying one should be stuck until he understands every concept. Just the opposite. I hold from what is called דרך גירסה-to say the words in order, and go on. Eventually, one will understand. And even if he does not get it, he still has the mitzvah of listening to the Rambam and having אמונת חכמים belief in the wise.
[Using Torah to make money made no sense to me, so I decided to start afresh with learning an honest occupation like Physics. I also had seen most people that make money by using the Torah, just do not seem kosher or decent in any sense. Seeing that people using Torah for money turn out really nasty, gave me a lot of incentive to find a different path. This is in any case exactly what the Torah itself says. Take a look at Pirkei Avot ch 4 ולא קרדום לחפור בה מכאן אמרו כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם and the Rambam explains there מן חיי העולם הבא. [Pirkei Avot brings the statement in ch 1 "Do not use Torah to make money." Then it repeats it in ch 4 an adds, "From here they said he who uses Torah to make money takes his life out of the world," and the Rambam adds "from the life of the world to come"]. (For the majority of people in yeshivas, learning Torah is a career choice. It is a way to plan ahead by using Torah to make money and get a shiduch. Outside of the implausible excuses, it is exactly what the Mishna in Pirkei Avot says not to do. Another thing they do is to make as much as they can to be forbidden unless under their control. By adding countless restrictions they get everyone under their thumb.]I wish I could say otherwise but the truth needs to be told: yeshivas are disaster zones. Even the best. It has gotten to be just a business. A business that produces nothing but heart ache for those people naive enough to think the products of yeshivas have anything to offer but the swiftest way to break up homes and families. [It was not always like this and it does not have to be. I remember a time at the Mir in NY and in many places in Israel learning Torah was in fact known to be the highest goal and people did it with sincerity.]
In any case. it was kind of late to start a new career, but I did have some nice experiences in math. As I wrote on this blog, I did have a nice opportunity to give a few seminars in HU on Differential questions, and to spend time at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU.
Same went for Algebra. It made no sense to me either until I think it was the same girl that showed to me how 2 (x+y)= 2x+2y. Again it was one simple key concept that made everything clear.
Again in Quantum Mechanics I really had no idea what was going on on until one day I stumbled across a book by Eyal Buks from the Technion in Israel that said simply the inner product is equal to the delta function (that is one when both vectors are equal, and zero otherwise.).
[I am not saying one should be stuck until he understands every concept. Just the opposite. I hold from what is called דרך גירסה-to say the words in order, and go on. Eventually, one will understand. And even if he does not get it, he still has the mitzvah of listening to the Rambam and having אמונת חכמים belief in the wise.
[Using Torah to make money made no sense to me, so I decided to start afresh with learning an honest occupation like Physics. I also had seen most people that make money by using the Torah, just do not seem kosher or decent in any sense. Seeing that people using Torah for money turn out really nasty, gave me a lot of incentive to find a different path. This is in any case exactly what the Torah itself says. Take a look at Pirkei Avot ch 4 ולא קרדום לחפור בה מכאן אמרו כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם and the Rambam explains there מן חיי העולם הבא. [Pirkei Avot brings the statement in ch 1 "Do not use Torah to make money." Then it repeats it in ch 4 an adds, "From here they said he who uses Torah to make money takes his life out of the world," and the Rambam adds "from the life of the world to come"]. (For the majority of people in yeshivas, learning Torah is a career choice. It is a way to plan ahead by using Torah to make money and get a shiduch. Outside of the implausible excuses, it is exactly what the Mishna in Pirkei Avot says not to do. Another thing they do is to make as much as they can to be forbidden unless under their control. By adding countless restrictions they get everyone under their thumb.]I wish I could say otherwise but the truth needs to be told: yeshivas are disaster zones. Even the best. It has gotten to be just a business. A business that produces nothing but heart ache for those people naive enough to think the products of yeshivas have anything to offer but the swiftest way to break up homes and families. [It was not always like this and it does not have to be. I remember a time at the Mir in NY and in many places in Israel learning Torah was in fact known to be the highest goal and people did it with sincerity.]
In any case. it was kind of late to start a new career, but I did have some nice experiences in math. As I wrote on this blog, I did have a nice opportunity to give a few seminars in HU on Differential questions, and to spend time at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU.
the holy spirit schechina
My own experience with the holy spirit schechina went in stages. That it it had definite stages going up and definite stages coming down. The beginning I think was really in my parent's home where there was an amazing atmosphere of wholesomeness and love. At some point I felt an intense need to learn Torah and that was still while in California while I was a junior and senior in BH High School. Then in Far Rockaway that same level of interest in Torah continued. But when I got to the Mir in NY then there was kind of step up. Then at some point I decided to make aliyah to Israel and then the first step out of the airplane, the shechina was already felt in the air. Next was in Safed where there were definite stages. First a kind of cleansing for a few months and then a kind of intense light started shining all in and around me along with a kind of powerful {almost electric pulsing}. That was while Bava Sali [Israel Abuchatzeira ] was still alive. Then the slow but definite fall from grace also came in definite stages. After around 1985 the light got less. The main thing was when I myself pushed off the Divine presence shechina. Then after I left Israel that was the end. But again all that went in stages that I would rather not get into. . I realized by personal experience that there is such a thing as knowledge that come not through thinking an not through sense perception.
In any case what you get from all this is the importance of the Law of Moses in an general way. But in a practical sense how should we understand this? What I see after all this is that my parents were actually on the right path. That is a kind of menchlichkeit human decency that is at the core of Torah.
In any case what you get from all this is the importance of the Law of Moses in an general way. But in a practical sense how should we understand this? What I see after all this is that my parents were actually on the right path. That is a kind of menchlichkeit human decency that is at the core of Torah.
21.1.17
the laws of the Torah are the life and the good.
I am surprised that people think the laws of the Torah are temporary. I certainly never understood this until I read the letters of Paul. After seeing him disparage the the laws of the Torah in really shocking ways, I got the idea from where people got this idea. Of course, Rav Saadia Gaon also noticed this, but to me it seems clear the laws of the Torah are forever. One place you see this is in Deuteronomy 5:29 (הבט משמים" סימן") [The verse says keep these laws "כל הימים" all the days.] If people start out with Paul, no wonder they do not tend notice the differences between him and the Old Testament and between him and Jesus. [That is of course the very reason that Martin Luther stressed the letters of Paul above anything else in the NT, even the four gospels.]
But even without that place in Deuteronomy, it is implicit in the entire book of Deuteronomy. There is a constant emphasis that keeping the laws of the Torah are the life and the good. And not keeping the laws of the Torah are death and evil.
The thing that makes this difficult is the teachers of Torah tend on the whole to be demons. I am not really sure why this is, but it has been obvious to me for a long time. Even from the very beginning of my learning Torah intensely, I was quite aware of this problem. But I was certainly the only one. Everyone else in yeshiva thought the supposed teachers of Torah outside of the yeshiva world were perfectly fine people. I had no idea why people were not able (or not willing) to see the difference between the roshei yeshiva [teachers of Torah in authentic Litvak yeshivas] that are sincerely devoted to the holy Torah, and the supposed teachers of Torah outside the yeshiva who are satanic demons as a rule. [I have never seen an exception to this rule.]
Even in Torah literature you find this willful ignorance.
In any case, the simple way to make the distinction is plain and simple. People connected with an authentic Lithuanian yeshiva are in general very good. But in the religious world--the minute you walk outside the door of the authentic yeshivas, one encounters the Sitra Achra [unclean and unholy Dark Side] immediately.
But even without that place in Deuteronomy, it is implicit in the entire book of Deuteronomy. There is a constant emphasis that keeping the laws of the Torah are the life and the good. And not keeping the laws of the Torah are death and evil.
The thing that makes this difficult is the teachers of Torah tend on the whole to be demons. I am not really sure why this is, but it has been obvious to me for a long time. Even from the very beginning of my learning Torah intensely, I was quite aware of this problem. But I was certainly the only one. Everyone else in yeshiva thought the supposed teachers of Torah outside of the yeshiva world were perfectly fine people. I had no idea why people were not able (or not willing) to see the difference between the roshei yeshiva [teachers of Torah in authentic Litvak yeshivas] that are sincerely devoted to the holy Torah, and the supposed teachers of Torah outside the yeshiva who are satanic demons as a rule. [I have never seen an exception to this rule.]
Even in Torah literature you find this willful ignorance.
In any case, the simple way to make the distinction is plain and simple. People connected with an authentic Lithuanian yeshiva are in general very good. But in the religious world--the minute you walk outside the door of the authentic yeshivas, one encounters the Sitra Achra [unclean and unholy Dark Side] immediately.
20.1.17
Reb Nachman
In spite of my critique on Breslov, there are an amazing amount of things that Reb Nachman got 100% right. Some of them were mentioned before him, but some were pretty unique to him. One thing he got absolutely right was the problems with those that set themselves up to teach Torah. He called them "demonic Torah scholars." That is however just one area that he hit the nail on the head. Maybe I should go into the other areas also, but for now I wanted to dwell on this because it comes up so often in the Lekutai Moharan. The thing that you see in the LM is that the one and most major obstacle on the path of Torah is the Satanic teachers of Torah.
In a way this is quite an elegant way of putting it, because it corresponds to what Reb Nachman thought was the greatest help toward coming to Torah - and that is finding a true tzadik.
But my basic feeling is to stay away from all Satanic teachers of Torah. I would rather not risk my immortal soul by going anywhere near them. And nowadays they have penetrated the entire religious world. There is no where safe in the religious world that I know of that has not been infiltrated,-- and that includes most Litvak yeshivas which you would suppose to be immune and the very best, and this includes Breslov itself.
[I would like to go into this a drop, but this is one topic that causes me to lose all my readers. Still it seems important enough for the few that care to listen. Mainly this comes from famous verses in Jeremiah and Isaiah about God giving false teachers to Israel since we did not listen to true teachers.
This topic comes up in the Mishna, and quite often in the Talmud itself. "All the problems that comes into the world are from the judges of Israel,"[at the end of tractate Shabat]. But Reb Nachman himself brings the idea from the Zohar. In any case, unless you have a yeshiva of the stature of Ponovitch or Brisk in your area, I suggest just avoiding the religious world. You might pick up one or two mitzvot but lose your soul. It is not worth it.
[This is not just in theory, but experience shows this to be true. The religious teachers leave long trails of broken lives where ever they go. No wonder the Rambam had a simple solution for this problem. Simple and radical--fire them all. Stop giving them money. After all, they are not allowed to teach or learn Torah for money anyway. So why pay them to ruin our lives? It is not as if we do not have enough trouble without them. Where you can see this is in the Rambam in Mishne Torah and his commentary on Pirkei Avot I think around chapter 4 where it says, "One who uses the crown passes away," and also the Mordechai on Bava Batra at the end of the first chapter where he brings the law that one is not allowed to teach Torah for money. "God said, 'Just like I taught Torah for free, so you must teach Torah for free.'" And there the Mordechai brings the problem of "Melamdim"--teachers of children. That is in a practical sense how do you have any schools, if you can not pay the teachers? I forget how he answered this. In any case, are not they saying to keep Torah even when it seems wrong in our eyes? Is it not true that the Torah knows better about right and wrong than our limited intellect? Fine so lets start keeping Torah by not paying people to learn or teach it which is an open Halacah for all to see.
[Just as a side point Reb Nachman was amazingly insightful and most of his advice and ideas are great. The problem tends to be Breslov.]
In a way this is quite an elegant way of putting it, because it corresponds to what Reb Nachman thought was the greatest help toward coming to Torah - and that is finding a true tzadik.
But my basic feeling is to stay away from all Satanic teachers of Torah. I would rather not risk my immortal soul by going anywhere near them. And nowadays they have penetrated the entire religious world. There is no where safe in the religious world that I know of that has not been infiltrated,-- and that includes most Litvak yeshivas which you would suppose to be immune and the very best, and this includes Breslov itself.
[I would like to go into this a drop, but this is one topic that causes me to lose all my readers. Still it seems important enough for the few that care to listen. Mainly this comes from famous verses in Jeremiah and Isaiah about God giving false teachers to Israel since we did not listen to true teachers.
This topic comes up in the Mishna, and quite often in the Talmud itself. "All the problems that comes into the world are from the judges of Israel,"[at the end of tractate Shabat]. But Reb Nachman himself brings the idea from the Zohar. In any case, unless you have a yeshiva of the stature of Ponovitch or Brisk in your area, I suggest just avoiding the religious world. You might pick up one or two mitzvot but lose your soul. It is not worth it.
[This is not just in theory, but experience shows this to be true. The religious teachers leave long trails of broken lives where ever they go. No wonder the Rambam had a simple solution for this problem. Simple and radical--fire them all. Stop giving them money. After all, they are not allowed to teach or learn Torah for money anyway. So why pay them to ruin our lives? It is not as if we do not have enough trouble without them. Where you can see this is in the Rambam in Mishne Torah and his commentary on Pirkei Avot I think around chapter 4 where it says, "One who uses the crown passes away," and also the Mordechai on Bava Batra at the end of the first chapter where he brings the law that one is not allowed to teach Torah for money. "God said, 'Just like I taught Torah for free, so you must teach Torah for free.'" And there the Mordechai brings the problem of "Melamdim"--teachers of children. That is in a practical sense how do you have any schools, if you can not pay the teachers? I forget how he answered this. In any case, are not they saying to keep Torah even when it seems wrong in our eyes? Is it not true that the Torah knows better about right and wrong than our limited intellect? Fine so lets start keeping Torah by not paying people to learn or teach it which is an open Halacah for all to see.
[Just as a side point Reb Nachman was amazingly insightful and most of his advice and ideas are great. The problem tends to be Breslov.]
Religious fanaticism and the placebo effect.
Religious fanaticism is so bad that even with knowledge it just becomes worse. in itself is a form of OCD and insanity. This applies also to political fanaticism.
While basic faith is important some prayer also, but still I have seen people that think the reason they do not get their problems solved is from lack of faith or prayer. My approach is rather to learn Torah--the word of God, to seek God, and then all good things will come to one. But my approach to learning Torah is a bit different from way the Lithuanian yeshiva world understands it. For as per the Rambam, I include Physics and Metaphysics along with the Oral and Written Law.
[Take philosophy out of the set and you end up with fanatic ideology. Thinking comes before believing because belief is nothing else than thinking with agreement.]
The trouble is the Jewish religious world is solely that of fanaticism. Even the groups which are apparently are moderate are simply moderate as a result of being fanatic about moderation. Their moderation is just as sick.
Most of the writings in the religious world are placebo religion.[Plecebo is the sugar pill you give to a patient that they believe is a real pill and it in fact makes them feel better.]
In placebo religion all the benefit comes from the belief of the believer. Not surprisingly there are psychological benefits, just like there are with a placebo pill, but there is no evidence that there's any spiritual benefit in the writing itself. For example, there is no evidence that in it there is an 'absolute Truth' or that finding it will lead to some sort of miraculous change in one's life. Without belief a placebo religion, just like a placebo pill, has nothing substantial to offer. And to offer placebo religion as though there's something substantial in it is clearly deceptive and immoral.
Frankly I think pretty much or all religious writings is all placebo pills that make people feel good and holy without having any real benefit, spiritual or otherwise. I do not deny that most religious writings make people feel good--very good and part of their group just like the sugar pill gives real positive effects when people believe in it. But in the long run it is a lie.
However the basic set of the Tenach and Two Talmuds with the Halachic and Agadic midrashim with the rishonim I believe to be of real objective benefit. Sola scriptura sola talmuda. אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא ("We only have the law of the Gemara.") [That is a statement from Reb Chaim from Voloshin a disciple of the Gra. But it is obvious to anyone whose has learned any poskim [legal authorities] at all. All poskim [legal authorities] without exception are looking for דינא דגמרא (law of the Gemara). For example the Magen Avraham, Shach Taz, חלקת מחוקק,
בית שמואל ר'עא ונתיבות etc. always look for (law of the Gemara) דינא דגמרא. If that is how the Shulchan Aruch come out then fine. But if not then they have no trouble throwing out the decision of the Beit Joseph in the Shulchan Aruch and going by the Gemara.
While basic faith is important some prayer also, but still I have seen people that think the reason they do not get their problems solved is from lack of faith or prayer. My approach is rather to learn Torah--the word of God, to seek God, and then all good things will come to one. But my approach to learning Torah is a bit different from way the Lithuanian yeshiva world understands it. For as per the Rambam, I include Physics and Metaphysics along with the Oral and Written Law.
[Take philosophy out of the set and you end up with fanatic ideology. Thinking comes before believing because belief is nothing else than thinking with agreement.]
The trouble is the Jewish religious world is solely that of fanaticism. Even the groups which are apparently are moderate are simply moderate as a result of being fanatic about moderation. Their moderation is just as sick.
Most of the writings in the religious world are placebo religion.[Plecebo is the sugar pill you give to a patient that they believe is a real pill and it in fact makes them feel better.]
In placebo religion all the benefit comes from the belief of the believer. Not surprisingly there are psychological benefits, just like there are with a placebo pill, but there is no evidence that there's any spiritual benefit in the writing itself. For example, there is no evidence that in it there is an 'absolute Truth' or that finding it will lead to some sort of miraculous change in one's life. Without belief a placebo religion, just like a placebo pill, has nothing substantial to offer. And to offer placebo religion as though there's something substantial in it is clearly deceptive and immoral.
Frankly I think pretty much or all religious writings is all placebo pills that make people feel good and holy without having any real benefit, spiritual or otherwise. I do not deny that most religious writings make people feel good--very good and part of their group just like the sugar pill gives real positive effects when people believe in it. But in the long run it is a lie.
However the basic set of the Tenach and Two Talmuds with the Halachic and Agadic midrashim with the rishonim I believe to be of real objective benefit. Sola scriptura sola talmuda. אין לנו אלא דינא דגמרא ("We only have the law of the Gemara.") [That is a statement from Reb Chaim from Voloshin a disciple of the Gra. But it is obvious to anyone whose has learned any poskim [legal authorities] at all. All poskim [legal authorities] without exception are looking for דינא דגמרא (law of the Gemara). For example the Magen Avraham, Shach Taz, חלקת מחוקק,
בית שמואל ר'עא ונתיבות etc. always look for (law of the Gemara) דינא דגמרא. If that is how the Shulchan Aruch come out then fine. But if not then they have no trouble throwing out the decision of the Beit Joseph in the Shulchan Aruch and going by the Gemara.
19.1.17
Gra based Musar yeshivas
The most curious phenomena in religious history; the bright and dark sides are almost invariably found together. Whenever an attempt is made to shed some light on the mystery of the world and of man, the whole nature is pulse of nature is accelerated , and if the animal nature is the stronger, it becomes all the more uncontrolled. Every area of value when it deteriorates it deteriorates into its opposite.
I should mention that in Israel I felt a tremendous outpouring of God's light on me, but it did not give me understanding. I do not know what it was all about, but at some point I pushed it away for invalid reasons. In any case, I believe pushing away God's light was a mistake based on a commentary with no name on the first four chapters of the Mishne Torah of the Rambam. In any case, my basic approach based on this experience is that the basic path that had led me to God's light is the best of all paths. And that is the basic learning of Torah in the straight and simple Gra way. For all other paths I believe are paths of deception and evil. No sooner does one come to an authentic yeshiva like the Mir or Ponovitch that someone comes long to seduce him to some path of the Dark Side. In religion light and darkness are sadly mixed.
{I hold from Reb Israel Salanter, but I do not want to knock yeshivas like Brisk that learn Gemara only. After all, my first yeshiva, Shar Yashuv, of Rav Freifeld was a Gra based non Musar yeshiva. But if you would ask me, I would say it is important to have two musar sessions per day. And Rav Shach (Elazar Menachem Shach) also says Musar is important as you can see in one of the introductions to the Avi Ezri.}
That is that a synthetic priori knowledge is known through knowledge that is known not through sense perception nor through thinking]. That applies also to the dinge an sich (things in themselves) through Schopenhauer. That is that the dinge an sich can be known until we get to the Ding An Sich (God).
One fundamental advantage of Kant is that he provides a good account of light and the electron. As far as light goes the principle of Einstein that its speed is the same to anyone watching it, whether moving or not means that space does not exist except as a way of measurement. The electron also we know depends on the observer in order to decide whether to be a wave or a particle, so its existence is independent of the observer but its characteristics are not
I should mention that in Israel I felt a tremendous outpouring of God's light on me, but it did not give me understanding. I do not know what it was all about, but at some point I pushed it away for invalid reasons. In any case, I believe pushing away God's light was a mistake based on a commentary with no name on the first four chapters of the Mishne Torah of the Rambam. In any case, my basic approach based on this experience is that the basic path that had led me to God's light is the best of all paths. And that is the basic learning of Torah in the straight and simple Gra way. For all other paths I believe are paths of deception and evil. No sooner does one come to an authentic yeshiva like the Mir or Ponovitch that someone comes long to seduce him to some path of the Dark Side. In religion light and darkness are sadly mixed.
{I hold from Reb Israel Salanter, but I do not want to knock yeshivas like Brisk that learn Gemara only. After all, my first yeshiva, Shar Yashuv, of Rav Freifeld was a Gra based non Musar yeshiva. But if you would ask me, I would say it is important to have two musar sessions per day. And Rav Shach (Elazar Menachem Shach) also says Musar is important as you can see in one of the introductions to the Avi Ezri.}
That is that a synthetic priori knowledge is known through knowledge that is known not through sense perception nor through thinking]. That applies also to the dinge an sich (things in themselves) through Schopenhauer. That is that the dinge an sich can be known until we get to the Ding An Sich (God).
One fundamental advantage of Kant is that he provides a good account of light and the electron. As far as light goes the principle of Einstein that its speed is the same to anyone watching it, whether moving or not means that space does not exist except as a way of measurement. The electron also we know depends on the observer in order to decide whether to be a wave or a particle, so its existence is independent of the observer but its characteristics are not
Stop. You are going to Hell. Turn around and go back. Reb Israel Salanter
I have given Hell a lot of consideration, and I would like to divide the topic into two parts. One part is "What actually gets a person out of Hell?" and the other is "What is sin?"
First I want to give my perspective and then mention other points of view.
My own perspective on this issue really came to me one Rosh Hashanah at the Mir yeshiva when I was already married. During Musaf during חזרת הש''ץ (repeating of the prayers) I spent learning the אור ישראל Light of Israel of a disciple of Reb Israel Salanter, Isaac Blazer.
That book is really a collection of several books but the one I opened up to dealt with the difficulty of getting out of Hell.[I have zero sefarim with me so I can not look it up to tell you which book it is. I vaguely recall that it is the first section.] His point is simple. It is hard to get out of Hell. He brings lots of proofs from the Talmud. Thus, even if one is thinking he keeps the entire Torah properly, (or thinks he has some other guarantee), in all likelihood he or she is deciding based on lack of evidence.
To a lesser degree you can see this same in the books of the Chafetz Chaim, Reb Israel Meir HaCohen.
What bears on this issue in terms of an answer I want to bring the Reshash (Shalom Sharabi) and the Rambam.
The Reshash in Nahar Shalom נהר שלום says the soul is the character traits. Mitzvot are only the clothing of the soul. Learning Torah is nourishment of the soul. Thus a sin one can repent on. Also lack of Torah. But a lack of a good character trait is a basic limb of the soul that is missing. On that little can help. מעוות לא יתוקן
Proverbs "What is crooked can not be made straight." [The Chafetz Chaim says the same in שמירת הלשון.]
The Rambam says in Mishne Torah that one's portion in the next world depends on גודל המעשים וגודל החכמה deeds and wisdom.
[Thus what matters in the long run is not one's standing in the superorganism nor one's social group. Nor commitment to religious or political movements.]
[During the Middle Ages the issue of Hell was in the forefront of most people's mind. See Dante for example. Dante for me was גירסה דינקותא the learning of my youth. I had it with me all the time in high school. One thing you see in Dante is this same opinion expressed by the Reshash--that Hell depends on character traits. Each circle of Hell is for one particular character trait. I forget the order. I think the top is for excess desire, then anger, greed, lying, stealing, and being traitorous to people that trust one.
The christian perspective also relates to the issue of how not to go to Hell and instead go to the Garden of Eden.[called salvation]. (Soteriology). To the Catholic baptism is a sine qua none for salvation. But it apparently is not sufficient. One can wreak it up as we see in Dante lots of people in Hell even after being baptized including a pope. [That is there are things that take care of Purgatory. But that is not baptism. But baptism does not save from Hell proper if one does any of the deadly sins like lying etc.]
Protestants don't believe in that but rather say faith alone saves, but good character is an epi-phenomenon of being in fact saved.
In any case, there is also the basic fact of salvation and good character [human decency] as being closely tied. [There is some degree of tension here. Catholic are trying to have their pie and eat it too. They want sin to be forgiven by baptism but then to still need repentance. And Protestants want to have no sin after one says a few words about faith. This trivializes sin.]
Now there is another subject of what is sin. Protestants mainly want to define this without reference to the Bible. This has some justification since they are looking for what you would call wholesome living along with kindness. That is the exact same things I was discussing above about having good character. Still the ignoring completely the laws of the Torah and making up their own set of what is called sin is disturbing to me and apparently also to Peter and James in The Recognitions of Clement. [Baur was the first to point out, and his followers in the Tübingen school elaborated his views into the theory that Simon Magus is simply the legendary symbol for Paul. The remarkable similarity of the doctrinal points at issue in both the Petro-Simonian and Petro-Pauline controversies cannot be denied, and the scholarly reputation of the Tübingen school is such to make this probable..] Apparently Paul came up with this doctrine and as we see in the first Corinthians his followers took him quiet literally which left him aghast and caused him to backpedal.
To a lesser degree you can see this same in the books of the Chafetz Chaim, Reb Israel Meir HaCohen.
What bears on this issue in terms of an answer I want to bring the Reshash (Shalom Sharabi) and the Rambam.
The Reshash in Nahar Shalom נהר שלום says the soul is the character traits. Mitzvot are only the clothing of the soul. Learning Torah is nourishment of the soul. Thus a sin one can repent on. Also lack of Torah. But a lack of a good character trait is a basic limb of the soul that is missing. On that little can help. מעוות לא יתוקן
Proverbs "What is crooked can not be made straight." [The Chafetz Chaim says the same in שמירת הלשון.]
The Rambam says in Mishne Torah that one's portion in the next world depends on גודל המעשים וגודל החכמה deeds and wisdom.
[Thus what matters in the long run is not one's standing in the superorganism nor one's social group. Nor commitment to religious or political movements.]
[During the Middle Ages the issue of Hell was in the forefront of most people's mind. See Dante for example. Dante for me was גירסה דינקותא the learning of my youth. I had it with me all the time in high school. One thing you see in Dante is this same opinion expressed by the Reshash--that Hell depends on character traits. Each circle of Hell is for one particular character trait. I forget the order. I think the top is for excess desire, then anger, greed, lying, stealing, and being traitorous to people that trust one.
The christian perspective also relates to the issue of how not to go to Hell and instead go to the Garden of Eden.[called salvation]. (Soteriology). To the Catholic baptism is a sine qua none for salvation. But it apparently is not sufficient. One can wreak it up as we see in Dante lots of people in Hell even after being baptized including a pope. [That is there are things that take care of Purgatory. But that is not baptism. But baptism does not save from Hell proper if one does any of the deadly sins like lying etc.]
Protestants don't believe in that but rather say faith alone saves, but good character is an epi-phenomenon of being in fact saved.
In any case, there is also the basic fact of salvation and good character [human decency] as being closely tied. [There is some degree of tension here. Catholic are trying to have their pie and eat it too. They want sin to be forgiven by baptism but then to still need repentance. And Protestants want to have no sin after one says a few words about faith. This trivializes sin.]
Now there is another subject of what is sin. Protestants mainly want to define this without reference to the Bible. This has some justification since they are looking for what you would call wholesome living along with kindness. That is the exact same things I was discussing above about having good character. Still the ignoring completely the laws of the Torah and making up their own set of what is called sin is disturbing to me and apparently also to Peter and James in The Recognitions of Clement. [Baur was the first to point out, and his followers in the Tübingen school elaborated his views into the theory that Simon Magus is simply the legendary symbol for Paul. The remarkable similarity of the doctrinal points at issue in both the Petro-Simonian and Petro-Pauline controversies cannot be denied, and the scholarly reputation of the Tübingen school is such to make this probable..] Apparently Paul came up with this doctrine and as we see in the first Corinthians his followers took him quiet literally which left him aghast and caused him to backpedal.
To make a long story short what my approach is is mainly that of Reb Israel Salanter in the sense that I accept this idea that midot is the main and primary thing. However I also can see the idea that midot is an epiphenomenon of some internal state of the soul. This was note by the Chazon Ish --that midot do not come differentiated. One is either a good and decent person and that is that or not. Kant noticed the same thing and he called it by some name that I forget. The idea is that one is either radically good or radically bad based on one thing alone--the acceptance of the moral law.
18.1.17
The arrow of causality is from faith to reality. This is what Kant said that reality has to conform to our a priori knowledge. That is that reality has to conform to your faith. [I am saying that faith is a kind of a priori knowledge.] [That is the electron has to conform to how you measure it, with one or two slits, but the laws it follow are objective.]
But there is also free will. Thus the decision to have faith is dependent on one's will and it is part of the nature of the world to have this faith tested many times. But if one falls from faith because of some test and then his faith becomes less, then reality will conform that that lesser amount of faith. And then when things stop going right, then one's faith gets even less. And then things get worse and worse because they have to conform to his lack of faith.
At some point you have to stop the process and make a distinction between faith and trust. That is, you have to no longer trust that things will go your way-- so as to be able to hang on to simple faith in God that he is One, and he made the world ex nihilo, and he has no reason or obligation to be concerned with you at all. Because at that point, you do not want to lose faith in God because of things getting even worse.
The best solution to this problem is simply not to fail in the original test of faith. To stick with trust in God, even though things are obviously not going the way you want and need. The trouble is that there is no simple formula for how to stand in a test of faith. [I should know..]
Appendix and thoughts.
(1) The arrow of casualty is actually determined by intention. Otherwise it is undetermined.
(2) בטח אל ה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען היינו שיהיה לבך שלם במדת הבטחון ואל בינתך אל תשען שלא תאמר אבטח בה' אלא אני מחוייב לעשות ולהשען
גם על שכלי ולכן אמר לא תשען על שכלך אפי' בתורת משענת וסוד העניין שתהפוך לבך לבטוח בה' בכל אז יברך אותך ה' בכל
That is: the Gra also said that reality has to conform to your trust in God.
(3) Just in the way to make it clear what I am saying. If you are in a situation where you are able to learn Torah [That is the Tenach and Two Talmuds], then unlike me, you should not leave. It is hard to find a situation in which one can learn Torah and if one leaves it, it is impossible to return. [By this I do not mean to exclude two topics the Rambam thought were part of the Oral Law, Physics and Metaphysics. It has always been the custom in the Lithuanian yeshiva world to gain expertise on the side, but not during the regular yeshiva session in the morning. However since Physics is hard I recommend the opposite--that is to do the Physics session first thing in the morning and then later the sessions in Tenach (Old Testament) and Gemara.]
(4) Just in the way of explanation: Kant wants to justify universals (synthetic a priori) by means of the fact that reality has to conform to a priori knowledge. This really all started with John Locke and his primary qualities and Descartes. Then it dawned on Kant and even things we consider primary qualities like number quantity and extension depend on the observer.
But there is also free will. Thus the decision to have faith is dependent on one's will and it is part of the nature of the world to have this faith tested many times. But if one falls from faith because of some test and then his faith becomes less, then reality will conform that that lesser amount of faith. And then when things stop going right, then one's faith gets even less. And then things get worse and worse because they have to conform to his lack of faith.
At some point you have to stop the process and make a distinction between faith and trust. That is, you have to no longer trust that things will go your way-- so as to be able to hang on to simple faith in God that he is One, and he made the world ex nihilo, and he has no reason or obligation to be concerned with you at all. Because at that point, you do not want to lose faith in God because of things getting even worse.
The best solution to this problem is simply not to fail in the original test of faith. To stick with trust in God, even though things are obviously not going the way you want and need. The trouble is that there is no simple formula for how to stand in a test of faith. [I should know..]
Appendix and thoughts.
(1) The arrow of casualty is actually determined by intention. Otherwise it is undetermined.
(2) בטח אל ה' בכל לבך ואל בינתך אל תשען היינו שיהיה לבך שלם במדת הבטחון ואל בינתך אל תשען שלא תאמר אבטח בה' אלא אני מחוייב לעשות ולהשען
גם על שכלי ולכן אמר לא תשען על שכלך אפי' בתורת משענת וסוד העניין שתהפוך לבך לבטוח בה' בכל אז יברך אותך ה' בכל
That is: the Gra also said that reality has to conform to your trust in God.
(3) Just in the way to make it clear what I am saying. If you are in a situation where you are able to learn Torah [That is the Tenach and Two Talmuds], then unlike me, you should not leave. It is hard to find a situation in which one can learn Torah and if one leaves it, it is impossible to return. [By this I do not mean to exclude two topics the Rambam thought were part of the Oral Law, Physics and Metaphysics. It has always been the custom in the Lithuanian yeshiva world to gain expertise on the side, but not during the regular yeshiva session in the morning. However since Physics is hard I recommend the opposite--that is to do the Physics session first thing in the morning and then later the sessions in Tenach (Old Testament) and Gemara.]
(4) Just in the way of explanation: Kant wants to justify universals (synthetic a priori) by means of the fact that reality has to conform to a priori knowledge. This really all started with John Locke and his primary qualities and Descartes. Then it dawned on Kant and even things we consider primary qualities like number quantity and extension depend on the observer.
17.1.17
Thus God can do miracles by means of people that we would not consider as worthy.
Kant said the most profound and important fact about spirituality: that when pure reason ventures into the area of uncondioned reality, it comes up with self contradictions.
This you can see in the Torah itself in the verse The hidden things are to the Lord our God הנסתרות להשם אלהינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת [note 1]
Thus God can do miracles by means of people that we would not consider as worthy. And thus all the questions that people have about spirituality fall away because we simply cannot know. Not just human reason, but even pure reason can not go into areas of spirituality, -- because if it does, it will destroy itself.
All we can do is to learn and keep the Torah.
So when I hear about miracles, my tendency is not to dismiss anything because I know God can and must work in ways that if we try to understand them will cause self contradictions. He works in ways on purpose that to us must not make sense.
On a related note I must mention that sometimes people make exaggerated claims. This undermines their credibility. The best thing is the old traditional Litvak approach "Learn Torah," and not to make claims beyond what the Torah says.
In my opinion this applies to everyone. I have heard that Christians think they do not have to keep the commandments of the Torah because of the phrase, "until it will all be fulfilled." In any case they are depending on Paul against the testimony of Peter and James to support and interpretation that is against the simple explanation. See the Recognitions of Clement and you will see that Peter and James and all the in fact disciples were all holding the Law of Moses is forever and obligatory. They were not Judaizers. They were simply being as loyal to their teacher as they could. Saying the not one jot or tittle of the Law will be nullified means that when it says, "Thou shalt do such and such" that obligation continues.
[I also do not hold by individual interpretation. Laws mean something. And they way to understand the laws of the Torah is by rigorous analysis, not by feel good emotions. But to do the rigorous analysis is hard. Therefore there is a short cut. That is the מורה נבוכים, חובות לבבות, שערי תשובה, אורחות צדיקים and the other classical Musar books from the Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages were characterized by the rishonim that did painstaking and rigorous thinking about what exactly does the Torah require.
[This is not to knock Paul entirely. Rather it is in order to get some perspective. I can see the points of Paul as related to the people he was addressing.]
I should add that there is an obstacle to keeping Torah and that is תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודאיים false teachers. Since false teachers are all to common in the religious world. The trouble is that the Sitra Achra [Dark Side] has gone deeply into it. Thus avoid the religious world completely, and learn Torah at home or make sure the place you learn Torah at does not teach Torah from the Sitra Achra.
[note 1] ["The hidden things are to the Lord our God and the visible things are to us and our children to do all the words of this Torah."]
This you can see in the Torah itself in the verse The hidden things are to the Lord our God הנסתרות להשם אלהינו והנגלות לנו ולבנינו לעשות את כל דברי התורה הזאת [note 1]
Thus God can do miracles by means of people that we would not consider as worthy. And thus all the questions that people have about spirituality fall away because we simply cannot know. Not just human reason, but even pure reason can not go into areas of spirituality, -- because if it does, it will destroy itself.
All we can do is to learn and keep the Torah.
So when I hear about miracles, my tendency is not to dismiss anything because I know God can and must work in ways that if we try to understand them will cause self contradictions. He works in ways on purpose that to us must not make sense.
On a related note I must mention that sometimes people make exaggerated claims. This undermines their credibility. The best thing is the old traditional Litvak approach "Learn Torah," and not to make claims beyond what the Torah says.
In my opinion this applies to everyone. I have heard that Christians think they do not have to keep the commandments of the Torah because of the phrase, "until it will all be fulfilled." In any case they are depending on Paul against the testimony of Peter and James to support and interpretation that is against the simple explanation. See the Recognitions of Clement and you will see that Peter and James and all the in fact disciples were all holding the Law of Moses is forever and obligatory. They were not Judaizers. They were simply being as loyal to their teacher as they could. Saying the not one jot or tittle of the Law will be nullified means that when it says, "Thou shalt do such and such" that obligation continues.
[I also do not hold by individual interpretation. Laws mean something. And they way to understand the laws of the Torah is by rigorous analysis, not by feel good emotions. But to do the rigorous analysis is hard. Therefore there is a short cut. That is the מורה נבוכים, חובות לבבות, שערי תשובה, אורחות צדיקים and the other classical Musar books from the Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages were characterized by the rishonim that did painstaking and rigorous thinking about what exactly does the Torah require.
[This is not to knock Paul entirely. Rather it is in order to get some perspective. I can see the points of Paul as related to the people he was addressing.]
I should add that there is an obstacle to keeping Torah and that is תלמידי חכמים שדיים יהודאיים false teachers. Since false teachers are all to common in the religious world. The trouble is that the Sitra Achra [Dark Side] has gone deeply into it. Thus avoid the religious world completely, and learn Torah at home or make sure the place you learn Torah at does not teach Torah from the Sitra Achra.
[note 1] ["The hidden things are to the Lord our God and the visible things are to us and our children to do all the words of this Torah."]
Robert E Lee.
State rights makes a lot of sense to me. I could never figure out what the war was about. The Constitution was a contract. The South felt the North had violated the terms of the contact by interfering with local laws. So they thought they were justified because of breach of contract.
I think we ought to celebrate the birthday of Robert E Lee. January 19. It should be a national holiday not just for the South but the North also because it means the great importance of the Constitution of the U.S.A..
I think we ought to celebrate the birthday of Robert E Lee. January 19. It should be a national holiday not just for the South but the North also because it means the great importance of the Constitution of the U.S.A..
The theory of the Background.
The way that Torah is interpreted in the religious world is that the foremost obligation is to be part of the religious world. But that seems to me to be highly inaccurate. But I can not disprove it except because of my own background. My feeling based on my own experience is that joining the religious world is the worst possible thing to do in terms of actually keeping the holy Torah.
The closest I could see to a sincere effort to actually learn and keep Torah according to its own background and core assumptions was in the two Litvak yeshivas that I was in in New York, Shar Yashuv and the Mir. But outside of the yeshiva world based on the Oral and Written Law of Moses, I found the religious world to be a hot bed of קטנות המוחין triviality and backbiting and a kind of living nightmare while awake.
The only way I could understand this was by means of Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle which he bases on Hobbes. The idea of the super-organism as being Lucifer.
Though he does not look at it in the same way the fact that he uses the term Lucifer to me implies a lot. That is by joining a larger community one gets to be sacrificed to Lucifer.
[The theory of the Background
John Searle: "What philosophers like Quine and Wittgeinstein got right, however, is the fact that verbal expressions underdetermine meaning, i.e. the number of ways that a given sentence could be misinterpreted is so great that, in their view, an interpretation or an assignment of meaning is something that doesn't even happen, because meaning in the traditional sense doesn't exist."
Sentences express abstract features, but these are always in a context of other abstract features (what Searle calls the "Network")
The theory of the Background of Searle
"The thesis of the Background is simply this: Intentional phenomena such as meanings, understandings, interpretations, beliefs, desires, and experiences only function within a set of Background capacities that are not themselves intentional."]
The closest I could see to a sincere effort to actually learn and keep Torah according to its own background and core assumptions was in the two Litvak yeshivas that I was in in New York, Shar Yashuv and the Mir. But outside of the yeshiva world based on the Oral and Written Law of Moses, I found the religious world to be a hot bed of קטנות המוחין triviality and backbiting and a kind of living nightmare while awake.
The only way I could understand this was by means of Howard Bloom's The Lucifer Principle which he bases on Hobbes. The idea of the super-organism as being Lucifer.
Though he does not look at it in the same way the fact that he uses the term Lucifer to me implies a lot. That is by joining a larger community one gets to be sacrificed to Lucifer.
[The theory of the Background
John Searle: "What philosophers like Quine and Wittgeinstein got right, however, is the fact that verbal expressions underdetermine meaning, i.e. the number of ways that a given sentence could be misinterpreted is so great that, in their view, an interpretation or an assignment of meaning is something that doesn't even happen, because meaning in the traditional sense doesn't exist."
Sentences express abstract features, but these are always in a context of other abstract features (what Searle calls the "Network")
The theory of the Background of Searle
"The thesis of the Background is simply this: Intentional phenomena such as meanings, understandings, interpretations, beliefs, desires, and experiences only function within a set of Background capacities that are not themselves intentional."]
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