My learning partner today discovered Handel, and was very impressed. He said to me that Beethoven said that Handel was the greatest composer who ever lived. I mentioned to him that some time after Handel there was in the USA some composer who people said would be a second Handel. I was saying this implying that such a thing is ridiculous. It is like people today list the great composers and put Beethoven and Mozart together with some pop jerk.
And he made an interesting observation--that they all lived under nobility. It was an age when everyone believed in God, and everyone worked, and everyone believed in Torah, and there were kings and princes.
[It is like him to see this. When ever I bring up the idea of democracy and the Constitution of the USA, he is never impressed. From what he can see, the USA only worked well until it was invaded by the 3rd world.]
I once came into the home of the daughter of Bava Sali and they were playing on the stereo the Messiah of Handel.
I have not seen her nor her family for a few years, but every minute I spent with them was precious.
One thing I learned from her and her son Shimon Buso was the world view of Bava Sali and his general approach.
It was basically in a nut shell the approach of the Gra (Eliyahu fromVilnius) and Israel Salanter. That is it was a limited idea of what Torah is. Torah is Torah, and everything else is not Torah. And we are all obligated to keep the commandments from the Torah and the "fences" made by the Sages. A no nonsense approach.
Musar (Ethics) was the main thing to learn. [You ask them yourself, but believe me, Musar was foremost to this family. That is they really say the idea of Israel Salanter that everyone should learn Ethics/ Musar as being the truth and the way.]
Navardok means to learn Torah with a lot of Musar, and a lot of emphasis on trust in God with no effort (that is no השתדלות).
But let me say I can't endorse everything about Navardok. Though I agree the major learning has to be in Talmud and Musar, I still feel (based on the Rambam and the many Musar books based on his approach from the Old Sefardi school of thought) that Physics and Metaphysics are also important. Plus a Boy Scouts type of program --to teach character and self reliance and morality..
Appendix
Here is my how and why to learn Physics program:
My idea about learning Physics is this.
The first twenty minutes in the morning are essential. Also the last twenty minutes in the day before you go asleep. When you wake up get a coffee or tea or both and learn some work of fear of God [Musar] and then Physics/Math before anything else.
[Then during the day of course one should learn Torah.]
And the desirability of this, I base on Maimonides alone. You will not find many tzadikim that agree with this. But I still feel that in this case the Rambam was right.
And the way to learn it I have found is not that different from learning Talmud. You need a fast session and an in-depth session. The in-depth one for me has varied over time. One thing I try to do is to concentrate on one small subject for forty days straight. The fast session is like it sounds--say the words in order and go on.
To the Rambam, Physics is the key to fear of God. So I don't consider it a waste of time from Torah. The other opinion along these lines is the Geon (Eliyahu) from Vilnius, who considered all of the seven wisdoms to be essential for understanding the Torah.
Besides the basic ideas of the Gra and the Rambam about the desirability of this, it makes sense to have a means of living without using the Torah for making money.
There is some kind of spiritual awakening of the higher world when one is doing the 39 types of work in this world that correspond to the 39 of טל אורות אוריך (dew of light) and the 39 types of work by which the work was created. He saw in nature and in the study of nature a higher purpose. And if not for people that were making a religion of science, he would have shown how science and Torah are connected are one.
[Sometimes he hints to this like in the above example where he brings the idea that the tabernacle in the wilderness was like heaven and earth so work-i.e. doing any one of the 39 types of labor waken the corresponding component in the work of Creation]
And he made an interesting observation--that they all lived under nobility. It was an age when everyone believed in God, and everyone worked, and everyone believed in Torah, and there were kings and princes.
[It is like him to see this. When ever I bring up the idea of democracy and the Constitution of the USA, he is never impressed. From what he can see, the USA only worked well until it was invaded by the 3rd world.]
I once came into the home of the daughter of Bava Sali and they were playing on the stereo the Messiah of Handel.
I have not seen her nor her family for a few years, but every minute I spent with them was precious.
One thing I learned from her and her son Shimon Buso was the world view of Bava Sali and his general approach.
It was basically in a nut shell the approach of the Gra (Eliyahu fromVilnius) and Israel Salanter. That is it was a limited idea of what Torah is. Torah is Torah, and everything else is not Torah. And we are all obligated to keep the commandments from the Torah and the "fences" made by the Sages. A no nonsense approach.
Musar (Ethics) was the main thing to learn. [You ask them yourself, but believe me, Musar was foremost to this family. That is they really say the idea of Israel Salanter that everyone should learn Ethics/ Musar as being the truth and the way.]
Navardok means to learn Torah with a lot of Musar, and a lot of emphasis on trust in God with no effort (that is no השתדלות).
But let me say I can't endorse everything about Navardok. Though I agree the major learning has to be in Talmud and Musar, I still feel (based on the Rambam and the many Musar books based on his approach from the Old Sefardi school of thought) that Physics and Metaphysics are also important. Plus a Boy Scouts type of program --to teach character and self reliance and morality..
Appendix
Here is my how and why to learn Physics program:
My idea about learning Physics is this.
The first twenty minutes in the morning are essential. Also the last twenty minutes in the day before you go asleep. When you wake up get a coffee or tea or both and learn some work of fear of God [Musar] and then Physics/Math before anything else.
[Then during the day of course one should learn Torah.]
And the desirability of this, I base on Maimonides alone. You will not find many tzadikim that agree with this. But I still feel that in this case the Rambam was right.
And the way to learn it I have found is not that different from learning Talmud. You need a fast session and an in-depth session. The in-depth one for me has varied over time. One thing I try to do is to concentrate on one small subject for forty days straight. The fast session is like it sounds--say the words in order and go on.
To the Rambam, Physics is the key to fear of God. So I don't consider it a waste of time from Torah. The other opinion along these lines is the Geon (Eliyahu) from Vilnius, who considered all of the seven wisdoms to be essential for understanding the Torah.
Besides the basic ideas of the Gra and the Rambam about the desirability of this, it makes sense to have a means of living without using the Torah for making money.
There is some kind of spiritual awakening of the higher world when one is doing the 39 types of work in this world that correspond to the 39 of טל אורות אוריך (dew of light) and the 39 types of work by which the work was created. He saw in nature and in the study of nature a higher purpose. And if not for people that were making a religion of science, he would have shown how science and Torah are connected are one.
[Sometimes he hints to this like in the above example where he brings the idea that the tabernacle in the wilderness was like heaven and earth so work-i.e. doing any one of the 39 types of labor waken the corresponding component in the work of Creation]
