There is a kind of effort in the Lithuanian yeshiva world to minimize the effects of cults.
There is a certain amount of policing to keep out the hasidic nuts. That aspect to the people that have been kept out is hurtful, yet they seem to lack the self awareness that they might have been carrying a hidden virus with them--a Trojan horse. But on the other hand the whole thing became a gigantic self serving bureaucracy. So to learn authentic Torah can be a challenge. The best idea I can come up with is private learning at home. Every day to have a session in Talmud, Musar, and what is called Hashkafa "world view" by which I mean the any of the books of the Rishonim concerning Jewish Philosophy, and to avoid rigorously pseudo Torah.
In fact that last step of avoiding pseudo Torah and cults is probably more important than the first.
Next on can try to identify places where there is an authentic spirit of Torah and support them and even perhaps try to lend a hand in building up such places.
Just because most people are unaware of it let me say over the basic list of what counts as legitimate Haskafa: Saadia Gaon's Emunot VeDeot, Rambam's Guide, Crescas, Joseph Albo, Ibn Gavirol,Abarbenal {actually Abravenal in Spanish}, the father and son. Isaac Abravenal and Yehuda
If all this seems a bit hard to relate to, then as an introduction: the best things are the Chafetz Chaim and Shimshon Rafael Hirsh.
Appendix: Litvaks do not know it but what is a cult? It is an archetype. The leader get absorbed into a certain archetype. That gives him amazing powers from the sitra achra. People are drawn to him like a magnet. But the archetype is a level lower than human, not higher. It is a lower order of being.
This explains the reason the Gra put that group into excommunication. The trouble is that it is infectious. It is like the Toxo parasite. It takes over the mind.
There is a certain amount of policing to keep out the hasidic nuts. That aspect to the people that have been kept out is hurtful, yet they seem to lack the self awareness that they might have been carrying a hidden virus with them--a Trojan horse. But on the other hand the whole thing became a gigantic self serving bureaucracy. So to learn authentic Torah can be a challenge. The best idea I can come up with is private learning at home. Every day to have a session in Talmud, Musar, and what is called Hashkafa "world view" by which I mean the any of the books of the Rishonim concerning Jewish Philosophy, and to avoid rigorously pseudo Torah.
In fact that last step of avoiding pseudo Torah and cults is probably more important than the first.
Next on can try to identify places where there is an authentic spirit of Torah and support them and even perhaps try to lend a hand in building up such places.
Just because most people are unaware of it let me say over the basic list of what counts as legitimate Haskafa: Saadia Gaon's Emunot VeDeot, Rambam's Guide, Crescas, Joseph Albo, Ibn Gavirol,Abarbenal {actually Abravenal in Spanish}, the father and son. Isaac Abravenal and Yehuda
If all this seems a bit hard to relate to, then as an introduction: the best things are the Chafetz Chaim and Shimshon Rafael Hirsh.
Appendix: Litvaks do not know it but what is a cult? It is an archetype. The leader get absorbed into a certain archetype. That gives him amazing powers from the sitra achra. People are drawn to him like a magnet. But the archetype is a level lower than human, not higher. It is a lower order of being.
This explains the reason the Gra put that group into excommunication. The trouble is that it is infectious. It is like the Toxo parasite. It takes over the mind.
