The religious world is pretty worthless at this point, but there are still a few decent Litvak yeshivas by which a new beginning might be made. That would obviously be Ponovitch and the great NY Litvak yeshivas. But before a new start can be made, the first thing is to clear out the avoda zara--idolatry-that the Gra was trying to warn people about. [I should point out that Reb Nachman was not in the category of the "herem". ]
If there is any way at all to come to authentic Torah, it certainly is not through the religious world.
When I actually try to think about what it would take to come to Torah, my thoughts automatically drift to the שערי תשובה The Gates of Repentance of Rabbainu Yona. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because he gives there the short and simple way. But mainly, my feeling is coming to Torah and the Absolute Spirit is mainly by learning Gemara and Musar [all the mediaeval books of Ethics], not just the Gates of Repentance.
The way to learn Gemara is to have a fast session and an in-depth session. The fast one is by reading the Gemara along with Rashi [line by line, word by word] and at the end of the page to read all the Tosphot. The in depth session is to learn one or more Tosphot many times for many days.
The importance of learning Torah is that it is higher than repentance. So when one does not know what of how his or her actions are objectively wrong, learning Torah in itself sends corrections into the world of Repentance.
Reb Israel Salanter noticed the problem that religious people lose the menschlichkeit of Torah the more religious they become. He wanted to correct this problem by means of the Musar movement. He had a few disciples that went out and spread the good news about Musar/ learning Ethics. This to me seems to be a good idea. The way to do this I think is to get all the books of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter and of the rishonim and just plow through them word by word.
The printing house Eshkol in Israel used to print all the major Musar books in one set.
If there is any way at all to come to authentic Torah, it certainly is not through the religious world.
When I actually try to think about what it would take to come to Torah, my thoughts automatically drift to the שערי תשובה The Gates of Repentance of Rabbainu Yona. I am not sure why. Maybe it is because he gives there the short and simple way. But mainly, my feeling is coming to Torah and the Absolute Spirit is mainly by learning Gemara and Musar [all the mediaeval books of Ethics], not just the Gates of Repentance.
The way to learn Gemara is to have a fast session and an in-depth session. The fast one is by reading the Gemara along with Rashi [line by line, word by word] and at the end of the page to read all the Tosphot. The in depth session is to learn one or more Tosphot many times for many days.
The importance of learning Torah is that it is higher than repentance. So when one does not know what of how his or her actions are objectively wrong, learning Torah in itself sends corrections into the world of Repentance.
Reb Israel Salanter noticed the problem that religious people lose the menschlichkeit of Torah the more religious they become. He wanted to correct this problem by means of the Musar movement. He had a few disciples that went out and spread the good news about Musar/ learning Ethics. This to me seems to be a good idea. The way to do this I think is to get all the books of the disciples of Reb Israel Salanter and of the rishonim and just plow through them word by word.
The printing house Eshkol in Israel used to print all the major Musar books in one set.
