Rav Nahman of Uman made a point about Torah scholars that are demons in a few places. But does not really give a reason for why they appear nor for how to avoid them. Though that is already a remarkable fact that he had the courage to pull the wool out of people's eyes about the problem.
[The idea of Rav Nahman is that the actual human soul of these people is slowly replaced by a demon. The cause of this is unclear, nor is it clear what to do about it.]
I have thought that the problem is that Torah has been made into a paying profession and that invites the demonic Torah scholars in the first place. But it is not so clear --that answer I mean. It was pointed out to me that the Keseph Mishna brings a defense for the practice of paying for a rav.
So one answer seems to be out, but then what is the trouble? From where does it come and what is possible to do about it? Just hide?
What a lot of secular Jews did at the beginning of the Reform Movement was in fact to simply get away from the religious world. They clearly say the problem so the majority of the Jewish people decided to get out and avoid the Torah Scholars that are demons.
Still that does not seem like the best solution either since we are all obligated to learn and keep Torah.
One other suggestion I have had is to pay attention to the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication. I mean to treat it as valid in term of actual law. But I have not been totally convinced by that myself since even in the Litvak world which attempts to go with the Gra to some degree there also seems to be this same problem, although it is to a lesser degree.
And besides these two solutions nothing occurs to me.
[I have mentioned before the approach of just getting a few tractates of the Talmud and Rav Shach's Avi Ezri and then just learning at home. In fact this seems to be the only possible solution to this problem. After all even in Israel the Dark Side is spreading rapidly -especially in religious areas, so there in fact is no where to escape from it. All one can do is learn Torah at home. And that was always what my learning partner in Uman was telling me, about how great it is to be in a place where there is no religious control.]
[The idea of Rav Nahman is that the actual human soul of these people is slowly replaced by a demon. The cause of this is unclear, nor is it clear what to do about it.]
I have thought that the problem is that Torah has been made into a paying profession and that invites the demonic Torah scholars in the first place. But it is not so clear --that answer I mean. It was pointed out to me that the Keseph Mishna brings a defense for the practice of paying for a rav.
So one answer seems to be out, but then what is the trouble? From where does it come and what is possible to do about it? Just hide?
What a lot of secular Jews did at the beginning of the Reform Movement was in fact to simply get away from the religious world. They clearly say the problem so the majority of the Jewish people decided to get out and avoid the Torah Scholars that are demons.
Still that does not seem like the best solution either since we are all obligated to learn and keep Torah.
One other suggestion I have had is to pay attention to the signature of the Gra on the letter of excommunication. I mean to treat it as valid in term of actual law. But I have not been totally convinced by that myself since even in the Litvak world which attempts to go with the Gra to some degree there also seems to be this same problem, although it is to a lesser degree.
And besides these two solutions nothing occurs to me.
[I have mentioned before the approach of just getting a few tractates of the Talmud and Rav Shach's Avi Ezri and then just learning at home. In fact this seems to be the only possible solution to this problem. After all even in Israel the Dark Side is spreading rapidly -especially in religious areas, so there in fact is no where to escape from it. All one can do is learn Torah at home. And that was always what my learning partner in Uman was telling me, about how great it is to be in a place where there is no religious control.]
