28.3.16
Comment on Islam by a T. Turner:
I could imagine myself saying to any Muslim I might meet casually if I had the guts: "The thing you call a religion tells you to lie to those of us you believe to be in the 'house of war.' I won't lie to you. You are not welcome here, and I don't ever want to be like you or live the way your pedophile, robbing, lying, blood-thirsty 'prophet' told you to live. You may call yourself peaceful and innocent as anyone, but if you can't denounce sharia, jihad and your 'prophet' for the hurtful things they are, then you are a coward or a liar or an enemy."
"In fact, for you to even be in this country, and subscribe to a philosophy that considers this country to be 'the house of war' is treasonous, in my opinion. If this is the house of war, then you are the enemy, and if I had a weapon, I should just shoot you and be done with it."
I have mentioned it before hand but this relates to the issue of the social meme and the further question of how much of this is biological. See:
That is: is there a parasite that affects their thinking and causes the to think murder is praiseworthy? For example there is a barnacle that attaches itself to the back of a crab and injects a hormone that causes the male crab to think it is a female. Then the male crab digs a hole for its eggs. But it has no eggs. But the barnacle does!
I spoke with a black fellow once in Central Park late at night. He described to me his religious search over many years--him and his wife together. Part of that account includes a mosque in NJ. He gave me details of a murder that happened when one member decided to leave Islam. They did not just murder him but his whole family. Until this day the police filed it away as unsolved.
I could imagine myself saying to any Muslim I might meet casually if I had the guts: "The thing you call a religion tells you to lie to those of us you believe to be in the 'house of war.' I won't lie to you. You are not welcome here, and I don't ever want to be like you or live the way your pedophile, robbing, lying, blood-thirsty 'prophet' told you to live. You may call yourself peaceful and innocent as anyone, but if you can't denounce sharia, jihad and your 'prophet' for the hurtful things they are, then you are a coward or a liar or an enemy."
"In fact, for you to even be in this country, and subscribe to a philosophy that considers this country to be 'the house of war' is treasonous, in my opinion. If this is the house of war, then you are the enemy, and if I had a weapon, I should just shoot you and be done with it."
I have mentioned it before hand but this relates to the issue of the social meme and the further question of how much of this is biological. See:
Toxoplasmosis
That is: is there a parasite that affects their thinking and causes the to think murder is praiseworthy? For example there is a barnacle that attaches itself to the back of a crab and injects a hormone that causes the male crab to think it is a female. Then the male crab digs a hole for its eggs. But it has no eggs. But the barnacle does!
I spoke with a black fellow once in Central Park late at night. He described to me his religious search over many years--him and his wife together. Part of that account includes a mosque in NJ. He gave me details of a murder that happened when one member decided to leave Islam. They did not just murder him but his whole family. Until this day the police filed it away as unsolved.
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.
27.3.16
The question is in Avot. One who learns to teach is given to learn and teach. One who learns to do is given to learn teach and do.
I think that mishna is hard to understand. I can see the advantage of teaching Torah and also of doing. From what I remember the Gra brings a source for that mishna that might explain it. My thought is Torah has to be learned in order to do it. But what if one has sinned and caused others to sin? Then one needs to do and to learn and teach also. I am not saying this explains that mishna.. I will have to think about that mishna.
What is the kernel of what I am saying is that I think that sins stops one from seeing the light. They cause one to lose the way, and think evil is good, and good is evil. Thus, after one has sinned, and especially caused others to sin, it is virtually impossible to repent. Because if he tries to repent while thinking what is evil is really good,- then all the more he repents, all the more sin he will be doing.
The best advice is thus to learn Torah, with the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach and Chidushei HaRambam of Reb Chaim from Brisk in order to get an idea of how to understand any given law in the Torah.
The best advice is thus to learn Torah, with the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach and Chidushei HaRambam of Reb Chaim from Brisk in order to get an idea of how to understand any given law in the Torah.
toxo and marx (Stanford)
Can a virus take over your mind? How much of what we think is because we want to and how much because some parasite in us wants us to think it? It can make a mouse be attracted to a cat. What else it out there --or inside of us-making us think and act in ways that cause our demise?
How can you know what is abnormal if you do not know know what is normal?
Howard Bloom thinks of the same kind of idea in terms of a meme a unit of social information that seeks to perpetuate itself via a host like a human being. But could it be biological? Just some hidden pathogen or parasite that gets contracted by contact with other infected people.
Hasidim could be understood in this light. A kind of parasite on the body on Torah redirecting it towards its own destruction.
So the question is this:
Toxoplasmosis and the social meme? Is there a connection?
Can a virus take over your mind? How much of what we think is because we want to and how much because some parasite in us wants us to think it? It can make a mouse be attracted to a cat. What else it out there --or inside of us-making us think and act in ways that cause our demise?
How can you know what is abnormal if you do not know know what is normal?
Howard Bloom thinks of the same kind of idea in terms of a meme a unit of social information that seeks to perpetuate itself via a host like a human being. But could it be biological? Just some hidden pathogen or parasite that gets contracted by contact with other infected people.
Hasidim could be understood in this light. A kind of parasite on the body on Torah redirecting it towards its own destruction.
So the question is this:
Toxoplasmosis and the social meme? Is there a connection?
There is a barnacle that rides on the back of a crab that injects a hormone into a male crab that causes teh male crab to act like a female. It then digs a hole for its eggs. But it has no eggs. But the barnacle sure does!! How much of our behavior and thoughts are directed some hidden parasite like hasidim that need a host?
This goes back to what the Torah means. The Torah has a basic meme. That is Monotheism. That God made the world something from nothing and He is not the world and the world is not Him. This is the background worldview of the Torah. This was so obvious that it did not need to be expressed until Saadia Gaon and later the Rambam. But this meme can be lied about. Hasidim deceive concerning the meaning of Torah. They can do so because sentences express abstract features, but these are always in a context of other abstract features (a network)
Torah has a basic meaning and every verse in Torah also. The meaning depends on the background and network. Thus worship of tzadikim is not defined by what anyone wants. Idolatry in the Torah has a specific meaning that depends on the entire network and context.
Sharia
I think from what I understood from talking with the son of a sheikh for hours over several years that Islam does recommend to people to make war on the infidel and that that is considered justified--not just in the book and in Sharia but in actual practice. In fact, it was a common occurrence in Israel to have some Muslim just walk up to someone with a kitchen knife and kill them. This happened daily at least once per day in one city or the other during the 80's and 90's.This was so common that it was not reported even in Israeli newspapers, much less international news. When bus bombings happened (usually once per week) the media always downplayed it as an "obstacle to peace."
The way to understand this is by Carl Jung. The collective unconscious. It is not known to most people--that this comes from Kant's dinge an sich.
I mean to say we have with Kant the "self." This idea of Kant is sadly under-treated in Allen Bloom's book, The Closing of the American Mind. -Because Bloom himself tilted towards Hegel. Otherwise his treatment of the self is a masterpiece. [It is somewhere in the middle of the book. I forget where..]
But Kant's self is a ding an sich a thing in itself whose essence is hidden from us. This became in the hands of Nietzsche the "Id" that s more well known. But what I am suggesting is that is this the source of Jung's collective unconscious which is similarly hidden from view but motivates all the important actions of any people or nation.
The way to understand this is by Carl Jung. The collective unconscious. It is not known to most people--that this comes from Kant's dinge an sich.
I mean to say we have with Kant the "self." This idea of Kant is sadly under-treated in Allen Bloom's book, The Closing of the American Mind. -Because Bloom himself tilted towards Hegel. Otherwise his treatment of the self is a masterpiece. [It is somewhere in the middle of the book. I forget where..]
But Kant's self is a ding an sich a thing in itself whose essence is hidden from us. This became in the hands of Nietzsche the "Id" that s more well known. But what I am suggesting is that is this the source of Jung's collective unconscious which is similarly hidden from view but motivates all the important actions of any people or nation.
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