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22.4.18

Finishing Shas and Poskim.

Finishing Shas and Poskim [note 1] is important. Litvak yeshivas however concentrate on "Iyun" in depth learning. But there is also great importance in finishing at least four times.

This applies also to Math, Physics, and Rav Shach's Avi Ezri.

The best thing is to have two sessions --one in depth and another to just say the words in order as fast as possible and to go on.

[In fact, in both Shar Yashuv and the Mir in NY the afternoon was devoted to fast learning.]

For me fast learning meant doing review on the Gemara and Tosphot only once, and then going on. But now I am thinking fast learning ought to be fast--no review until one gets to the end, and then goes back to the beginning.



[note 1] "Shas" means the Talmud. "Poskim" means Rif, Rosh, Rambam, and Tur. It is a word used only for Rishonim [mediaeval authorities]. But it has come to include Rav Joseph Karo's and his commentaries. [Magen Avraham, Shach, Taz, etc,...]







My opinion about the Left is that it stems from ideologies that came into the world from the netherworld around 1800. Ideas that took over the minds of men. The USA was far from the scene of turmoil until the insanity came over in the form of socialism. Since then socialism has been taking hold of people's minds. So the Left still attacks anyone that seems to stand for faith and reason..

But I do not like to read or learn about this because it is upsetting and also when I learn about the Dark Side, that in itself seems to invite it in.

21.4.18

Emanation of the Ari

Emanation of the Ari is not the same thing as the belief that nothing exists besides God.

There is a verse: "You were shown to know that the Lord is God, there are no others besides Him." אתה הראתה לדעת כי ה' הוא האלהים אי עוד מלבדו.

The Rambam explains this verse  in the beginning of Mishne Torah that the existence of all beings is dependent on God, but his existence is independent.  He writes in halaka 4 that that is the meaning of the verse אין עוד מלבדו.
הוא שהנביא אומר וה' אלקים אמת הוא לבדו אמת ואין לאחר אמת כאמתו והוא שהתורה אומרת אין עוד מלבדו כלומר אין שם מצוי אמת מלבדו כמותו
But to get the full picture of what the Rambam is saying it helps to look also at halaka 3 where he explains all beings need Him, but he needs none of them.


I once had  long essay on this where I brought the Ari concerning the צמצום (Contraction). The Ari brings in the beginning of the Tree of Life that God contracted Himself to make a place for Creation.
There is no logical connection between  this and the issue of whether anything else besides God exists.
Even though in ארבע מאות שקל כסף there is one place that the Ari says God contracted his light to make a place for creation, that still does have any logical relation to the question.

The issue is more serious however.
Things exist or they don't. This is a simple result of the law of the excluded middle.
Madmen might deny the existence of reality, but I see no reason to take their views seriously.
Common sense says I exist and you exist. And I am not God, and you are not God. If someone does not see that, there is nothing more plain and simple to appeal to. 



If people are very clever in books, but are reduced to justifying themselves by confusion and lunacy like this, then that is their sufficient refutation.

[Frankly  the whole business seems to me to be part of the general nature  of the Sitra Akra (evil inclination) to go around in the world convincing people of all kinds of terrible nonsense. Each person is approached with some different kinds of nonsense. But there is always some grain of truth to it that makes it sound reasonable. A hundred year ago anyone with brains thought socialist revolutions were the greatest thing since the wheel was invented. It take a long time for nutty ideas to be revealed for what they really are--long after they have done their irreparable damage.





20.4.18

ב''מ צח Bava Metzia

This might seem trivial but it occurs to me to bring it up anyway. Rav Shakh brings a doubt  about a guard who makes a plea, "the object was  taken by force." Is that really a good plea? The Torah does believe him with an oath, but still perhaps the actual plea in itself has little merit.  Or perhaps it is just like a regular plea of "לא היו דברים מעולם" ["I was never asked or paid to guard the object".]

The reason I bring this up is in the old notes on Bava Metzia [which I might bring here] there is a question that my learning partner [who asked me not to name him or mention him in my notes--that is why his name does not appear there] brought up about Tosphot. In the same Tosphot page 98  Tosphot treats, "I do not know if the object was taken by force or not" as כפירה [denial] that he was ever under an obligation to guard it. And he also treats it as a plea of "נאנסו" ("It was taken by force").

So if, "It was taken by force" is really not a  good plea in the first place, then "I do not know if it was taken by force" is not any better. But if "It was taken by force" is a good plea, then "I do not know" might be thought to be like straight denial of any obligation.

[The reason I bring this up is mainly because I simply would like to introduce the subject, and I am thinking that with the aid of this idea from Rav Shakh it might be possible to answer the question I bring up on Tosphot. But so far I do not know how it could help. I am only pointing out that the two views in Tosphot are parallel with the two views Rav Shakh brings. Does that help anything? I am not sure--but it might be. If so it would be great because that question on Tosphot has been sitting in my notes for a few years already. I am optimistic because it has happened to me that I saw an idea from Rav Shakh that helped me to answer questions that had been sitting in my notes for years.[I do not have a Bava Metzia and I also can not read  my notes very easily unless I can get a printed version. But still I have hope that maybe some solution can be found.(The problem is not if you can find a way to say איני יודע is כפירה or אונס. The problem is that Tosphot treats it both ways and seems obligated to treat it both ways according to the reasoning n Tosphot.])



These are some of my notes on that Tosphot:


ב''מ צח. תוספות משכחת. בתחלה תוספות [בענין שיטת הריב''א] צריכים להגיד ש"איני יודע" של המשנה היא כפירה- דאם "איני יודע" הוא טענת אונס (שבויה או נשברה) אזי לריב''א אין צורך לעוד בהמה.- והגמרא בפירוש מצריכה עוד בהמה. ואחר זה תוספות אומרים "איני יודע" הוא טיעון של טענת אונס (שבויה או שבורה או מתה). איך רואים את זה? בשביל שהגמרא אומרת שכדי שתהיה שבועה, חייב להיות שלש בהמות: (1) הודאה, (2) כפירה, (3) ואיני יודע. אם "איני יודע" הוא כפירה, אז יש לך רק כפירה והודאה. סתירה ישרה.
למה תוספות נלכדו בזו? בשביל שהם מתעמלים לתרץ את הריב''א בדיוק כמו שעשו בבבא קמא. לר''ת אין צורך בכל זה ואצלו "איני יודע" הוא פשוט טענת אונס (שבויה או שבורה או מתה).
אני חשבתי לתרץ את הקושיא הזאת על תוספות כך. בתחלה תוספות מחזיקים  שהשיטה של ש"איני יודע" הוא כפירה בשביל שיש בו קצת אונס,- תגיד למשל ארבעים אחוז. וזה אינו מספיק העזה להגיד שהוא מעיז להצריך שבועה אלא אם כן יש גם הודאה ביחד אתו. אחר זה תוספות מחזיקים את השיטה  של ש"איני יודע" הוא מספיק טענת אונס (שבויה או שבורה או מתה) כדי להיחשב שונה מכפירה סתם- וכדעת רמי בר חמא שצריך טענות כפירה והודאה באונס.
נחזור לזאת אחר כך, משום שזה אינו מתרץ את השאלה בגלל שהעזה שייכת רק למַלְוֶה. ופשוט הוא.] יש תירוץ יותר טוב. היינו טענת "איני יודע אם נאנס" נחשבת טענת אונס, וטענת "איני יודע אם היתה שם עוד בהמה בכלל" נחשבת טענת כפירה.  [להסביר את השאלה כאן במילים פשוטות-- בשיטת הריב''א, טענת אונס (שבויה או שבורה או מתה) צריך שבועה. ולכן בתחלה כשהגמרא מחייבת הודאה ביחד עם "איני יודע" אנחנו חייבים להבין "איני יודע" הוא כפירה. אחר כך, הגמרא מחייבת הודאה וכפירה ביחד עם "איני יודע" ולכן נראה שם ש"איני יודע" משמשת במקום טענת אונסים. (אם "איני יודע" היא טענת כפירה לרמי בר חמא אז לא צריכים עוד בהמה של כפירה), ואין לתרץ שטענת "איני יודע" יכולה לשמש במקום שתיהן, שאם כן בתחלה היתה מספקת טענת "איני יודע" להיות נחשבת אונס (שבויה או שבורה או מתה) וחייב בשבועה ואינו יכול להישבע, ולכן משלם.
לתרץ את זה, נראה לומר ש"איני יודע" היא טענת כפירה להריב''א, אבל לקמן בסוגיא של רמי בר חמא צריכים בהמה של "איני יודע" כדי שלא יהיה אפשר להישבע. רק הקושיא עם זה היא שתוספות בעצמם אומרים בענין אותה סוגיא ש"איני יודע" היא טענת אונס ,שבורה או מתה או שבויה.] נראה לי כעת שאפשר לתרץ את הקושיה הזאת על ידי החילוק של רב שך באבי עזרי בתחלת ספר המשפטים שטענת איני יודע בעצמה תלויה באיך שאתה מסתכל על טענת אונס.
היינו רב שך מביא ספק אם טענת אונס היא טענה חזקה או לא.
אם היא טענה חלשה אז איני יודע אם נאנסו אינה טענה כלל אינו פטור בגלל מתוך שאינו יכול לישבע משלם אלא בגלל שאין לו טענה. אם היא טענה חזקה אז איני יודע חייב בגלל מתוך. וזה מקיים התנאי להתחייב שבועה.


 גם אפשר לחלק בין איני יודע אם נאנסו ובין איני יודע אם נתחייבתי לך. וגם אפשר לומר שאיני יודע אם נאנסו היא טענת הודאה כמו איני יודע אם שילמתי את החוב שמודה שחייב. איני יודע אם נתחייבתי לך היא טענת כפירה.




19.4.18

To Mueller: Have you no decency?

There are tons of laws in the USA. This is not a metaphor. The laws on the books in the USA could be used for ballast on a nuclear submarine.  There is no question if you get the best prosecutors around and have them examine any one individual for as long as it takes, you could convict anyone of countless crimes.
So to just keep investigating and then send for the best prosecutors in Manhattan to get at President Trump seems unfair. Usually what prosecutor does is investigate a crime after it is obvious that it has been committed. They do not look for crimes to investigate just because they do not like someone.

To Mueller: Have you no decency?

Hillel was thrown out of the yeshiva of Shemaia and Avtalion

From what is possible to tell, I think that Hillel was thrown out of the yeshiva of Shemaia and Avtalion until he could pay the entrance fee. [You see this  from the fact that on days he couldn't pay the fee he went up to the roof to listen through a crack in the ceiling.]

And Rav Shach brings the idea אף חכמתי עמדה לי "The knowledge I learned with pain stood with me."

What this seems to indicate  is that the trouble people go through in Litvak yeshivas is the only way to merit to Torah.

When people ask about some hard experience they went through in a Litvak yeshiva, they often consider the question to be unanswerable and use it as a reason to leave off learning. And the questions are often very good questions. Yet the answer seems to be that going through what they go through is the only way to come to Torah.

I am not saying to ignore the questions. But rather I suggest that the attitude ought to be to hang on even though there are questions.

ויגרש את האדם מן הגן וישם שם את הכרוב עם חרב המתהפכת לשמור את הדרך

When God threw out Adam from the Garden of Eden he placed at the entrance an angel with a fiery sword to guard the path to the tree of life. We see one can not get to Torah without going through these kinds of questions and difficulties.

[Sometimes there is just cause for the fact that people get thrown out, sometimes not. But what I am suggesting here is that when you have gone through problems, you ought to assume that there is something internal that is the cause.]





18.4.18

philosophy of Torah

The Ran of Breslov [Reb Nahman] had a low opinion of the Rambam's Guide for the Perplexed.
Also when he  listed subjects one must finish every year in such a way that the day does not seem long enough he listed the whole Talmud, and the poskim Rif, Rosh and the major book of Rav Joseph Karo The Laid Out Table. But he skipped the Rambam. It seems to me that he skipped it on purpose.
The Gra wrote his comments on the Laid Out Table,  not the Rambam.

The book I was most impressed with in terms of law is the Tur with the commentary of Rav Yoseph Karo.

But I also think the Rambam's Mishne Torah is good to learn with the basic commentary of Rav Shach's the Avi Ezri.

As for the Guide itself,  I can see the that the Ran of Breslov had a point, -- it seems a little out of date. In terms of the philosophy of Torah, I think Saadia Gaon's Faiths and Doctrines is better. In any case, Reb Nahman did not think learning any philosophy makes sense, and from that fact I thought  not to do so. Though I wanted to listen to the Rambam about the importance of Physics and Metaphysics, but because of the warning of Reb Nahman, I decided not to spend any effort on philosophy except as a pastime to relax.   I think anyone looking at philosophy today would have to agree that it is a waste land.

[However Leonard Nelson had a good point about non-intuitive immediate knowledge. That is knowledge that one knows,- but not through sense perception and not through any intellectual deductions (and not through anything. It is immediate, not mediate).  It is akin to Michael Huemer's idea of what reason perceives. Direct awareness of facts and of external objects. Not through anything. Huemer builds on Thomas Reid, but the idea seems close to Leonard Nelson's immediate non intuitive knowledge.--another word for faith.]