Rav Nahman of Breslov held that one ought to do "Hitbodadut" (private conversation with God) the whole day every day. Not just an hour per day. You can see this in his major book the LeM vol II. chapter 96.ורצונו הוא שתהיה לאדם התבודדות כל היום כולו ולבלות כל היום על זה. אבל בגלל לא כל אדם יכול לקיים את זאת לכן הוא מצווה שתהיה "His desire was that a person should have hitbodadut the whole day and to spend the whole day on this. But because not everyone can fulfill this the minimum he requires is that one should have at least one hour hitbodadut.

This makes a lot of sense to me from several aspects. One is that it is hard to say that any kind of learning makes one righteous. Some people find this out the hard way. They are love bombed and enticed into the religious world and then imagine that this is a righteous and good world because of people learning Torah. Yet at some point reality hits them. So they see that learning Torah even sincerely does not really get one over the finish line clean and proper. The is too much room for self deception and deception of others. Tora tells one how to act but that does not mean that people that use it to make money actually follow it.

They see at some point that to find some way to come to righteousness it is not enough to learn Torah. Clearly something else is needed. So I think Rav Nahman was right about this. Not that it is possible to do all day but at least to spend time talking with God as a friend talks with another and to ask for guidance and help.

 Spiritual techniques do not seem real to me.I think that when a person acts right-- that there can come a blessing from above.But I do not think there is some way to draw down anything like that. Nor do I think it is a good idea to try. Rather I think one should try to be a good person and act right. Then if and when God wants, then blessing may come. 

Liability in the USA seems

Liability in the USA seems to have gotten out of hand. It seems easy to sue anyone for almost anything. This permeates and poisons all human relationships.

I noted that you do not really see this in the Gemara. What you have in the Gemara is that if one person actually hits and injures another person directly then he is liable to damages. But spilling hot coffee one oneself is not liable to anything. The person that spills coffee one himself ought to be more careful the next time.

I noticed this a few weeks ago when I looked at the Gemara in Bava Kama [I think in perek 7]

The case is one gave to a sea captain a cargo to carry someone and the ship sank.  The question is about the fact that the ship did half of its job to carry the cargo half way. So does that have to be paid? But that the captain should be liable is never even brought up --obviously because he is a shomer Sahkar. [paid guard] who is liable only for accidents that were easy to be on guard for. Not for big accidents that he could not help-.

In the short time I had at the Lithuanian study hall I had a chance to take  look at the book the Light of Israel which is a collection of letters of Rav Israel Salanter.

I saw that he emphasizes fear of God along with good character. [In letter 9].

[I knew that both of these two themes are brought up by Rav Isaac Blazer his disciple but I had forgotten that the centrality of fear of God comes up in Rav Israel Salanter himself.

The way it looks to me is that he sees this as being the central beam that the whole house rests upon. and that he decided the way to come to it is by learning Musar.

What I mean to say is that often it is hard to figure out right from wrong and that there does not seem to be any central algorithm by which one can decide.

I mean you have the idea of Michael Huemer that reason recognizes moral principles. [Which I think comes from Fichte and Hegel. In Fichte it is called intellectual intuition.  That is that reason itself recognizes general principles--universals.] But what this means in a practical sense is that hard to know. There can be lots of important moral principles --the ten commandments, learning Torah, trust in God, the Golden Rule. Not to speak lashon Hara (slander) etc. Is there any unifying principle?  It seems there is Fear of God. [Especially when principles seem to they conflict, this is needed to resolve issues.]


[For some reason my time in Litvak yeshivas was limited because of my own evil inclinations. It takes a lot more awareness of the importance of  straight Torah than I have to be able to stick with it. Maybe if I could go back in time, I would stay with the straight path of the Gra. But I can not. So at least, I want to take the opportunity here to explain what straight Torah is.]

Yerushalmi on the Shofar

I had a chance to take a look at the Gemara in the Yerushalmi on the Shofar for a few minutes before Rosh Hashana.

That was a few day ago so I forgot most of it. But the basic idea I saw was this the mishna says סדר תקיעות שלש של שלש שלש and the Gemara [the Jerusalem Talmud] says R. Hanania and R Mana. One says a "trumita" and the other says 3 thin ones.
The commentator there says it means an order like this.  one long one equal to nine short bursts. Then three short ones each one equal to three short bursts. and then one long one equal to 9.

That is the Tekia shevarim tekia. Then a Tekia truah tekia is  one long one equal to 9 short bursts. Then 9 short bursts. Then one long one equal to 9.

Clearly then the first set of tekia shevarim truah tekia is 9-3,3,3,111111111,-9❤
[So the first set of 3 tekia truah tekia is 9, 111111111, 9. Then repeat that another 2 times. The next set is 3 tekia shevarim tekia. So  that comes out 9, 3-3-3,9. Then repeat that another two times. Then the last set is I I mentioned above tekia shevarim trua tekia. That comes out 9-3-3-3-111111111-9. And repeat that another two times.]



This is how I kind of recall the same ideas brought in the regular Gemara on the last page of Rosh Hashana. [the Babylonian Talmud]

My question here is that it is hard to see this in the Gemara itself. I can not tell if the gemara is talking about the length of one set Tashrat [Tekia shevarim truah tekia] or Teshat or Trat. Or of all three sets.


I might mention here that I had a few extra minutes to take a look at the Pnei Moshe's longer commentary at the end of the Gemara and he brings the Rambam that the length of a truah is two tekiot. I can imagine that this refers to first set of tekia shevarim truah tekia in which the middle shevaraim truah is equal to 18 short burts all together since each one by itself is 9.

Yeshivas in Israel are private. The situation is different than NY yeshivas

 Yeshivas in Israel are private. The situation is different than NY yeshivas where the yeshivas are semi private, but basically open to anyone that wants to sit and learn Torah day or night. Still you need to be part of the program. This can be confusing for a person coming from the USA to Israel. For example, you can have  person who is used to the situation in NY where he can just walk in to any Lithuanian yeshiva and sit and learn any time. --But to have lunch -he needs to be accepted as part of the program. He might then come to Israel, and then find himself thrown out of places that tell him he is not wanted there. (And he will be surprized since he was asked many times to contribute charity to those places that said they accepted anyone who wanted to learn Torah.) This happens a lot more than you can imagine.  It seems to be based on this kind of misunderstanding about the basic set up. Yeshiva in Israel are mainly for the ages 18 to 22. The whole structure is totally different than in the USA.

faith in Rav Shach and the Gra

With Rav Nahman of Uman and Breslov there is a kind of רצוא ושוב -going up and then falling back process towards the truth. But Hegel has a different kind of process in which one goes back and forth between two extremes and by a process of synthesis rises up to the next level. I can see both kind of processes at work in my own life. For a certain period when I was at the Mir in NY--I felt I was in a kind of רצוא  state. [Going up] I was involved in learning Gemara [the Oral and written Law] and also Musar. Then coming to Israel certainly helped accelerate that process. But then came the period of falling away. And in that period I learned a thing or two about reality and the truth and the importance of Rav Shach and the Gra.

So I have learned a lot. But the lessons have been hard to put into writing. I would like to find a way of expressing the importance of the straight Litvak path [the Gra and Rav Shach, and Rav Israel Salanter--Musar] but along with that to show a synthesis with Rav Nahman and also the path of my parents (to emphasize good character and also to learn Physics and Mathematics as also brought in most rishonim based on Saadia Gaon]

So far I have not been able to find for myself any kind of simple way to explain the difficulties and the kind of synthesis that I am looking for. It is a kind of path of balance. To learn from the great sages of the past but also the greater need for common sense to discern who is worth listening to as opposed to who is actually from the Dark Side. In terms of this kind of common sense it seems to me that even for one who lacks that kind of sense still faith in Rav Shach and the Gra to believe that they knew what they were talking about can make up for the difference of what one lacks.