In Uman itself there was a large murder of Jews as commemorated there on a place outside Privat Bank [on Lenina Street--the main street].

 The Nazis had a sort of secret weapon --the assault gun which looked more or less like a tank. The StuG III Strumgeschutz that more or less allowed them to get through the Stalin Line which was the proper border of the USSR. The Red Army had a very smart Commander of the Western Forces (Bundyonny) who was able to escape [the 6th and 12th armies] at amazing speed which astounded even the Germans. Still the Nazis were able to form a pincher type of action which joined together at Uman which encircled the Red Army. Around that area was made a lot of very large prisoner of war camps.  Most of the prisoners died because they were not provided with shelter, and also were given very sparse rations. In Uman itself there was a large murder of Jews as commemorated there on a place outside Privat Bank [on Lenina Street--the main street].

I might mention that even among the German lines there were good hearted people. In one of those prisoner of war camps, a woman from Uman passed by and pointed to a prisoner and said to one of the German guards, "That is my husband," (even though she and he had never met before then). That prisoner of war was then let go (and married her) and became the father of a KGB agent whose  home I used to stay in when I came to Uman for Rosh Hashanah.

z32 music file

z32 B flat major  z32 in nwc

music file z29

 z29  D major

Rosh Hashanah

 What people ought to do for Rosh Hashanah I believe is to go out into some forest or place where they can be alone and talk or commune with God. [This is what Rav Nahman calls Hitbodadut.] It is not meditation but rather actual talking from your heart towards God. Part of the reason for this I think can be explained thus: It is too easy to lose who you are. When one is surrounded all the time by other people  it becomes too easy to lose who you really are deep inside. (It can get to the point where one's inner essence disappears. All that is left is the  consciousness of the crowd.) You think all the time other people's thoughts. You worry all the time what others will think. That is why one must go out to a place where he or she can be alone and talk to God from his heart.

{This would be in balance with learning Torah. I myself was unclear about this issue. The Gemara makes it clear that every word of Torah is a mitzvah which equals all the other mitzvot. Still, to get to Torah for its own sake depends on being in contact with one's good essence.]

Baali teshuva ( newly religious-) are traitors to their parents

 Baali teshuva ( newly religious-) in spite of their supposed loyalty to Torah, are traitors to their parents. And a traitor once- can be a traitor twice.  In fact, this is the reason for the general lunacy of the religious world. The fact that people who are newly religious and traitors to their parents are also traitors to Torah and they pervert it.  And this is the bulk of the religious world- that neither understand Torah nor are loyal towards it.

They might have asked themselves before they jettisoned their loyalty to their parents: "What to do with the fifth commandment?"

[The issue was noticed long ago and was the reason Litvak yeshivot did not accept newly religious in knowledge that the newly religious are flakey. That is--they can hold with all their might and soul to one opinion today, and to the opposite tomorrow.] 

faith of the Torah

 The basic tenet of faith of the Torah is that God made the world from nothing. Not from Himself.😊

I have gone into this a few years ago. But what I wanted to add is that the religious accept pantheism and that besides being not what the Torah holds-it is also hard to see why a good and wise God would reincarnate Himself in a world of infinite torture. We might look at the surface of the sea as calm and benevolent. But underneath the surface everything is waging total war to the death against every other creature. It is a realm the insane torture of chemical warfare. God who by the basic understanding of that word is someone infinitely  kind and wise would find no better better way to spend his time than be incarnated in creatures that torture others? And all the more so that vicious of all creatures mankind?

While on the other hand I can see that a wise and kind God would create the world with some deep purpose in mind. But that He should be spending his time torturing all creatures is absurd and contradictory to Torah  as you can see in any and all Rishonim who wrote about the faith of the Torah.

{Where did the rishonim write about this? you might ask. Mainly in the books of Musar and world view issues like the Guide. Besides that, the Ari brings at the beginning of the Eitz Chaim that God made the world from nothing --not from Himself. So there is in fact no argument on this point.]

There are plenty of Jews which worship dead people

 There is no good reason to assume that idolatry is limited to non Jews. There are plenty of Jews which worship dead people- and hang their portraits all over the place. We know that to marry a worshiper of idols is forbidden, but  that does not mean a gentile. Rather all religious Jews worship dead people. \[The fact of their worship of dead people does not help them to be considered Jewish even though they might make a show and dance of their adherence to rituals. The  religious Jews that worship the pictures of dead people shows they are idolaters. [In fact the overly strict adherence חומרות יתירות to rituals might be thought to hide an intension to pretend to be kosher, while in fact hiding some hidden agenda to entice others to their worship of dead people. []