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3.6.21

 Rav Nahman brings in the LeM that when one wants to come into holiness there stands at the entrance a religious person to block the way. [I forget off hand which chapter that is in]. So religious people often are enemies of holiness and serving God. I have seen this much. Religious people most often do not care about God at all and rather care about their social group. Some stupid cult or other.

 In accounts of the expulsion of Jews from Spain is left out the war that  was going in between Muslims and Christians. I noticed this in an account of the events from a Jewish perspective. So my question is --as would be natural to ask- "How much were Jews helping the Muslims?" I do not know. But if the answer is a lot,-- then it would be understandable why Isabella and Ferdinand did not want a enemy in their borders.

Today Jews consider Christianity as idolatry, and Islam as basically OK. So I wonder if this attitude had not been around at that time also?

[The very great anger of Jews towards Christianity is apparent even today in the accounts of the expulsion from Spain. And I can see why. The major port of entry for many Jews was Morocco. But the experience of Jews there was often  horrific.] 

 Even when one wants to keep Torah, the obstacle is always the religious authorities who are wicked. This problem is mentioned in the Gemara, but mostly appears in the LeM of Rav Nahman.[vol I8,12,28, 61, vol II 1, 5, 8] The issue is that there is a sort of entry of the Dark Side into the world of Torah.; such that anyone who wants to keep Torah must  encounter these Torah scholars that are demons. Far be it from me to ask why this is the case, but it does imply a sort of care and caution when one tries to keep Torah not be be seduced by the Dark Side.

Since is is hard to tell the difference between authentic Tora and Torah of the evil realm, thus avoiding the religious is the best approach.

2.6.21

Written Law and Oral Law, Physics, Metaphysics

To learn the entire Written Law and Oral Law, Physics, Metaphysics is the basic approach of Pakuda and Maimonides. That is the Old Testament, the two Talmuds, the books of Aristotle named the Metaphysics. But the Physics I would have to say must refer to Physics today. Even the Metaphysics of Aristotle I would have to say refers to the subject matter. [i.e., includes Plato and Plotinus. I would have to add Kant and Leonard Nelson.] 

[The way I suggest to finish the two Talmuds is with Rashi, Tosphot and Maharsha. That should be the fast session. For the the in-depth session I suggest to concentrate on individual sugias with the the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.]


[Certainly the Ramban/Nahmanides and many of the other rishonim would disagree with the importance of learning Physics and Metaphysics. Still I have adopted this approach of Ibn Pakuda and the Rambam. It makes the most sense to me.] 

“I CAN NO LONGER RECOMMEND THE VACCINE TO ANY INDIVIDUAL”

 https://www.brighteon.com/d6fab6d3-24b8-4f1e-9bc7-9ab1c1134593

1.6.21

 General Grant was reviewing his troops and came near the closest lines to the Confederate Army. As he did the Union guards saw him and announced to all the soldiers in the vicinity to come  out of their tents and present themselves to the general. General Grant said, :"Forget it. Just let the men go back to their tents."  The Confederate guards had heard from across the battle lines what had been going on. So the Confederate officers called to their men to stand at attention for General Grant. They all assembled and saluted the General and he returned their salute.

The lesson. We are all Americans. We all believe in Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Just we are disagreeing about what is just. 

[This is not to imply that General Grant was right. Rather as is the case with many issues of justice, there is ambiguity. The odd thing is that General Grant stated in his writing down his account of the war, mentioned one justification. That the slaves would eventually reproduce and then since they would hate the whites, they would exterminate the whites. So with that in mind it was important to free the slaves so the nation would be whole. But was that the result? Are now things any different? Is now hatred of whites any less? Is there longer any less desire to exterminate the whites? He forsaw that with enough numbers the result would be that the slaves would attempt to destroy all white people. So is that any different from things now?]  


How much does one do review before going on?

   For myself I found  review twice and go on made the most sense.

I was aware of the approach of Rav Nahman of just saying the words in order and going on. [But that left me with almost zero understanding.] On the other hand Rav Freifeld of Shar Yashuv was emphasizing doing review 10 times before going on. That left me with making no progress. So the review twice approach was what I adopted for many years.