Magical thinking

Guy goes to a Rosh Yeshiva at a very famous yeshiva in EY for aitzah. Here's the exact conversation.

Bachur: "I'm having trouble with my yetzer hara."

RY: "Two words. Mishneh Brerurah."

"What?"

"I have it on tradition that if you learn the Mishneh Brurah you won't have trouble with your yetzer hara."

So let's unpack this. Two words to solve one of the biggest challenges in life for men. And of course the answer is Torah learning. With rabbis like this, who needs a rabbi. The answer to every question is study Torah. If that's the answer, I can train a parrot to say it. 

How old can this tradition be? The Mishneh Brerurah is a century old. What did they do before that?

There are so many things he could have said. Watch your stress level. Why are you stressed. If it's excessive fear about gehennom, we can talk about that. If it's putting too much pressure to study Torah every second, we can talk about that? Maybe you need to get a wife. Maybe you are around too many provocatively dressed women. Maybe you need more sleep, more exercise. Maybe you concentrate on your connection with Hashem. All depends on the person. That's why a good mentor is so helpful. But that's not what happened here.

This same fellow went to another RY who said, "Are you learning Tosfos in depth?" "No." "Well that's why."

So we see a disagreement. Is it Tosfos that saves you or the Mishneh Brurah? Each gave his answer as if that's THE answer. They can't both be right.

And of course neither is right. What they are offering is magical thinking. What they are pushing is lunacy that is so loony that you are tempted to think they have arrived at some kind of ultimate truth. This is the stuff of charlatans. And you are not allowed to question them of course. 

We don't know who actually said the following, but it applies:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”