A blog for people who seek alternative approaches to kiruv and the baal teshuvah experience.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Friday, April 5, 2024
Baba Matzia 85
Yehuda HaNasi was punished with intestinal problems for saying "Go for this you were created," to a terrified calf that was on the way to the slaughter house. He was cured only after he later instructed a maidservant to spare a weasel that she was chasing from the house, saying "His compassion is on all His works."
Believe it or not this is part of Judaism. I suspect that the Litvish world picked up some of the cruelty of Eastern Europe and, in their way, attempted to convert it to religious philosophy. And so they have made a mantra of pain, that everything is supposed to be painful. When you go to these guys for aitzah, they tell you to take the most painful course of action. Of course, they don't do that to themselves. Hypocrisy they didn't get from Eastern Europe. That's just yetzer hara.
The Baal Shem Tov came long to return us to the ways of old, a Judaism that is suffused with mercy and love. So of course, some Litvacks went to war against this as they learned from the Russians a tendency toward combativeness and arrogance.
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
narcissisim
word salad, not answering a question directly, not being able to explain the why of any behaviornot taking responsibility for misbehavior, lacking empathy -- showing only a drop of empathy that is dropped whenever the pressure is on
Machon Shlomo and narcissistic supply
One of the many diabolical practices of Machon Shlomo is to seek out guys from elite schools but not to provide them with a program that is fitting for people of relatively higher academic intelligence or ambition. Quite to the contrary, MS has a program so minimal that you can't even call it a program. It's two classes, but not even that. It's a Gemara shiur that was delivered for years without any introduction or background. If you have the kind of mind that says, hey, who wrote this book? Why is its style so odd? Why is it part Aramaic, part Hebrew? From where does it get its authority? Well, they won't help you with that. They just open to page 2 and start reading. The other so-called class was a recitation of the Chumash, ie the Chumash was read to you. That's it. Nothing else. And no library, no guest speakers, no visits to anywhere or anyone in Israel, and lots of propagandizing about how Machon Shlomo was the only place in the world with truth.
For, people who are somewhat more intelligent this is devastating. An inquisitive mind can implode in such an environment, and people did implode. Of course, when they did, it's because "they had problems."
So why did the two guys who ran the place seek out such students? And the answer is status. They were using them to build a reputation. In the world of narcissism, this is called narcissistic supply. Read up on the topic and learn all about Machon Shlomo.