It Only Took 40 Years For Me To Find...

Finally a source for what i've been feeling for so long!

It's been so long since i've made any entries here. I've been giving most of my energies towards wikisource. Uploading seforim, etc..

Anyway, came across a sefer called קול התור by R' Hillel of Shklov. In the second section of Perek 5 he talks about the Vilna Gaon's lamenting the lack of worldly knowledge in the torah community and it's great importance, both for understanding the Torah itself and towards showing it's supremacy to the other fields of wisdom of the nations of the world.

I warmly refer anyone to read further there in depth.

חי העולמים

עיין בתוי"ט סוף פרק תמיד, מובא דברי הרב המדקדק אשר העיר על שראוי להיות חי העולמים בציר"י כמו שמצינו במילת "מים" בציר"י כדוגמת "מי תהום". והדבר עומד בסתירה למנהג הספרדים שאומרים חי העולמים בפת"ח.

ולכאורה עפ"י חכמת הנסתר הדברים עומדים על כנם, כי מצינו ש"מים" הינם בבחינת ספירת בינה, בחינת ציר"י. בעוד שספירת חכמה הינה בבחינת פת"ח בבחינת חיים כמו שכתוב "החכמה תחיה בעליה" (קהלת ז יב). ודו"ק

נח , חן , והויה

Saw the following in a sefer called פי המדבר.

The word חן (and consequently נח as well) being related to הויה as follows:

ה, וה , הוה , י"הוה = 58

At first glance I thought it a little strange because it's the opposite of  the usual concept of אחוריים, where usually the first letter of the שם is the point of origin and then gradually expands out -- י , יה , יהו, יהו"ה.  and here it's the opposite -- the last letter of ה being the origin.

But then i thought it's beautiful. The idea of the conventional אחוריים I vaguely remember seeing in עץ חיים as being the idea that every upper ספירה is too "needy" to receive it's own sustenance from the sefira above it, and so every sefira is "looking up" to the sefira above it to receive it's sustenance, and so you have י standing alone, and then you have the ה tagging along and trying to cling to it, hence יה, and so on.

The beauty here then by חן and נח  is that the lowest sefira is standing on its own, not lifting it's eyes for any heavenly salvation or inspiration or special treatment. Just being with what is without expecting anything more. נח איש האדמה. ונח מצא חן.

The upper sefirot then choosing to turn their eyes downward,  so that now you have a new kind of אחוריים wherein every sefira is focusing downward to give, to deal with what is needed. the heavenly assistance that then comes is not as a result of any request or expectation -- וחנותי את אשר אחון.

Just a thought for now. Maybe has substance, maybe doesn't.

זמה היא

תוספתא קידושין פ"א: ומלאה הארץ זמה זמה היא. ר"א אומר זה פנוי [הבא] על הפנויה שלא לשם אישות. ר"א אומר מנין שענוש לפני [מקום כבא] על אשה ואמה? נאמר כאן זמה ונאמר להלן זמה שנאמר (ויקרא כ) ואיש אשר יקח את אשה ואת אמה זמה היא וגו'

I was thinking the logic is actually very straightforward. Why should someone marry a woman? because he wants to bring out more of her in the world. if so, why would you sleep with her mother or daughter who in essence embodies them? it can only be because you just want the physical pleasure, as is the case by a פנוי הבא על הפנויה; not interested in building up and building forth the woman you're with, just interested in the pleasure. 'nuff said.

A general thought on Masechet Gittin

It's been a long time since i learnt Masechet Gittin, and even now I just got up to the first few pages, but I was always bothered by the organization of the masechta. Why in the world should it begin with the seemingly trivial halachot of שליח ממדינת הים צריך שיאמר בפני נכתב ובפני נחתם and not start with the more fundamental concepts of גט such as for example whether עדי מסירה או עדי חתימה כרתי (which equally baffling is placed only at the last perek if memory serves me correctly). It's completely backwards!

So these are the lines along which i'm thinking: Given that everything can be placed along a spectrum between intrinsic existential being (הויה)  versus the manifestation of that being and how it is perceived and related to by the external world, even by the most distant and far removed from it, otherwise known as שם, a name by which the person is called by the external world. And being that the former is a male dimension whereas the latter concept of שם is a female one. And being that מסכת גיטין is dealing in a feminine world of divorcing a woman  --- it then can make sense possibly that the masechta will go in opposite direction i.e. starting at the furthest outpost of שם and working its way to the intrinsic essence of being.

So we begin with the most removed scenario of גט possible -- ממדינת הים, with no husband in sight but only a שליח, and not even עדי הגט  in front of us, and we discuss to what degree and it what circumstances does this removed גט impact us. Only at the end of the masechta will we discuss the fundamental question of what a גט  is intrinsically in and of itself.

Just a proposal at this point. i haven't learnt enough of the masechta to know if it holds water.

Anansi the Spider and His Six Sons

So we received a children's book for my daughter, Anansi and his six sons. It's based on the African Ashanti folklore, and the glaring question i have after reading it is how in the world did kabbalistic concepts make their way into Ashanti Folklore?!

A brief summary: Six sons that jointly and together save their father and then quibble about who is deserving of a prize, a seventh element (a glowing ball) that then becomes none other than -- the Moon. That sounds peculiarly kabbalistic to me...

Full story can be found here.

Peculiar.

Economic Base Analysis

Interesting to me that there is this economic theory called "economic base analysis" which essentially sees an economy divided into two two sectors -- Basic (Export) and Non-Basic (local) sectors.

The basic sector being defined as :

• Consists of activities that bring money into the local economy from the outside
• Consists of activities that meet external demand
• Consists of activities dependent on factors external to the local economy

Note how nicely that matches the concept of יסוד (base) being a function of relationship with the external world.

Taking it a step further, according to EBA the local sector only thrives as a result of the Base sector. Put in our terms a person's internal self only thrives insofar as his connection and relationship to the outside world.

T