=============================================================== NOTES TO =scaa2a (aa2-13ae) [ Gvalt , I think TaChTiN is the word in script I've been chasing through this whole Ms. up to there. Someday, if I can save enough money, I'm going to buy a big stewpot and a good pair of Israeli summer hiking shoes, take half a year off from my job, and go looking for the chicken who invented Hebrew script. ] (aa2-1a) there is one G_d, who created eerything there is, (as2--1x) Oh darn, and all this time I thought it was a team effort. I mean, a little bit of piety goes a long way. Nobody loves a goody_goody. and higher worlds endlessly. (aa2-1a) (aa2-1a) But some might say -- the higher worlds are but increasingly subtle aspects of this physical world, they are not discrete from it. (aa2-1a1) This is the phrase, superstitiously invoked by frumies before even discussing any unplesant possibility, which I paradoy as '(Cows Defend Us!)' Taken literally rather than as a ritualistic superstition (as those who speak it intend), it generates no lack of paradoxes You know what the whole thing is of inhaling and exhaling. (aa2-1b) No, but PVK has gone into it in some detail in Zenith lectures, et. al. Its rather a large field -- termed 'Breathing Practices' -- in particular 'chargall' brething prracticies , but also 'purification breaths' -- and it does get rather complex. Eg at one point you may have helixes of energy criss-crossing front and back. I am a bit tired of the sort of parochialism that rejects out of hand the possible relevance of teacings from other disciplines, including other religious and spiritual paths, to Judaism. That is simply not an acceptable intellectual, much less academic, posture. So each time you take a breath, you inhale, hut lets say your're holding out for 40 seconds, just had enough. (aa2-1c) (aa2-1c) If I recall, it can be rather dangerous to hold your breath too long. (aa2-2a) No, I think in general the soul settles down quite comfortaly into the firsst easy-chair you offer it, and deosn't want to gt up even to look out the window and see if its raining. And if so, what the Geiger reading is. (aa2-2b) As I think I mentioned, in the practices taught by PVK, it is on the inhale that one turns inward, in holding one's breath that one visits in higher spheres, and in exhaling that one returns to earth. After a high practice, PVK would often tell the class to exhale deeply several times, in order to come back to the realworld. In other practices, exhalation can be used as a vehile to take one out into cosmic conscounsess, allowing one's being to disperse in the universe -- I would say that is an enhancement, not a negation, of one's being -- then on the inhale one draws inward, from an impoersonal to a personal sense of identity. Although inhale can also take one into one's personal void, which is , as one sees when one starts to make sense of it, not a void at all, but on the contrary, a 'realm of all_possibilies.' ( I am not here sumamrizing PVK's teachings on these points, I don't understand them nearly well enough to do so. I am at best offering very rough sketches. But I do mean to suggest that the subject is far more complex than RSC impoies. And a person has to know: Each time I'm inhaling, literally G_d give me back my soul. (aa2-2b1) [So this is a commentary on the first morning bracha: Sh_Ha_HaZRDTa BI NiShMa_Ti B_CheMLaH who has returned to me my soul with mercy (Metsudah Ashkenazi: "for sou hafe restored my soul with mercy") But you have to realize one thing, in a very deep way, this is vey heartbreaking (aa2b2) [ ain't everything except the price of eggs ] I'm sitting here and I'm saying evil things about another person (aa2--2c) [eg, the Vaad of Mevo Modi'in eat porkchops for breakfast au gratin and throw the bones on the floor where somoene might slip on them and then utter a naughty word (Cows Defend us!) ] [ Haskala said, if Shmendrik tells you that Nendrick is a Twinkie_Toes , you are forbidden to tell Hendrik . I say, one who relays lashon hora anonymously is like unto a snake with an attache case ] My soul cant stand it, right. (aa2-2c1) [ Actually, mine finds it rather amusing. But I suppose I have a bit of djinn in me makeup. They're always making mischief, jsut for laughs. I been doing that since I was a kid. This is why everyone loves comic srips like 'Dennace the Menace' and 'Calvin and Hobbes' -- tales of the child in us that is always making trouble, but never doing anyone any real hurt, and never with malice in heart. ] [ If ] I'm saying evil things about another person ... my soul is litrally begging G_d to do me a favor, I just don't want to go back. (aa2-2d) [ Fred, if you're that pure, might's well get on up back to heavaen, sit down ona fluffly little white cloud, and resume the old harp lessons. I mean, if you're too high and mighty hoity-toity to have a few beers with the boys now and then, maybe watch a bit of the baseball game on TV, why did you come down here in the first place. Like, nobody forced you to, this is strictly Volunteer City, everyone knows this sphere is a hardship post. OK: One of the first things I recall hearing RSC saying, this would be at the first Ruach Camp, on the Abode Campgrounds, is: someone asks you, what do you want to do on earth, and you say, oh, just hang out with the boys, have a few beers, maybe watch some TV. And your soul says, for this you drag me down out of heaven? [ Cf. PVK on the Elusian myysteries, Zenith lectures et. al. ] (aa2-2e) My guess is this is ain't so. And if it ain't so, then RSC is proceeding, not by intution, not by personal experience, but rather, he's saying what he thinks is so, or worse yet, what the tradition to which he is dedicated thinks is so. And within the context of eclectic spirituality, that is a major criticism. (aa2-2f) (OK Charlie -- there seems to be a little game here, that whatever the Holy Bible says, we make it just a little bit tougher and that is better, and so then we say, if you don't do it this tougher way, forget it, you're nothing. And RSC is doing this is a lot in his retelling of Reb Nachamn, whom it seems had certain unresolved matters of his own to work out in private before he ladi them on posterity. Or maybe he really just was talking to himself, only Reb Nathan wrote it all down. I dunno which of these teachings were written by Reb Hachman, and which by Reb Nathan. But RSC is also always saying, taking a good look at that guy in the streimel who is always yelling 'Shabos!' and everyone is saying, gvalt is he holy and me Im just a miserable little sinner, buetter hide my siddur in one of those adult comics. So RSC, keep on eye on him after the minyan, when everyone goes home for lunch, as soon as they're all out the door he gets down on his belly, still wearing that dry-cleaned black Homburg hat, and he goes home for lunch too, crawling on his belly through the shadows of the rues. And rue indeed. Only RSC is not using even one of two of the words I just wrote. And it ain't because he couldn't speak English good like me. Like me do, I mean, Jean. ] Sure hate to have to write these critiques sober. Feldschlossen (Sloshed Castle, or Swampy Brewery) makes an ok hopsy beer. But Ladtwing Zug Pere Williams Schnaps du Valai is OK when you think bad thoughts you're choking your soul, right. (aa2-3a) (aa2-3a) [Nu, so Hire the Handicapped. ] Some Indian chick says, 'My son, in the Kali Yurga bad thoughts are so sin. I read that in a little palm-size paperback in a estoeric bookshop in the 70s. Like everyone knows, when you fast, you think drink lots of water, because otherwise all the toxins in our food and air build up in your body and give you crazy thoughts. I advise drinking lots of water on Yom Kippur. They didn't do it in the good old days, but Herod the Great didn't ride a Harley and drive a SUV then. And he didn't eat Glatt Kosher Shaving Cream Pastries, and drink Glatt Kosher AntiFreeze SodaPop neither. So just because Herod the Great don't drink water on Yom Kippur, way out there in Herot the Great Hell, doo't mean you don't have to. (aa2-5a) (oh mazaltov, so I'll shoot the Vaad but think nice thoughts while I'm doing it like Hare Krishna or Shma or the Free Champagne & Hooker Bar at the Las Vegas El Dorado , so my soul will still be full of light because I am not thinking bad thoughts, and so when they hang me my soul will drop righ into an easy chair in the El Al VIP Lounge at JFK, with some bunny passing he canapes, only problem is, they'll never call my flight. ) (aa2-5b) This sounds a little bit, but I think only superficially, like PVK's go_to_samadhi drill. In that, PVK suggests, disidentify from and merely watch, successively, your body, thoughts, personality, and consciousness. When you identify yourself as merely a Watcher watching your own consciouness, then, if you can let go of that, you will be in the real of Pure Intelligence, which is ego-less. And also that is Bellephron after Pegasus can flow no higher, and goes back to earth for a quick bale of hay and some Perrier, horse-bottle size. And when you get up there, good luck on catching a return flight, sorry, no reservations Charlie. Try to be back by suppertime, otherwise they might lock up your body in the Funny Farm, and the Apertifs there are really terrible, and unfortunately, you'll have to stick around and watch it get fed 3 times a day for a few decades, so Be Cool, Bro'. "Don't say I didn't warn you, when your train gets lost." (Bob Dylan) TEXT: But then the stranget thing, when I utter words, even good words, but they're really not with the light of my soul, like Im making a thick wall between my soul dand the words I utter. (aa2-6a) Yup. This is why PVK would always try to have his retreats in silence. Im inhaling, Im getting moimmish G_d's light into me, and then in themiddle I build little walls beetween me and my own soul. (aa2-6b) I would guess that if/when walls are built, its on the inhalation, not while holding the breath. Like, the time to be putting up defenses and barriers is when one is taking the world into onself, not after one has taken it in. Like, Im hiking uphill, and I stop in Camperio at the Restaurant, and some local yokels are exercising their right to smoke in it. And normally I would just tighten up my lungs and block most of it out, but after that uphill hike my lungs are wide open and I cant, so I just shoot the lot of them and order a coffee. The waitress can clean things up later. Well too, that's psychologic birth control, Mama. TEXT: When you alk to your friend, if you would know that your soul is talking to the other jperson's soul, how oculd you not talk from the depths of your soul. (aa2-6c) (aa2-6c) But HIK says, do not be more to another than you are expected to be. Like, lightnen up, baby. Don't get so heavy. Some chicks just want a little bit of good time. I asked Debby, What first attracted you to me. She said, those preposterous huge rubber boots you were wearing. I wanted to marry her, I guess, and she said, but I only wanted to mess around a little. PVK once said: When you meet someone, even just in passing, what an extraordinary event -- or maybe he said, opportunity -- that is. I think his implication was: Like, up in heaven I ain't apt to have someone stop by for a quick cup of coffee from one end of the Ice Age to the other. (aa2-6d) 'Evil deeds' ain't the mot juste. Evil is like, Darth Vader turning the Death Star on Planet Earth. Or taking a job making SUV's or doing PR for Phillip Morris. Not turning a quick trick in the IRT between 42nd and 72nd -- or anyhow 96th -- during off_hours. give a lot of charity. Give a lot of TzDaQaH. (aa2-6e) They ain't synonymous, Hieronymous. Christians give charity, from the heart, according to St. Paul. We give tzdaka, from the Never-Never Chequebook, according to St. Marx. Let's see if I get do this now: Tzdaka is: Give to anyone whose ratio exceeds your own, of righteous (zchut) need, to cash. It is an ethical obligation -- essentially the Marxist notion -- "To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability." So you don't go to heaven for doing it, you just got to hell for not. For not and naught. That's where hell is at -- Not & Naught -- a corner of the Tenderloin, as David Herzberg would say, zl'b. Just not and nmught; if you're looking for S&M, go to Times Square. "Beat me," says the masochist: "No," says the sadist; and they're both happy. And the Zohar Kodesh says BReAShIT at the beginning, B_ReAShIT is actually a combintaion to two words, which is YReA ShaBaT -- fear [ or better, translated yira not as 'fear', but as 'stand in awe of' } Shabas. (aa2-7a) [ OK, this word-play is supportable, though you maybe have to cheat a little to prop it up. First of all, in Hebrew, only Cosonants -- which includes Aleph and Ayin, but maybe sometimes not Vav nor Yud -- are significant. The nekudot ain't. So Bereshit comes down to BRShT . OK, now Bereshit translates 'in the beginning' -- so the B is not really part of the word, its just an affixed Adverb, meaning, 'In'. So now the essential word is just RAShT -- Resh -- Aleph Shin-- Tav. So ok, what of YiRA Shabat -- Yud if often a future_tense prefix, So if we drop it out, we get RAShBT But I don't see how you can get rid of the Bet -- it ain't adverbial in ShaBaT So if this is Kabalah, count your change, Stephen Strange ] [ This is Dr. Stephen Strange, from Marvel Comics ] Or maybe you want to play Gematria, so you don't need a matchup, only an anagram, so the B in Shabat is the B in Bereshit, only moved from front to middle. So then go back to Yehiva and major in Scrabble. ] That measn all week long, whats the first thing -- if a Yidala will ask you, what's the first thing you have to to. I have to be momish, stand in awe of ShaBaT. (aa2-7b) (aa2-7b) (aa2-7b1) [ That's ok, as some say, count the days as the preceed or follow Shabat. And that's ok, because the Psalm of day clearly links both Thursday and Friday to Shabat -- (aa2-7b1) and that's ok because it takes the strength of the Norse dude Thor to prepare for Shabat, and as for Friday, it reminds you to do your marial duty on the one day when an honest man has time to, if he's not all at sea or sitting on his donkey somewhere. ] Because a person has to be completely covered with awe and fear [ and a bit of Iodine 99 and Uranium 292 too ] all the six days of the week and worry, how will I be able to enter next Shabos. (aa2-7c) (aa2-7c) [ No problem, just ride along on the jet stream, you'll get to Shabat on time. What you do whaen you get there, that's your problem. Better brown bag it, no seat_treats in Cattle Class . ] the six days of the week are given me to prepare myself for the next Shabos. (aa2-7d) [ Nice try but no cigar. The 6 days are essentially to work, and only accidentally to prepare for Shabat, not the converse. It says, 6 days you shall work, and one day you do Shabat. It does not say, 6 days you prepare for Shabat. ] Now listen to this: (aa2-7e) (aa2-7e) [ To be serious for 2 seconds: 'Now listen to this' seems to me an echo of the shipboard call, especially on military ships, from the WW II era, 'Now here this'. RSC came to the USA as a child, I assume by ship, and I would assume tht was his first ship trip, Maybe even it was a military vessel. And a child can be darned impressionable. ] Because all week long you're working and you're making the world better.! (aa2-g1) (aa2-g1) I goofed my numbering system, so I have to call this page g, not 7. because I skipped a page number back a ways So anyhow, this apparently offhand remark, "you're working and your making the world better" is of the essence of Judaism. Tikun haOlam , we calls it. It is essential to the intent of "6 days you shall work" -- I mean, first you gotta survive, and the wife and kids too, and even you gotta keep the wife happy enough so that she don't run off with the gypies and lib'ies riding like Lady Godiva on the milkman's off-colour white horse -- but so ok, secondly it gotta be honorable work -- I mean, selling herring at a whorehouse is fine, but serving as a Republican U.S. Senator, or a Director of the SUV Division of General Motors is a disgrace. The truth is, that G_d's name is ShaBaT. That's the real truth. G_d's name is ShaBaT. (aa2-9a) [ Quick, Email the JW's. I mean, one of the essential principles of Judaism is that Supreme Being is Ineffable. (And similarly, the Muslims do not permit depictions of the Prophet, a salaam aleika. A similar taboo exiss is a reduced form in Judaism (Cf. eg the Birdshead Hagadah.) ] Yeah, but the top name is ShaBaT, right. (aa2-9b) [ No, not quite right. To set a benchmark: Islam says that there are 99 names of ALLAH. I'm sure 99 is not meant as a numeric value, but rather, to indicate an infinitude. It is analogous to the role played in Judamim by 49 , which is seven seven's, and in a sense represents completeness. The 99 Divine Names in Islam correspond to some extent with the 10 Sfirot in Judaism. Incidentally, there is no hierharchy of Divine Names in Islam. There is an ordering of the Sfirot, with Kether being the top. Keter seems to be the Ineffable, Supreme Being. In PVK's termionlogy, Hochma is surely Pure Intelligence, Binsh is Consciousness. Daat would seem to correspond to the Heraklitean notion of 'Logos'; I don't know how it fits into Jewish mysticism. Chesed, the primary of the -- qualitative one might say -- Sfirot, would seem to have some similarity to the notion, in the Muslim invocation, of 'Er Rachman, Er Rachim.' So it gets complex, without neat inter-religious correspondences. And its not at all clear what RSC is saying in saying that 'Shaat is the chief name of Supreme Being.' It does seem to be an unnecessarily paradoxical way of putting a point that might be set out a lot more clearly. ] "But the name of a foreign G_d is also Shabos." I tell you. It doesn't concern me. Believe me. (aa2-9c) [ And yet when the JWs concluded, however erroneously and also nonsensically -- that is, in Ryle's take on Wittgenstein's sense, however great an a 'howler' -- that they had discovered the name of Supreme Being, they founded a new religion on that supposed premise, and went to jail and worse for it. So you can't say something like that and then just walk away from it. ] Ill tell you somethng. Lets say, for instance, Im married, right, lets say, I think my wife is beautiufl. Somone comes to tell me a picture his wife is also beautiful, mazal tov. It doen't concern me, right. (aa2-9c1) (aa2-9c1) [ So the point here seems to boil down to: Shabat is of central importance in Judaism. That other religions, notably Christianity, also keep a Sabbath, is of no concern to Judaism. This point can be made by a very roundabout route by speaking of our named and their named for Supreme Being, and then supposing a hierarchy of names, with the name 'Shabat' at the top of lot -- but this is about like sinking an easy shot in the Masters' Tournament by hitting a long drive into the jet stream at such an angle that prevailing winds and a sudden thunderstorm will drop it into the hole. ] and then there is such a thing as in the house having one room where you are really alone. (aa2-10a) TEXT: they'll tell me, there is another god whose name is also Shabos. (aa2-10b2) You tell me, come to Meor Modi'in -- for mostly it just the place where informatin comes from, Mevo Modi'in -- apparently because in the good old days that was one of high points -- Medea, they say, which is presently in Israeli_occupied__Israel , called by some the West Bank, meaning, that the West Bank of Jordan River should extend to the Mediterranean -- but sometimes it is Meor Modi'in, the light of that information -- "good news", as the Christians say in their pie_in_the_sky__philosophy -- and see what a real Shabos can be. And I must say, for all that I knock the old homestead, Shabat hospitality there is exemplary -- these are people who all week long are eating falafel on the installment plan, and on Shabat they set a meal, you could not find a restaurant with stars enough to serve something comparable. And inviting ever schlepper they see at the Bet Knesset to come join them. Once I was invited for Shabat lunch by a Rabbi at Modi'in. He was very polite and attentive, offered me everything, and seconds too, and good wines, and maybe even a shot of schnapps, and asked my opinion on various weighty topics, and when I walked back out the door into that harsh afternoon sun, I felt as if I had just been guested. That was the only time that ever happened to me at the Moshav. Every other time -- and almost every week, on and off during 10 years, I never even though of making my own Shabat meals -- truth to tell it wasn't the cost of going to the Supermarket, it was that I didn't dare try to climb over the turnstyle to get to the table to make kiddish -- and again, one Friday evening Im down at Ein Gedi Youth Hostel, and I buy a bottle of instant Israel wine at the kiosk, the sort of thing kibutz volunteers chuck down by the bottle cause its cheap and free, and the poor family in Bat Yam is sharing a glassfull, and the glass is their best wedding glassware -- like RSC says, heartbreaking -- at least for a few seconds -- so anyhow, I put it on the table and do a kiddish, and drink some, and the cheder ochel is full of leftie Israelis, the kind who risk their lives in elite units and spend the rest of their time trying to atone to the Palestinians, and are driving shiny American cars and going to orgies to be upwardly mobile because they read in a 20-year-old magazine that this is one must do in the USA to get through the velvet rope -- so then one guy comes up to me, he could spend for hors d'oeuvres what I live on for a week, and says, you are very selfish, becuase you did not share your kiddish with others. And I want to say, Aw man, do it yourself, I ain't no Rebbe, I just borrowed this beard from a hock shop in Berkely in '62 and never could find the velcro snap again -- so then later I got into one of Reb Nachman's patented mud_puddles, so overwhelmed with a sense of sin that I'd have a better chance of walking up Everest than making Kiddish -- so now I see what he was trying to say to me -- to me -- as Reb Shlomo once almost said of himself, gvalt, if they only new (this is one the commerical recordings, Torah Times or Best of Shlomo, where this straight rabbi comes up to him, on the virgin islands or somethings, and says, "I'm ashamed of you." and R. Shlomo thinks, "who knows what he knows". R. Shlomo once was sitting in the Cheder Ochel, after leading a very long service, singing all the time, and everyone is just sitting around waiting for Shalom Schwarz's chicken to get back from Nahariya and walk through the hot water with celery so we have our shabat chicken souop -- like,this is a busy seaon in Isreal, and the chicken has a lot of stops before our Cheder Ohel -- so anyhow, while we are a waiting annd talking, someone offer R. Shlomo a glass of water, and he says, Thank you, most greatfully - - and then he sets it down beside him uuntil after he has made kiddish -- which he makes for veryone.) OK, I got to get to part II, and then eat a little something more -- I mean, is it ok to make kiddish on Chateuaneuf_du_Pape before 07:30 -- I did get up at first light, 04:30 -- and knocked off an instant hippie shaharit -- So anyhow, now that the rest of you have jumped off the caboose -- they'll tell me, there is another god whose name is also Shabos. (aa2-10b2) this means, I think -- instead of coming to the Bet Knesset on Shabat, even though R. Shlomo told them -- put all his credit cards on the line to do it too, and ain't apt to get them back in this lifetime and world -- this is your home, you are welcome, you are always welcome, we are honored that you have come back to visit with your old family retainers, some of us have been with your family since that afternoon at Mt. Sinai, and if you think Shalom Schwarz's soupnuts are hard to chew, you should try a dash of powdered golden half, but anyhow, he said we could do tchuva and go on from there -- them that could still walk, of course -- so RSC says all that to them, but some say, thank your for sharing, but Ive been doing some comparative shopping and I see that on Saturday I can also go the beach, and look at the bunnies in their flimsies, or even more erotic -- and what could be more religious than eros -- I mean, polygamy is what you make of it -- who needs Hera, that old -- and even Artemis, she seems a bit Lesbo -- and as for Athena -- I mean, hire her for VP of Acquisitions, but please not my department -- so ok, you get the point, the end, Im going to take a piss and then go back to Shabat for a half hour, thank you. Zen, ,am- I mean, I am up in the lower alps, and its either type or maybe go crazy trying to read The Compleat Idiot's Guide to Talmud, by some frumie from Ohr Sameach and Aish haTorah -- the latter is the IBM of Yiddishkeit, the end. TEXT: !For people who are still on teh street who don't know where thy live. So I will them them, your address is Shabos,! (a2-10b) This is extremely important. And it is related to the rabinic saying, even souls in hell are let out on Shabat. I must saying, that saying has helped me through many a bad time. So ok, what this means is: No matter how down and out and scattered you are, no matter how sure you are they wouldn't give you a table by the toilet door in a doggie diner -- once a week you may take refuge in Shabat, and walk write in the front door like a Prince coming back to his castle -- like RSC says, heartbreaking -- for this is "ki l_olam chesd_o" . And also it is Rumi, "come back, back, wherever you are, this caravan is not of despair . Even if you have broken your vows a thousand times -- wander, seeker -- " For Rosh HaShana I go to the Lugano Hotel Dan, by the lakeside. They charge me 50 dollars for a 5-course Glatt Kosher meal, with a waitress to wait on me. I think, for a few grush I could be sitting by the lakeside eating my Ballisto wholecorn candy bar instead, and it would be a darned site healthier, more kasher though less kosher, than this Glatt Koasher BullyBeet. So I waste 49 SwissFrancs on Rosh HaShana, only there is a bit of an aftertaste -- all the way to Shavuot somewhere in the back of my soul is this feeling, gvalt, I really am a Prince. Was anyhow, and I guess maybe still am. I should maybe a little bit live up to my responsibilities toward my subjects. Input a little bit of RSC teachings, instead of buying those comic books with interesting covers wrapped in plastic and another sixpack. Or anyhow, in addition I should do it. I am, obviously, interested at present at how an ordinary person, neither tzadik nor apikoritz -- I mean gvalt, do you know how hard it is to find a good wine bar nowadays -- much less learn to like all those smelly soft Swiss cheeses -- and the cost of even a 10_year_old Bordeaux -- and to take anything younger is like boffing a virgin -- another notch on the old reuseable French Letter, but scarcely comparable to listening to the Budapest String Quartet play a Late Beethoven -- can integratae religion into his life. So every time hasidut says, It's all or nothing, do this or your're efes , I say back, ok, let's start from a standpoint of efes and see what we can make of it. My watchword here is, as it were, "the discrete charm of the bourgeois" -- the phrase, I never saw the flic -- or all those Eric Rohmer movies, "My Night at Maude's " was the first -- that are just the ordinary chatter of the bourgeois, and you think, why am I wasting my time in this arhouse when I could be out reading about Rebels without a Cause. But somehow it holds your attention. And similar -- in the context of the assimilated emigre Upper West Side (Manhattan) Jewish community, J.d. Salinger's Franny and Zooey stories, including Raise high the Roofbeams, Carpenters -- and that too can "break your heart". For these are devout secularists striving with all theyve got to lead a religious life, even when they maybe eat scallops on Yom Kippur. And my watchword here too is Aristotle's Golden Mean, whoever Aristotle was. And also my watchord is J.L. Austin, saying, let is worry less about the True and the Beautiful, and pay more attention to the dainty and the dumpy. And if you like I can say, that is Zen. TEXT they'll tell me, there is another god whose name is also Shabos. (aa2-10b2) (aa2-10b2) Mazaltov Raskolnikov, don't take any wooden nickles cause with them you can't buy kosher dill pickles. (aa2-12ag) [GLOSSARY: explaned -- an explanation so true that you could just open the door behind you and jump out of your 7_for_7 and float happily down to earth enthralled by the intellectual marvel of it all. I teach English only SF 20 an hour Cheep! ] (aa2-12b) [ The Malvina Trench, he said trenchantly. And PVK says, psychoanalyst goes deep-sea fishing, but what he pulls up and takes to the Captain's Cockail Party on a leash don't look like it used to back home. (Those are actually not his precise words.) } Imagine if someone tells me, imagine if I don't speak English (aa2-12q) Nonsense; it's the rest of us who don't. (aa2-12c) A doctor is someone who takes something or something that's working "good enough for union" -- eg perception -- and monkey around and doctors it up until it don't do jack sh_t. (aa2-12d) Typically in vinegar. (aa2-72q) Ok ok. A Wittgensteinian might ask [ where's my pipe ] what if anything is this saying. Like, what ain't it saying. Where, if at all, are the boundaries of this_here concept. So ok, let's try quick. Along comes Amalek, he has maybe been hiding for a few millenia disguised as a member of the Va'ad, and he says, new rule boys, from now you gotta believe in two gods. But you get to pick number 2. You get can get him/her from anywhere you can find. So ok, I think a pick Venus -- well, I guess Aphrodite has more class, being Greek and all that -- there's this lovely Aphrodite of Rodos statue, very famous, Durrell wrote of her in 'Reflections on a Maratime Venus', all soften marble, soften by the sea, which hid her in the war -- so anyone, I go with Aphrodite -- well, Venus would be a whole lot more direct, Romans is Romans -- because I ain't had a chick in bed with me for too darned long, and I am getting rather bored with waiting for Ponce de Leon to come back, I mean, ageing is fun and cute, and offers some interewting insights, but all things considered it is not something which I would like to do on a long-term basis, so pass the Elixer. Ok, if you get passed that one, suppose Amaleck Vaaadnik comes back after a couple days and says, new rule boys, you gotta have three, but also you could pick the new one. Well, maybe I take Athena, becuase at least she's someone to talk to , even if half the time she is out of the house spearing Trojans or doing advanced mathematics or whatever -- I mean, Aprhodite is a nice bit of fluff to be cuddling, but her conversational repetoire is somewhat circumscribed -- and as for Venus, she sometimes has a dirty mouth, though she tries to hide it and make like a Roman Matron waiting for bedtime -- and also sometimes I supect she takes a drink or two -- If a have to go to number 4 I guess I take Thor, because we could maybe use a new mountain pass or two -- and he's ok, just a bit noisy when he's working -- You know, its prossible to know everything in the world and not know anything. (aa2-13a) (aa2-13a) Little Joe used to say: I tell the Professor, you don't know nothing. (aa2-13b) Joshua Witt was on the telpehone to R. Shlomo's travel agent. He said, Moshe, if you had to work for a living you'd starve to death. TEXT: you dont know how long a mile is. (aa2-14a) I don't know and can't guess the piont of this analogy, but if you like I can pick apart the phrase "you don't know how long a mile is." OK, lets go, even though we don't know where and anyhow aint going nowehre neither: I know that a mile is -- 5280 feet, if I recall. So ok, I don't know hnow how long a mile is, but its about that. I know that a kilometer is about 5/8 of a mile, so that means I can calculate -- I'll do it now and then I'll know -- except its Shabat and even an apikoritz has scruples -- besides, typing on a computer ain't writing -- so ok, a mile is 1.6 kilometers. That was easier than I thought, I guess I don't have to go back to school after all, except to get my Ph.d, cause everyone else has one nowadays. I'd like to work up to some operational analysis, as in P.W. Bridgeman's The Way Things Are, of "you don't know how a long a mile is." I can do an ordinary-language analysis, but it ain't gonna get us far. "She said, to heck with this silly old blizzard, let's just walk up to the cabin, it's only a mile." I replied, "You don't know how how long a mile is. Especially when it includes a climb of 500 meters." ChoKhMaH is, momish, you know what its all about, right. And then this is not enought. You've got to be tied to it, you know. (aa2-14b) (aa2-14b) In the Sufi -- system, so_to_speak, tho it ain't theologic much less dogmatic -- nor intended as a system -- Anyhow, this would correspond, though not precisely, to "renounce renunciation out of love" It is the essence of Judaism. And of course this is "6 days a week shall you do all your work, best's you can, and on the 7th day, take a little break in eternity to refresh yourself" And also this is "Torah study is cute and sweet, but don't do it all week long, combine it with an honest job" (those are not precisely the rabbis' words) (aa2-14c) Surely the Rabbi does not intent here to lower himself to the level of his disciples -- or hosidim as they call them. Durned tootin' he does. Sits on the floor like everyone else. Or if its it a chair, you would do if you had to eat all those Shabat rubber chickens and white-flour challas. Cry thee mercy, Percy, let's go wholistic before Articosclerosis overflies us, Gus. And truth to tell, in Jerusalem anyhow, wholistic food stores are prevalent in ultra-orthodox neighborhoods. Mishkanot anyhow, and also at Strauss and haNeviim. R. Shlomo never, or hardly at all, took on the role of a Rebbe. Ok, he would give kazais of the challa he made motzi over on a Shlomo Shabat. But he would almost refer to himself, when he was with the chevre, as "your holy Brother". And its clear that this was very much how he saw himself. A fellow-seeker, with maybe a bit more eduation. No more, no less. And implicitly, he saw everone else as being on his level -- not that he was naive , but he mostly saw on an a very high level, where we really are all on the same level. An ideal, if you will. ================================================================= GET =scsaaa2b ================================================================== NOTES TO =scaa2d have been Deep6'd to =scsaaa2a Doc resumes as =scaa2e These next notes will be cut as =scsaaa2b then Get'd to =scsaaa2a ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES FROM =scaa2f APPEND TO PREVIOUS NOTES, WHICH IS =scsaaa2a ============================================================= (aa2-16a) For starters, one is not 'a Jew', we are members of the Jewish community. It is a group of many millions, with certain capacities for collective self-defense. Any member is entitled to call on the group for the support, be it a cheese sandwich -- with tomatoe, of course -- or a small discrete commando raid. And any member must be prepared to give his life for any other member or members, if necessary, but is free the rest of the time to do whatever he chooses, as_it_is_said "Don't follow leaders; watch the parking_meters." (Bob Dylan, "'watch the parking meters' is needed to supply an atrocious rhyme, and repeats a remark by Mr. Moshe Rabbenu, "teach us to number our days".) Oh, and membership is irrevocable and inalienable. You can be an apostate (religious ), or a traitor (political), but that doesnl't realease you from your obligations to the Jewish people.) (aa2-16b) So like I say, there I was up at the Abode Campground, hanging around for the Ruach Camp -- first one, Gedalya Persky organized it but then he met Dovid Din and got frumie on us -- and R. Shlomo has arrived -- R. Zalman said, I will not have Shlomo come here and turn all this organization upside down, but of course he did - - R. Shlomo has always regarded the rellation of a watch to time as illustrative, in a rather quaint and obsolete way -- so anyhow, there's R. Shlomo amongst the spiritual in-crowd, folks who regard vegetarians as practically cannibals, for the way they rip and rend an inoffensive carrot -- and the Lebanon War has just broken out -- that was the deal Al Haig made with Begin, give up the Sinai and we'll look the other way while you try to wipe the PLO out of Lebanon -- so R. Shlomo said, with his habitual tact, tell the customers whateer they want to hear and all that, says, An Israeli boy never looks more handsome than when he is in uniform. So I thought, so I will maybe go back to Israel and maybe go out to R. Shlomo's Moshav. (aa2-17a) [ Hold it Charlie. Midrash ain't prophecy. And for that matter, prophecy ain't prophecy, neitheer. That is, prophecy ain't predicition. You know, 'Nostradamus to Place in the 3rd'. I don't rightly know what Midrash is -- personally, I find Marvel Comics more realistic -- not that Ive ever read any Midrash -- so midrash is maybe elucidatoray parables. So ok, on the surface they're just pretty little stories that somebody makes up about the true events told about in the bible. Only the bible ain't hardly at all about true events, so the Bible is like Midrash too. Or if you prefer I can say, the Midrash is Torah too, just as is the Chumash. If you like I can say, Islam is just a collection of midrashim that didn't make the final cut. I mean, it came from that time and place, more or less. The Christians think -- if we can show, all their prophets say, Jesus is coming and he's where it's at, cat , then they will all have to convert because they have to believe everything their prophtets say. I'm walking through the Old Town of Rodos next to the CruiseShip port, to the Bet Knesset, and this kid from the Seahorese Bar confronts me saying, Jesus is coming. I want to tell him back, I don't doubt it, everyone else from Israel has. TEXT, CITING A MIDRASH: Some day the sun will be ashamed and the moon will be ahsamed, but the stars will not be ashamed. (aa2-17b) [ Well, it is true that even after the moon falls into a mud puddle and the sun goes red dwarf, the stars will still be there, most of them. } TEXT: didn't the Prophet say (aa2-17c) [ 'the Prophet' -- who's that . We got lots of them, every Schmendrik who can't make an honest living selling herring buys a used white robe and stands on the streetcorner spieling shtuyot, not 1 out of a hundred worth listening too even if the Herald Tribune ain't out yet. I mean, beware an alliance with Egypt, maybe their troops don't go home again -- it needs no Divine inspiration to prophecy that ] TEXT: Great Day (aa2-17d) HIK says, every day is a judgement day. [ Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Complete Sayings, (#1549 , amonst the Aphorisms), Omega Press, New Lebanon, New York 12125 USA ] Written in English; not yet translated into any other language, as far as I know. I mean, this Great Day of Judgement jazz sounds like something the darkies -- them being the only true Christians -- talk about in the slave quarters after a supper of turnup greens and hominy. TEXT: being a Jew. ... [ ellision sa for footnote only ] I came to a point I realize this is it. I'm searching for G_d all my life, and I found G_d. (aa2-18a) (aa2-18a) (Well, that, whatever it mayx mean, may be the goal, or might be said to be the goal, of those on a so-called and /or self-styxled 'religious' path -- but also maybe not -- I mean, its quite enought just to want to get a bit of support in trying to be a bit better for those in one's immediate circle -- wife, children, family, neighbors. Or again, maybe you are drawn to th eintellectual aspect of Judaism Or by devotion to the land and/or people of Israel. TEXT: They are momish looking for G_d, right. (aa2-18b) (aa2-18b) (Well no, not necessarily, and anyhow not precisely so. ) TEXT: they are looking for the G_d of Isreal but where should they go. (aa2-18c) (aa2-18c) [ Israel, obviously. And if you want to learn about the Hopis, go to Hopiland. ] TEXT: and what's the next step. What can be the next step. (aa2-19a) In about 1970 R. Zalman Schachter published a rather long and very demanding tract titled 'The Next Step' in the Sufi/Hasidic package published by Lama Foundation. A shorter and easier version of that is published in The (First, Red) Whole Jewish Catalogue. R. Zalman sometimes styled himself as 'ortho_prax' (as distinguished from 'orthodox', fr. Gr. ortho + doxa , doxa is the Platonic term for belief as distinguished from mous, knowlege). R. Shlomo was, of course and obviously, orthodox. Indeed, very strictly so, for all that he showed the greatest imaginable tolerance toward all who were no so. So this apparently offhand remark can be read as an attack, "for the sake of heaven" by R. Shlomo on his colleague R. Zalman. CORRECTION: After writing this footnote I read the next sentence in the RSC Ms. and saw what 'What can be the next step' was not, as I had mis_taken it, a declamation, but merely a rhetorical question. So this Footnote is false. But it's a good footnote, so also it is true, Moe and Joe too. (Roman a clef, Jeff). "Or something." They clearly had the greatest affection and respect for each other, and often shared a platform. As I recall, more or less, it was at the first Ruach Camp that R. Shlomo remarked that R. Zalman was "awesomely electic -- and I am awesomely Jewish.' I don't think he used the world 'eclectic', and maybe he said 'orthodox' instead of Jewish, but I don't think so. But I am sure he did not mean to impugn R. Zalman's Yiddishkeit. They both came as last_minute refugees from Europe. R. Zalman would often refer to the two of them as "the last of the Mohigans". In which group I would include PVK, who, with his sister Noor Inayat Khan, zl'b, volunteered for service with the British (RAF/Navy and Secret Service, respectively, her nom_de_guerre was 'Madeline'), primarily motivated, as PVK recalls in an autobiographic note -- I think I have it input under some docname -- by the plight of the Jewish people.. So now it is just R. Zalman still standing on earth. "Jefferson still lives." (said by Madison, if I recall, as he lay dying.) TEXT: The next step is Meshiac has to come and there will be peace in the whole world. (aa2-19b) (aa2-19b) Excuse me, and I don't really want or mean to upset all of Judaism and Christianity -- well, maybe I really do, but I suppose I really shouldn't -- or shouldn't have -- my compliments to Chico d'Oro coffee (filter ground, measured by front_loader) -- but -- you think with Meshiach you also get a world? Not ruddy likely, Blakely. And tell it to the JW's too, before some career Colonel lobs a nuke just to bring heaven on earth "before the appointed time" (in the Witt collection of Mishkanot teachings R. Shlomo has an advanced teaching -- all the "Mishkanot" teachings are advanced, Tzlotana found them astounding, very much more so than RSC's other teachings -- Like I've said, one ought not anthropomorphize 'Meshiach'. One might say, borrowing the notion of 'limit' from the first topic in first-year calculus, that: 'Mechiach' is the teleologic limit of 'tikun ha_Olam'.' So then one can say -- to bring Meshiach is the purpose of life. But then one must add HIK's notion that, for any individual, 'the purpose of life' is like the horizon. And this is related to the Sufi -- meta_Midrash , one might say -- 'It was for love of you that I created the world'. The reason frumie Arabs are always zapping Sufis is that Sufis keep running into the Briefing Room and making like the White House -- and what an ultimately dazzling white house it must be -- "many mansions", as Jesus said -- OOfficial Spokesman -- for a moment or a minute, until they get nailed by the Coppers, all that gold made into lead of dead Goofy -- oy, dervishes. But I digress. TEXT: the super_orthodox people don't give a damn if there's peace in the world (aa2-19c) (aa2-19c) This is of course a shocking generalization -- which don't mean it ain't, qua generalization, "good enough for Union" -- that is, true of many intances -- though of course not to all, and maybe not even to a majority of instances -- but, as I remark in an earlier footnote (which will occur in a later-numbered input Ms., since I am inputting in reverse__Ms_numeric order -- it becoms less shocking when one takes into account that 'don't give a damn' is merely acceptable colloquial American speech for the 1940s, especially in New York City, which is when and where RSC would have learned his English . Of course to Catholics, damnation is the ultimate anti_telos of existence, and even to invoke the phrase is practically blasphemy. As a public junion_high_school student I once used it in the presence of our next door neighbor, Frank Holland, who I'm told became a priest, and he burst out, "Dont curse -- don't you know that's a sin against your immortal soul." Or words to that effect, but I think I recollect it pretty good, 50 years later. Like I always say, best's I recollect, "Senility is what you make of it." TEXT: 'DEFENDER OF THE FAITH': "They have more ShaLOM in Mea She'arim than anywhere else." (aa2-19d) (aa2-19d) More autos anyhow. That neighborhood should be closed to autos. And incidentally, who nicked the other 99 gaotes? ANSWER: Everyone knows, Islam has 99 Divine Names for Supreme Being. ('99' is not a number, but rathers means: an infinitude, Cf. the biblical phrase 'yesterday and yesterday', which does not designate only the 2 previous days, but really means, 'indefinitely far in times pagt, up to the present'. Why does Islam use the number 99. Because everybody knows, who has an education in self_styled 'western civiliuation' -- (the culture of the blue_bellied raw_pig__eating goyim who brought you the Crusades -- direct to your doorstep -- and drawing_and_quatering -- ) that Islam discovered the binary system. But the Arabs, who usually go barefoot, can count only on their fingers and toes. Therefor the largest number they can signify is 10 to the power of 2, less 1 of course (as_it_is_said, "Nobody's perfect.") Ie 99. So in answer to the question: Who nicked the other 99 gates of Mea She'arim: In response to this most improbably coincidence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (of which Israel is a partially_owned subsidiary) has requested that these 99 gates be temporarily withdrawing pending their thorough investigation on suspicion of avoda zora. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to answer your questions. Have a good day, and don't forget to buy a genetically modified hamburger at McDonald's. (aa2-19g) [ GLOSSARY: MOtzE Shemra: Don't know. Best Guess: A flat bit of bread so apt to do something bad that we must watch it constantly. ] FRED AGAIN: "If they don't come in buses and cars on Shabos." (aa2-20a) (aa2-20a) [ But this is a bit of hyperbole; as far as I know, Mea She'arim would be closed to internal_combustion__engine_driven__vehicles on Shabat. Although religious neighborhoods which have not achieved the status of Unofficial Theme Park are not, to the distress of their residents. But of course secualr residents do have the right to drive to the beach on Shabat via the Dead Sea. ] RESPONSE: "'The Congress of Jewish Studies'" (aa2-20b) (aa2-20b) [ Referring to an apparent week_long program, presumably at UC Berkeley, since in San Fran' all you got, then anyhow, was San Francisco State College, Hiawatha Hayakawa Preident "by the shores of Gitchie-Goomie" And whoever said Longfellow was a poet should go to hell with advance reservations at a 2-star brothel where they serve only lukewarm pablum with Hostess Twinkies for breakfast. FRED 183 REPLIES: "Oh yes." (aa2-20z) (aa2-20z) [ Or maybe, 'Oyez', which in Merrie Old Englande means, in their peculiar dialect of English, 'Here comes de Judge.' Frumies sure do like judgements] Chutzpa! Mishogana! (aa2-21a) [ The transcriber adds two thunderbolts -- one of Heraklitus and the other of Zeus, I suppose -- with a symbolic representation of an IUD between them -- (perhaps I should have rephrased this note but I didn't so there) -- which may indated that the Rabbi theereupon yielded to the temptatin to indulge in Anglo_Saxon epithets, but maybe doeth not. ] the person will prove that the Baal_Shem_Tov was completely under goyishe influence. (aa2-21b) (aa2-21b) [ Cheer up, I once decided that Spinoza was influenced by Maimonides. Which in fact is likely, as he was part of the (orthodox, of course) Jewish community. ] (aa2-21a1) What RSC terms 'bible critic' and which is also termed 'Higher Criticism' or my 'Bible Criticism' is quite the latest thing intellectually for anyone whose mind is stuck in mid_19th Century Germany. As I recall, it went to the Chumash, noted the various terms used for the Supreme Being, noted where they were used, and then jumped to the conclusion that each term must belong to a different epoch, and so indicated a different authorship. Well, that does contradict the orthodox position that the whole Chumash , and for that matter a pre_pub edition of the Talmud in SuperZip , came down in an etherial pneumatic tube to Mt. Sinai where it struck the highest thing around, which was the cupoloae of Moshe Rabbenu, who had been waiting 40 days to pick up the passage -- as an Israeli, he did not consider this a particularly long wait, for with Prophetic Insight he foresaw the Israel DOAR. The only flaw in Bible Crit is that it ignores the existence of synonyms, or that matter multiple appellations (a exceptionally fine breed of horse from the eastern mountains of the USA), The thing is we're not taking a stamd. (aa2-23a) (aa2-23a) And elsewhere, maybe in Yakar lectures that I have input, RSC says in effect: The goyim come to us looking for something real, something spiritual, a way to live -- and we just give them flattery and shlock. If we could dish out to the world what we really have, not like Gershon Shalom (aa2-23b) (aa2-23b) [ Gershon Shalom was an academic expert on Jewish mysticism, and was not opposed to it, but was said to have been lacking in mystic sensibility; it is said that hasidim called him 'The Accountant', because he held all the wealth but could make use of none of it "and Pitkin was a mason good as ever did work with stone. He built Lord Weary's castle but payment got he none." (quoted by Robert Lowell as the motto for his poems) (aa2-23c) Oh yeah? Then why ain't you done it. Because if anyone was willing and able to it, within the context of traditional Judaism -- as one would say of PVK within the eclectic context -- it was RSC. (Or some might say, and some have said, the Lubavitcher Rebbe. And they did bring back some Jewish young people to the practice of religious Judaism. But one who could bring everyone back might be deemed Meshiach. And too, there can be and have been false Messia's, who bring Jewish people back to what they say is traditional Judaism, but is in fact a simplification of it, spiced up as perversion. The present, or maybe now its old hat or cold kippa, fad of pop Kabala may have been a false trail. In the name of it 'Madonna' gave out free English translation Zohar's -- one sat briefly in the Mevo Modi'in Bet Knesset and then was seen out on the porch waiting for the rain, so I took it home and then gave it to Eliahu Gal-Or, who glanced in it for a few minutes and said it seemed to be a good translation. So it may be that R. Shlomo's opponents took him for a false Meshiach. In which case of course they would be honor-bound to oppose him by all possible means. we momish have to get together and take a stand and tell the world what it is to be a Jew. (aa2-23a1) (aa2-23a1) For starters its halacha. R. Zalman said that first. Kabalah you can by a book on it in any head shop; it's halacha that's esoteric nowadays. Folks whose heads I ain't yet bit off ask me about kabala, and I say, with my customary tact, first learn to wash your hands after using the privy. Myticism I can get from the SO -- ie HIK and PVK -- and a lot quicker clearer and more direct than from kabala or whatever it is you call Jewish mysticism. Like, who needs everything wrapped up and rapped out in anthropomoric allegory. PVK would often speak of the mountain guide -- this is technical climbing, or anyhow up a cliff face, with or without the parephenalia -- my guess is that in his youth PVK did not climb with gear -- as allegory of the spiritual guide. So the mountain guide tells you, release one foothold and hone handhold and swing out to the next one, and you think, I can't see how that would work, but you trust him, so you do it. Well, I don't know how far I'd trust a spiritual guide, but I am finding halacha to be something in which I put blind trust, though maybe only in minor matters. every law thdt is law in the Torah is not called law its called hlaacha, walking. (aa2-232a) (aa2-232a) I took halacha to mean, not 'walking' but 'the way to go' -- as in trail-markers. My image is always of standing on Mt. Madison (I think it was -- the one that's directly up from Crawford Notch) -- above treeline, with cairns for trail-markers, heading toward Mt. Eisenhower. One day there was a late fall snowflurry, and we couldn't see from one cairn to the next, so we turned back. ================================================================= ================================================================ NOTES TO RSC MS. AA2, PART 3 Previous notes is =scsaaa2a pls =scsaaa2b ================================================================= Anyway, so there is two levels of walking, could you maybe close the doors. (aa2-24a) (aa2-24a) [ There is walking into a room, and there is walking in a room: the former is possible only if the doors is open, and only the latter is possible if the doors is closed. ] (aa2-24c) [ 'Relationship'? -- you ain't even been asked on a date yet, Mate. "Imagine I wake up in the middle of the night, and I realize, I have never snogged the Night Shift waitress at Joe's Doggie Diner. But she doesn't get of 'till 6. What's my relationship with her for the rest of the night." Like Wittgenstein would say, this here's a pseudo-question. ] (aa2-25a) Please cancel the preceeding analogy. So now Reb Nachman says: Everybody knows that an Aleph, you have a little yod up there, its a little yod below, and a little vav in the middle. REFERENCE NOTE (aa2-26ar) REFERENCE NOTE (aa2-26ar) [ Larry Kusher (d/b/a Rabbi Lawrence Kushner of Congregation Bet El, Sudbury, Massachusetts ], in The Book of Letters (Jewish Lighs Publishing, POB 237, Sunset Farm Offices, Route 4, Woodstock, Vermont, 05091, Bushie_occupied__USA, 802---457-4000 , 1--800-962- 4544 ), paraphrasing Mishnat Soferim (Mishna Berura / tfilin ), notes: "The letter Alef has in its upper right hand corner a mark which looks very much like the letter Yud and it is the custom of many scribes to place a small thorn or point on its top. This Yud is joined to the middle of the top of the body of the Alef." "The lower left hand marks of an Alef also looks like the letter Yud suspended from the body of the Aleph." ] (aa2-28ag) [ 'Everybody knows' seems to be RSC's quaisi-Talmudic term for 'it is accepted in rabbinic tradition that' ] (aa2-28bg) [ GLOSSARY: Emethaler -- A peripheral quaii_monoastic Jewish sect who considered themsselves 'enslaved to the truth'. Members took a vow to never serve on the Mevo Modi'in Va'ad. Expelled from the Jewish communities, they eventually settled in norther Switzerland, and became known for production of a most palatable cheese, which, however, was never granted a hexure ue to traditionalist opposition, (whence the saying (attributed to the Prophet of Light_Waved ] "The Swiss have more holes in their conscience than an Ementhaler cheese). ] (aa2-28cg) [ GLOSSARY: Bobkis -- DON'T QUITE KNOW. A Yiddish term, indicating something the monetary value of which does not exceed that of one french_fried__rat_patootie . Best Guess: A rare culinary delicacy, served only in better Sephardi grill_shops, fervently believed to enhance virility. ] My real connection to G_d is all the things I want to do. (aa2--30a) (aa2--30a) On the other hand, in the USA they used to say: 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' I find Reb Nachman, at least as blended into pablum by RSC, increasingly metaphysically boring and annoying. In this set of RSC AA lectures (Summer 1973) Reb Nachman, as presented by RSC, seems to continually set impoosibly high -- absolute, or limit -- standards of devotion, and then say, if you don't do this, you're nothing. So the next step is for someone, not me I think, to find and add Reb Nachman's texts to these input manuscript transcripts. My guess is that Reb Nachman's teachings, especially presented in the original Hebrew, with translations, will be seen to be much more precise than they appear here in RSC's retelling. More generally, RSC seems to use half the tricks in the fake_book to make weak teachings seem persuasive, for a little while anyhow. This is related to his remark, I think in Torah Times, that whatever he talks about, he will present it as of the greatest importance. So as Sukot approaches, he will say, Sukot is the greatest of holidays, and then as Chanuka approaches, he will sayx, Chanuka is the greatest of the hoidays. This is not intellectual dishonesty, it is that he wants to present each topic as strongly as possible. I guess that one will eventually see that, for all his magnanimity and magnificence as a personality, RSC was much less a religious thinker than one had supposed. The first step is to input all his available teachings. But that is only the first step. The next step is to try to present them in digestable form, via critical articles. What makes you into a yidala is that youre waiting for next Shabos. (aa2-30b) (Ok, I'll quit my job as an Air Trasffic Controller, buy a truckload of challot, and celebrate Shabat every day. Then Ill have 7 times more mitzvot than the rest of you, and get to be Chief Rabbi if a plane doesn't crash through my roof. Look, sports fans, to work 6 days a week -- well, let's say five, because out of respect for the goyim in whose lands we live we should not work on Sunday -- actually four-and-a-half , because everyone knows, you don't work after noon on Friday -- not even in Israel, tho Israeli's dont do Sunday -- so anyhow, the Histadrut comes to Golda Meir and says, we should really work a 5-day week. And she says, Impoosible. Start with a 4-day week and see if the chaverim can work up to a 5-day week.) (aa2-30c) Yes, and when I get a flu shot -- which I try to do every day -- I take it orally, so I can groove on the taste. Look, Fred: Tfilin are not a fun sensation, tfilin are so I don't hit anyone on the head -- with my left hand, at least -- and so I don't let crazy thoughts into my head -- or anyhow, dont let them stay long. (aa2-30d) What's with this 'shame' bit. Like, ok, so HIK points out that shame has its uses, as long as it keeps its place. But like they say, one who sits in the suka has merit. So maybe one who sits in the suka in the rain has double merit. No way Jose, he is accounted an idiot, no offense intended to idiots. Like Juliet says, on his face shame is ashamed to sit. Oh ok, let me rephrase that b bit. (aa2-30q) It wont fly, Guy. First of all, davening is not to get hi and it is not to win elocution leshons. Davening is to get prayers answered. Sammy the Bookmaker is checking the odds on the Parimutual while he waits for the repetition of the Amidah, but when he prays that somebody gets well, they get well. Inklepoo the Yogi Guru who is of course also Jewish is so high that he can pee on the Space Station, but if he prays for a sunny day in the Negev in July, all thae ladies take their wash to the Beersheva Laundramat for a Spin_Dry. Moshe Rabenu prayed, Ana '' Hoshea, Na , and his sister was soon cured of leperosy. Ok, that was the easy one. You can't say 'I'm waiting' if the opportunity presented herself and you ignored her. I mean, buy the man a lavender bib. What does it mean to honor myself. It means to wait, to wait to be better. (aa2-30r) (aa2-30r) Cf. HIK: "Meeting my shortcomings with the sword of self- respect." =============================================================== NOTES FROM =scaa2k This will be cut out as =scsaaa2d And then combined with scsaaa2a, scsaaa2b, scsaaa2c ============================================================ (aa2-34a) Don't know the moon, Clown. Here's from The Jewish Treasury of Folklore. It is not a joke, it is sort of parable, but I forget what it points to. Which is more important, the sun or the moon? The moon. The moon? The moon. The moon? The sun shines in the daytime, when its light. But the moon shines in the night, when you really need it. TEXT: Then you reallize oy vey I'm going to the dogs I kknow so little. Then its a new moon again. (aa2-35a) Mazaltov, but couldn't we do it without all the oy vey's and shame shame shame on me, and all that.