V = IR

A libertarian discusses whether animal rights exist, going against the mainstream libertarian position.

www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/comments/15sxtq/why_shouldnt_we_compromise/

Bob Murphy comments on the recent bet loss and Paul Krugman.

I'd quoted that story to my friends and family as an example of how russian society degenerated to the point where law lost all meaning. Well, in the US, the same thing is happening. Really has been happening since FDR times, but that's another story. Anti–gun rights mass psychosis is just a very good example of this degeneration.

Some people believe in figuring out things using intuition, not intelligence. Others find this idea strange, to say the least. It seems to them that after all, being a human being is all about using one’s rationality, in knowing why something is wrong or right, good or bad, etc., not just getting a feeling from somewhere deep inside, over which one has no control. It seems to me, intuition is only useful at the beginning, if you need a push to one direction or another, or in the middle, if you are stuck and don’t know where to go next. Or if you can’t follow the logic. But not in the end, when you have to make a decision. I mean, if I’m making a decision for something or against it, it seems to me that I want to know why I made it; I want to be able to explain the logic to any stranger, not tell him that some mysterious force inside my pushed me towards this or against it. Maybe it’s because I like to be in control. Of my life. I mean, sometimes it’s all about probabilities and uncertainties, but still, better some control than no control at all. A lot of people believe that because things are in Eibeshter’s hands, we don’t have responsibility to take control and make decisions. Learning Jewish philosophy shows us they are wrong. Learning Chassidus shows us why they are wrong.

The essence of the video is: recently we had very few computers. Now we have a lot. In very near future, we will have so many that what we have right now will feel like a kindergarten child’s mid-afternoon fantasy. So, how are we going to handle this? Trillion(s) of sources of information connected and communicating in a complex, chaotic way? Right now we have no tools to handle this and no idea how to get those tools. But we can ask for advice from Hashem. Or from Nature, whatever view you prefer. Because if you look at our body, it has trillions of cells (each designed in a much more complicated way and handling much more information than a single computer) communicating with each other and doing so successfully to allow our bodies to live (in fact, so successfully that you go through your day not giving it much thought how much information exchange needs to happen in order for you to do your basic tasks for a minute — forget something as complicated as playing a violin, or giving a lecture, or... I don’t know... fencing). I mean, we don’t think about it much, and we take it for granted, but that thing between our ears, the human brain, is the most complicated structure in the whole known Universe. And female human brain is probably the most complicated structure in both known and unknown Universe. Think about it... Next time you want to ride a motorcycle, think twice. If not out of respect to yourself, then at least out of respect to your Creator. P.S. Although, there is something I am probably not getting. How will we have trillions of computers? Right now we have, what, seven, eight billion people on this planet? Let’s say, in the nearest future we will have 10 billion people. So, if we have a trillion computers, that’s 100 computers per person? If so, kinda cool…

A Midrash asks: what does this mean that “now he knew” that Sara was a beautiful woman? He hadn’t known it before? It answers: when they were crossing Nile to go to Egypt, Sara dropped something (I think a scarf) in the water. Avraham bent down to pick it up and saw Sara’s reflection in the water. Then he realized that she was a beautiful woman. Before that, apparently, he had not looked at her to see if she was beautiful or not. My rabbi asked the question: there are so many requirements and prohibitions in Torah, and a Jew has to keep them all. Let the man look at his wife. Why not? And the answer is that Avraham did not live his life like everybody else. Before doing something in life, he didn’t ask “why not?”, he asked “why yes?” If he was able to achieve his purpose in any area (e.g., having a loving marriage) without something (e.g., focusing on physical attraction), he didn’t need this something in his life. This lesson is directly applicable to us. OK, we are on a completely different level from Avraham, and in order to have normal marriage, we cannot be like him. In fact, Jews were already on a different level in Egypt, and that is why Jewish women’s mirrors (with which they beautified themselves) were accepted as a donation for building of the mishkan. But in our lives in general, before doing something, we have to ask a question: why yes? Not desire to do something and do it, unless it is prohibited by Halacha (and if it is, find a loophole out of the prohibition, ask three, five, ten rabbis, until one gives you a heter), but do the opposite. Ask yourself: in what way does this connect me to Hashem? And if it doesn’t, why am I doing it? This is the standard shpil, you can hear it from many Chabad rabbis, in many a Chabad House. But there is something more. There is a difference between Avraham and us. He lived before Mattan Torah, and we live after. We live after the time when it became possible to make mundane holy. Furthermore, we live after the revelation of Chassidus. After revelation of Chassidus in a form that can be internalized: through Chassidus Chabad. And learning Chassidus Chabad allows you to answer the question “why yes”. It allows you to find a way “how yes”. Not so that you can do already whatever you wanted to do and not feel guilty about it (even on the most Chassidish, most eidel level). But so that you can bring G-dliness into one more aspect of this world’s reality. Make holy one more thing that was mundane.

Besides the fact that it talks about amazing topics (how does gilui, revelation, happen vis-á-vis soveiv and memaleh kol almin? where in Seider Hishtalshelus can you say that Soivev Kol Almin “starts”?), this shiur is full of something wonderful: Rabbi Paltiel going off the tangent many times to explain crucial concepts to annoying bochrim. Just absolutely incredible. Minimum knowledge of Hebrew and general concepts in Chassidus Chabad preferable, but not too much required. Anything you don’t understand — ignore and keep listening. Trust me: even if you understand 10% of what’s said in a general sense, it’s worth it. For me, the most interesting question is at the end. We say “Chochma starts here” (above Bina, in the world of Atzilus). What about “above” that level? Does above that level Hashem have no chochma? Is He, chv"sh, a non-intelligent Hashem? If not, and if He does have Chochma, in what sense does He? Another interesting question is: we learn so much Chassidus, and in the end, we learn that we can know nothing about Hashem. A Jew who doesn’t learn Chassidus knows the same thing. Why learn Chassidus? Then we learn all the Kabbala and learn about all the levels in the Infinite Light, Oir Ein Soif, Lux perpetia. And then we learn that all the real action is here, in this finite, dark, physical world, in doing a single mitzva, in learning Halacha, as it is revealed to us, as it talks about the physical concepts. So, a Jew who learned only Gemara all his life knew all that too — except he didn’t waste his time learning Chassidus; he relied on emunas tzaddikim. So, why learn Kabbala? The last question is only briefly touched in the shiur, but it also helps to use one’s own head to think. Listen on.

(at a hippodrome) More here.