ב"ה

HEXED


This is utterly amazing! I was looking up something about game theory and found this on a site about the history of game theory.

0-500 AD

The Babylonian Talmud is the compilation of ancient law and tradition set down during the first five centuries A.D. which serves as the basis of Jewish religious, criminal and civil law. One problem discussed in the Talmud is the so called marriage contract problem: a man has three wives whose marriage contracts specify that in the case of this death they receive 100, 200 and 300 respectively. The Talmud gives apparently contradictory recommendations. Where the man dies leaving an estate of only 100, the Talmud recommends equal division. However, if the estate is worth 300 it recommends proportional division (50,100,150), while for an estate of 200, its recommendation of (50,75,75) is a complete mystery. This particular Mishna has baffled Talmudic scholars for two millennia. In 1985, it was recognised that the Talmud anticipates the modern theory of cooperative games. Each solution corresponds to the nucleolus of an appropriately defined game.

Links: http://tinyurl.com/5ylgl

http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~rrw1/talks/qtalk2.pdf

The only game theory discovered in the 20th Century was Anno Dominoes!

This is such poetic, noetic justice. John Nash is said to be a rabid anti-Semite.

One could spend a lifetime exploring the depth of this discussion of fairness and morality.

The problem is to be found in the BABYLONIAN TALMUD, Tractate Ketubot, Page 93a, et al.

תלמוד בבלי מסכת כתובות דף צג עמוד א

מי שהיה נשוי שלש נשים ומת, כתובתה של זו מנה ושל זו מאתים ושל זו שלש מאות, ואין שם אלא מנה - חולקין בשוה. היו שם מאתים, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלשה שלשה של זהב. היו שם שלש מאות, של מנה - נוטלת חמשים, ושל מאתים - מנה, ושל שלש מאות - ששה של זהב. וכן ג' שהטילו לכיס, פיחתו או הותירו כך הן חולקין.

גמ'. של מנה נוטלת חמשים, תלתין ותלתא ותילתא הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת מאתים לבעלת מנה, דין ודברים אין לי עמך במנה: אי הכי, אימא סיפא: של מאתים ושל שלש מאות - שלש שלש של זהב, תימא לה: הא סלקת נפשך מינה! משום דאמרה לה: מדין ודברים הוא דסליקי נפשאי. היו שם שלש מאות וכו'. של מאתים - מנה, שבעים וחמשה הוא דאית לה! אמר שמואל: בכותבת בעלת שלש מאות לבעלת מאתים ולבעלת מנה דין ודברים אין לי עמכם במנה. רב יעקב מנהר פקוד משמיה דרבינא אמר: רישא בשתי תפיסות, וסיפא בשתי תפיסות; רישא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעין וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאה ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא, סיפא בשתי תפיסות - דנפלו שבעים וחמשה בחד זימנא, ומאתים ועשרים וחמשה בחד זימנא. תניא: זו משנת רבי נתן; רבי אומר: אין אני רואה דבריו של רבי נתן באלו, אלא חולקות בשוה.

וכן שלשה שהטילו. אמר שמואל: שנים שהטילו לכיס, זה מנה וזה מאתים –

אוצרות ישראל גירסה 2, בהוצאות פרוייקט השו"ת
אוניברסיטת בר אילן 1972-2005

Do you see the moral implications of the problems shown in the .pdf link above and their imperfect solutions?

Do you see how, by imagining that the universe is described by classical math, one is urged on by classical math itself to transcend classical math in order to achieve greater justice than classical math allows?

Do you see that the definitions and laws of classical math are artifacts of a given mind set, but that mind set demands that we evolve into another, higher mind set that will generate a mathematics governed by more liberal and flexible laws?

Truly equitable solutions that are inclusive of other solutions are impossible using classical math because it is organized such that it demands that we transcend it or suffer with incomplete and unsatisfying solutions to problems.

Our minds generate their own evolution by creating universes governed by contradictory, limited and limiting, untenable laws that at some point become insufferable.

The Sages of the Talmud knew this and that is why they did not attempt to come to fair and equitable solutions to social problems using math. Rather, they deliberately handed down decisions that were calculated to urge people on to thinking more cooperatively and expansively.

My husband tells me that, in fact, the Gemara of this Mishna states that the decisions concerning each woman's inheritance handed down by the Judges were based on negotiations that the widows had had amongst themselves.

Absolutely MAGNIFICENT.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

ב"ה

צרעת הבית – "Leprosy of the House"

Just what "leprosy of the house" is is a matter of age-old discussion.

Evidently the phenomenon was never clear because when one discovered what they thought was clearly צרעת הבית in their house during the time that the כהנים treated the affliction, they had to go to the כהן and say that it *seemed* to them that there was a plague in the house. As we learn: In Parshat Metzora (Lev. 14:35) we read with regard to the affliction of Tzara'at Habayit ("leprosy of the house") the following modus operandi: He to whom the building belongs shall come and tell the Priest, saying 'like an affliction appears appears in my house.' Rashi there seizes on the anomalous "like" phrasing and explicates: "Even if he is a scholar who knows it certainly to be an affliction , he should not determine the matter unequivocally to say 'an affliction, rather, 'like an affliction appears.' "

Some might think that it is merely a figurative, reifying description of a spiritual plague that sets into a home when its inhabitants sinned, particularly engaged in slander.

Some might think that the phenomenon once existed but no longer does.

Some might think that it is a matter beyond our current ability to understand.

I am not a כהן and it is certainly not my place to make a diagnosis, but when I saw the article below I said to myself: That might be what צרעת הבית ("leprosy of the house") is.

It may be a species of צרעת הבית that does not have to be diagnosed by a כהן, but which is an undeniable signal that something is very, very spiritually wrong that we can all see for ourselves. http://tinyurl.com/cbugh

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@...

B"H

BAD, BADDER AND HELLIFIED

There is a line of specious reasoning that goes like this:

"Hey, I know I'm baaad. Since I know I'm bad and this person got just over on me, then he or she is even badder. This person is Evil, like E-vile, Man."

But it don't go so.

There are people that are so good that they are Hellified.

And if you understood what I just wrote and why I wrote it, you've gone beyond "good" and "bad" and you're going to live forever.

If you don't understand it, you're going to run into a few more people who look E-vile to you until you do.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

I wrote the following to a "senior statesman" of Mensa around the time that I resigned officially from the Society. He has been a Mensa member for some four decades. He is as moral as he is brilliant and has tried his utmost to steer the Society in the direction of moral self-government that is characterized by as little bureaucratic structure as possible – to very little avail.

Hillel, kHz, dB, and Humility.
What Have These in Common with Mensa?


Your most recent posts on M-Pol cause me considerable sadness and even shame for you.

Surely after all of the years that you are in Mensa you must realize that the vast majority of people who do well on those standardized tests that measure one's ability to think inconsequentially are morally average and some are even below average. Think about who the people who devised those tests are and you will have an encyclopaedia of information at your fingertips.

You have written about considering Mensa as a control group of subjects that you are performing an "experiment" on to see if people with IQ's about 150% of the average will act morally in tandem. I am reminded of the old joke about the experimenter who concludes that upon having its four legs cut off the frog can no longer hear the command "Jump!".

Apropos hearing: You have twice referred to the Sage Hillel in posts to the Yahoo! Group M-Pol. Amplifying the dB of the words of Hillel by quoting him now twice will avail you nothing when you speak to those people. His teachings are tens of thousands of kHz out of their moral hearing range. At most they will feel unsettling vibrations if you increase the amplitude, but they will not hear the words. They will not react with happy appreciation for being enlightened. They will react with anger and fear at having been unsettled. And why can they not understand such sentiments? It is because Hillel devoted himself to becoming as humble and as meek as one could - words not found in the M-Pol archives. Moreover, he drove anger from his heart entirely. Are you familiar with this famous story about Hillel?:

http://tinyurl.com/dsssl

The people in Mensa, as individuals, have not exerted themselves in the struggle against hubris, impatience, self-serving, etc. They have amassed data and this for the purpose of self-aggrandizement and advancement, not wisdom. You are speaking to people who are encrusted in egos they have cultivated for four decades and more. How can you reasonably expect them to act wisely, and in the interest of the Society, in tandem?

I lived on kibbutz for five years. I learned from the general assemblies held once every week that the sum total of morally averageness is a whole lotta moral averageness. The result of every general meeting I attended was either cacophony or a harmonic wave of amplified nothing.

It simply does not follow that because many of the moral giants of the world were brilliant that the brilliant are necessarily moral giants (and let's face it, most of the people in Mensa aren't exactly brilliant). Even people in Prometheus consider ethics only perfunctorily, because they think it is de rigueur for intellectuals to give a nod to such matters, not because the desire for justice and truth wrenches their guts.

You are addressing people who have drinking problems, people who openly and unashamedly admit that they came to Mensa for their own (not very noble) purposes, people who imagine themselves to be witches, i.e., people who, thank God deludedly, are trying to empower themselves by tapping into negative energy sources. Is it any wonder that their political behavior is what it is?! Do you really expect people like that to be decent enough to post a correction giving credit where it is really due? It may seem like basic decency to you, but it is not for them. No one seems to tarry putting up posts in their own defense.

It hurts me to see people write to you disrespectfully, with no reverence at all either for your age, your tenure or for that which you have endeavored to do during the decades during which you have been an active member of Mensa. I'm sure that recalling your achievements is not very pleasant for you. Have your exertions been rewarded with success? Will further exertions be rewarded with success?

They don't know what you're on about, and as I said above, increasing the dB level will avail you nothing if you speak in a moral range above their ability to hear.

I resigned from Mensa rather than allow myself to be excoriated, as you are being raked over the coals, for having the "arrogance" (the buzz word used by Mensans to shut people up when they speak out for the right) to evince the requisite self-confidence needed to express moral principles and adjure others to comport themselves in accordance with them. The members of the Society would have tried to drag me into the sophistry of "moral relativity".

While I respect your choice to remain in the Society and suffer the insult of those who do not begin to approximate you as a Man or as an intellect, your decision is inscrutable to me.

Peace,
Doreen

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

ב"ה

COMMUNISM IS AN ANCIENT JEWISH CONCEPT


Our earliest record of Jews having lived communally comes from the time of Elisha the Prophet and there is every reason to believe that he inherited that tradition from his Teachers. We learn from the Book of Kings II that the followers of Prophets, called B'nei Nevi'im, the Spiritual children of Prophets, lived communally and took their meals communally.

Likewise, HaYachad, more commonly known as "the Essenes" (a sect of very pious Jews during the Second Temple Period) lived communally according to all contemporaneous reports of their way of life, their reports about themselves and from archaeological findings. They too took all their meals communally. A large communal dining hall was built for this specific purpose.

Thus, our records establish that Communism is a very ancient Jewish social system.

Marx could never have conceived of Communism had he not been thegrandson of a Rabbi. A bit less than one hundred years before the "Manifesto" was written by Marx and Engels, Rabbi Hillel Shklover, the grand-nephew and disciple of the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Kremer (or Kramer), the Ga'on (Genius) of Vilna (1720-1797, see: http://tinyurl.com/ccwdh http://tinyurl.com/a9mzr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilna_Ga'on ) wrote the very mystical work KOL HATOR (THE VOICE OF THE TURTLEDOVE, - the latter term being a name for Messiah as found in Song of Solomon 2:12).
Rabbi Shklover interpreted passages in the Bible to mean that the Messianic Age cannot come until there is economic equality in Israel and he was basing his interpretation on ancient sources.

By the time 1848 rolled around the Ga'on of Vilna was longthe most famous Rabbinic authority of that time frame. The Ga'on of Vilna is still considered one of the very greatest minds and Spirits that the Jewish people ever produced. To this day, his teachings are de rigueur from grade school on up to the highest levels of Rabbinic and Rabbinic Judicial study. Every Jew who studies Bible since the time of The Ga'on of Vilna learns his commentary on the Bible. It is well-nigh impossible that Marx was not influenced by The Genius' exegesis, as he became known as a prodigy in his earliest youth, from the age of seven actually, and amassed a huge following of devoted students.

Marx had to dress ancient Jewish ideas in Teutonic garments (most certainly, appealing to the philosophical authority of one George Wilhelm Freidrich Hegelserved as a more reliable endorsement in the minds of the Germans andEnglish than would appealing to the exegesis of one Rabbi Eliyahu benShlomo Zalman) in order to gain legitimacy in a xenophobic and anti-Semitic Europe, even as Freud didn't mention how many of his ideascame from the Zohar (one of the central works of Jewish mysticism).It must be mentioned that the Ga'on of Vilna based all of his Biblical studies on the Talmud (the compendium of the Oral Jewish tradition as passed down to and interpreted by the Pharisees of the Second Temple Period. It is considered the unquestionable body of Biblical exegesis based on ancient authority among Orthodox Jews to this day) and would not have made so categorical a statement about economic equality had he not found ample basis for doing so in the Bible as interpreted in the Talmud. The year that Hegel was born, The Ga'on of Vilna was a manof 50, surrounded by adoring students and renowned internationally in the European Jewish Diaspora. After his death he became equally famous in the Jewish Diasporas of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, India and the Far East as well. No one in the Jewish world questioned or questions his brilliance or exegetical ability. No matter how assimilated and Western in his orientation Marx was, he could not have but come under the influence of Rabbinical thinking.

In classical Jewish thought economic equality in communal society is a sine qua non for the attainment of spiritual advancement, as the very desire to amass property and hold it to oneself reflects spiritual taint. However, communal living is not seen as an end in itself, or as the zenith of human achievement. It is meant to serve the mega-purpose of man's existence on earth, which is the revelation of God in the material world. In order to do this, Man is "clothed"in a physical body, which has its own needs. By supplying those needs in a pure and holy way: by eating as prescribed the tenants of one's spiritual culture, temperance in sexual relations, attending to agriculture and horticulture with loving-kindness, uprightness in business dealings, and by being as concerned with the welfare of one's fellows exactly as one is concerned with one's own, onepurifies one's own body as well as strengthens the vessels of physical existence to receive Godliness. Communism, as understood inJewish thought is the physical and cultural parallel of the spiritual quest - the attainment of the greatest good FOR ALL. As God imparts of Its Divine Knowledge freely, so we are to share our knowledge and all manners of wealth one with the other.

The ability to live according to the principles "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF" and, as Rabbi Akiva taught during the time of the Second Temple: "What is mine is yours. This is the great central point of the entire Bible" is the sine qua non of communism. These are central Jewish teachings.

The fact that Marx presented Communism removed from its Jewish ground, which, no doubt, was a capitulation to European anti-Semitism, opened Communism to being arrogated entirely by Gentiles who, not knowing the Spiritual substrate of true Communism, without which it is impracticable, distorted Communism into being the basis not only of repressive regimes, but as yet another excuse for anti-Semitism.

In summary: There can nary be a greater absurd than the presumption of Gentiles who are not privy to the Geist of Communism to not only arrogate Communism, but to use it as an excuse to oppress Jewish People in ersatz Communist countries and excoriate the Jews in the State of Israel in the name of Communism.

Communism is the social invention of the Jewish People. It is the sine qua non for the establishment of a just society. It was our past it will be our future.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

VANITY UNFAIR


I don't read American magazines except very infrequently. I remembered Vanity Fair being a magazine of fluff that even in my youth I would have been embarrassed to have anyone see me read.

I went to the site and saw this: http://www.vanityfair.com/

Would any genuine and self-respecting Leftist write for a magazine that blatantly and uninhibitedly encourages vanity, and not just any vanity, but the vanity of conspicuous consumption? Has Hitchens lost it entirely writing for a magazine that shows a half naked Paris Hilton on the front cover? How can one move from writing for "a magazine of unconventional wisdom since 1865" (The Nation) to writing for a magazine that describes itself as "a unique mix of image and intellect"? Ain't no such animal as a unique mix of image and intellect. Intellect is that which pierces through the surface image into the underlying substrate of essence and truth.

As for Galloway: he is beneath ordinary contempt. He is the hired mouthpiece of dictators. 'Nuff said.

Are you familiar with the antics of the WOMBLES and similar groups who call themselves anarchists? Who would dare to claim that they do not exist for the express purpose of sullying and disgracing the great tradition of anarchism by making it look ridiculous?

How about the beautiful people of Berkeley demonstrating for who knows what?: http://tinyurl.com/cveub

Does anyone here realize you're being taken over the barrel?

Is there a one among you who realizes that you are practicing State-sanctioned, castrated, pseudo-"liberalism" in the true tradition of Phil Ochs' "Love Me, I'm a Liberal"? Is there a one among you who is capable of putting aside his or her hubris and realizing that you are being controlled by the very same people you think you are protesting against ?

In order to become true Leftists, true Anarchists you will have you leave the comfort of your armchairs and the sleaze of your watering holes and go out into the wilderness - the wilderness of independent thought, the wilderness of borderline poverty, the wilderness of social unacceptability, the wilderness of breaking party ranks when the party is clearly misguided and misguiding.

The Galloways and the Hitchens will not take you there. In fact, they are earning very handsome incomes to do their damnedest to make sure you never get there. How can you consider them leftists? With whom are they sharing their incomes? With you?

I'll give you a leg up. Read these people's works. Let them become role models for you to emulate. Let their spirit ignite your passion for truth and emancipation. Let their words permeate your consciousnesses and consciences: (with the exception of Chomsky who is a disgrace to the memory of his illustrious father Ze'ev (Wm. Chomsky):

http://tinyurl.com/cg7tm

We will most probably not be able to implement their social programme in our time. The time is not yet ripe for the translation of their noble vision into concrete reality. But do not let the embers of their memories die. Let them burn in your hearts and fuel your motivations. Pass them on to your children and your children's children. It will be their tomorrow, if not ours.

See also: "Commentary on the Galloway-Hitchens Debate" on this blog

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

DEMENTIA

I am not a doctor and what I am about to write is based not on scientific research, but on personal observation.

I think that some forms of "dementia", those that are not the result of trauma, are the result of having lived in a state of denial for decades. I think that the people who develop dementia are those who trained their brains to forget and suppress that which they were not able or willing to deal with emotionally - until their brain was capable of nothing else.

I think, then, that "dementia" is an acquired illness that is preventable.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

COMMENTARY ON THE GALLOWAY-HITCHENS DEBATE –
The Mason Hall, Baruch College Performing Arts Center, Manhattan on Sept 14, 2005

An audio of this debate can be found on the following site: http://tinyurl.com/czj5x

What clearly emerges from the Galloway-Hitchens debate is that neither of these men are either political virgins nor apt to eschew the advantages that a hefty income brings in favor of the poverty and obscurity that being pure ideologists demands. Perhaps we cannot expect them to, lest their words never be heard at all.

Neither Christopher Hitchens nor George Galloway is made of the ethereal stuff that constitutes the moral fiber of the genuine and absolutely devoted Leftists and anarchists of generations gone by and those who are imbued with their spirit today.

That being said, there are degrees of having "sold out" and compromised one's beliefs and, in my humble and correct opinion, Mr. George Galloway is by far the more reprehensible of the two.

I admire Christopher Hitchens for being able to say, "I erred" and "That is who I was then, this is who I am now"; for being strong enough to break ranks; for being able to take an eclectic stance and see various aspects of issues; for not following a unilateral political position down to the bitter, untenable and irrational end that any unilateral position inevitably leads to if followed religiously and unswervingly. Hitchens is intelligent and secure enough not to be caught up in the "consistency" mind game that all ideological cults demand their followers play, lest they begin to think independently and creatively and in a comprehensive manner.

Mr. Galloway is a whore. He is thoroughly morally repugnant. The description of him as a "carpetbagger" is evidently apt. He was a scrapper who came from nowhere and did whatever he had to do to get where he wanted to go. He put his admittedly impressive mouthpiece up for hire to those who need a mouthpiece most – those who have to be craftily misrepresented in order to give the appearance of even a modicum of respectability. No subterfuge is beneath his dignity. Mr. Hitchen's description of Galloway's techniques as "squalid maneuvers" is apt enough, but it does not begin to approximate the aptitude with which Galloway describes himself on his RESPECT site: "The mother of all one man shows."

See also: "Vanity Unfair" on this blog.


Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

B"H

ZOMBIES

Zombies do exist. They are very real. There are people who are dead, though they think they are alive and so do others. They are the walking emotional dead who have become so apathetic, numb, tough and uncaring that they are dead inside. The phenomenon exists to degrees. It is not an all or nothing at all issue. We tend to think that someone is either dead or alive, but all life and death is a matter of degrees and emotional life and death is no exception to that universal rule. One can most certainly be partially emotionally dead and/or emotionally dead on one or some aspects of one's emotional level of being. In fact, most of us are. Though it is primarily the emotional structure that is affected, this is a moral/spiritual, not an emotional, phenomenon.

It is toward those people that industries aim their advertising. This and more, the entertainment industry as well as other industries, by violently accosting our emotions, senses, sensibilities and moral structures, intentionally create emotional numbness, atrophy and finally gangrene and death.

The fact that those who run businesses are entirely aware of the fact that the populace is emotionally traumatized and that they encourage and capitalize on that is proven by this article: http://tinyurl.com/8p3zg . Not only is our emotional pain being preyed upon cynically and manipulated to the purposes of the wealthy, note, if you will, that many of the colors are given the names of food. Thus, they tighten the double bind of wanting to be skinny enough to fit into fashions, yet being obsessed with food and associating it with emotional comfort more than the nourishing of the body.

When people are deadened emotionally their ability to experience subtle emotions is impaired, often obliterated entirely. All they can feel are the most intense thrills and sensations. The threshold is continuously being pushed higher by Western culture and the cash registers register every increment.

When we can no longer feel subtle and sublime emotion, but only the most visceral, we are no longer capable of morality, for the wellspring of morality is the rarified sublimity that is aroused in the heart. Those experiences are translated to magnificent visions by the mind. If we cannot feel the ethereal, we cannot envision a better and more just world.Near total indifference to the suffering of others does not come quickly or easily. It is a long, excruciating process that can take years or decades. Until people give up caring at all they flail pathetically to feel something, anything. Thus, they buy more, try more, collect experiences that they pay for dearly.

The people in the most advanced stages of this state can feel only one thrill - the thrill of power and that is why they clutch at it as they do and will go to any and all lengths not to relinquish it.

The stage beyond being able to feel only the thrill of power is the abyss of oblivion. Knowing that they have sold their Souls they dread this stage as they know it is their final end.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

B"H

Does anybody else feel overwhelmed with sadness and a feeling of hopelessness by what is going on in the world? There is a German word for what I am referring to. It is called Weltschmerz. It is likened to depression, and many of the symptoms are like those of depression, but it is not depression exactly. Much depression is selfish. Many depressed people are depressed because of the conditions of their own lives, which are not as they would have them. They rage in impotent frustration at not being able to have what they want and feel is their due.

Some depressed people are channeling the feelings about events that occurred in their lives that they cannot bear to feel into depression. That kind of depression is really suppression.Weltschmerz is the pain of the altruistic, the pain that some feel for the Human condition as a whole. Weltschmerz is defined as world-weariness, but it can be so intensely painful that people have committed suicide from it. Let us put the World Wars aside and consider what life was like up until recently. There were certainly upheavals in the world. There was baseless hatred, poverty, local war, family violence, substance abuse...One could be harmed by a myriad of unexpected causes. There were natural catastrophes as well. But I do not remember catastrophes occurring with the frequency and intensity that they do today. One barely has time to begin to regain one's bearings after some cataclysm has occurred before the next one strikes without warning. Let's look at very recent history. There was the tsunami. There was Hurricane Katrina. During the three days that the settlements on the West Bank were being forcibly evacuated and demolished, which was a huge upheaval in Israel no matter what side of the political coin you are on that left thousands of families homeless and jobless; there was a plane crash, an earthquake and another plane crash. The Israeli army carried out the orders to evacuate the West Bank. They were instructed to use whatever force was necessary. They followed orders. No one believed that the army of Israel, which we thought was our army, a citizens' army, would turn on the citizenry. Overnight we realized that we are in a fascist state, that our soldiers are at the beck and call of corrupt politicians, that it is not an army to protect Israel. Our image of who we are as a nation dissolved into a slimy pool before our very eyes.In my own personal life during that period I discovered that my relatives in the States had done things and were capable of things I never dreamed they could do. I realized that all vestiges of love for family had gone the way of making money. Nothing else matters for them and they will literally sell out their own mothers down the river for a buck. There's more that I prefer not to share with the public. I, for one, am becoming disoriented by it all. All feelings of security are gone. Nothing makes sense anymore. I have lost interest in just about everything, except my most immediate family, because nothing seems to matter anymore. I feel frightened to put one foot in front of the other and just go on as though everything is alright. I'm not sure there is going to be anything to tread upon. The very ground is not assured us.I know that I sound angry and bitter too much of the time. I'ts not so much anger and bitterness as grief and fear for the world. My ability to reason has been compromised because so many things without rhyme or reason have occurred that my mind has been taken to the limits of where it can go and has been stretched beyond being able to snap back entirely. I do not move from one news item to the next sensational story forgetting all that came before. For me 9/11 is not forgotten, the tsunami is not forgotten, the evacuation of Gush Katif is not forgotten...the affect of each upheaval is cumulative for me. I used to believe without a shadow of a doubt that there was a chance to save and heal the world. I was once such a passionately idealistic young person. Was that not me who left everything familiar in the US to live on kibbutz 23 years ago? What a cruel disappointment the kibbutz was. I will never forget the first General Meeting of the kibbutz I attended when they discussed the fact that some members were using their private bank accounts for extra personal luxuries not as a matter of concern for the welfare of the collective, but as a matter of course and too bad for those who did not have a private bank account. I thought my Hebrew was faulty and that I did not understand correctly. Daniel, who was not yet my husband at the time, assured me that I had understood perfectly. I'm not sure of much of anything anymore except the love of my immediate family, but I know that I am grateful to have that. A young woman of 23 years old asked if she would be bitter like me at 40. That question saddened me so. At her age I was so sure that I was strong enough to weather anything and I was positive that the world would never defeat my Spirit. But in large measure - it has, I cannot deny this. I was so strong, so strong. If this could happen to me it can happen to anyone. What can I tell you, my dear young woman? What words of comfort can I give you honestly? If you care about the world to the core of your being, as I did and still do, you won't be bitter, although it might look that way to others, but you will probably be filled with a good deal of grief – and sometimes grief mimics madness.

Another point that needs expressing is the fact that the engineers of our societies intentionally keep the concept of Weltschmerz from the public. Anyone who feels depressed is made to feel that she or he is reacting only to the conditions of their own personal life or experiencing a "chemical imbalance". Read any of the literature about depression. None of it mentions the cruelty of society that we are exposed to. None of it mentions that we must witness others being ground into the dirt on an everyday basis.Society does not take the blame for the fact that depression and feeling of hopeless and helplessness are so widespread. We would better be able to deal with our own disappointments if we knew in our hearts that our societies were treating us fairly and doing their level best to make this world inhabitable for Human beings. Most people find all kinds of ways of avoiding what I feel because it is so horrific, so abysmal, but the one thing I cannot do is live a lie in denial.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

B"H

WHAT CAUSED THE FLOOD IN NEW ORLEANS?

A Christian contends: "The Lord says: "Thou shall not lie with mankind as you lie with womankind". If you are gay, you are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord and he will seek you and destroy you."

I answered:

Our sages have taught that all of the sexual sins of S'dom (Sodom in English) an Ammorah (Gemorrah) were tolerated by God until widespread injustice and cruelty became the rule of the day in those cities. It was at that point that God said: "Enough!" and wiped them out both for their perversions but more for their injustice and cruelty. That is what happened in New Orleans and that is the reason why part of the "Bible belt" was hit with the flooding too, as someone rightfully pointed out. The "Bible belters" do nothing to ameliorate the suffering of those who are downtrodden by the capitalist system. That is a worse sin than sexual sins. Did you note that six-foot muddy waves washed over antebellum mansions that people still continued to enjoy living in? People still enjoyed the riches that were made on the backs of slaves. Their homes were made into muddy wrecks, which they always were on a moral/spiritual level. Now it shows on the physical level too.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

B"H

WHY WE LOST GUSH KATIF

Someone on www.safed.co.il wrote:

Is hair Orvah or is it not? And should one hear Torah from someone who denies Torah ve-Halacha?

Todah Rabba!

I answered:

Would that people were nearly so scrupulous about the keeping of Hilkhot Mammonot as they are about judging others who do not cover their hair. Who causes more Human misery? The woman who does not cover her hair or the banks and the Ministry of Finance? Yet there are those who rail at the former because they do not have the courage to take on those who are the real destroyers of our People. Perhaps it is immodest to go without a head covering, but it is not cruel. Why don't you speak out against cruelties? What is your order of priorities.

No one is perfect and no one serves HaShem perfectly. If we were only to learn Torah from those who keep all of the תרי"ג Mitzvot we would learn from no one.

Are you sure that every woman who covers her hair is as scrupulous about giving tzaddakah as every woman who does not?

Doesn't anyone understand why we lost Gush Katif? Doesn't anyone understand that it was not so much because of the not keeping of some mitzvot, but of the keeping of a distortion of Torah - and that with judgement and bitterness toward the next one?

The people in Yesh"a paid the price for those who distort the Torah because they are those who are closest to the true Way. They are the ones who have the most hope of returning to the true Way. And so, HaShem shook them to their very foundations in order that they may think: "If we did everything right and everything turned out all wrong what happened?"

If they are willing to let go of the misconceptions that we have taken on during the galut and return to the true Way they will be shown the Old Way and will become a model for all of us.

They had to lose their homes and all that was precious to them for those who judge those who do not cover their hair, and who concern themselves with all matters picayune, even as they remain silent while our People are impoverished and downtrodden by the rich, powerful and cruel.

There are some who will counter my arguments, saying "מצוה גוררת מצוה". That is, if I do not cover my hair, then I do not do other mitzvot and if I did cover my hair then I would do other mitzvot.

To them I say: מצוה גוררת מצוה is not a generality, but a מצוה גוררת מצוה of the same kind.

At this point in my life the part of my character that I want to work on is compassion, courage and Wisdom. I try to do as many mitzvot of as I can that will lead me in those directions in the hope of doing more. From the question posed, and it was obviously posed by a woman who does cover her hair, then covering one's hair does not lead to Wisdom, compassion, courage to fight cruel organizations, giving others the benefit of the doubt, deep insight into another or being considerate of another's feelings. I'm quite sure that someone who was genuinely modest would not have written such a post either. Ergo, covering one's hair does not necessarily bring about even true modesty. Since all of the character traits I listed above are what I feel I need most at this point and I have not seen in my life that women who cover their hair achieve these characteristics on the basis of them covering their hair (although they may achieve those characteristics as a result of doing other mitzvot), I can confidently put covering my hair on a lower priority at this time in my development and work on what is most critical to me now.

P.S. The word is 'ervah'. Orvah is a female crow. Perhaps if you learn Torah and learn the Torah in לשון קדש it might change how you see things. I am not saying this "al srak". As a person reads Hebrew so they see everything. If you do not discern between ervah and "orvah" you will see the phenomenon in a distorted way as well.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

THE UNIVERSE IS OUT TO GET ME

The universe is out to get me. I know it is. It's all one huge, involved plot intended to intimidate and harass me.

I can hear what you're thinking. You think I'm being irrational. You think I'm being overly sensitive. You think I'm exaggerating. You think I'm being the 'p' word. You think I'm wrong. Well, I'm not. I know it's true and I can prove it.

How's this for proof? Sometimes my belongings are moved out of place. They simply aren't where I know I left them last. Somebody is obviously moving them, trying to pull a gaslight, trying to make me doubt my sanity. That's not the worst of it though. The universe is colluding with them. Facts: Whatever has been removed elsewhere is just exactly what I need most at that very instant and if and when I do find what has been hidden from me it is always, but always, in the very last place that I look for it. Now what are the chances of that happening in a universe that has been lined up fair and square? Huh?

I have more proof still that the universe has been designed to drive me to distraction by frustration. Supposedly, I'll get my way half of the time. Right? Nooooo. It never, but never, ever happens that things go my way 50% of the time because that only happens in an infinite number of trials. I'm never gonna get my infinite number of trials because I'm gonna be dead long before that.

Rigged, I tell you, rigged. It's been built to be maddening.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

ב"ה

HEBREW ALPHANUMERICS ׁ(גימטריא)
VS. NUMEROLOGY


I asked the following of someone whose intelligence I respect a great deal:

Question: I'd like to know if the following makes any sense to you. I'm asking you specifically for a number of reasons. You're both linguistically and mathematically gifted. You're not Jewish and you don't speak Hebrew fluently, but you are not disinclined toward Jews and do not dismiss Jewish learning out-of-hand. Finally, though you are prepared to consider matters that are considered "spiritual", rather than purely rational, you do not go so far off the beam as to become some sort of New Age kook. You understand the difference between the super-rational and the irrational, even though at first hearing they often sound very much the same to those steeped in rationalism and the former often degenerates into the latter in the minds and hearts of those not prepared morally to deal with the super-rational.

As background let me say that the Hebrew preposition כמו (pronounced c'mo) means 'as', 'like'' 'such as', 'as though'. It is shortened to the letter כ' (caf) when used as a conjunctive prefix, but the meaning is retained. Now, an ambiguity occurs when the letter כ' is the first letter in a radical. Is it merely functioning as a consonant that is the first letter in a radical? Is it functioning as a prefix? Is it functioning as an abbreviation of the word כמו, which is both a conjunctive and a preposition? I contend that we cannot know which function it serves, because it is serving all these functions concomitantly, but we can choose to relate to it as one or more or all of these functions.

The word for 'dog' in Hebrew is כלב, pronounced celev (I am wont to transliterate כּ' as a hard 'c', and not a 'k', as this letter better corresponds to the Hebrew כּ', which, as you can clearly see it is a mirror image of. I reserve the letter 'k' for transliteration of Hebrew letter ק'). The Hebrew word for 'heart' is לב, pronounced 'lev', (that this is the etymon of the word 'love' should be eminently clear). It has been said that the word כלב (celev) should be understood as meaning 'like a heart', a description of a dog's nature.

More background: In the passage below, which is an excerpt from a communication with an etymologist; I have employed the age old method of calculating Hebrew values called מספר קטן מספרי (Integral Reduced Value), as explicated on this site: http://www.inner.org/gematria/fourways.htm

Quoting myself: "You are clearly correct that כ(מו)לב, ce(mo)lev, is the etymon of the word lupus and its variant lobo. And yes, it is now commonly agreed upon that canis lupus, the grey wolf, is the primeval wild dog. But, why did the כ' drop off altogether? Why the 'b' to 'p' shift in the case of lupus? And where did the ס' sound in lupus come from?

I wondered if there was a way of deriving the word dog from כלב (celev) directly arithmetically.

Here it is: the letter כ' (caf), equaling 20, is 2 X 10. The letter ב', beit, of course is two. The letters כ' and ב' share the same reduced value (מספר קטן), i.e., two. The letter ל' (pronounced lamed), equaling 30, is 3 X 10. Therefore, its reduced value is 3. So, 2 [the גימטריא (gematria) of ב']+2 (the reduced value of כ')=4. That gives us the ד' (dalet) sound in dog. The reduced value of ל' (lamed) is three, as I said. That gives is the ל' (gimmel) sound in dog. The word dog transliterated into Hebrew has the same value, seven, as the integral reduced value of the word כלב (celev), the reduced values of the כ' and the ל' being 2 and 3 respectively and the actual value of ב' being 2.

I am not attempting to treat the vowel sounds in either the word dog or כלב. I do not think the vowels should be ignored. I just don't know what to do about them at this juncture, as the 'ô' dog does not correspond exactly to any of the vowels in Hebrew.

In order to educe the noun 'dog' from 'כלב' I had to employ מספר קטן מספרי (integral reduced value), which is necessarily dependent upon מספר קטן (modulus 9 or reduced value). Most assuredly, there is the need to employ מספר הכרחי (absolute value) and מספר סדורי (ordinal value) when analyzing the etymology of other words as well and, in all probability, a combination of them.


How do you respond to this? Does it seem to make sense? Is it intelligible? Does anything in it make you say: "Yes!" or at least "Maybe"? Be honest.

D2

The response I received was:

I'm no expert on any of this. But I have never encountered a form of 'numerology' which made sense to me. You asked me to be honest.

My explanation:

Numerology comes from other cultures' attempts to mimic the study of גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerics) using their own alphabets and classical mathematics. It never worked. It couldn't work for more reasons than I can list and elucidate, even in brief, in the space of an e-mail. I have discussed many of these reasons in the bodies of a number of my works. Only using Hebrew techniques of reckoning numbers to analyze the Hebrew alphabet flies. Did you notice the fact that when computing integral reduced values the same value will be arrived at regardless of whether it is the absolute values, the ordinal values, or the reduced values that are being counted, as stated on the site I cited above? This is true for all of the letters including the אותיות סופיות (the final forms of those letters that have final forms, to wit: ך', ם', ן', ף', ץ'). This in itself is fantastic.

The word "numerology" should never have been applied to גימטריא (Hebrew alphanumerical analysis). It is one of the banes of my existence, as someone from the (very) old school of Hebrew alphanumerics that this has occurred. The appellation "numerology" was applied to attract wide public attention to the study when the New Agey stuff started to catch on like wildfire and the greenbacks started to get tossed around big time. Hebrew alphanumerics was never meant for the masses and most assuredly never intended to be used for commercial purposes. It is not a commodity. The making it into a commodity by watering it down to the point that it sounds just esoteric enough for the masses to revel in it, to my profoundest sorrow, has occurred on a widespread basis in recent times and the inevitable has occurred - those who might otherwise be able to do the real thing are turned off to it because it looks like snake oil.

If it were not called "numerology" would it smell any sweeter?

At this point I really do not know whether to take comfort in all those sayings about truth not being accepted initially being de rigueur and all those occurrences of people who shifted paradigms being taken for nut jobs or whether I really am just a half-crazy, and rather pathetic, fool wasting my time. It sure looks like it could fall either way at this point. Luckily for me, my ego has been battered to the point where I don't care all that much if I am deluded and I plod on anyway. If what I'm doing has value, others will enjoy it some day. If it is just my own delusion, then it is as good a way as any to keep myself busy and out of peoples' way. Considering these matters is as good a way to spend an incarnation as any I suppose.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

I've Created Two New Sites and Will Create a New Etymology Blog

One of the sites is devoted to a unique approach to etymology - etymology utilizing the unique alphanumeric properties of Hebrew to educe the Hebrew etymon from words. The site can be found on:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/EtymFromAlphanumerics.html

The second site is called "Doreen Dotan's Miscellaneous Meanderings" and it is just exactly that.

It can be found on: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/MiscellaneousMeanderings.html

Some of the stuff there is serious, some isn't.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

Since you didn't ask....

Nobody bothered to ask how I am today, but had someone I just might have told the truth. My health is failing. My stamina is so low that it lies as a stagnant pool around my swollen ankles. My self-respect is probably buried somewhere under the floor tiles, but I have neither the strength nor the will to conduct an extensive dig for it. My sense of humor is in a coma. My libido is in an advanced state of rigor mortis.

Oh, and did I neglect to mention that my wit is dimming?

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

MAD WORLD

Someone recently wrote a lament about how the world has gone mad on a message board.

In actuality, this is not cause to lament, but rather to celebrate.

The mad world "out there" only exists in order to drive us within, wherein the Truth lies, wherein Life resides.

It is really a reason to celebrate when the world we see is totally mad, when there is no respite and no satisfaction to be had "out there".

The mind creates everything we see and experience. Those images are created for our ultimate best interest and that of every other Being in creation. When our minds are creating that which causes us intense sorrow, fear and hopelessness outwardly it is only because it is calling us Home, back within.

When we see pretty, enchanting and tempting images that is the time when the Soul is leading us down into the physical world further. This is one of the types of experiences that is called the descent for the sake of the ascent.

When the the images we see with our eyes turn ugly, though visceral emotions are aroused, in fact this is the time when we are being led out of our enchantment with illusion to a higher level of awareness and Being.

The outside world is breaking up not just for a few individuals but for our generation as a whole. It is rapidly becoming uninhabitable. I just read that an area the size of Germany and France together in Siberia is melting. Greenhouse gases will be released that will increase the warming trend (see: http://tinyurl.com/bs5v7).

Only those who know how to take refuge within are going to have where to go when the outer crust breaks up, when the tidal waves come, which is both imminent and inexorable.

It does not matter at all what the politicians are doing. It is of no moment whatsoever that the industrialists are corrupt. That is all for only one purpose - to make us realize that there is no hope and no salvation whatsoever in the "outside" world and to get us to turn within where the only refuge lies.

Don't concern yourselves at all with the images that your mind is generating. Be neither fascinated by, nor repelled, by them.

Look within. Now is the time for turning within, soon there will be no without and only those who have a world within will have where to set foot.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel

The Ignoble Origins of Science

Scientists delight in disparaging mystics and those on spiritual quests. Though they may concern themselves with ethics as individuals and in an ad hoc manner, few scientists will allow that one's moral and/or spiritual orientation or level of development will affect the outcome of one's experimentation or theoretical calculations. Most scientists will tell you that the saint and the scoundrel will produce the exact same results in a laboratory if both keep to exactly the same algorithms.

This and more, most scientists are of the opinion that those who are spiritually inclined are those who are not capable of rigorous "scientific method" and/or "higher mathematics".

I will demonstrate that the very inverse is the case. Science is none other than degraded mysticism. Science was created for those who were not able to perceive or appreciate the depths of existence with awe by those who had this ability and wished to protect their Wisdom from non-initiates who would attempt to plunder their spiritual riches and use them for debased purposes. Science is, and was, created expressly for those who do not possess the ability to look into the Soul of matter. Science was a device for keeping the attention of those who could not be initiates into the secrets of Truth busy with what they imagined were very esoteric matters, but which were, in truth, meaningless activities.

It is commonly agreed that alchemy is the progenitor of science.
Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
As we can see alchemy is called "protoscience" and alchemists "pseudo-scientists".

But what was alchemy? From whence came alchemy?
The answer lies here: "But it (Hermetic Philosophy) is not found in books, to any great extent. It has been passed along from Master to Student; from Initiate to Hierophant; from lip to ear. When it was written down at all, its meaning was veiled in terms of alchemy and astrology so that only those possessing the key could read it aright. This was made necessary in order to avoid the persecutions of the theologians of the Middle Ages, who fought the Secret Doctrine with fire and sword; stake, gibbet and cross…As we have stated, the Hermetists were the original alchemists, astrologers, and psychologists, Hermes having been the founder of these schools of thought. From astrology has grown modern astronomy; from alchemy has grown modern chemistry; from the mystic psychology has grown the modern psychology of the schools. But it must not be supposed that the ancients were ignorant of that which the modern schools suppose to be their exclusive and special property. The records engraved on the stones of Ancient Egypt show conclusively that the ancients had a full comprehensive knowledge of astronomy, the very building of the Pyramids showing the connection between their design and the study of astronomical science. Nor were they ignorant of Chemistry, for the fragments of the ancient writings show that they were acquainted with the chemical properties of things; in fact, the ancient theories regarding physics are being slowly verified by the latest discoveries of modern science, notably those relating to the constitution of matter. Nor must it be supposed that they were ignorant of the so-called modern discoveries in psychology--on the contrary, the Egyptians were especially skilled in the science of Psychology, particularly in the branches that the modern schools ignore, but which, nevertheless, are being uncovered under the name of "psychic science" which is perplexing the psychologists of to-day, and making them reluctantly admit that "there may be something in it after all."
The truth is, that beneath the material chemistry, astronomy and psychology (that is, the psychology in its phase of "brain action") the ancients possessed a knowledge of transcendental astronomy, called astrology; of transcendental chemistry, called alchemy; of transcendental psychology, called mystic psychology. They possessed the Inner Knowledge as well as the Outer Knowledge, the latter alone being possessed by modern scientists." Source: http://kybalion.home.att.net/kybalion.html

Now we see that alchemy was the result of people who did not understand the allegories of mystical principles of mental states trying to put into practice the allegories that the principles were written it.

Alchemy was a wild goose chase that those who could never be initiated into higher truths but wished to use Wisdom for debased purposes were sent on. And science it alchemy's child!

To this very day it is true that most scientists are people who are incapable of peering beyond the physical into the moral and the spiritual. They are people who not only cannot see the Soul of matter, they disdain those who can and say that those who claim that they can see inner dimensions of reality are deluded or lying for cynical reasons.

Science is for those who can only see with their physical eyes. Science from its inception was, and is, for those whose eye of the Soul is blind.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life." - Immanuel Kant

I am not against science or scientific method. I am against science and scientific method in the hands of people who do not recognize the superiority of super-rational Wisdom over rational knowledge.
I accede that to most people the super-rational and the irrational sound very much the same.

It is up to the individual to arrive at a level wherein she or he may discern and know the difference between that which is above grammar, syntax and mathematical systems and that which is twaddle.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com

Moral Giftedness

A quick review of the Seven Types of Intelligence as defined by Harvard Guru Howard Gardner as background can be found on the following URL:

http://tinyurl.com/axvkn

Note that none of those categories of intelligence pose any particular challenge (to be read 'threat') to society, and so there was no reason for the scientific and mental health mafias to reject them. They're eminently useful categories for defining what the ideal person in non-anarchic societies, structured variously as they are at this point in history, should be.

I posit that there is another type of intelligence: Moral Intelligence. I further posit that there are and always have been people who are gifted in Moral Intelligence to the point of being preternaturally so gifted.

It is dismaying to me that despite the fact that there are, and always have been, gifted and hyper-gifted geniuses of morality throughout history, this type of intelligence is not so much as recognized in the list as existing. It is subsumed under the more manageable and affable Interpersonal and Intrapersonal categories of ability. We know, however, that the morally gifted usually don't, and didn't historically, get along well either with others, or themselves.

It is the people who are exquisitely aware of distortions of morality and ethics and who are fearless about speaking out about the injustice and describing it articulately who are the most likely to be the ones who are given the medicines that artificially induce "desirable" traits like complacency, malleability, indifference in the face of suffering, the inability to pinpoint who the perpetrators of moral wrongs are, etc. In fact, psychotropic drugs have been formulated to do just this; these are not the side effects of the drugs, these are the target effects. Psychotropic drugs are not considered to having taken effect, or be administered in sufficient doses, until the recipient of them evinces these traits (i.e, becomes a zombie like your average workday citizen). This demonstrates that despite the fact that moral giftedness is ignored by the scientific and mental health communities, i.e., they do not want the public-at-large to be aware that it exists or to validate it in any way, they themselves are very much aware of the fact that it exists and that it has the potential to bring about change in the status quo. Vast sums of money and effort have been invested in keeping moral intelligence under control. Thus, we can be certain that those whose hands are on the money levers know they have a great deal to lose if moral intelligence were to express itself freely. The research goes on.

The severely morally gifted are those most likely to be institutionalized and/or to die an early and often brutal death as a direct result of their gift. Their suffering is generally in direct proportion to the greatness of their gift.

In addition to the traditional societal methods of suppressing the expression of the morally gifted and inhibiting their courage to express themselves, a new method has been devised for the world-wide internet community. The moniker "rant" (as in what the mad do) is applied to impassioned posts on subjects of morality and ethics. A person who has posted on a moral or ethical topic is expected to partake in a sin offering ceremony. She or he must keep the post as short as possible, apologize for having written the post and end with the mealy-mouthed cliché "getting off the soapbox now."

The state does not generally have to intervene when one of its citizens hyper-moralizes and becomes obstreperous, not anymore, not since the late 1960s or early 1970s. Most people have been programmed by the media so well (TV and radio shows are called 'programs', after all) that they themselves will attack the miscreant on the ground and they usually succeed in beating him or her emotionally into submission sooner or later.

Geschwind's Syndrome, considered to be the interictal behavior of those sufferers of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) who demonstrate the "Epileptic Personality", is now believed to be the reason why some individuals demonstrate behaviors such as:

Emotionality
Mania
Depression
Guilt
Humorlessness
Altered sexual interest
Aggression
Anger and hostility
Hypergraphia (excessive writing)
Religiosity
Philosophical interest
Sense of personal destiny
Hyper-moralism
Dependency
Paranoia
Obsessionalism
Circumstantiality
Viscosity (the quality of being socially "sticky")
Hyper-philosophical
Emotionally volatile
Obsessively detail-oriented

As we can see from the list above, the traits of the hyper-morally gifted are described not only in uncomplimentary terms, but in pathological terms, as the effects of brain damage.

We must ask very basic questions in order not to be drawn in by the assumptions inherent in some of the terms describing the "symptoms" of Geschwind's Syndrome. What is "hyper-moralism"? At what point does a person become too moral for comfort in non-anarchic society? The same might be asked about being philosophical. At what point is someone considered pathologically philosophical in non-anarchic society? We must assume that to be moral and/or philosophical is considered desirable only up to a limited degree in non-anarchic society. We do not hear about individuals being hyper-beautiful or hyper-handsome. Even if adjectives like these were to be coined and applied to individuals, they would not signify and sort of aberration or symptom of disease. Quite the contrary, they would be considered supreme compliments.

Professor Eric Altschuler, a neuroscientist at the University of California in San Diego, has "diagnosed" the prophet Yechezkel as having been a sufferer of Geschwind's Syndrome. He bases his "diagnosis" of a man who lived about 2,600 years ago, inter alia, on the fact that the Book of Yechezkel is the longest Book in Torah. Thus, the prophet, in Dr. Altshuler's opinion, demonstrates the hypergraphia symptomatic of Geschwind's Syndrome. Moreover, the Book of Yechezkel is concerned with moral excellence and the lack thereof. This, in Dr. Altschuler's opinion, reveals that the prophet demonstrated the symptom of hyper-morality as well. Dr. Altschuler goes on to describe the prophet Yechezkel as pedantic (probably because he described the perfected Temple in the minutest detail), aggressive and suffering from delusions. And so it becomes clear in the good Dr. Altschuler's mind that the prophet was ill with Geschwind's Syndrome. "Scientific" conclusion: a person who tenaciously ("viscously" in neuroscientific jargon) clings to the moral principles that are apparent to him or her as being the basis of healthy society, and who takes up the pen because he or she knows it to be mightier than the sword is demented.

Other famous figures in history that have been retrospectively "diagnosed" as having suffered from Geschwind's Syndrome or TLE-related hypergraphia include Van Gogh, Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolfe, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Franz Kafka, Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Byron and Petrarch. One can only imagine how much poorer the world would have been had psychotropic drugs been in existence in their time and had they been administered to them.

Hyper-morality, then, is the result of encephalopathy and thus can, and should, be "treated" in the opinion of neuroscientists like the good Professor Altschuler. The severely moral should be relieved of their suffering. Likewise, society-at-large should be relieved of their viscous aggressiveness and incessant harping on that annoying subject.

People who go mad in the face of injustice and steadfastly, persistently and undauntedly voice their moral outrage, particularly those who do so in the form of writing treatises and books on the subject, are doing nothing more than exhibiting the symptoms of the neurological illness from which they suffer.

By grouping being hyper-moral with symptoms that are accepted as being symptomatic of various anti-social personality and psychological disorders, as they are defined in non-anarchic societies, the mega-message is clear to the public-at-large: Only those who concern themselves overmuch with morality are demented, suffering as they are from a pitiful disease of the brain.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el

B"H

My Quotes


They asked me if I exercise. Hell no! I don't believe in exorcism. I don't believe for one single, solitary minute that putting myself through a regular ordeal is going to rid me of my demons.


They asked me if I play an instrument. And how I do! I play the strumpet. Quite the virtuosita I am too!


The root of evil lies not in the committing of base acts, but rather in the attempt to apprehend the sublime on the part of those not morally prepared to do so.


When people ask me what I do for a living I tell them that I'm a vampire. When they look at me oddly or laugh I ask: "If I told you that I'm a banker, lawyer or psychiatrist would I be a more respectable sort of a bloodsucker in your estimation?


Nobody bothered to ask how I am today, but had someone I just might have told the truth. My health is failing. My stamina is so low that it lies as a stagnant pool around my swollen ankles. My self-respect is probably buried somewhere under the floor tiles, but I have neither the strength nor the will to conduct an extensive dig for it. My sense of humor is in a coma. My libido is in an advanced state of rigor mortis.
Oh, and did I mention that my wit is dimming?


You're only as good as the last book you've written.


Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzat, Israel