Guiding The Perplexed - Two Interesting Links

A synopsis of the sefer לנבוכי הדור which the Rav ztz"l wrote as the "Moreh Nevuchim" of his time to deal with the questions people were asking in his generation. People were no longer bothered by the challenges of Aristotelian philosophy that troubled people in the time of the Rambam.

Instead, people were bothered by the theory of evolution, the morality of certain mitzvos, the need to listen to the rabbis, the need to be careful about the details of mitzvos, the necessity of talmudic pilpul, the relationship of Judaism to to other religions, parallels in other traditions to Judaism, biblical criticism etc. etc. This book was in manuscript form for many, many, many years and was floating around the Internet for a while until R' Shachar Rachmani published an annotated edition.

For followers of the Rav there is a lot to discuss about this work and its relationship to his other works and also the content of his philosophy. [I noticed one area where his talmid Rav Charlap seems to diverge strongly from his Rebbe in emphasis (ואכ"מ) and I am waiting for someone to write a book comparing the thought of talmid and Rebbi. Maybe me? No time. TOO BAD!  One day I will hopefully have the means to sit and write כאוות נפשי.... In the meantime, Hashem has called upon me to do other avoda].

For those of emunah pshuta who just spend their whole lives immersed in Torah and mitzvos and are not bothered by questions - אשריהם ואשרי חלקם. There is room in Klal Yisrael for those of a more philosophic bent and also those filled with emunah pshuta.

As I have written and spoken about on many occasions, the problem in this generation is less with philosophical issues and more with terrible yetzer hara's; Internet, smartphones, arayos, immersion in cheap entertainment such as sports and secular music, depression and other mental woes, arayos, relentless pursuit of money and food, time wasting, ignorance, superficiality of religious knowledge and practice, inability to be "mevatel" oneself to a Rebbi [related to gyvah and other diseases] and of course ... arayos.

My dream is when the world is filled with a pursuit of knowledge of G-d alone. ולא יהיה עסק העולם אלא לדעת את ה' בלבד as the Rambam writes at the end of hilchos melachim. This generation needs to be inspired and Baruch Hashem we have some individuals who are doing a great job at inspiring people.

Here is an article relating to the permissibility of downloading a "stolen book" from the Internet.