ALIEN PHILOSOPHIES AND IDEOLOGIES.
12. Acts of charity and kindness have the power to break the force of the Serpent, which is the root of materialistic ideology. … However, even after you have crushed them, these wild animals are soon back again, placing fresh doubts in your mind about whether the world is governed only by the will of God. If this happens, you must make fresh efforts at charity and kindness. Charity has the power to subdue the ideology of materialism and reveal that everything is governed only by the will of God (Likutey Moharan I, 4:9).
13. All speculative philosophy contains the stumbling block of Amalek, which is calculated to make people fall. In one moment they can lose whole worlds. There is no greater evil. Even the books written by Jews discussing speculative philosophy should be left well alone, because they can harm the holy faith which is the root of everything. Thank God, we have today many holy books filled with sound guidance and the fear of God, which are free of all speculation derived from the so-called “wisdom” of the Greeks. They are firmly founded on the holy words of the Sages of the Talmud and the Midrash. In particular, there are the books based on the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Explore them, and go through them again and again (ibid. I, 19).
