The twenty-two letters that Hebrew and Arabic both grew from, in their old order. Point at a star to read it.
From Sinai to the Stars
I’m Gil Amminadav. From Jerusalem I write poems and prayers, argue about Torah and power, build companies and software, and try to make all of it add up to one way of living.
A few names I answer to
More about me- Rational Mystic
- Reason first: nothing I believe can contradict it. Past reason there is a transrational, more poetic way of knowing, and I think it is real.
- Post-Maimonidean
- Years on Rambam’s path, now followed even where it leads away from his conclusions, toward a halakha that faces forward.
- Student of Sages
- Jewish and otherwise: Heschel, Faur, and Marcus Aurelius, with the Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita in my pocket. I’m learning how to be wise and good.
- Alphabetic Jew
- Judaism as a community that reads, interprets, and writes. A member of the world’s oldest book club.
- Pro-Palestinian Libertarian Socialist
- One state with equal citizenship for everyone. A socialist, not a Bolshevik: most things are best governed locally, with technology backing civil society.
- Intergalactic Zionist
- Zionism as a civilizational project of ever-wider horizons, for all of humanity and every sentient being. What I mean by it
Latest writing
All writing- 23 June 2026ח׳ בתמוז תשפ״וNote
Appreciated the Break
As someone who spends hours every day using AI tools with - dare I say - great efficacy, I'm very personally aware of how it magnifies my ability to produce....
- 18 June 2026ג׳ בתמוז תשפ״וNote
IP and Classism
Noticing the difference between artists' and programmers' attitudes towards sharing and reusing others' creative outputs - and the history of patronage in the arts and basement coding in dev -...
- 15 June 2026ל׳ בסיוון תשפ״וEssay
AI Is Not the Problem
I use AI all day every day. The leverage it gives me is astounding. The path from ideation to creation to implementation is shorter than it's ever been in my...
- 7 June 2026כ״ב בסיוון תשפ״וPoem
A Flower from the Patch
If I offered you a flower Plucked from the patch Growing between concrete And asphalt No word could hold its petals Or trace its severed stem What passes between lovers...
- 7 June 2026כ״ב בסיוון תשפ״וEssay
Bodily Autonomy and Down Syndrome
I have met men with Down Syndrome who were wise and empathetic, not to mention mostly self-sufficient. I have met men without Down Syndrome who were foolish and self-centered, not...
- 7 June 2026כ״ב בסיוון תשפ״וPoem
-Bellum
"-Bellum: A Meditation on Thanotic Theater" The roar of the modern age Tears across my night sky The mask has fallen The reverberating backdrop of stitched sounds The vibrations painted...
The house
This site is built like a Levantine courtyard house. Start on the roof with the stars, or at the foundations with the land.