Gil Dear fellow men, Free advice for you. Whatever your proposal is –Whatever your event is –Whatever your organization is –Whatever your startup is –Whatever your new religion is –Whatever your messianic eschatological vision is – Does it include women? It should include women. 👍 Signed, A Man Living in the 21st (58th) Century
Thoughts on the current situation, on this evening after the departure of Shabbath: This is a dangerous time to be a Zionist. On the one hand, Nazi- and Soviet-era anti-Zionism is alive and infecting both the modern Islamic world and Leftist movements worldwide. Propagandists have successfully equated Zionism and genocide in the minds of millions … Read more
Morning meditation on political Zionism: The political component to Zionism is not Jewish sovereignty over the land. According to Jewish tradition, the Creator was, is, and forever will be the sovereign over this land and all lands. We are just migrants, tenants granted the right to reside here and the responsibility to live with the … Read more
On October 7th, 2023, the Hamas military invaded southern Israel. For an entire day, they systematically murdered every Jewish person they found. Their stated goal was to join with Hezbollah forces scheduled to invade northern Israel on the same day, and together with militant cells in the West Bank successfully wipe out millions of Jewish … Read more
People (especially those from a certain North American country) are obsessed with politics, especially partisan politics. Everything must be explainable by reference to your political ideology or better yet, your party affiliation. My concern for the welfare of the poor, of immigrants, of queer people, of Palestinians, of strangers within my community and outside its … Read more
Yesterday I saw a video of an execution on Facebook. A row of kneeling men, shot in the head from behind. The person who shared the video asserted that the shooters were Hamas soldiers, the victims were men accused of “collaboration” with Israeli forces. From what little I could tell, this was the case. This … Read more
Really felt theזה היום עשה ייינגילה ונשמחה בוvibe during Hallel today Last Hallel of Sukkoth Last day of captivity
This will make some people irrationally mad but: Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza. We’ve left behind the naive days when we waged war solely and wholly in self-defense, with great concern and cunning strategy to decisively end wars with as little human, moral, economic cost as possible. Rejecting the blood libels and … Read more
Random thoughts on Zionism (ok not random they were points missing in someone else’s overview of Zionism but they will be random to you): – traditionally Jewish politics put God in the position of sovereign and the nation of Israel in the position of contingent steward/tenant; Zionism is about autonomy, not sovereignty (and for many … Read more
Jewish Religion: A Rough Sketch At the heart of our practices, theories, and forms lies חסידות, a word translated variously as piety, loving-kindness, and mysticism. For reasons that I hope will become clear, I prefer the somewhat clunky translation “benevolent sensitivity.” The first usage of חסיד in the Torah is in Moshe rabbenu’s blessing of … Read more