Gil Counting Women: A Brief Chat with a Robot …where the chat started: “Classical sources generally limit the minyan, the quorum required for certain communal religious obligations, to men. The foundational source is the Talmud in Megillah 23b and Sanhedrin 74b, where the requirement for a minyan of ten for davar she-biqdusha (matters of sanctity) is … Read more
“Israel’s warmongering” [sic] 🤢🙄🫠 Otherwise educated, intelligent, moral individuals really out here claiming that Israel is the aggressor. On the Hebrew anniversary of Hamas’s invasion no less.
Yizkor is a memorial prayer for the departed that the hassidé Ashkenaz established as a reaction to the brutal losses suffered by the Ashkenazic communities during the crusades. It’s not my custom to say yizkor. I don’t think yizkor is appropriate to Yom Tob. I stepped out of the synagogue when they said yizkor. But … Read more
אין מספקין ואין מרקדין וכו’ But shuffling in a circle singing songs and saying prayers seem alright 😀 We Will Dance Again (at הקפות שניות)
Well now. The murderer whose life was saved not once but twice by Israeli doctors – and who nevertheless then went on to risk the entire population of Gaza in a savage and bloody invasion of the southern cities and towns of Israel that left thousands dead and ultimately resulted in the abysmal destruction of … Read more
A modern lexicon for Yom haKippurim: Sanctity is distinctionPurity is clarityAtonement is rehabilitationRepentance is reconsiderationPrayer is self-assessmentCharity is givingForgiveness is letting go
A meditation and a prayer. Last year, we were truly a mess on Yom haKippurim. Publicly fighting over how and where to sit during services, with acrimony and venom and self-righteousness and hatred. On the day when we should have been most united in love for each other and for our Creator, we showed our … Read more
Imagine having a holiday dinner with your family and enjoying a cup of coffee in the autumn night air afterwards and going to sleep with grateful thoughts of how blessed you are, and then you’re woken up by gunfire and shouts and gunmen storming into your home and they literally capture you and you starve … Read more
Imagine going to a festival and just a few hours after the last set ends you’re still up and revved and decide to watch the sunrise with some new friends and it’s amazing, and then gunmen come and start shooting everybody and they literally capture you and you starve in captivity for an entire year. … Read more
Really long but rewarding read from a recent collaboration with AI – Adam and the Animals turns into thinking patterns in the animal kingdom turns into the hard questions of consciousness and personhood. May you learn something new from the robot’s outputs and may it prompt 😉 some good long thoughts on who is a … Read more