Halakha, theology, practice, and the inner life of Jewish observance.
The universe is a mysterious place to us but the odds are that it’s teeming with life spread across vast distances; or are we all closer in some ways than 3D perception might suggest? Some man-machine collaborative thoughts on the physics, biology, and psychology of angels and demons, alien minds and star talk… “The Reasonable … Read more
#קול_קורא We have a problem of bochurim who’ve spent too much time in front of a book, and not enough time listening to their elders, or in a soup kitchen – or in a picket line – and it shows They grow up thinking that human, social, civil rights are arcane theoretical abstractions to be … Read more
“. . . I am certain that you will agree that the state of education in this country (as in many others) leaves much to be desired; that the status quo (as reflected in juvenile delinquency, etc.) is far from satisfactory, and, what is worse, has been steadily eroding; and that some determined nation-wide effort … Read more
Essentially (and intentionally fwiw) we dined at the Purim Meal yesterday, Shushan Purim. Not many cities in the world observe Shushan Purim. Jerusalem is obviously one of those cities. Yet Jerusalemites, following the Jerusalem Talmud and Jerusalem minhag, celebrate the Purim Meal today. So I hereby dub today, Jerusalem Purim
You see, there were still some three hundred lingering members of the plotting movement in the capital, who were so convinced that we were a threat to national security that, even after the second imperial edict permitting us the use of force in defending ourselves and our success in self-defense against mobs whipped up by … Read more
The masks are a new thing. They’re not how our ancestors celebrated the holiday. But they feel appropriate to the mood of the holiday: the truth and the salvation are revealed and concealed, concealed in their revelation and revealed in their concealment. Who we are, who we choose to be for the other, what we … Read more
Monarchy should be consigned to the dustbin of dead-ends in human history, along with human sacrifice, slavery, and dumping your sewage in the street. The righteous leadership of a single, flawed monarch does not challenge this fact of human evolution. Neither does the righteous leadership expected of one of that monarch’s future descendants. “Restore the … Read more
Today I read the fifth עלייה to פרשת בשלח. Four weeks of preparation led to a decent reading: despite tremendous performance anxiety (and morning digestive issues picking the worst time to start trouble) I only blanked on the notes for one phrase near the end of the עלייה. And this time, there were no corrections. … Read more
Do you think the average Egyptian really hated Hebrews, or personally supported the Pharaoh’s more extreme policies targeting them? Do you think maybe they were a little bit afraid of the Hebrews, threatened by the success of foreigners on Egyptian soil? After all, the government itself said that these foreigners were a threat! Nevertheless, those … Read more
In a world obsessed with hierarchies and the supremacy of some people over other people, one small nation stands alone as a horizontal society. Flawed, imperfect, very much a divine work in progress over thousands of years – with a tumultuous human history of being seduced by the allure of power over others – but … Read more