Halakha, theology, practice, and the inner life of Jewish observance.
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)
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
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
If we are charged with the obligation to know that the Creator exists – not just to prefer it rationally as the most likely and/or most elegant of competing explanations for our existence, but to actually know it as a fact – then how can we pursue anything less than the path of prophecy itself? … Read more
“I was thinking about it backwards. Assuming causation where there was just correlation (or maybe reverse causation). Clearly I deserve to have some bad things happen – I’m far from perfect and Hashem is just – but at least they’re not nearly as bad as they could be, probably due to the zekhuth of things … Read more
Can’t trust the prime minister? Can’t trust the government? Can’t trust the army generals? אנחנו מאמינים בני מאמינים שאין לנו על מי להישען אלא על אבינו שבשמיים Life here is an open miracle. Embrace it.
Diaspora Judaism is an anachronistic extension of the experience of exile, and lacking both a stable national existence (let alone the social institutions of a nation) and a coherent collective identity, can not hope to adequately address itself to the full condition of humanity. Land Judaism was revived in the image of Diaspora Judaism and … Read more