Essays, notes, poems, and prayers
Writing
Most of this started as a Facebook post and got a second life here. Every piece carries its date in two calendars.
- 12 June 2025ט״ז בסיוון תשפ״הNote
On Superstition
If someone is superstitious Telling them they're bad for being superstitious Will not make them less superstitious Teaching them - dare i say, inspiring them - to reason, trust, be...
- 12 June 2025ט״ז בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Rambamist Elitism
Why do Rambamists write so many posts about how other Jewish people are basically idolators? What does this actually accomplish? Is it possible that to whatever extent Rambam may have...
- 9 June 2025י״ג בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Cyber Dust
Some antisemitic dude came to my profile overnight and laugh reacted to like twenty of my latest posts. My brother in Moses, why so obsessed? 🧐 The passive aggression is...
- 8 June 2025י״ב בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Erasing Indigenous History
Erasing thousands of years of indigenous history, especially when it's not at all necessary in order to support the human and civil rights of Palestinians or the integrity of their...
- 8 June 2025י״ב בסיוון תשפ״הNote
American Antisemitism: Right and Left
I'm less interested in faulting the American Left as a general movement for the increase in attacks against American Jews than I am in understanding the government's timeline for targeting...
- 8 June 2025י״ב בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Liberation as Historical Fact
Most blessings conclude in a participle - describing the Creator as the One who does things. The subsequent blessing after the Shema concludes with a perfect verb - describing the...
- 4 June 2025ח׳ בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Die or Repent
It doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, right wing or left wing or centrist. The world seems divided into those who think bad people should die...
- 31 May 2025ד׳ בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Anti-Zionism Is a Form of Antisemitism
The freedom to fully live by our covenant in the land of our ancestors is an expression of the human right to choose the very order of one's earthly existence....
- 28 May 2025א׳ בסיוון תשפ״הNote
Due Process for Criminals
If a Nazi, a terrorist, a boer, a fascist raises their hand against you - do what you need to do to protect yourself But a civil society based on...
- 27 May 2025כ״ט באייר תשפ״הNote
Beginner’s Mind
Em. E. A9. The list grows. The transitions are slow. My fingers hurt. And i can pluck out the intro to redemption song on a single string. May it be...
- 24 May 2025כ״ו באייר תשפ״הNote
What Two States Solve
Thinking pragmatically about the future of the Land... Can an additional state, without any state institutions or assets or economy or territorial continuity or independence, really make it? And what...
- 24 May 2025כ״ו באייר תשפ״הNote
Tensions Are Not Contradictions
I wrote something but I corrected myself by the end, so I erased what I wrote and: Tensions are not contradictions. We can and must live with tensions. And faith...
- 21 May 2025כ״ג באייר תשפ״הNote
Why the Mishne Tora Threatened Power
Bar Nativ comes very close in this article. He definitely gets the main idea of the Mishne Tora - to create a definitive, encyclopedic textbook of the Jewish legal system...
- 21 May 2025כ״ג באייר תשפ״הNote
Imagine If Atlas Shrugged
I'm not a Jewish supremacist, an Objectivist, or even a pure Capitalist anymore... I don't think that Ayn Rand was a fantastic novelist and I haven't read all of her...
- 18 May 2025כ׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
The Intersection of Antisemitism
By the way I watched the latest Kanye West single. You know, the one where he got a bunch of actors to dress like slaves and chant "Heil Htler" while...
- 16 May 2025י״ח באייר תשפ״הNote
A New Deal for the Land of Peace
A New Deal for the Land of Peace ישראל - فلسطين - one unified state - law and order instead of militant and criminal violence - citizenship for all -...
- 16 May 2025י״ח באייר תשפ״הNote
A Choice to Be Responsible
I was reading a book by Sadhguru last night (Uh Oh I'm in the new age to Hindutva pipeline now) He was talking about taking responsibility for everything Not blame...
- 15 May 2025י״ז באייר תשפ״הNote
Emboldened by POTUS
Is it just me or have Houthi missile attacks increased in frequency since the new regime came to power in the USA? And especially since Witikoff started traipsing around the...
- 15 May 2025י״ז באייר תשפ״הNote
No Bookstore in Safed
I found it curious that there isn't a siphré qodesh bookstore in צפת. Or at least, in the Old City.
- 15 May 2025י״ז באייר תשפ״הNote
Lawless Zone
The West Bank has become a lawless zone. We so clearly need law and order in this country, and instead we're being pitched on expanding the same lawlessness that results...