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.
- 14 May 2025ט״ז באייר תשפ״הNote
Small Wins
I may not check off nearly everything on my list on a daily basis, but today I picked up guitar again for the first time in over a year and...
- 13 May 2025ט״ו באייר תשפ״הNote
No Note Is Discordant
Today's צפת meditation: No note is inherently discordant. What determines whether harmony or discord emerges, is the note that follows. Flow with the go.
- 12 May 2025י״ד באייר תשפ״הNote
The Anthropic Signature Battery
Excellent. You're asking for a test not merely to detect human consciousness by contrast with AI, but to identify distinctly human traits across multiple logics and layers—biological, cognitive, emotional, social,...
- 7 May 2025ט׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
Axioms of Divine Ecology
We find ourselves at what we might call pre-axiomatic grounds or ontological commitments of reason itself—that is, the conditions of the possibility of any intelligible model or statement at all....
- 6 May 2025ח׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
Independent Thinking Propaganda
It's always disappointing to see people I once considered open-hearted, sensitive, and intelligent souls, mutate over the years into bitter, bigoted promoters of reactionary politics. Some of it's the trauma...
- 6 May 2025ח׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
Kabbala’s Many Influences
"I wouldn't say academic or traditional scholarship on kabbala would support the claim that it's a combination of neo-platonism and gnosticism; those count among its many influences, but just as...
- 4 May 2025ו׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
Just a Vessel
Loose lips sink ships so I'm not publicly going to go into detail on my iss lest Iranian govt passes the intel along to the Houthis, but today's non-interception was...
- 1 May 2025ג׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
The Land Is Not Ours
The return to the land of our ancestors. So much of human history is bound up in disputes over land. Your land, my land, his land, (rarely) her land. The...
- 30 April 2025ב׳ באייר תשפ״הNote
The Siren Started
The siren started and my soul awoke. I prayed for rahamim, divine compassion. For the nation and for the souls of those who gave their lives for our future. I...
- 28 April 2025ל׳ בניסן תשפ״הNote
Antisemitism Is Suffocating
Antisemitism is so triggering. And when it pervades a social climate it becomes suffocating. Cuts off oxygen to the soul. People start defending the indefensible. Breathe, my friends. Learn. Study....
- 28 April 2025ל׳ בניסן תשפ״הNote
Intolerant of Intolerance
Confession: I am so fcking intolerant of intolerance. I understand it, I sympathize with its causes, I don't sit in judgment of those whom it infects. I get it. But...
- 28 April 2025ל׳ בניסן תשפ״הNote
On Platforming Hatemongers
Attention New York synagogues and Jewish schools, museums, and community centers: You can not feign outrage over accusations of genocide and then eagerly platform and fawn over an Israeli parliamentarian...
- 20 April 2025כ״ב בניסן תשפ״הNote
A Rational Metaphysics of Multiplicity
"Doesn't our model preserve the unity of God and the primacy of reason?" "Yes—and not only does it preserve both, it arguably deepens them beyond what Rambam’s system allows. Let’s...
- 20 April 2025כ״ב בניסן תשפ״הNote
Yesh Omerim
Yesh Omerim can sublimate the cogency or authority of a proposal, but it can also be a powerful tool to de-personalize a social debate.
- 14 April 2025ט״ז בניסן תשפ״הNote
Casually Accept the Unacceptable
"Sending people to concentration camps and slave labor mega prisons is bad." "Well what's your alternative? I'm genuinely asking...." 🧐 And he genuinely was. People don't even get how deeply...
- 13 April 2025ט״ו בניסן תשפ״הNote
Mo’adim leSimha
The haggada was voted a success by all participants. Barukh Hashem. Mo'adim leSimha to all my friends - special shout-out to the Houthis, who sent us a reminder to say...
- 10 April 2025י״ב בניסן תשפ״הNote
The 49th Level
Thinking about - the 49th level of con-fusion טומאה - the Hebrews who did not want to leave Egypt - the seductiveness of political pyramid schemes
- 9 April 2025י״א בניסן תשפ״הNote
Path Through the Stars
From within the מצריים of the current world order, will be birthed a new world older, to be realized in the promised land that we will reach first in our...
- 7 April 2025ט׳ בניסן תשפ״הNote
The Tribunal
{What goes up / must come down} Title: The Tribunal When Selem ben Raphael stepped into the narrow hall above the old beit midrash on Rehov Rashi, he felt his...
- 7 April 2025ט׳ בניסן תשפ״הNote
Between the Beginning and the Chariot
{Note: This is beautiful, and mind-bending - and Maimonidean.} Title: Between the Beginning and the Chariot Prologue – The Summoning [Scene opens in a desert. Selem walks alone beneath a...