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.
- 20 January 2025כ׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
A New Deal for Israel
I wrote a big long post about how aspects of this deal just don't sit right with me, as I watch it unfold. Deleted it. Trying this approach instead: Given...
- 16 January 2025ט״ז בטבת תשפ״הNote
The War in Gaza Failed
The war in Gaza failed. Hamas is still active, funded, armed, in power, and well-liked abroad. Now can we have a strategy plz? + Elections k thnx
- 15 January 2025ט״ו בטבת תשפ״הNote
Purity of Conscience Is Not a Gift
At the beginning, I supported the war, with many doubts and reservations, because despite the perceived downside, repercussions, and moral quandary, it seemed like the least wrong move to make...
- 14 January 2025י״ד בטבת תשפ״הNote
The Horizontal Society for Ashkenazim
The Horizontal Society: Lessons for an Ashkenazi Audience R. José Faur’s The Horizontal Society offers a profound exploration of Jewish philosophy and law, emphasizing the unique structure of Judaism as...
- 14 January 2025י״ד בטבת תשפ״הNote
Faur on the Mishne Tora
Based on R. José Faur's analysis in The Horizontal Society, his work has significant theoretical and practical implications for the study and practice of the Mishne Tora, positioning it as...
- 14 January 2025י״ד בטבת תשפ״הNote
The Horizontal Society
The Horizontal Society by R. José Faur: An Analysis of Context, Thesis, Structure, Themes, and Implications R. José Faur’s The Horizontal Society is a profound and nuanced exploration of Jewish...
- 14 January 2025י״ד בטבת תשפ״הNote
Israel and the Industrial Revolution
Would the establishment of this state have been possible without the industrial revolution? The more I think about it, the more the watershed events of recent history that seem most...
- 14 January 2025י״ד בטבת תשפ״הNote
Rambam, Faur, and the Modern Mind
The intersection of Rambam's Guide for the Perplexed with modern science and postmodernism, especially through the lens of R. José Faur's Homo Mysticus, opens up a range of surprising and...
- 13 January 2025י״ג בטבת תשפ״הNote
Tend the Garden
Despite my doctrinal differences with most people, I can't in good conscience condemn them all as heretics. I can keep the truth my ancestors and their teachers kept, and learn...
- 12 January 2025י״ב בטבת תשפ״הNote
Rambam’s Cat
I bet Rambam would've named his cat Hakim. === Given Rambam's Judeo-Arabic background and the language in which he wrote many of his works, it is highly likely he would...
- 11 January 2025י״א בטבת תשפ״הNote
Baby Steps Toward Being a Rabbi
Read from the Torah in public today for the first time in well over fifteen years. Was nervous as hell but made it through ok. I'm going to have to...
- 10 January 2025י׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
The Shabbat Linecook
A Jewish person is employed as a linecook in a restaurant and cooks an omelette on Shabbath for a customer. Can any leftovers from the omelette (let's say they made...
- 7 January 2025ז׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
Be Complex
Coda: And if you think that I - a pro-annexation, settlement-loving, (formerly) Gaza war-supporting, religious Zionist advocate for a halakhic state and critic of Islamic imperialism in Israel - am...
- 7 January 2025ז׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
A Note to the Haters
Evening Musing: My haters among the fans of a certain student of R José Faur, z"l, amuse me. Strangers personally insulting me on the internet will always amuse me. A...
- 7 January 2025ז׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
Who Sets the Boundaries of Jewish Law?
Morning Musing: Rambam in his introduction to his comprehensive compendium of Jewish law declares that Jewish law is based on the rulings found in the classical sources up until the...
- 6 January 2025ו׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
This Is the Way
Can you hold a broken creation in your embrace and love it until it heals? By my life, this is the Way
- 6 January 2025ו׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
A Religious Reform Bill for Israel
Since the politicians in the governing coalition are so concerned with reform, I think the rest of the Kenesset should propose a Religious Reform Bill (including common-sense updates to the...
- 5 January 2025ה׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
Animal and Angel
The animalistic side of us - the homo sapiens, greatest of the primates, apex predator beyond match - gives us packs, herds, tribes. The angelic side of us - the...
- 5 January 2025ה׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
I Resolved to Learn More Torah
As I stood this morning, looking at the posters of hostages taped to the bus stop over a year into this miserable war with no rescue or exit in sight,...
- 5 January 2025ה׳ בטבת תשפ״הNote
The Art of Talmud
To me, the art of Talmud is a dual art: the art of investigation and the art of harmonization, woven together into an art of reading and creating culture. Rooted...