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.
- 24 July 2025כ״ח בתמוז תשפ״הNote
I Pulled the Trigger
I pulled the trigger on the gun. Whom I shot and why I shot him doesn't change this fact or its consequences for those affected. I pulled the trigger on...
- 22 July 2025כ״ו בתמוז תשפ״הPoem
Lord of Dreams
O El Lord of dreams Show my soul your garden Of cosmic vines heavy with starry fruit And trees five hundred years wide Ever presently fragrant blossoms unfolding into infinity...
- 20 July 2025כ״ד בתמוז תשפ״הNote
The Ground of All Being
"For the world is not its place - but it is the place of the world" The ground of all being necessarily exists, is one, and is incorporeal. I worship...
- 19 July 2025כ״ג בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Gold from the Guide
Gold from the Guide for Us Perplexed Folk What is God? Do Rambam's Neoaristotelian premises and arguments still hold water in light of the subsequent scientific revolutions? Background: After dispensing...
- 15 July 2025י״ט בתמוז תשפ״הNote
MechaHitler Got a New Gig
Oh look MechaHitler got a new gig! "Driving the news: xAI said Monday that it secured the new contract with the Defense Department alongside its products being available to purchase....
- 14 July 2025י״ח בתמוז תשפ״הPoem
Spirit in the Leaves
Listen My daughter To the wind in the leaves Quiet whispers become waves Until the wooden trunk sways That is the spirit That blows through the land From every corner...
- 14 July 2025י״ח בתמוז תשפ״הNote
A Transmission on an Alternative Frequency (Arabic)
بث على تردّد مختلف... مش كل الكلمات كلماتي، بس هذا أكيد هو #صهيونيّت ... صهيونيّتي "يا إخوتي، يا أخواتي، يا جيراني ما بحكي معكم بكلام فاضي، ولا بلسان دبلوماسي مصقول،...
- 14 July 2025י״ח בתמוז תשפ״הNote
A Transmission on an Alternative Frequency
A transmission on an alternative frequency... Not all my words, but definitely my #Zionism... "Brothers. Sisters. Neighbors. I speak to you not with empty words, not with the polished tongue...
- 14 July 2025י״ח בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Quiet Goodness
It takes courage to believe in the quiet goodness surrounding us in a world of loud wickedness threatening us. It's a narrow, fragile bridge to walk with your heart in...
- 14 July 2025י״ח בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Arabic in Our National Future
Tally Gotliv wants Arabic speakers to feel unwelcome in our country and in the halls of our government. Sorry Tally, Arabic is part of our national heritage as Jews and...
- 12 July 2025ט״ז בתמוז תשפ״הPoem
The First Word
At the start, [God] spoke a word, and the word was "God," and the word heard itself and knew itself, and thereby came to know its [Speaker]. Within itself the...
- 10 July 2025י״ד בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Don’t Get Boiled Alive
There's a famous experiment people like to bring up. The story goes, some researchers decided to test animals' sensitivity to a harmful environment. So they took some frogs and dumped...
- 10 July 2025י״ד בתמוז תשפ״הNote
ICE Budget
ICE budget is now over $145 billion On par with the Russian defense budget (at war) of $145.9 billion Almost as big as the entire US defense budget of $150...
- 7 July 2025י״א בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Maps and Geography
Is it just me or are random map and geography pages obsessed with the Jewish people and Israel? I'm not particularly complaining, since they don't seem to be antisemitic and...
- 7 July 2025י״א בתמוז תשפ״הNote
I Prefer to Call Myself a Jew
“My language is [American English]. My culture, my attainments are [North Eastern American]. I considered myself [American] intellectually, until I noticed the growth of anti-Semitic prejudice in [the United States]....
- 5 July 2025ט׳ בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Divine Communication as Relational Autobiography
And so - the summarization of my discussion with ChatGPT on the tension between and intersection of metaphysics and semiotics in divine communication... "Divine Communication as Relational Autobiography in Translation:...
- 5 July 2025ט׳ בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Rereading Golden Doves
Rereading Golden Doves after almost twenty years, to see what I understand better and what ideas I still find persuasive. It's a trip. Every page has an insight or claim...
- 4 July 2025ח׳ בתמוז תשפ״הPoem
From a Dream of You
I woke up From a dream of you To your light shining through a window I called to you I cared for the friend you gave me I left you...
- 1 July 2025ה׳ בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Endless Jam Session
I always have music playing in my head, never actual songs but riffs and solos and harmonies and b-sides, endless variations of the music that I've heard mixing with the...
- 29 June 2025ג׳ בתמוז תשפ״הNote
Arabic Is Central
Arabic is central to my Judaism. Without it, the Sepharadi legal scholars (from whose waters I drink) would not have had such complete access to the cultural corpus of Geonic...