Monthly Archives: October 2022
Ancestors
How odd of God To choose the Jews. So goes the old rhyming joke, from I dunno who. Some Englishman perhaps. But allow me to step in, on behalf of God, to explain why God did that. My explanation may count as … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute freedom and terror, Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abrahamic religion, ancestors, being above it, bible as historical, Book of Job, chief rabbi of Odessa, chosen people, cost of life choices, covenant as divine partnership, covenant with God, divine connections, divine to human relationship, drama of assimilation, Edmund de Waal's The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, empathy with God, family mysteries, family puzzle pieces, Family secrets, fleeing Europe, following one's heart, generational memory, God and Abraham, God in history, God in meditation, God in nature, God outside the Bible, God's footprints in history, hidden epic, history as record of action, history as record of deeds, How odd of God, inherited duties, inherited roles, inherited sorrows, Jewish destiny, Jewish genius, Jewish history, Jewish predicaments, Jewish vulnerability, Jewish week of mourning, Jews agree to the covenant, Jews and insult, Jews consent to covenant, Jews in Vienna, Jews record the covenant, justifying God, lech lecha, lifelong friendship, love or duty, native born Israeli, Nazi genocide, Neve Granot, personal affinities, Rav Tsair, Rechov Rav Tsair, religious chanting, religious rituals, Sabra, Shiva, sympathy with God, the covenant as partnership with God, the Jewish assignment, theodicy, Tom Stoppard, Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt, Viennese roots, walking a social tightrope, wealth as protection, Wittgensteins of Vienna, writers' conversation
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God’s Orders
God’s Orders In the past fortnight, I did something whose consequence makes it possible for me to return to the temple from which I’d walked away last March. I had private zoom conversations with two temple leaders who had, I … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged a woman's honor, Aristotelian view, Aristotle, Aristotle's Ethics, bad actor, balm in Gilead, Being oneself, Bible movies, blaming the messenger, Chabad, Charlton Heston, clearing misunderstandings, commandments and consent, congregational leadership, connection repair, Divine closeness, divine commands, freedom of the will, getting accountability, God's commands v human freedom, God's instructions, God's orders, hamsin, honor satisfied, hot desert wind, Immanuel Kant, Kant's Critique of Practical Reason, Kantian view, knowing when to walk away, personal boundaries, prayer guidance, pre-modern purity of spirit, private wounds, resisting God's pressure, righteous combat, separate peace, suffering and healing, temple leadership, the believer's autonomy, The Ten Commandments movie, theism and naturalism, transformation of Moses, trauma
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Does Anti-Semitism Have Sex Appeal?
Does Anti-Semitism Have Sex Appeal? Is it sexy to be anti-semitic? Well, it must be, since it’s a mode of organizing human desire that just won’t quit. In bygone times, when distaste for all-things-Jewish was naively proud of itself, it … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, Literature, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, Past and Future, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Anthony Trollope, anti-semitism, anti-semitism as a bad look, betraying the covenant, Bible movies, blaming Jews for the Holocaust, bohemian circles, Chaucer, conversion as an option, covenant in history, Dickens, difficulties of real life, Edgar Degas, envy of Jews, eros of the covenant, evil and human desire, false gods, fashionable anti-semitism, golden calf scene, hitting bottom, Holocaust, human desire, insincere envy, Jews as chosen, keeping the covenant, literary anti-semitism, loving dead Jews, partnering with God, pre-war anti-semitism, sex appeal, sex appeal of anti-semitism, Shakespeare, social anti-semitism, the Jewish vocation, tolerance and prejudice, when anti-semitism was unfashionable
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What a Woman Needs is Philosophy
What a Woman Needs is Philosophy Let’s say there is some connection between how you live and what you think. And let’s say philosophy, which in Greek means love of wisdom, gives you the chance to see how your own … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged age of innocence, assessing world views, belief systems, biological differences, civilizational layers, cultural locales, culture and belief, deciphering one's culture, deciphering philosophy, evaluating beliefs, getting one's philosophic bearings, History of Philosophy, human culture, influential thinkers, intellectual strategies, learning to survive, life ambitions, life and thinking, life and thought, life problematic, lifemanship, loss of innocence, love of wisdom, male and female strength, paying for college, paying for higher ed, personal and philosophical, personal history, philosophic argument, Philosophy 101, philosophy and personal life, philosophy personified, philosophy's problematic, revising world views, revisiting childhood, self-assessment, self-liberation, social survival, strategic thinking, surviving youth, time travel, understanding people, women and philosophy, women's strategies, Women's Studies, you are what you think
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