Tag Archives: Chabad
How Odd, of God
It happened one time that philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe said to her friend Ludwig Wittgenstein (the philosopher whose Philosophical Investigations she later translated), “What people have had such a history as the Jews!” I think they were in Vienna at the … Continue reading
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Anscombe on Wittgenstein: eds Berkman and Teichmann (2025), antisemitism’s deepest causes, being Jewish as an assignment, bigotry among nice people, British philosophers, Chabad, Chabad and Friday night guests, Chabad and guests, Chabad dinner conversation, Chabad Friday night, Chabad rabbi, Chabad rabbinical couple, chasidic dress code, dinner conversation, Elizabeth Anscombe, emotional safety for girls, emotional safety of chasidic girls, empathy as enabler, evil explained away, Friday night dinner, Friday night prayers in Hebrew, healthy family life, Jewish history, Jews in Vienna, lessons of antisemitism, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, making fun of antisemites, modernity and authenticity, modernity and personal risk, modernity and skepticism, modernity vs orthodoxy, moral realism, Orthodox families, Orthodox Jewish families, Orthodox Jewish family life, Orthodox Jewish marriage and children, Orthodox Jews and authenticity, Orthodox ritual handwashing, orthodoxy and deep certainties, orthodoxy and psychological protection, philosophical discussion, recognizing evil, Reform Judaism, specialization in spirituality, spiritual protection, the Wittgensteins in Nazi Vienna, Torah Study, Torah study and liberalism, unique Jewish history, uniqueness of Jewish suffering, well-adjusted families, Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein and Jewish history, Wittgenstein and WWII, Wittgenstein’s Jewish origin, Wittgenstein’s Viennese family
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The Kiss of God
The Kiss of God Nowadays, on Wednesday evenings, I drive to the local Chabad, when I can manage it, to study the Parshah (section from the Pentateuch being read during that week by Jews worldwide). Their building is still under … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memory, Messianic Age, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, religion, roles, secular, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "the merit of Job", "the merit of Miriam", 10 righteous persons, 36 righteous, Abraham's plea for Sodom and Gomorrah, advanced soul, Chabad, Chabad outreach, Chabad's cosmopolitan followers, condescending higher criticism, conquest of the Canaanites, covenantal calling, death of biblical Aaron, death of biblical Miriam, death of the righteous, elevated soul, elevated standards, father's death, freedom from popularity, God in history, God-centered, Hasidic Judaism, Hasidic sect, Hasidism, Israelites in the Wilderness, Jewish devotion, Jewish essence, Jewish non-observance, Jewish observance, Jewish purity, Jewish study, Job, King Oedipus, King of Thebes, kiss of God, Lamed Vavniks, meritorious Canaanite, Miriam's rock, Moses striking the rock, partnering with God, Pentateuch, plague in Thebes, saving one's homeland, secular modernity, self-judgment, Torah, unconcern with appearances, unconcern with popularity, weekly Parshah
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Putting Puzzle Pieces Together
Putting Puzzle Pieces Together Suppose you thought that you had a past life in which you perished, by one of the methods in the Nazi repertoire, during the run-up years that culminated in the Holocaust. I mean, suppose you entertained … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, books, childhood, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, female power, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, relationships, religion, roles, secular, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, 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
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Authentic listening, Case histories, Chabad, Chabad rabbi, documentary hypothesis, Emotional fatigue, experimental psychology, False memories, Holocaust non-survivors, Intellectual giants, Jewish mysticism, loving the soul, Memory series, midrash, naturalistic explanations, neshama, ousting a predator, Past and present life, past life memories, past lives, Pastoral care, physicalism, Reform movement, reform rabbi, reincarnation, righteous combat, Spiritual crisis, Spiritual fatigue, Sudden weakness, Suffering of the righteous, The Jewish soul, The missing piece, women’s dignity
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