Tag Archives: filial piety
The Old Account Was Settled
The Old Account Was Settled There’s a country gospel song about our debt of sin. It goes: The old account was settled long ago. I’ve been reckoning up accounts that ordinarily get settled in young adulthood, when you figure out … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a daughter’s duty, accounts left open, American culture mid-20th-century, American intellectual life, arbitration hearing, archives, Archiving, balanced assessment, balanced life, balancing accounts, closure, Columbia University philosophers, country gospel, CUNY “Corporation Counsel”, CUNY lawyer, debt to parents, essays, father fixation, fiction, filial piety, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal's The Consolations of Philosophy, Holocaust rescue, Horace L. Friess, intellectual correspondence, international law, journals, keeping accounts, lawyer friend, letter of appreciation, literary property, manuscripts, master list, nonfiction, papers of Henry M. Rosenthal, personal presence, private man, public man, Rafael Lemkin, recommendation letter, record of a life, record of achievement, remarkable father, reviews, settling accounts, success and unsuccess, testimony under oath, The Genocide Convention, the Jewish spirit, union lawyer, work realized, work unrealized, young adulthood
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Touching Up Roots
Touching Up Roots Today, for the first time in my life, I’ve tried – with the help of the kit I sent for – to color my own hair. What’s the worst that could happen? I’ll come out looking like … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, 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, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abraham and Sarah, Abraham’s bluff, ancestral roots, being a single woman, biblical couples, biblical eros, biblical ungallantry, Book of Numbers, coloring one’s hair, competing with God, cultural roots, demanding your rights, divine man/woman partnership, divine-human partnership, face-to-face lovemaking, father-daughter relation, feminism and Judaism, feminist protest, fight with my name on it, fighting human nature, fighting nature, fighting till I lose, fighting till I win, filial piety, God and romantic life, gray hair, Hebrew Bible, Henry M. Rosenthal, home hair color, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish roots, Judaism and women, letting nature take its course, Lot’s daughters, Lot’s guests, men rescuing women, monogamous passion, not my fight, passion for God, personal God, problematic biblical sources, Song of Songs, the Bible and women, the Bible's woman problem, the Pentateuch, the Torah, Thomas Cahill’s The Gift of the Jews, Torah Study, touching up roots, trial by ordeal, virtual bible study, woman’s coping strategies, women in peril, women of the Bible, women rescuing men
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My Father’s Diaries
My Father’s Diaries In the wake of the pandemic presently sweeping our small planet, the train of projects I had is now stalled. As the fact of this frustration sank in, it came to me to turn to a task … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, 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, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, 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, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged action without expectation, aesthetic intelligence, archiving contemporary papers, Biblical characters, biblical frame, bodily awareness, co-religionists, Columbia University’s class of 1925, death explained, decoding philosophers, diaries, dream encounter, enigmatic brilliance, eye of the storm of history, father-daughter relation, filial piety, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s Consolations of Philosophy, Henry M. Rosenthal’s journals, intellectual diaries 1927-29, intellectual genius, intellectual journals, intellectuals of the ’20s, intellectuals of the ’30s, Jewish chosenness, Jewish co-religionists, Jewish identity, Jewish location in history, life problem, life problematic, moral intelligence, my father’s papers, pandemic, paternal legacy, personal uniqueness, philosopher’s daughter, plague refugees, posthumous publication, prayer guidance, private diaries, projects for the plague, reading character, self-recognition, self-reflection, sources of insight. Philosophic clarification, unfinished manuscripts
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The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott
The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott “Coziness” is not a word in the highest repute. In the 17th century, when the philosophers called “modern” were allowing the new physics to define reality, the features they deemed objectively-out-there were measurable: like … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 17th Century Philosophers, Alcott as nurse, becoming a writer, catering to fashion, coming-of-age novels, cultural ideals of womanhood, death of Beth, farther shore., father-daughter relation, fatherly love, fictional simplifications, filial piety, Frederick Douglas, Greta Gerwig, guardian angels, happy endings, hard-edged modern views, hearth and home, Henry David Thoreau, home life, homelikeness, hope and faith, ideals of girlhood, important thinkers, Julia Ward Howe, literary catering, living one’s talent, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s death, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Margaret Fuller, Marmee, Materialism, maternal protection, measurable reality, modern feeling, motherly love, Nathaniel Hawthorne, objectivity, parental guidance, personal fulfillment, physical reality, plain living and high thinking, processing influences, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relativism, repressing anger, sentimentality, size, subjectivity, the primary qualities, the secondary qualities, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist family, unsentimentality, velocity, weight
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The Ephrussis of Paris and Vienna
The Ephrussis of Paris and Vienna The book I’ve just finished reading had an impact on me greater than any book I can remember. By impact, I don’t mean long-term influence on my heart or mind. I mean something like … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, glitterati, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, martyrdom, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", aestheticism, anti-Dreyfusards, arriviste, bibelot, blessing of Abraham, boomerang effect, Charles Swann, collector’s item, covenantal blessing, cultural outsiders, cultural resentment, cultural roots, Degas, Dreyfus Case, Edmund de Waal's The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, emulating the natives, Ephrussi family, European-ness, evil of Nazism, fanaticism, faux-Parisians, faux-Viennese, filial piety, French survivor, Gestapo looting, haute bourgeoisie, high society, Holocaust literature, host culture, Impressionist patron, Impressionists, influential books, inheritance, Jewish banking families, Jewish success, Marcel Proust’s In Quest of Lost Time, memoirs of survivors, mob action, moral certainty, Nazi clergy, Nazi memoirs, Nazi trial transcripts, Nazis in Vienna, netsuke, nouveaux riches, Odessa, Odessa chief rabbi, Odessa in the 19th-century, Paris, Proustian narrator, Rav Tsair, Renoir, Rothschilds, Russian schoolgirl, secularized Europe, secularlism, sepia photograph, state propaganda, sumptuous dinners, tastemakers, tchotchke, the beautiful people, the best circles, theological rationalizations, Tsarist Russia, unintended consequences, University of Lausanne, Vienna, witnessing
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Kosher?
Kosher? O dear. This is what you call a “vexed” topic. A couple of years back, in my temple’s Saturday Torah Study, we came to verses that spell out what you are and aren’t supposed to eat, if you’re Jewish. … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, childhood, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, politics, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, social construction, social conventions, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged apostles quarrelling, Atheism, Bible study, Book of Acts, filial piety, Galatians, keeping kosher, keeping the law, kosher, kosher kitchen, mitzvot, observant Jews, real and false gods, secular gods, secular Jews, secular readers, secularism, Torah Study
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