Tag Archives: Moses
Fording the Flood
Fording the Flood I had a dream the other night, depicting the journey I’m in the midst of at present. On a bus traveling long distance, I was a passenger. It was not a bus of recent vintage. It lacked … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, novels, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged academic life, “The Great American Novel”, bright young men, Clifton Fadiman, collegial competitiveness, Columbia University, Columbia University’s class of 1925, crossing dryshod, dream interpretation, dream journey, extreme subtlety, father-daughter relation, feeling flooded, feeling overwhelmed, figure out of his time, flood waters, Freud, genius of the class, Hasidic Master, Hebrew prophet, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way, Hunter College, inner journey, inner summons, intellectual pecking order, Israel, Israel’s providential role, Jeanne Hersch, life of the spirit, life problematic, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, literary parties, Marx, meaningful dreams, Modernism, Modernity, Mordecai Kaplan, Moses, opinion shapers, past life vision, past lives, philosophers, psychic vision, reconstructionism, Red Sea crossing, Reed Sea, Reform Judaism, spiritual frustration, supersessionism, sure-footedness, talking well, the best talker, the Holocaust, the Jewish spirit, the Jewish state, vintage vehicle, weather emergencies, white heat intensity
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The Man from Dothan
The Man from Dothan In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, there is a brief but indispensable walk-on part played by a figure of whom we learn only that he is “from Dothan.” He guides young Joseph to Dothan … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, 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 7 lean years, archives, Authenticity, Bible, brilliant career, Columbia class of 1925, covenant with God, cultural celebrity, dream interpretation, Egyptian bondage, false accusations, false imprisonment, father/daughter relationship, filial piety, friends of youth, Genesis, God-intoxicated, Henry M. Rosenthal, honor, integrity, intellectual memoir, Jewish existence, Jewish fear, Jewish self-contempt, Jewish vocation, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph revealed, Joseph's brothers, Joseph's coat of many colors, Lionel Trilling, male friendship, Man from Dothan, masked identity, Midianites, Modernity, Moses, oldest hatred, Passover story, paternal last will, Pharaoh's dreams, Potiphar, Potiphar's house, Potiphar's wife, precognitive dreams, Public Intellectual, sibling rivalry, Sinaitic covenant, Ten Commandments, The class genius, The Trilling correspondence, Trilling's students, Ur-story, writer's block
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For Rabbi Delcau, July 8th, 2016
For Rabbi Delcau, July 8th, 2016 Looking back over our four years with Rabbi Delcau, here are some sides of his presence that will always stand out for me. He has been a font of faith in this temple. If … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Heroes, hidden God, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Jews, Legal Responsibility, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, memory, Modernism, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, Past and Future, Peace, Political, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, self-deception, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged advocate for Israel, argument from design, balancing books, BDS, Boycott Sanction and Divestment, burning bush, contagion of cynicism, contagion of faith, contagion of pessimism, cynicism, debating Israel, defending Israel, dialogue with God, emotional distance, emotional presence, facing facts, facing the music, Faith, fear and Jews, for such a time as this, God of Israel, God's call, God's micromanaging, gratitude, Hashem, hostile questions, hostility to Israel, insolvency, Israel as home, keeping accounts, moral accounting, Mordecai and Ester, Moses, Moses in Midian, natural faith, pessimism, Presbyterian BDS, proof of God, providence, Rabbi Mitchell Delcau, rabbinic mission, reaping what you sow, Reform Judaism, resentment, speaking to God, Synagogue finances, temple search committee, terror and Jews, The Name, Torah Study, unselfconscious religion
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“Yenta”
“Yenta” I’ll venture a definition: a busybody whose interest and advice is not really well-intentioned, though it purports to be. A yenta is generally female, but if we assume that a man can be one too, an old-country joke comes … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Political, relationships, Social Conventions
Tagged childlessness, Egypt, gossip, intimacy, Jewish jokes, Moses, privacy, real life, singleness, Yenta
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