Tag Archives: past lives
Acquiring Jewish Existence
“You have the Jewish essence,” I was once told by a friend. “But you don’t have Jewish existence.” The verdict had been pronounced by my late friend Milton Schubin, who was then a partner in a powerful New … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged academic fight, academic job fight, antisemitism as an illness that breaks out, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn College of CUNY, chasing ghosts, common sense and the occult, family in high places, finding water with a dowser, flight from the Jewish assignment, global fight against global antisemitism, God as old man with white beard, grandfather looking like God, Henry M. Rosenthal's philosophy students, Israeli family, Jewish calendar holidays, Jewish calendar year, Jewish existence, Jewish existence as frightening, Jewish in life habits, Jewish in the head, Jewish life method, Jewish ritual observance, Jewish ritual practices, Jewish time in history, Jewish time in recorded history, Jewish wariness re the occult, Judaism as a field of practices, Judaism as a way of life, keeping a kosher diet, leaving the rabbinate, legal advice, legal fight, living the Jewish assignment, looking up to your grandfather, Milton Schubin, mixed signals, Nazi use of sealed trucks, New York law firm, occult experience as destabilizing, Oct 8, Oct 8 global antisemitism, out of body experience, out-of-body view of global antisemitism, out-of-body vision, past life memory, past lives, philosophy students, pre-Holocaust killings, pro bono legal advice, rabbinic descent, Rav Tsair, remembering a past life, resisting fear, seeing hate from above, spiritualism, teacher-student friendship, the Jewish essence, the occult and its dangers, the occult and moral danger, the occult and psychological danger, the occult and spiritual danger, the run-up to the Holocaust, understanding Judaism conceptually, understanding Judaism existentially, understanding Judaism experientially, wariness and skepticism, wariness re the occult
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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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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, postmodernism, 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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Sex and Porn
Sex and Porn O boy! A hot topic! I bet I get a hundred million followers! Some years ago, a friend of mine, a well-known feminist writer, discovered that her psychiatrist husband was being unfaithful to her. Worse, his infidelity … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, history, history of ideas, id, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, mind control, nineteenth-century, oppression, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a life of one's own, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Getting Past Marx and Freud", addiction, animality, art of being a woman, Arthur Schopenhauer, being with-it, betrayal, book reviews, Charles Darwin, contemporary mores, Darwin’s Origin of the Species, decadence, divorce, enforcing consensus, erotic expectations, Friedrich Nietzsche, German Romanticism, getting hooked, group pressure, historical romance novels, human motivation, human nature, hypnotic therapy, ID, infidelity, inhibitions, Intellectual fashion, libido, Linda Tarazi’s Under the Inquisition: an experience relived, losing inhibitions, medical malpractice, Nancy Jo Sales’ American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, obsession, past life regression, past life therapy, past lives, peer pressure, Peggy Orenstein’s Girls and Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape, pleasure, political correctness, pornography, post modernism, primal aims, prudish, psychiatric malpractice, reductionism, repression, reviewers, romance novels, settled science, sex, Sexuality, sociobiology, soft porn, Spanish Inquisition, species aims, the new normal, The New York Review of Books, the unconscious, theory-driven, traditionalism, trauma, trendiness, uptight, will-to-life, will-to-power, woman’s wisdom, Zoe Heller
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“Abandonment”
“Abandonment” Eloi eloi lama sabachthani These were the recorded penultimate words of Jesus dying on the cross. It’s a quote from a Davidic psalm, but clearly, for him, not an experience at second hand. My God, my God, why hast … 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, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, seduction, self-deception, social conventions, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abandonment, addiction, addictive anti-semitism, alcoholism, anti-semitism, Aramaic, book signing, chariots of fire, chariots of Israel, coarsened national mood, coarsening of discourse, coarsening of public life, conversations with Jesus, creative people, crucifixion, Davidic psalm, Edward Alexander's Jews Against Themselves, Eloi eloi lama sabachthani, evidence for God, experience of God, false memory, fellowship, forsakenness, genocide, God's care, hippies, Holocaust, Jesus, Jesus in synagogues, Jewish fear, Jewish guilt, Jewish history, Jewish memory, Leo Bronstein, longest hatred, national discourse, past life memory, past lives, peace and love, peace on earth, peaceful thoughts, Pebble Hill Church, politicide, providence, recognition, refuge, religious "nones", retired hippies, sbnr, Second Kings 2:9, Second Kings 6:15, seekers, settled creeds, Shoah, spiritual but not religious, spiritual evolution, state of Israel, sympathy, synagogues, tenderness, the prophet Elisha, travail of life
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“Tenderness”
“Tenderness” There is a southern black woman, about two generations after slavery, who figures as the heroine in a novel by Zora Neale Hurston. In the scene from which the lines below are taken, she has met a man who … Continue reading
Posted in action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, race, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Five Variations on the Theme of Japanese Painting", "Leo's Orphans: A Survivor's Musings on the Power of Protective Tenderness", "Their Eyes Were Watching God", 613 mitzvot, Abigail L. Rosenthal, American novel, awareness, black women, Christian clergy, Christianity, commandments, conflict resolution, conformism, evidence, Exodus, heroine, injuries, interfaith, Israelites, Japan, Jewish observance, judgementalism, Leo Bronstein, living the moment, Maimonides, marital relations, mindfulness, Nazi genocide, novel, Passover, past lives, peer pressure, Rabbi, Reform Judaism, reincarnation, Shoah, shunning, slavery, Terror, The South, unleavened bread, Yom ha Shoah, zen, Zora Neale Hurston
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