Tag Archives: Pentateuch
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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The Devil in the Details
The Devil in the Details Depression is not an attractive word, but it describes my mood in recent days. Two explanations (or causes?) spring to mind. First: I have this neuropathy handicap. My walking lacks its former, rhythmic life-of-its-own, becoming … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", beat the devil, Bible study, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, corrupt influence, counterproductive remedy, decentered feeling, dentists, depression, expensive cavities, experimental treatments, fair fights, firm footing, Halakah, hard-bought wisdom, holistic treatments, hollow self, ideal life story, impersonal wisdom, incurable, Jewish observance, life rhythms, life story, limping, Loma Linda Hospital, malevolent spirit, medical treatments, midrashim, mood changes, narrative view, neuropathy, New Age, New Age-niks, patient no better, Pentateuch, personal identity, personal wisdom, philosophy of religion, physical footing, physical therapy, place to stand, placeholder self, Reform temple, reversals of fortune, shell of oneself, solitary walker, speculative theology, spiritual footing, stratagems of evil, taking a walk, talking it out, textual study, the devil, thought experiment, Torah Study, treatment failure, treatment success, walking handicap
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Is the Bible True?
Is the Bible True? Two questions: Why should any educated person care? Whaddya mean by “true”? Who could care? Of course, people whose identities (sense of who they are) are bound up with particular views about the Bible will care … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, fashion, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, nineteenth-century, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged allegorical reading, Bible, Bible in Western Culture, biblical battle plans, biblical inconsistencies, biblical influence, Biblical literalism, biblical warrant, Book of Judges, Book of Numbers, British Army, Catholic identity, death bed consolation, Divine actor, Divine Author, Divine command, documentary hypothesis, empirical warrant, Eric Voegelin's Israel and Revelation, ethnic identity, Greco-Roman civilization, Hebrew Scripture, higher criticism, hillbilly gospel, Hindu temple, Israel Defense Force, J E P and D, Japanese flower arrangement, Japanese tea room, Jewish identity, Jewish miracle, Jewish scholar, Jewish theologians, Jon Levinson's Creation and The Persistence of Evil, Jonah and the whale, Julius Wellhausen, Manhattan, meditative state, Michael Walzer's In God's Shadow: Politics in the Hebrew Bible, miracle of the quail, moral truth, Moses as author, New Testament, Ninevites, Numbers 11, Old Testament, pagan civilization, Pentateuch, personal identity, philosophy, philosophy as pagan, prophecy, Protestant identity, psalms as consolation, Psalms of David, rabbinic view, religious identity, religious wars, Robert Alter, spiritual practice, supernatural v natural, symbolic reading, symbolic truth, tea ceremony, The Covenant, Torah, Toraya, world civilization, world of action
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