Tag Archives: Rav Tsair
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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Acting in Real Time
Of all the forms of worship I know about, Biblical religion is the one most wedded to chronology. It carries the message that the action called for cannot be postponed. It must be done now. There is a concomitant duty … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 1776 vote on Independence, academic excellence, acting in real time, Biblical religion, Brooklyn College, Caesar A. Rodney, chronological religion, Churchill's speeches, college administration, college policy, deadlines, dealing with tyrants, Declaration of Independence, documentary evidence, eloquence in a leader, fate of nations, forgetting and remembering, God in the Sistine Chapel, grandfather looks like God, historical crisis, imprinting memory, improving curriculum, Iron Law of the Bully, Jeremy Kagan's The Nature And Pursuit of Truth in Different Cultural Contexts in Strauss Spinoza & Sinai: ed Bloom Goldstein & Student, keeping commitments, keeping national trust, Lincoln's speeches, living in the now, manipulative speeches, meaning what you say, Michaelangelo's God, mistrusting heroes, moral timeliness, now of action, oddities of memory, Rav Tsair, refusal to personalize, religion on the timeline, representing one's nation, Second Continental Congress, sense of history, spoken with intention, Talmudic view of language, the right words, this ironical age, urgent action, what has to be said, words and reality, words and things, Zelensky's address to Congress
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Bulletin from History
Bulletin from History The other day, I spoke by telephone to my Israeli first cousin. In her young days, she worked for a British military unit stationed in the region under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, bigotry, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, sexuality, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged academic delusions, accidents of birth, accidents of life, anthropomorphic God, beautiful souls, Biblical and modern Israel, British mandate for Palestine, British officers, circumstances, coincidences of life, Department Chair Hebrew university, diaspora Jewry, edge of existence, Hebrew university, Holocaust, Israel Defense Force, Israel's intellectual elite, Israeli family, Jewish Institute of Religion, Jewish jurisprudence, Jewish survival, light unto the nations, love at first sight, personal destiny, picturing God, pogrom, providential coincidence, Rav Tsair, Sabra, smuggling arms, stopping a pogrom, Talmud scholar, the "what if" factor, the butterfly effect, the Haganah, underground fighters, Yishuv
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Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift
Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift I prefer to think of that world-historical-fault-line as a long, reparable misunderstanding. Whether or not that’s the right view, personally I want to patch it up. Yet I recall a Jewish scholar, speaking at … Continue reading →