Tag Archives: Rav Tsair
My Latest Teaching Anxiety Dream
My Latest Teaching Anxiety Dream Last night I had a variant of the dream that visits many teachers in the pre-dawn hours. Short of taking a survey, I have yet to meet a teacher who’s never had this dream in … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, 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, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, scientism, secular, self-deception, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", afterlife judgment, bad dream, Brooklyn Bridge, Catalan identity, Columbia University in the 1920s, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conversational magic, cultural identities, cultural layers, demoralization, divorce stress, facing real world, fascinating parents, fear of public speaking, forgiver and forgiven, forgiving yourself, German-Jewish identity, God as life partner, high-stress situations, how I overcame forgiving myself, identity, insoluble dilemma, Jewish lineage, Jewish Theological Seminary, lack of armor, last judgment, Leo Bronstein, life review, life story, long story, Louisville Male High, loving parents, McGuffy’s Reader, medical stress, meeting one’s contradictions, narrative view, NDE, near death experience, New York at its heyday, New Yorker magazine, normal stress, overwhelming experiences, Oxford professors, parent-child relation, parenting, personal armageddon, personal collapse, philosophy dissertation, philosophy Ph.D., Rav Tsair, reproacher and reproached, Russian identity, self-undoing, sheltered childhood, Spanish identity, talking straight to children, teaching anxiety, teaching anxiety dream, teaching preparation, therapeutic jargon, vulnerability, Where was God?, Yankee identity
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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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The Thrill of Admiration
The Thrill of Admiration These days I’m reading Jacob Howland’s wonderful book about Plato’s Republic, the great dialogue that shows how hard it is to teach virtue in the political arena. At the same time, I’m mentally settling down … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, books, bureaucracy, 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, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, 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, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, 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, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a long romance, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", admirers and detractors, Adolf Eichmann, Aristotle, “call no man happy”, buffetings of public opinion, Chaim Tchernowitz, death and glory, deserved honors, fall from grace, fame and fortune, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, history’s big stage, history’s unfair verdict, history’s verdict, inflated reputation, Jacob Howland’s Glaucon’s Fate: History Myth and Character in Plato’s Republic, Jewish history, legacy, lost reputation, lucky in love, mental programming, mindless bureaucrats, named professorships, Nazi bureaucracy, opinion shapers, Plato, Plato's Republic, posterity's verdict, posthumous reputation, public disfavor, public esteem, Rav Tsair, reputation, reversals of fortune, risks to happiness, Solon of Athens, the Holocaust, the just and the unjust, the just man, the race well run, uplifting versus defaming a reputation, victims and perpetrators, W.H. Auden's In Memory of W B Yeats, writers and philosophers
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I Dreamed I Saw Grandpa
I Dreamed I Saw Grandpa Let me make this clear: my family did not go in for paranormal visitations. They lived in the same world of hard knocks and occasional fun we all share. And, though I was close to … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, eternity, ethics, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, ideality, identity, immortality, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, love, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, ontology, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, power, presence, psychology, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, 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 afterlife, afterlife reunion, aimless people, ancestry, anomie, Atheism, bible as historical, co-religionists, doctorate in Judaica, dream visitations, dreams, grandfather, groundedness, Halacha, hard knocks, Hebrew, indissoluble reality, Jerusalem, Jerusalem street, Jewish law, Judaica, Marxism, Modernity, Oral Law, paranormal, paranormal visitations, partriarchal God, patriarch, personal vibrancy, philosophic lineage, Plato, proof-text, psychoanalysis, rabbinic disputation, Rav Tsair, Rechov Rav Tsair, religion shopping, resurrection, sad Jewish eyes, sense of direction, street names, Talmudists, The Covenant, validation
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