Tag Archives: Reform Judaism
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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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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Self-Acceptance
Self-Acceptance This is the season of deck-swabbing and deck-clearing, if you are Jewish. I tend to say that, at best, I am “Jewish in the head.” By that I mean: having tried a wide range of belief systems, I came … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, alienation, anthropology, contemplation, contradictions, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, memoir, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, peace, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, violence, war, Zeitgeist
Tagged absolution, acculturation, afterlife, anger, anxiety, belief systems, clearing decks, Days of Awe, divine guidance, escapism, excuses, fear of death, forgiveness, getting real, grace, grace under pressure, guilt, inner voice, Jewish New Year, judgment, judgmentalism, life review, moral facts, mortality, NDE, near death experience, pardon, Psalm 27, Psalms of David, purification, rationalizations, Reform Judaism, religious service, repentance, ritual observance, Rosh Ha Shana, Selichot, temple, transcendence and immanence, unconscious fears, validation, Year 5776
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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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