Shows
Judaism for the Thinking PersonThe Mishkan, Indigenous Wisdom, and the Right to RepairWe often fail to appreciate the virtues of the Shepherd period of Judaism, which preceded the Israelite period. In this dvar Torah, I focus on the virtues of sustainability and repairability of the portable sanctuary (Mishkan) over the permanent version (Temple), and I apply it to legislation before state congresses today.
2025-03-1110 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonA People of the Book and a Generation That Has Never Read OneIf you want to understand the crisis in education, look no further than Natalie Wexler's "The Knowledge Gap," one of the most important books of the past ten years. Is reading a skill you apply to any text, like stretching a muscle, or playing a video game, or is it, as our tradition defines it, something entirely different, something based on knowledge of the world, of life, and of relating to a larger story?
2025-01-1413 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Tower of Babel and the Problem of Identity-Based "Truths"The plain sense of the brief Tower of Babel story is that dividing people up by their own languages is a curse that prevents cooperation (even if the Rabbis read the story differently). Using Coleman Hughes's essay on the Civil Rights hero Bayard Rustin, I wonder if the curse of our times is the identiy-based division of truths: is this modern paradigm a blessing of diversity or a curse for our much needed cooperation in solving our collective problems?
2025-01-0712 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDid Isaac Have Imposter Syndrome? Is it a Curse or a Blessing?Isaac's entire story arc suggests that he continually sees himself as the opposite of how folks see him. But is imposter syndrome a curse, or a blessing?
2024-12-1814 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonMisunderstanding Consent, Property and Patriarchy in Jewish Wedding CeremoniesUsing the text of Genesis chapter 24, Talmud Bavli Ketubot 82b, and the Conservative Movement responsum by Rabbi Pamela Barmash, I try to correct the pervasive misunderstings around the Jewish wedding ceremonies: Does arranged marriage (historically and today) exclude female consent? Is the Jewish wedding ceremony one of male acquisition of a female? Is the ketubah a wedding document or a prenuptial agreement that protects the bride and her property?
2024-11-2616 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonMoving Beyond the Progressive Lens to True Religion (Yom Kippur 2024)How do the ideals of progressivism become the idols of antisemitism? As a rabbi in one of the most progressive cities in America, I try to understand this phenomenon through scapegoat theory and through my own heartbreaking experiences. So what do we tell our college students? How do we heal instead of hurt? How do we get to the Thou? (Sermon, Yom Kippur 2024/5785)
2024-10-2326 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonWe're All Looking for Empathy after October 7th, Including Me! (Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2024)As a Conservative rabbi in one of the most progressive cities in America, it's been an incredibly painful year of feeling unable to ask for empathy from my own fellow Jews, as I see this year's events as Good vs Evil, and so many of my congregants want me to be condemning Israel while declaring moral equivalencies. And I know they, too, need from me what I cannot give them: validation for their perspective. This sermon is my way of coming to terms with all of it.
2024-10-0627 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonWriting G-d and the Danger of IdolatryThis dvar Torah uses the amazing article by Rabbi David Golinkin on the history of the halakhah and the practice. It can be found at: https://schechter.edu/must-gods-name-be-written-in-english-as-g-d/
2024-09-0317 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDid a Biblical Outlaw Understand the Arab-Israel Conflict Better than Today's Students?It is commonplace to hear today's Israel-Arab Conflict portrayed as an example of Settler-Colonial European Jews settling in the nation-state of indigenous-dwelling Palestinians. This is a modern invention and is not how the conflict was understood by local Arabs a hundred years ago, who did so in rational terms that match the Biblical arguments between the Israelites (Gideonites) and local Ammonites in Judges chapters 10 and 11. Using the recent scholarly work of Jonathan Marc Gribetz as well as Alex Stein's Love of the Land substack, I show how the ancient outlaw leader Yiftach understood today's situation better than student demonstrators...2024-07-1411 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Biblical Battle of the AI Priesthood Lineage2024-05-2106 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonAmalekites, Gaza and the End of Megillat Esther on PurimAs Purim became a holiday of tremendous festivities and lightheartedness, the Rabbis knew that the end of the Megillah in Chapter 9 has a dubious quality, that of a massacre on Haman's people. Is this a happy ending, a desirable ending, that of massacre, that of Jews finally (and really for its time, only possible in the Jewish imagination but not in practice) having power? So the Rabbis created a requirement that on the Shabbat morning before Purim, one must read about the Amalekites. In this podcast, I present traditional commentary and observations given the context of the fighting in Ga...2024-03-2414 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe 19th Century Reform Rabbi Who Changed PhysicsThe most influential rabbi you've never heard of? Based on an episode of the RadioLab podcast ("Relative Genius") and a biography in the Jewish Encyclopedia -- https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12611-rebenstein-aaron -- I tell you about the extraordinary Rabbi Aaron David Bernstein who likely accomplished more in his lifetime by himself than your average Ivy League university!
2024-02-1909 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Israelites Left Egypt Armed: Gender & Chauvinism Preceding October 7In the second verse of Parashat Beshalach (the flight from Egypt and the crossing of the Sea of Reeds), the Torah states that the Israelites fled fully armed. I explore the traditional commentaries on why, and connect this to the haftarah (story of Deborah and Yael) and to the intelligence failures in Israel caused by male chauvinism.
2024-01-3016 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonWho Gets to Be a Spokesperson for Israel? The Soft of Heart and Slow of SpeechThe focus of the American and international conversation about the Hamas attack and its aftermath has been "Ceasefire or No Ceasefire" by which people mean (since there was a ceasefire prior to Hamas's breaking it) whether Israel should cease its counter offensive due to civilian casualties. Who gets to be a spokesperson for Israel at this time in our communities and in the world? Interestingly, the Torah portions of Vaera and Bo --where we are when the war stands at 100 days-- raises the classic ethical question: Why did God prosecute a full 10 plagues upon the Egyptian population when it...2024-01-1513 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonTikkun Olam and Redeeming the HostagesAs a Dvar Torah for Vayigash (Joseph's revealing himself to his brothers following Judah's speech), I explore the mitzvah of redeeming our captives and the limitations on the law "for the sake of Tikkun Olam."
The conversation among American Jews about Gaza centers around "Ceasefire or No Ceasefire? What kind of Jew am I if I don't support stopping the bombing?" while the conversation in Israel is "Exchange terrorists for hostages? What kind of Jew am I if I don't bring my sister/brother home at any cost to an Israel bereaved beyond measure?" In an amazing sy...2023-12-2316 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonHalakhah and Aggadah: The Ten Stories We Tell PART TWOPART TWO of this Yom Kippur 2023 sermon, in which I share the result of my personal and rabbi experiences of the last 15 years: that the longer we live, the shorter our eulogy becomes; that life (like scripture) is a combination of halakhah (direct description of human behavior) and aggadah (our stories in which God is an invisible character); that the main point of Yom Kippur is to learn how to retell our stories so that the way God has been communicating to us through our experiences becomes center stage, with the intimation explicit, the aspiration articulated, the perpective holy, s...2023-12-0109 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonHalakhah and Aggadah: The Ten Stories We Tell PART ONEIn this Yom Kippur 2023 sermon, I share the result of my personal and rabbi experiences of the last 15 years: that the longer we live, the shorter our eulogy becomes; that life (like scripture) is a combination of halakhah (direct description of action) and aggadah (our stories in which God is an invisible character); that the main point of Yom Kippur is to learn how to retell our stories so that the way God has been communicating to us through our experiences becomes center stage, the intimations explicit, the aspirations articulated, the perpective holy, so we live wearing the garments o...2023-11-2316 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonIs There a Fear of God In This Place? Our Different Experiences of the Israel Gaza ConflictUsing the stories of Avraham, Sarah, and Hagar in Vayera, I voice what it's like to have utterly different experiences of the Gaza conflict with our coworkers, friends, and family members, some of whom seem to embody Dara Horn's prophecy that the world loves to pity the dead Jews of the past while finding the living Jews of today an inconvenience, an Other, and deserving of sanctimonious antisemitism.
2023-11-0614 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Commandment of Shevut: How Do We Handle its Inherent Subjectivity?In Deuteronomy, we are commanded to keep Shabbat as restfulness. Many are unaware that this does not just involve practicing the Shabbat observances and restrictions --Biblical and Rabbinic-- but the highly unusual special-to-itself halakhic category of "Shevut," usually translated as proactively keeping "the spirit of Shabbat." The category of observing "the spirit of Shabbat" is inherently subjective, and it can vary from person to person. For one person, reading a newspaper on Shabbat is a violation of the spirit of Shabbat, while for another it enhances the spirit of Shabbat. Going someplace for Shabbat dinner or lunch might enhance the...2023-10-1618 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Kol Nidrei Ritual: Stepping into Your Future SelfDrawing on the traditional meaning of the Kol Nidrei --"All Vows"-- prayer, plus the Mishnah and Talmudic tractates on the Nidrei (Nedarim: Vows), plus the philosophy of Ritual Drama and the recent psychological studies about Future Selves, Rabbi Caine constructs a vision of what the Yom Kippur experience is supposed to be, a drama of our envisioning our future selves and playing those parts through Tefillah, Tsedakah and Teshuvah that connect to the Nidrei, our New Year's Resolutions.
2023-09-2624 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonHineni Resolutions: I’m Ready but Are They?My Second Day 5784/2023 Rosh Hashanah Sermon explores the New Year's resolution ("neder" as in "Kol Nidrei") in Biblical, Talmudic, and Contemporary Jewish spirituality. What is the one resolution in your life that is "If not now, when?" and what can the Talmud tell us about how to be successful at it?
2023-09-2419 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Genders Within God, and Within Ourselves!My Rosh Hashanah 5784/2023 (first day) sermon examines the understanding of God's image as multiple genders in Jewish theology, mysticism, and Rabbinic midrash. What are the implications for transgender, nonbinary, and queer identifications? And equally, what are the implications for the self-understandings of everyday cisgender folk? Using the work of Joy Ladin, Charlotte Fonrobert, and Elliot Wolfson, in addition to classical and mystical Rabbinic sources, Rabbi Caine lays out the urgency of radical inclusion both with each other and with ourselves.
2023-09-1823 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Three Covenants: God Cares About God’s Brand. Do You?As we begin the journey to High Holidays, I look at Matot the end of the Book of Numbers, where God is fastidiously concerned that we get right our relationship with the God of Judaism and, even deeper, the true God of the Universe. When these fall short, we are asked through the Biblical spirituality of vows, do we even care about our own word and how we show up in this world? This is a teaching for approaching the journey of weeks to the High Holidays.
2023-07-2410 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonIs the Book of Numbers about Remote Work?Parashat Beha'alotkha begins with a memo to all the Israelites that doubles down on the top down hierarchy of Aharon and Moshe at the top, and then it continues with a series of amplified grumblings, complaints, and a continuation of the deterioration of the communal project and institution --now one year in-- that Exodus and Leviticus championed. The crux is that the top down structure operates through directives, orders, and job descriptions, and with each person now operating out of their tent-and-family --unlike before when slavery, Sinai, and mishkan construction were in person collective activities. It is an apropos de...2023-06-1613 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonBe Someone Else: Victor Turner and the Subversiveness of Ritual PerformanceThe longest parashah of the Torah's is Numbers' Naso, which begins with the theme of the tabernacle of roving ritual performance, like a traveling theater group, and then describes four ritual dramas that take publicly: the financial penitent, the jealous husband, the addict, and the arrogant prince. What do these have in common? Rather than seeing ritual function to impose comformity and social roles, I examine this through the theory of Victor Turner, who posited that rituals actually subvert conventional roles, and in a theatrical way, use fixed theater scrips and actions to subvert them, and you.
2023-06-0413 minJudaism for the Thinking Person”Make Yourself a Wilderness” To Receive TorahThe Rabbis are understandably preoccupied with why the Torah was given bemidbar Sinai, in the wilderness of Sinai, rather than in the Land of Israel. Entire commentary collections are devoted to this one profound fact. In fact, the fourth book of the Bible, Bemidbar, even means "In the wilderness" and often occurs just before the holiday of Shavuot, where we collectively re-experience the gift of Torah happening in the wilderness. A teaching developed that the meaning of the Torah being "a gift from the wilderness" means that in order to receive Torah and wisdom in your life you need to "m...2023-05-2510 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJubilee and the Passing on of Generational WealthIn this teaching, I note how there are two sorts of social legislation that emerge out of the Holiness Code of Leviticus (as well as other places): the kind that is aspirational --invitations to become a holy people through holiness of giving, holiness of speech, holiness of conduct, holiness of caring-- and the kind that is deeply uncomfortable structural change -- i.e. so aspirational that you really want to just leave it "in heaven" as an unreachable ideal. An excellent example of the latter is the Jubilee Year, or Jubilee Reset, when not only does the Land receive ex...2023-05-2010 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonTwo Forms of Action: Embodying the Kabbalistic Forces of Netzach and HodIn honor of Lag B'Omer, I succinctly recount the Jewish mystical practice of embodying God's attributes during the period of Counting the Omer. Specifically, in the transition to the week of Lag B'Omer, we transition from practicing in our lives the form of leadership that involves pushing people, and yourself, to get through tasks, the kind of action in which you feel you're carrying people to the finish line so the team gets there, to a different mode of leadership from God's attributes, the leader who says little at the team meeting, and then when they need to, utters j...2023-05-0908 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonTorah In a Minute: What’s the Big Deal About the Lunar Calendar?Hope you're not having an Ecclesiastes month....
2023-04-2601 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Golden Calf and the Present Government in IsraelDrawing on many articles, from the New Republic to Thomas Friedman, I use Nachmanides' commentary on a verse from the Golden Calf account, the verse that recounts Moshe's reaction to witnessing the events unfolding, with unflinching criticism of Aaron's (supposed) leadership, and using a rare Hebrew word to describe the scene, that sounds like the Nation is becoming Pharaoh. How apt.
Text of some of the sermon is available here.
2023-03-1318 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJewish Law, Head Covering, and Knowing Before Whom You StandUsing Rabbi Jane Kanarek's 2019 CJLS (Conservative Movement) halakhic responsum, I explain the complex development of Jewish head covering for both men and for women. Though my conclusions from the sources are a bit different from Rabbi Kanarek's --who does not address issues of relative cultural gender standards-- I, like her, agree that the vast majority of Jews are uneducated to the halakhah of head coverings in awareness of God's presence and in representing the community before God -- a basis that is essentially independent of the familiar domains of female gender modesty and male Jewish identity. Interestingly, today there is...2023-02-2022 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonGod the Stutterer, God the ReluctantI've always wondered why we repeatedly pray to God to be willing to grant us Shabbat, etc. What does it mean to be willing, or to be capable of exercising one's will? Free will and the exercise of will always comes up when trying to understand Pharoah's will and heart-hardening in Shemot, and so I use sources there to answer the question. The conclusion touches on how our relationship to God is different from our relationship to Torah. God, like Moshe, may not always be speaking or willing, but the Torah always is.
2023-02-0108 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Unalloyed Joy of GrandparentingThere are virtually no references to grandparenting in the Torah, until, by sharp contrast, we are told in Genesis 50:23 that Joseph got not only to grandparent but great-grandparent as well. I reflect upon this startling exception using two articles from the New York Times, including a recent one that describes the recent increase of adult children in their 20's becoming roommates with their grandparents.
2023-01-1013 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonOppenheimer: The 20th Century ”Joseph”Using the interpretations of the Rabbis (including Nachmanides and Sefer HaYashar) to understand Joseph's assimilation (in name, dress, etc.), I compare him to the American hero very recently in the news!
2022-12-2913 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonAchieving our Dreams while Living with AnxietyYaakov's famous wrestling scene and renaming as Yisrael --one who wrestles with God and prevails-- is often understood as Yisrael wrestling with God as his opponent. The Rabbis point out how problematic this is, since the opponent is listed as a "man," not as God. Therefore some of the Rabbis see it this way: the wrestling opponent looks identical to Esav, being his guardian angel (Rashi) or his projection, and wrestling "with God" (im elohim) means wrestling with God as a supportive ally. Yaakov clearly is the Patriarch of Anxiety, and in this climax, we see a powerful message: one do...2022-12-2017 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonEco-Burial and Jewish LawIs it right to use arable land --often very expensive in populated areas -- for graves, then pollute the environment by keeping them "dignified" through maintenance and pesticides, with the hollow promise of "perpetual care," and say this is all required by Jewish Law, when Jewish Law itself is the source of the requirement for eco-decomposition and of prohibitions against costly burial? I explicate the sources using the Conservative Movement's oficial responsum, "Alternative Kevura Methods" by Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky, which can be found at bit.ly/3tMa4RG
2022-11-2018 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonListening Like It’s ShivahIn this ten minute teaching I used to begin the 10 Days of Awe, I connect several teachings. The first is the Rabbinic teaching that following a calamity upon a village, one should try to give the luxury rations to those who are used to luxury because being unaccostomed to hardship, their anguish might be even greater than others' though we are tempted to believe the opposite. The second is that during Yom Kippur, we approach ourselves and our relationships in a state of aninut, of affliction -- the same word used when one has suffered calamity, and the same wo...2022-11-1010 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Spiral of Progress/HistoryIs the Jewish concept of history that of linear progress, or that of Ecclesiastes' cyclical vanity? This teaching was delivered during a 12-Step friendly Serenity Shabbat.
2022-11-0311 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonLearning from 12 Step: The ”El Anon” Theology of the Exile ProphetsThe theology of the haftarot of the exile prophets like Deutero-Isaiah is hard for most people to relate to: "You are in exile, your life is full of tragedy, and I love you, I remember you as you were before, but I won't be getting you out of the situation you got yourself in, and which I warned you repeatedly about." This is the kind of "unloving" God that Christian theologians for millenia have accused Jews of having. Yet do those in Al-Anon understand it in a way they can teach us?
2022-11-0102 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThose in 12 Step Recovery are Our Teachers (Rosh Hashanah Sermon 2022)For too long, Jews have associated the Recovery movement with Christianity, and we have seen those in recovery, or with addictions, as outsiders to Torah. This is far from reality. The main example of vows-of-change --the essence of High Holidays-- in the Torah itself is the vow to abstain from alcohol and other intoxicants, involving emulating priestly service and separating for a period from one's family and social triggers. The very process of High Holiday teshuvah is recognizing our wrong behavior, feeling bad about it, and then releasing that guilt feeling through doing a cheshbon nefesh --an accounting-- of exa...2022-10-2125 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonChatter and Our Relationship with God through Our Relationship with Our Inner VoiceMy Yom Kippur sermon in 2022. Using Ethan Kross's book Chatter along with Jewish sources and my own observations about life, I challenge us to form our relationship to God through our relationship with our inner voice, which these days tends to be taken over by CHATTER, the stress brought on by the takeover of our inner God voice through the Satan voice. It's time we challenge it head on.
2022-10-1028 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonMoses the Mother in Transition (Ilana Kurshan’s Teaching)I share Ilana Kurshan's teaching on rabbinic midrash seeing Moses as a mother in transition, as they question whether, at the promised land border, God's refusing his entry is frustrating his desire to mother the people more, or frustrating his desire to claim "his turn" to actually have a life now that the children are leaving the nest. I include my own glosses, but make no mistake that this is Ilana Kurshan's teaching.
2022-08-2813 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonEikev and the Torah of AmbivalenceIn this d'var Torah, I discuss how parashat Eikev is the section of Torah most frought with ambivalences, from the text itself through the Rabbinic commentaries: blessing as bounty and overextension, independence and dependence, hardship and privilege, closeness and distance. I relate this to our lives directly in the examples of the college experience and of our relationship with God.
2022-08-2114 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonOur Children Need a Relationship with God through their Inner VoiceThere is a crisis for our middle and high school students that has reached desperate proportions: they don't believe in God and they see our tradition as having nothing relevant to say about what God could be to them. Typical of immigrant cultures, we have answered them for generations that they need not worry because it's a glorious thing that Judaism allows you to be an ethical atheist. Yet is this answer best for them, or, easiest for us? Our middle and high schoolers are riddled with anxiety, self-doubt, and hopelessness, and yet we don't give them the greatest...2022-06-1810 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonYour Only Freedom is in ServiceDrawing on the Rabbinic principle that Passover celebrates our freedom --which is a temporary state that leads to service in covenant, I use 12-step principles to state my thesis: the only freedom a human being has is in choosing whom we serve and in choosing to live with God as the 3rd party in that service.
2022-06-0310 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonAbleism, Torah, and ”Greatness Comes from Being Lifted Up By Your Brothers”How do we relate to the Torah's insistence that the kohanim who do the major rituals be without blemish or disability? Isn't that grossly ableist? I suggest the following. First, the Torah is not an idealistic description of a utopia of saints -- it forces us to recognize truths about human nature, and then create a society for real people like us, so it forces us to recognize our own prejudices and ableism, which are also active today. Second, there is a serious issue at stake involving the Offerings of Damaged Goods, which is a massive problem in our soci...2022-05-2209 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJudaism and Abortion: The Process of the Decision IS ReligionIn this presentation, I present the Talmudic sources on Judaism's discussion of the status of the fetus, and I argue that what's been missing from the discussion --including the discussion of Jewish views -- is the fact that Judaism leaves open what the status of the fetus is between 40 days and full viability, but importantly assigns the process to the mother. Men have no say in it. In other words, the issue is not freedom of religion in the sense of one denomination versus another, but rather the freedom of the prospective mother to have her own relationship with G...2022-05-1012 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonBelieving in Miracles (or not) in 5 MinutesOne of my "standing on one foot while answering a humungous theological question" podcasts. "Rabbi, what do we mean by miracles? What is up with the Red Sea splitting?" I give my on-one-foot 5 minute answer, but we should all go and study (as Hillel famously said after answering his on-one-foot answer) afterward.
By the way, I refer to seeing a red butterfly in the answer: at a funeral and shivah I officiated at, it came up repeatedly that a butterfly would show up in their lives just at the time of remembering the widow's husband, who had a ve...2022-04-1905 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonIs the Wailing Wall an Orthodox Synagogue? The Kotel Agreement, Yuval Noah Harari and Anat HoffmanAt the same time as the Torah turns its pages to describe the creation and pattern of the Temple, with men, women, and children mixed together, and the haftarah describes the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem as the same, the Israeli government reneges on the Kotel Agreement to provide a separate space for mixed gender worship near the Wailing Wall, even while turning over the Wall officially to ultra extremist fundamentalist Jews who claim that the inclusion of women --or women leading prayer in the women's section-- is a fundamental affront to the original pattern (which is a...2022-03-1821 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonSelf-Improvement, Judgment, and Seeing God’s BackWhile Judaism demands that one does not judge oneself too harshly, nor live in a place of self-defeating criticism, nevertheless there's a vital role for self-judgment to play in our learning from the past to walk with God and expand our ability to channel holiness into the world. In fact, since God loves us as we are, and even provides a Shabbat that makes us feel that the world is made for us as we are, it is vital we judge ourselves, because that's not the job God wants, nor is it the job for others to do.
2022-02-2111 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonClothing God? Sewing as an Act of LovingkindnessThe Talmud tells us that the first great act of God's love (chesed, lovingkindness) was making clothing for Adam and his wife. Do we return the favor?
2022-02-1411 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDoes God Have a Plan for Us?Joseph's dreams seem to predict the future and his role in it. So does God have a plan for us?
2022-01-3007 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonLecture: Halakhic Sources, the Fetus, and the Morality of AbortionThe source sheet I'm reading from is at:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1R0Txiy6QvQiHo40hKSsHyafLernFjS8tXp0tJo7gPWA/edit?usp=sharing
This is a lecture to give the listener the Rabbinic sources that create distinctions and legal status for decisions around the criminalization of elective abortion, as discussed in the Supreme Court hearings.
2022-01-1748 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonPatriarchy, Gaze, Voice and Intersectionality? Exodus and bell hooksHere I tease out the following ideas of bell hooks: 1. Our society valuing power over others as the paramount value, and rooted in the psychology of men. 2. This value playing out in drama as "the protagonist" as the center around which others must revolve, and often the only one whose name counts. 3. Oppositional gaze: the one who owns their justice perspective is the one who has the power to gaze at injustice [like Moses having the privilege to "gaze" at the taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave]. 4. Intersectional identity: our society tries to have our identities of oppression divided up...2021-12-2822 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJoseph‘s Brothers and Robert Bly‘s The Sibling SocietyRobert Bly, one of America's great poets and poetry translators, recently died. In this presentation, I apply Bly's books of social commentary to the end of Genesis. Iron John described the effects of fathers turning over parenting duties to others --like the wrong-headed "kids learn from interacting with other kids" rather than with parents. It also argued for the simultaneous absence of initiative rites in American society. In The Sibling Society, Bly argued that American society represents an adolescent stage of development, not true adulthood. I apply both books to the entire end of the Book of Genesis.
2021-12-2214 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJoseph, Hanukkah, and the Assimilation NarrativeThese are my reflections upon Arnold Eisen's 2015 essay, "Joseph, Hanukkah, and the Dilemmas of Assimilation." Those who investigate the Hanukkah story quickly learn (simply by reading the Books of Maccabees in the apocrypha) that the events around the 186 BCE revolt of the Maccabees against the Hellenizing-Syrians do not involve a miracle of oil. Rather, following the decree by Antiochus IV that the Temple in Jerusalem be dedicated to Hellistic religion, the Maccabees first attack Hellenized Jews themselves, who show little to no resistance to the decree. (Josephus tells us, more or less, that the Greek sports stadium in Jerusalem was...2021-12-1313 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Incommunicability of Experience and the Rape of Dinah[WARNING: The second half of the podcast discusses the rape of Dinah and I share an account of sexual harrassment from recent congressional testimony.]
If the early chapters of Genesis are about where we come from, the second half of Genesis is about the experiences that change us, that make us who we are as adults, not through our own achievements but through what happens to us, from tragedy to transcendence, from rejection to love, from struggles with mental health, sexual harrasment, being cheated, to seeing God in a place. Little do we notice how in these c...2021-11-2916 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDara Horn‘s ”People Love Dead Jews” and the Erasure of Jewish DifferenceIn this sermon -- playing on the Rabbinic commentary that the name of the Torah portion that mentions Sarah's death is called "The Life [or Lives] of Sarah" because we should celebrate the lives she lead rather than think of her death-- I discuss Dara Horn's new book People Love Dead Jews, which argues that the non-Jewish world loves books about Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel because the stories of these dead Jews teaches us something universal and moralistic about ourselves, rather than challenging us to think of what Jewish lives are like, how they are different, how they m...2021-11-1715 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonChanging our Relationship with Time from Productivity to PresenceIt hasn't been very long in human history (two or three generations) that we live our lives according to a clock rather than according to the processes of our lives (waking up, milking the cow, putting the hay in the barn, taking the goats for their grazing...). This has changed our relationship to God, to ourselves, and to each other. We judge ourselves by our productivity, how much we can get done using this resource of time, how much demand we can meet from others before our next appointments. We live outside of time, in a negative relationship, rather th...2021-11-0120 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Potentially Limitless Commandment of Honoring Parents As They AgeIn this dvar Torah, I share Talmudic stories of rabbis trying to honor their mothers in ways that are both comical and also poignant in their alluding to our individual (and often lonely) struggles to honor God and them, especially as they age, with seemingly no yardstick to compare ourselves and manage expectations.
2021-10-2615 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonCombatting the Curses Against Israel with History, not more ScapegoatingThe last sections of the book of Numbers deal with the local tribes, themselves fighting and displacing each other, refusing to grant the Israelite refugees safe passage through their lands. As a consequence of this moral failing, they lose the right to keep the land --an important message of Torah. In fact, coupled with their denials of safe passage, they hire the famous Near-Eastern Bilaam to magically curse the Israelites with fraught words justifying violence against them. It's like this entire section was relived in the years approaching 1948, when local Arab populations opposed Jewish refugees buying land and living pea...2021-10-1129 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonInstagram, Depression and the Serpent Voice: ”And They Knew They Were Naked”The creation stories of Genesis blend mythological motifs with reflections on the moral consequences of human evolution. When we understand the serpent voice to be the appearance of the human inner voice --the beginnings of evolutionary, human self-consciousness, a consequence of eating of the fruit of the garden-- then the hiding that Adam does, not because they have disobeyed God (as one presumes on a first read) but because for the first time they know they are naked, is crucial to notice. The possibilities of self-consciousness are immense --they include becoming like God by living in past, present, and fu...2021-10-0419 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Halakhah of Zoom Minyan: Adding Windows to the House of IsraelSynagogues like mine have resorted to making virtual community over much of the pandemic. How do we do a heshbon nefesh of the experience: a reckoning of the pluses and minuses as we enter a new future of self-creation? What is the halakhah of it, what have we learned, what are the issues? In this Kol Nidrei sermon, I address these issues, as we consider who we wish to be as we enter the future.
2021-09-2625 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Victim Triangle: Moving from Blame to Self-Creation, from Drama to AuthenticityOur society is permeated with a victim mentality that presents itself as prophetic, but is punitive. Caught in the Victim Triangle, everyone must fit into a role of Victim, Persecutor, or Rescuer --both in individual dramas and in societal theory. Change presents itself only in the options of shifting roles in the triangle: persecutors must become victims, victims will fix things by teaching them (and society) a lesson, someone gets stuck in rescuer role. Is teshuvah, repentance, about being forced to experience the karma of society's ills, or is that a blame game? In this sermon, I present an alter...2021-09-1727 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonIt‘s Time to End the Fertility Bias: Our Shame in Shutting Out Those Without ChildrenHow often do people say to me, "Rabbi, Rosh Hashanah is not about prayers, theology and sermons -- it's about getting together with family!" or "My grandfather was a model Jew because he was committed to his grandchildren" or "One does not know true awe until one has had children." And how often have I as a rabbi said similar things at a bat mitzvah or baby naming from the bimah, or when explaining a prayer like the one that says "You shall love God...through diligently teaching your children..." How does this feel to the unmarried, the willingly chi...2021-09-1017 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonSaving One Life is Saving the World: Jewish Law and the Death PenaltyIn the parashah of "Shoftim" in Deuteronomy, we have the norms for shoftim v'shotrim, the judges and professional criminal justice system officials. We are commanded that tsedek tsedek tirdof, known as "justice, justice you shall pursue" though tsedek means "justice" in the sense of "righteousness," not in the sense of revenge. The parashah goes on to discuss capital crimes, an eye for an eye, and the death penalty. For many, they read it assuming that Judaism endorses the death penalty, with "eye for an eye" the "justice" principle underlying the norms. In this teaching, I show how "eye for an eye"...2021-08-1615 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Depth of Loving Torah and Being Loved Through It: Being Taught is to Be LovedAfter Moshe recounts the 10 Commandments --the 10 "word-statements"-- in Deuteronomy chapter 5, we get the Shema and the Ve-Ahavta, we must Hearken to "these words," incribe them in our hearts, and return God's love by loving through teaching these words. What are the words? Given the context of chapter 5, it would make sense these are the 10 Commandments, perhaps to be the text of the mezuzah and teaching the VeAhavta is exhorting. Of course, the Rabbis argue vociferously that this cannot be, and just gives unwarranted support to Karaites and others who deny the Torah by reducing it to the 10 Commandments. (The...2021-08-0218 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonLeading our Children to TranscendenceThe oldest, continually used blessing in the world is the Torah's "Priestly Blessing." May God bless you [with bounty] and guard you. May God's face radiate grace (of getting your needs met) upon you. May God turn God's face to you [when you don't get what you need] so [you do not feel alone but meet God there and] God places peace within you.
The Rabbis stress that the person blessing is merely a "window" to letting God in, but in this Dvar Torah I question whether this isn't exactly what we wish to avoid -- letting God...2021-06-1314 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonReopening the Synagogue When People Are Coming up the Down StaircaseHow do we reopen the synagogue after over a year of being virtual? For some it's procedural: distance appropriately, follow guidelines, limit numbers, maybe wait on the food. But the Temple is not a gathering of bodies, it's a gathering of souls. How do we reopen appropriately to be a holy community, one that recognizes each other as souls? One of my favorite mishnayot speaks to this, and I was happy to be scooped by Professor Naomi Kalish in applying it to us today: https://www.jtsa.edu/struggling-to-celebrate There are four categories of people who went up the downstai...2021-05-2612 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonGod the MotherLeviticus ends with a long list of horrifying predictions (or curses) of the vicious suffering of the Israelites when they eventually enter the Land and break the covenant. Western Civilization has been shaped by European Christian intellectuals who created the unchallenged image (and therefore a Western bias) that the God of the Old Testament is a God who is disposed toward anger and punishment, who seems to enjoy punisment and retribution (and thus God had to be made flesh in the Son to introduce Love). In this podcast, I ask us to hear these verses as the words of th...2021-05-0913 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonRoss Douthat, Biblical Impurity, and Antipathy toward the TempleIs Leviticus's insistence that those with skin afflictions (as well as having buried the dead) not go to Temple an exclusionary punishment for being sick? Or is that our modern reading which presumes that religion is exclusionary and judgmental? In this presentation, I use Ross Douthat's essay "Can the Meritocracy Find God?
The secularization of America probably won’t reverse unless the intelligentsia gets religion" as a way to talk about America's prejudices against religion, and my particular concern that even Jewish leaders like me are too silent in the face of the current hype that all the cool...2021-04-3014 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJewish Law on Cremation and Burial, and What We're Facing as the Numbers RiseAs the percentage of Jews opting for cremation has risen from around 2% to over 20% in twenty years, how do we balance the mitzvah of burial of Jewish remains with the prohibition on cremation?
2021-04-2213 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Tabernacle -- and our Lives-- as a Purposeful CompositionInspired by the teachings of the great American ceramicist, Richard DeVore, I examine what the mishkan tells us about the nature of artistic composition, drawing a stark contrast between Golden Calves and Purposeful Composition, in Exodus, and especially in how we live our lives.
2021-03-2213 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonKeruvim, Cherubim, Griffins, Sphinxes, and the angel RafaelWhat were the Keruvim, the two hybrid beast angels 10 cubits high protecting the Ark of the Covenant, and from between whom God speaks? I rehearse all the theories, and end with a Maimonidean vision of what the angel as an extension of God's presence really is.
2021-03-1012 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Building of the Tabernacle through the Lens of the Black ChurchGiven that some of the most influential narratives and Torah legislation are but a few verses long, why is so much of the book of Exodus chapters and chapters of detailed, repetitive descriptions of the instructions and building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan), the priestly uniforms, the utensils, the hundreds of curtain rods and hooks? I answer this question through my reflecting on the observations of Henry Louis Gates in his PBS Series (during Black History month) on the history of the Black Church in America.
2021-03-0415 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonMaking Sense of the Most Disturbing Statement in the BibleNo statement by God seems more morally challenging than the prophet Samuel's demand for the complete annhilation of the Amalekites and their animals, followed by his condemnation of Saul for failing to kill King Agag and the choicest of the animals. The Amalekites are equated with the nature of evil itself, and so the resurgence of evil and especially genocidal anti-Semitism throughout the rest of time is somehow linked to the failure to "complete the job" of vanquishing them earlier on. In this very brief teaching, I try to learn a lesson we might otherwise resist from this troublesome pi...2021-03-0104 minJudaism for the Thinking Person"God, Let me receive good counsel!" The 5 minute practice that will change your lifeIn this 5 minute teaching, I read a poem by Zbigniew Herbert and then share a seriously short spiritual practice that involves receiving the deepest of advice. In that, I connect the prayer Hashkiveinu to the Mourners Kaddish to my own experience of practicing it.
2021-02-1705 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonJonah versus Moshe: When Do We Hold the King Accountable and When Do We Move On?As America faces what to do and think about impeachment, I reflect on the dramatic difference between the book of Jonah and account of the final plagues in Exodus where God hardens Pharoah's heart. In the former, God is so anxious to accept an apology, move on, and look to the future that Jonah wants to refuse God's service, and in the other God prevents the moving on that Moshe is so anxious to get to.
2021-02-0211 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonZikaron and the Filibuster: The Memory of Slavery and Dreaming God's Dream for AmericaParashah Bo repeatedly connects the memory of slavery to the establishment of Jewish rituals for all time, from the main features of the Passover seder to the First Fruit offerings in the Temple to ones we forget to associate with the memory of slavery like tefillin. (Later, even Shabbat will be firmly connected to the memory of slavery.) We in America have done the opposite by divorcing our institutions from the memory of slavery: case in point, the Filibuster which was not a patriotic institution of the founding fathers but rather an attempt to preserve slavery by Southern senators, and...2021-01-2414 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonGeneivat Daat: The Theft of Subjectivity by Media and its Pull Upon Us in the name of JusticeI examine the sin of Geneivat Daat -- theft of another's consciousness through words that might be parse-able but lead another to think something is true which isn't-- as the prevalent sin in a world of fragmented media tailored to incite us, and I relate this to former Jewish Theological Seminar chancellor Arnold Eisen's insight that we readers cheer Moshe on in his riotous act in the name of justsice, only to wonder how we found ourselves in that dubious moral place.
2021-01-1816 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Dreams of Genesis and Our Dreams: Our Alignment with the God WorldThe saga of Yosef is about dreaming beginning to end, with the parashah of Miketz as itself operating according to dream logic. Are dreams special in the Torah, unlike ours, as some kind of prophecy? Or is much of Genesis calling our attention to the God world all around us, the one we only know through "knowledge by inacquaintance" (Abraham Joshua Heschel)? Is it telling us that our conventional "common denominator" way of processing and understanding the world is flawed, limited, one of not knowing God is in this place, that other souls are in this place? How do we g...2020-12-2119 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonReuniting Religion and Psychology: Jacob's Dreams and the Therapeutic Uses of PsilocybinI relate Jacob's dream of the stairway to heaven and his dream of God-wrestling to the therapeutic uses of psilocybin to treat PTSD, depression, addiction, and end-of-life fear.
2020-12-0617 minJudaism for the Thinking Person"It's Their Money!"- The Ketubah, Traditional Jewish Marriage, and the Defrauding of Rachel and LeahThe stories of Jacob being defrauded by Lavan are taken to be the plot of the famous period of Jacob working for Lavan for 20 years before fleeing in the middle of the night. In this teaching, I show that this is a misunderstanding. Jacob has worked for 20 years for Lavan without being paid, but only 6 of those years are for Jacob and his arrangements with Lavan! The first 7 years are to earn money that goes directly to Leah, and the next 7 years are for the money that goes to Rachel! The story is about THEIR being defrauded! Why does every...2020-11-3019 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonTwo Types of Fear: Avoiding "Ideolatry" in our Political DivideDoes our system -- oaths of office, public promises, judicial decisions-- depend on fear of punishment or a different kind of fear [a reverence for God]? Why do I not cheat on my taxes? Why do I make excuses for policies that benefit me, and even double down on them? The commentary on the lying of Isaac (and Avraham) written by Rabbi Yitzchak ben Moshe Arama, the "Aqedat Yitzchak," from late 1400's Spain, gives us a clue how to proceed forward in repairing out broken system.
2020-11-2315 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonAnd Sarah was Stroking Avraham's Head: Rilke, Pandemic & The Intimacy of Caring for the DeadJewish law demands we bury our dead, yet human nature is to "protect the mourner in their grief" by distancing them from doing the act themselves. Jewish law follows suit by, over time, taking the demand to lovingly care for your dead and creating distance from that to "protect" the grieving. Rehearsing Rilke's opening from The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Rabban Gamliel's decrees on simple loving burial (despite our natural inclination to use "do whatever rich people do" as our definition of "honoring" our dead in burial customs), the reawakening to these truths during COVID's guidelines for not touc...2020-11-1616 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonSarah's Laugh and the Wisdom of MenopauseThe Rabbis see Sarah's laugh (at the divine prophecy of a pregnancy) as thumbing her nose at God and at her husband, now that her "period" (or "sexual enjoyment" -- edna could be translated as either) has ended "in the way of women" at a certain age. I've always found the Rabbis overwrought in their interpretation of Sarah's laugh, but in this podcast I take it seriously. I use the article (I just discovered) of Sandra Tsing Loh from The Atlantic in October 2011 called: "The Bitch Is Back: Are menopausal women mad, bad, and dangerous? Yes—but they’re really j...2020-11-0818 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Sarah & Hagar Narratives: Rethinking Privilege Through the Gift of Life in GenesisThis is a full-on "sermon" (delivered on Rosh Hashanah, "the Birthday of the World," in 2020) in which I look frankly upon the Sarah and Hagar narratives -- mistress and slave/servant/mother-- through the lens of the issues of "privilege" we are processing today. Schleiermacher -- among the half dozen most influential theologians in Western thought-- correctly argued that a certain consciousness of the gift of life is the fundamental basis of all true religion, leading to humility, passion, grace, and a connection to God-- yet in the Genesis narratives it does not lead to all these great things, i...2020-10-3024 minJudaism for the Thinking Person3 Dimensions of Time Intersecting in Shemini Atzeret & the Poetry of Louise GluckShemini Atzeret has the special distinction of being all of the following: 1) The only holiday that has no official traditional explanation. (Atzeret means some form of gathering, but we are left to speculate whether it's a special harvest ingathering, or a human gathering at the end of Sukkot, or a kind of makeup "extra day" of Sukkot for those who arrived late, but all these are speculative: no reason is given.) 2) It's still one of the four High Holidays (the others being Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot) and is a real holiday unto itself, and 3) It concluded the High...2020-10-1414 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonFiltering Out the Noise by Practicing Essentialism Under PandemicThe pandemic has forced most of us into a "Shabbat," a ceasing, a forced limitation on our time and resources, and yet we are faced with demanding decisions that have no clear right and wrong, and lots of risk in all directions. How do we allow this year to give us the gift of getting 'comfortable with discomfort' (rather than the "discomfort with our comfort" that we usually have)? In my own life, I use Greg Mckeown book on practicing "Essentialism." I share how I do that, and how you can, too.
2020-09-3018 minJudaism for the Thinking Person"The Clothes On Your Back Did Not Wear Out" - The Cost of Our ClothesDeuteronomy repeats that God tried to demonstrate how to walk with God when our clothes "did not wear out, nor your shoes" during the journey in the wilderness, as we learned that we "do not live on bread alone." During the pandemic, I've noticed that I wear three sets of clothes: Zoom clothes, non-Zoom clothes, and Shabbat clothes, and as we've slowed down our pace and we're not running around during this endurance stretch until a vaccine, we are --as Ibn Ezra interprets the "true" miracle-- realizing we walk with God in our slowing down, in our living the si...2020-09-0612 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDoes Pursuing Justice Begin with Carrying Around the Emoluments Clause?In the section of Deuteronomy customarily called "Shoftim" (which means both "Judges" and "Leaders"), we find the famous command that "Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue" but strangely without reference to the pursuit of social justice, community organizing, or even the personal awareness of victims. Instead it might mean that people in that position begin the process by focusing on the emoluments clause and their oath of office. What if our personal Torah, our personal scroll we carry around with us and occupy our minds with every day, was not the entire Torah but just our oath of office? What wou...2020-08-2512 minJudaism for the Thinking Person"You Must Extend a Loan to Your Brother" - Racial Discrimination in Lending TodayThe Rabbinic Commentators focus on the fact that Deuteronomy frequently and repeatedly uses the word ach, brother, to describe the needy person who isn't related to you. Whereas earlier in Torah, we are told not to oppress the "poor" or "afflicted" person, Deuteronomy modifies this language by insisting that we must loan to these people because they must be seen as our "brothers and sisters." I don't see any reading possible other than that the Torah is focusing on the problem of redlining, of consciously or unconsciously avoiding loaning money to people who look different from the family of the...2020-08-1914 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Conquest of The Land and The Problematic of "Indigenousness"Recently Rabbi Andy Kahn and Comedian Seth Rogen broadcast loud statements that Jews have been lied to and that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel. On the heels of these statements, the Jewish people in 2020 are going through the lengthy portion of Deuteronomy conveying both a demand of conquest and a moral framework. Can we learn from what the Torah is saying? Is the term "indigenous" just another progressive bludgeon that can mean whatever the twitterer wants it to mean? In this podcast, I explore a way forward.
2020-08-0919 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonThe Book of Numbers: The Dissolution of Community in the Breakdown of Face to Face CommunicationThe Book of Numbers is about the failure of "community" in the wilderness. After all the community building of the Exodus, of Mount Sinai, of familial and tribal ties, of building the Mishkan, of the inspiring blueprint for a new society in a land of milk and honey, of Moshe's leadership, of being in God's physical presence, of communal ritual feasting and celebration... none of it has worked, which, when you think about it, is absolutely amazing! In this dvar Torah, I give my answer as to why by looking at the common issue of the Miriam/Cushite incident, th...2020-06-3015 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonFaith in God is Faith in One's Own Ability to Bring About God's Purposes: Psalm 23, The Spies, Langston Hughes, and the Positivity BiasPsalm 23 is usually read as about a dead person getting to go through the valley of death and then live in God's house, but I read it, like the Mourner's Kaddish, as about a living person who goes through the experience of having a loved one die and transforms one's life from being in the depths to rising up to a life of living in this life in God's house, at the table in front of one's foes. I demonstrate this with two poems by Langston Hughes on how he, and all of us, will be part of a mo...2020-06-2415 minJudaism for the Thinking Person"Moses Married a Cushite Woman!" The Courage to Be Punished for Speaking Up for Black Lives MatterThe first verse of Numbers chapter 12 famously has Miriam "speaking against Moses on account of the Cushite woman he married." Though I most often hear people say that this means that Miriam was a racist who is complaining that Moses married a foreign black woman (either Tsipporah or a second wife), that is NOT the traditional understanding of the Rabbis. it's the opposite: Miriam is standing up on behalf of her black sister-in-law. Still, the commentaries are frustrating. I rehearse Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, and the Bekhor Shor medieval interpretations as they could be read as full of enlightenment for u...2020-06-1617 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonMy Response to the White House That We Should Reopen: "We Count Souls. What Are You Counting?"On Erev Shabbat, May 22, 2020, the press was filled with the White House's call for people to go to church and synagogue right away, this Shabbat, the Shabbat when we Jews begin the book of Numbers, the parashah of counting. In this ten minute sermon, I reply to the president's call, using the wisdom of our Torah and our Sages as we consider what that would truly look like, and how we count in this time.
2020-05-2510 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonAre Our Front Line "Heroes" Actually the New Servant Class? Leviticus Demands Redemption not ServitudeIn his essay in The Atlantic, Adam Serwer proposes that our self-understanding of the social contract is revealed by the decision-making process about the pandemic, as he writes that “the pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.” I compare his views to that of the end of Leviticus and of The Book of Ruth, which both demand that shared resources are understood to come from God, and that we overcome our picture of earned inequality and instead the privileged share their blessings freely, not with strings attached that...2020-05-2012 minJudaism for the Thinking PersonDon't Be So Darn Metaphysical: Misunderstanding and Mistranslating Biblical "Impurity"In this lecture from my series on "The 8 Most Misunderstood Things in the Bible," I tackle Leviticus's preoccupation with "uncleanness" and "impurity" that seems to stigmatize and isolate women, the sick, and others. It's one of those things that make people pick up a Hebrew Bible and say, "This stuff is barbaric and misogynistic." I argue that this is likely the parade example of misunderstanding Torah, based on misleading translation and the human being's inherent penchant for presuming metaphysics (invisible mechanisms that operate like they're physical but we just can't see, hear, or touch them?). Using the philosophical therapy of...2020-05-1451 min
ANTIC The Atari 8-bit PodcastANTIC Interview 274 - Nadav Caine, Mathematic-Tac-ToeNadav Caine, Mathematic-Tac-Toe Nadav Caine published one program for the Atari computer: Mathematic-Tac-Toe. This educational program first appeared in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog. This interview took place on March 17, 2017. Teaser quotes: "Look, my game's lousy. I'm embarrassed even to have a conversation about it." "All education is self-education. I don't think teachers put knowledge in your head." Mathematic-Tac-Toe at AtariMania Mathematic-Tac-Toe in the winter 1982-1983 APX catalog Quote Blaster - Nadav’s unpublished educational game 2017-03-2134 min