Objective Reality Is For Meeting G-d
“Facts don’t care about your feelings,” some Jews say. I do wonder, though. If facts don’t care about your feelings, why is Rosh Hashana called the “day of the beginning of your action”? In many other words: Once upon a time, centuries ago, few would have recognized a real facts/feelings distinction, if “facts” mean shared […]
Why History’s Greatest Philosopher Lived in Liadi
I am only a beginner student of philosophy, so when I say the Alter Rebbe is the greatest thinker to ever live, it has nothing of the authority of Yitro, who chose G-d after worshipping all idols on the face of the earth. Really, I am giving a considered opinion that may be wrong but […]
Perhaps Ben Zoma’s words in Chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot are not as simple as they appear. The sage seems to be explaining why we should not seek wealth, wisdom, and strength in the traditional senses. You can make all the money in the world, but until you’re satisfied, you’re not rich. You can lift […]
Every year, Reb Shlomo ‘the Yellow’, the melamed of Nevel, would walk to Lubavitch to spend the Simchat Torah festival with his rebbe, Rabbi Sholom DovBer. Even in his later years when his strength had failed him, he refused to climb onto a wagon for even a minute; every step of the way was taken […]
Chassidus — Formal & Inefficient
What Aristotle knew—and we forgot—about Chassidus.
What A Jew Wants (Doesn’t Matter)
In a sense, an anti-Semite might be forgiven for attributing all evil to the Jews, as there is no evil we will not learn, argue about, contemplate during Shmoneh Esrei, dream about on Shabbos, and master. The anti-Semite thinks the Jews want to conquer the world. Like all good ideas, he stole this from the […]
Nature, free will, and headache (relief).
If You’re Hungry, Eat Yourself
The truest things cannot be understood, because they themselves understand, and what understands cannot be understood. Take a man or woman. We peel off their star chart or Spotify most-listened tracks of 2017 and we see them for what they are in their complexity, and we tell them, “In this, I think I see you.” […]
A Teaching of the Rebbe Rashab
In commemoration of the birthday of the Rebbe Rashab, 20 Cheshvan, 5778. Why would G-d create the universe? It doesn’t make sense. A philosopher knows it doesn’t make sense. G-d is, of course, the perfect, necessary being. He needs nothing; He is utterly complete in a fashion quite beyond human reckoning. Even the words “complete” […]
A Framework For Torah Politics
What is required then, for Torah to “teach” politics, is a framework for synthesis.