I hope that enough time has passed for me to talk about the last time I saw Hitch[I]. Fortune had blessed me with the opportunity to interview the shrunken titan, and also to test the mettle of my confidence against the confidence of his mettle. [Editor: Strike, no one cares about your B.A. – people want to know about Hitchens because he’s dead, not you] I had planned to write an article...
Print of Joseph’s Blessing
This is a poem about looking for purpose and direction, and how their considerations. Preface The gaze of our yearnings may differ Hence I had not tailored this message to my own.[1] Prelude In dreams born of dreams[2] All the meanings are cryptic And signify things unknowable. To rule them is to dream them, (the prophets read their own minds[3]). Method Goodness appears in the territorial...
Misc Confusions
{Part 1 – 18/05/2017} On one foot: for the kids: life is a series of lost opportunities, but don’t mistake vs low hanging over-ripe or immature fruit. Sometimes the perfect moment is not given, and we only see what is beautiful too early or too late. And that is life. On one foot: for the adults: history is a series of disasters, Global deterioration with long wars and collapsing...
Horses and Children
It dawns on me – in the manner of a cloud unshrouding the sun – that the relationship and effect of H sapien parents on their young can be read through the same prism that refracts the relationship and effect of the H sapien on their equine dependents. Many times it has happened that I learned to discern the pattern of a master’s ego and will in the movement and predilections of their...
Vayetzei
Climbing ladders on one foot: theoretical underpinnings of iterative enlightenments. B/s: Commentary on the ladder as sui genera of metaphors Angels walking up and down What is the evil eye Pirkei Avot on justice Heart as the fulcrum of Israeli (viz. Kadosh) climbing Cf. non-Kadosh climbing Hook-in Vayichi Appreciation for the variegation of mechanisms by which ascent is developed Inc. different...
Bamidbar
Practical Midrash: Thinking about secondary “currency” used to stabilize internal value (money) flow between gov’t and citizens, such that tax is not a “gift” to government, but rather a loss-invoking investment (~renting stock/bonds) which [i.e. ~reimbursement/repayment/dividends] has been capped according to the relationship between concentrated value (e.g. gold) and fundamental value (e.g...
Shabat
Editorial notes: This essay moves from a brief reference to the Mishnah Shabbat to Kabbalistic categories mentioned in passing referring to Shabbat and everyday affairs, on to Midrashic analogies and the desirability of being true to oneself and ends with applying Kabbalistic terms to the crucial importance of the material world. This is related to the Fifth Commandment of honouring one’s parents...
Lech Lecha
{Part 1 – 06/11/2016} Trying to get a fix on the best way to think about this… 3**-2**** with itself. Cf. Noah’s ark cf. “tell them you’re my sister” per Ohr Hachayim cf. until Schem until Alon Morah > Per Otiyot > Per Ramban re. Schem re. Levi and Shimon >> Add ref to Yosef >> Could even add re. the “missing” numbers cf. what the...
Behar-Bechukotai
{Part 1 – 14/05/2017} I wonder at the sequence of the holidays overlaying the parashiot, moving from Shemot to Purim to Pesach to Vayikra to the omer and Behar, approaching Shavuot, having past the point of 33 (lamed gimmel which burn like a fire). How does one enter a spiral gate? Every time you went through it, you would follow a circular path needing to enter it again. At each half-way...
Vayechi
{Part 1 – 09/01/2017} How do we move ourselves forward in time? The Haftorah echoes David preparing for death (as does Yaakov in the parashah), instructing his son (and Yaakov does this in the blessing, and in the meaning of Vayechi Yaakov). There are many difficulties. We are drowned by our own suffering (Zohar Vayechi 216), and we are hidden by our flaws (Dvarim 31.18). This is a terrible...