Monthly Archives: April 2015

Spring Night Flowering

Posted on April 25, 2015 by zjb

Out the other night with the dog, taking pictures of flowering trees and flowers. Me that is, not the dog.

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Iconic Letters & “Meaningless” Prayer (Pillar of Prayer)

Posted on April 24, 2015 by zjb

It came across my desk and I thought I should read Meanchem Kallus’ translation of the Pillar of Prayer (Amud ha’Tefilah). It’s a loosely organized anthology of sayings attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, but it seems that it was … Continue reading →

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(Melancholic Thoughts) Aharon Lichtenstein (z”l)

Posted on April 22, 2015 by zjb

I hesitate to post this because it’s going to sound mean spirited. This week has seen the passing of Aaron Lichtenstein –an American educated student of Joseph Soloveitchik and  co-founder of Yeshivat Gush Etzion in the West Bank, and a … Continue reading →

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Holy Days Crown Heights Riot (Reading Lis Harris, Jean Baudrillard, and Anna Deavere Smith)

Posted on April 21, 2015 by zjb

Last week my American Judaism grad seminar, we read Lis Harris’ Holy Days, a mid 1980s chronicle about her explorations into the Lubavitch community. We read her text along with Haym Soloveitchik’s “Rupture and Transformation,” and passages from Jean Baudrillard’s … Continue reading →

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(Spring) Walk in the (Morningside) Park

Posted on April 20, 2015 by zjb

Everything’s in bloom, up and down the hill alongside the west side of Morningside Park.

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Arab Liberal Perfidy

Posted on April 19, 2015 by zjb

So-called progressive university professors tend to have it out for liberals. Swinging hard and broadly, for a full blown rant against Arab liberals, here’s a piece by Joseph Massad, which you can read here at Electronic Intifadah. Included are the … Continue reading →

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(Human-Non-Human) Night of Philosophy (April 24)

Posted on April 19, 2015 by zjb

What’s going on in philosophy? Check out the program, which you can find here, for this all-night philosophical symposium cum art-music-performance spectacle, geared to an educated popular audience. Very serious, it looks like a lot of fun. But I guess … Continue reading →

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Spinoza (Affect, Phenomenology, Politics)

Posted on April 18, 2015 by zjb

Excellent review, which you can read here, by Benjamin Wurghaft on 3 new Spinoza books: Hasana Sharp, Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization, Knox Peden Spinoza Contra Phenomenology: French Rationalism from Cavailles to Deleuze Antonio Negri, Spinoza for Our Time: … Continue reading →

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Copland & Stravinsky?!

Posted on April 18, 2015 by zjb
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First Spring Green (Morningside Park)

Posted on April 17, 2015 by zjb

Before they begin to cover the visual field, first spring leaves highlight the relation between background and foreground.

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