Monthly Archives: May 2015

“A Jewish Man Washing on the Beach” at the New York Times

Posted on May 31, 2015 by zjb

Very strange wording to this photo caption at the New York Times. “A  Jewish man washing at the beach” Not sure why the national-ethnic modifier made any sense in this otherwise interesting article about water conservation. The New Jew. In … Continue reading →

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Tiferet & Shekhina Look Like (Shiva and Parvati)

Posted on May 29, 2015 by zjb

This one was obvious; divine coupling.

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Hesed-Din-Tiferet Look Like (Brahman-Shiva-Vishnu

Posted on May 29, 2015 by zjb

Different in almost every other aspect, it is the triadic quality and its maleness that mark the mental resemblance between the group Hesed, Din, and Tiferet (the sephirot instantiating the divine qualities of compassion, judgment, and beauty) with the three … Continue reading →

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Makom Looks Like (Krishna)

Posted on May 28, 2015 by zjb

This looks like the rabbinic idea of God as Makom (Place). In the Bhagavad Gita (9:4), Krishna asserts, “All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.” I’m ready to confess I’m getting it wrong. I  found it quoted by … Continue reading →

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Gods of Flesh Gods of Stone (Theo-morphic Indian Religion)

Posted on May 27, 2015 by zjb

Close to finishing up for the moment a round of reading about Hinduism to be able to conclude that the discourse about images and idolatry in modern Jewish thought is fundamentally confused. But maybe Jewish Studies scholars interested in visual … Continue reading →

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$160,000,000 Later (The Tikvah Fund & Academic Austerity)

Posted on May 26, 2015 by zjb

I’ve been wanting to post this for a while and figure now is about the time because what’s done is done, and I want to get in a last word. It been a while since I’ve had occasion to think … Continue reading →

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Israel Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism (Obama Interview)

Posted on May 22, 2015 by zjb

1+1=2. That is to say that it is the ability to think two thoughts that are in tension which is what impressed me the most about President Obama’s remarks about Israel and Zionism and anti-Semitism in his interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, … Continue reading →

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Anti-Israel & Anti-Semitic In An Inside Space of the Public Sphere

Posted on May 21, 2015 by zjb

It’s one thing for neo-Nazis to have the right to march through the streets of Skokie, but I’m wondering what my friends further to the left think about the following scenario. A local civic group brings in a speaker to … Continue reading →

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Sasanian Faces (Babylonian Talmud)

Posted on May 20, 2015 by zjb

At the Met the other day, I liked these Sasanian faces. Just playing around with the image, I’d like to superimpose them on the Babylonian Talmud. Hammered out of a single sheet of silver, this guy above is obviously a king, … Continue reading →

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Religious & Political Lives of Indian Images (Richard H. Davis)

Posted on May 20, 2015 by zjb

A super awesome book, I’m not sure how I stumbled upon this one. Maybe maybe it was upon the recommendation of my nephew who went to Bard, where Richard H. Davis teaches. Less devoted to aesthetics per se, Lives of … Continue reading →

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