Monthly Archives: October 2015

Apples & Foliage

Posted on October 25, 2015 by zjb
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Keep Off On Pain of Death (The Temple Mount, King Herod & Historical Context)

Posted on October 24, 2015 by zjb

It sounds like King Herod wanted to allow non-Jews to go up to the Temple Mount so that he could show off the new Temple digs. But they could only go so far into the heart of the complex. An … Continue reading →

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Halakhic Ban on Jewish Access to Temple Mount

Posted on October 23, 2015 by zjb

An old poster by leading rabbinic authorities in the ultra-orthodox community in Israel banning Jewish access to the Temple Mount. Treading on the holy of holies, whose location is unknown incurs the ban of karet. Re: a more recent announcement … Continue reading →

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New (Vital) Materialisms

Posted on October 23, 2015 by zjb

Reviewing my reading notes, I’m not sure what to say about the excellent edited volume, New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics edited by Diana Coole and Samantha Frost. I’m looking at it as a sister, cross-over companion to Material Feminisms edited by … Continue reading →

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The Mufti of Jerusalem, Adolph Hitler, and Benjamin Netanyahu at the 37th Zionist Congress

Posted on October 22, 2015 by zjb

A philosophical problem, it’s impossible to ascertain what’s inside another person’s head at the moment he or she mangles a foundational historical truth that is basic to the constitution and self-constitution of so many people and peoples –the Jewish people, … Continue reading →

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Points of No Return (Jerusalem) (2015)

Posted on October 20, 2015 by zjb

On many things Jerusalem –points of no return, the current spiraling of violence, delusions, borders, religion, the collapse of traditional authority, youth violence, settlements, dividing the city, and the 2 state solution. A must read here by Danny Seidemann, executive director … Continue reading →

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(Too) Jewish Jewish Studies (?) Roundtable Discussion (Syracuse University)

Posted on October 19, 2015 by zjb
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(Moshe Chayyim Luzzatto) Anthroposophy (The Way of God)

Posted on October 19, 2015 by zjb

For years on the ten days between Rosh Ha’Shanah and Yom Kippur, I read Moshe Chayyim Luzzatos’ classic ethical treatise, Path of the Just (Mesilat Ha’Yesharim). This year I picked up the Hebrew-English edition of The Way of God (Derekh … Continue reading →

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Fall Colors & Big Sky

Posted on October 17, 2015 by zjb

On the way home, somewhere driving south of Scranton on rt 380, on a Friday afternoon with the colors turned on under a big, heavy sky. The hard trunks and twigs twist into the color.

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Israel & Palestine Today & Echoes From 1929 (Hillel Cohen)

Posted on October 16, 2015 by zjb

Including reference to Kook and Agnon, historian Hillel Cohen notes parallels today with the riots between Jews and Arabs in British Mandate Palestine, 1929, and why everyone needs to pull back hard from the brink. “The balance of power between … Continue reading →

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