Monthly Archives: January 2019

Spinoza Serial Killer

Posted on January 31, 2019 by zjb

I realized today at the end of class. Spinoza was a serial killer. One thing after the next, the God of Israel, prophecy, miracle, law, election. Like him or not, but what’s left? He’s cold, not warm like Leibniz or … Continue reading →

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A Liberal Zionist Trick Teaching Israel (Anti-Zionism Comes First)

Posted on January 31, 2019 by zjb

Teaching Israel this year I decided to move things around. I used to teach the classical Zionist sources and then dive straight into the conflict with the Palestinians and the occupation of the West Bank, and these dominated the course. … Continue reading →

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Resurrection of the Dead (Talmud Group)

Posted on January 30, 2019 by zjb

[Ezekiel panel at Dura Europos] Ready to start Talmud Group at Syracuse this year, we are going to focus on messianism, namely the “messianic text” which is actually an anti-messianic text in chapter Helek of tractate Sanhedrin. We read the … Continue reading →

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(10 Commandments) Sabbath & The Jealous Mother God of Modern Bourgeois Judaism (Hertz Pentateuch)

Posted on January 28, 2019 by zjb

[photograph of Malka Mollie Fedder, my father’s maternal grandmother] What are the so-called 10 commandments? Are they a foundation of law, the political law of a polis? Or something else? Are they the law of God the Father? Or someone … Continue reading →

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(Birthday) JPP is 7 Years Old

Posted on January 25, 2019 by zjb

JPP turned 7 years old the other week, which is a nice number, and rather remarkable about what for me stands out as the passage of time. Next year, I think I run out of NYC subway lines with which … Continue reading →

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My Thursday (This Semester) Seeing the Divine Image in India & Spinoza

Posted on January 24, 2019 by zjb

Teaching Religion and Art and Politics & Religion/Modern Judaism today. They make sense together. The conceptual linkage: nature and the divine, big cosmic/metaphysical pictures, substance and avatar/modalities, imagination and images, religion and politics.

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This Semester/Today: Islamic Ornament, Spinoza, Land of Israel

Posted on January 22, 2019 by zjb

(heads framed in geometric ornament, Khirbat al-Mafjar, Palestine) This semester by a fluke I’m teaching three classes: a lower level survey on Religion and Art, and two advanced classes, a modern Jewish philosophy and thought class entitled Religion & Politics in … Continue reading →

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(Closing Off Conversation) JVP Anti-Zionism (Under the Gentile Gaze)

Posted on January 20, 2019 by zjb

[Julia Andrews-Clifford, The Female Gaze]  The recent JVP statement on anti-Zionism, which you can read here,  is typical anti-Zionist doggerel. Any interest it may or not contain speaks to what it says about JVP, not about what it purports to … Continue reading →

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(Rashi) God’s Great Hand (Man Ray)

Posted on January 19, 2019 by zjb

[Man Ray, Hand on Lips, 1926] Most translations in English elide the anthropomorphism. “And Israel saw the great hand…”  (Ex. 14:31). According to Rashi, “hand” refers to the great power done by the hand of the Holy one Blessed be … Continue reading →

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Votive Objects & Material Religion

Posted on January 16, 2019 by zjb

Went to see “Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place” at Bard Graduate Center Gallery. I understood that I was off to look at objects, but what are votive objects? Something loosely to do with “religion.” What I … Continue reading →

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