Monthly Archives: April 2020

(Modern Jewish Esotericism) Holocaust Parapsychology (Aaron Zeitlin)

Posted on April 30, 2020 by zjb

Of enormous interest to readers of the phenomenology of religion, literature and Yiddish literature, the Holocaust and postwar Jewish culture in Israel and the United States, trauma and memory studies, the occult and esotericism, psychology and philosophy is this extraordinary … Continue reading →

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(Photos) Israel War of Independence (Life Magazine)

Posted on April 29, 2020 by zjb

(h/t Sydney Nestel) Photos from 1948 documenting the Israel War of Independence and Palestinian Nakba. They were published in Life Magazine with a distinctive and even neutral point of view. They were posted at The Palestine Project at Medium. The … Continue reading →

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(Russian Resurrection) Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)

Posted on April 28, 2020 by zjb

I don’t have to say a lot to say about Christianity and cinema in Andrei Rublev (1966) by the great Andrei Tarkovsky, master of the long-shot form of the time-image. Just one quick comment about the structure of the film and the … Continue reading →

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(Hey Joggers) A Little Social Etiquette, Please

Posted on April 27, 2020 by zjb

Just now, I was out walking the dog, startled. “Sorry,” said the youngish woman running past me from behind, way too close, not wearing a mask, and just a little too quick for me to say, “FUCK! REALLY?”

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(Art & Artifice of Religion) Lishna de-Rabbanan (Aharon Lichtenstein)

Posted on April 26, 2020 by zjb

  Yitz Landes posted here at Twitter this translation of a bit from Aharon Lichtenstein touching upon [1] art, artifice, and artificiality of the type of literary style in (Jewish) religion intentionally removed from lived social contexts and cultural surroundings, … Continue reading →

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(Coronavirus) Social Bubbles (Basic, Incorporated, Conjoined)

Posted on April 25, 2020 by zjb

On cooperative living alone together, this article here in the NYT on different kinds of social bubbles might be key to getting through. There is the Basic Bubble, the Incorporated Bubble, and the Conjoined Bubble. This article here about a … Continue reading →

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Foucault & Maimonides (Coronavirus)

Posted on April 24, 2020 by zjb

The Coronovirus pandemic keeps bringing me back as a go-to to Foucault (always under the influence of colleague and friend Gail Hamner) and to Maimonides (at the suggestion of colleague and friend Bill Plevan who recommended reading Hilkhot Deot). Foucault … Continue reading →

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(A Sketch) Religion & Society (First Things)

Posted on April 23, 2020 by zjb

(Pompeii Family) Against this nonsense that religion comes first, maybe it comes second. Ornament, not foundation Understanding that religion and society are almost always already there together, distinct, but not separable The following is by way of a heuristic experiment … Continue reading →

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Don’t Be Like Moloch (Sam Brody Says)

Posted on April 22, 2020 by zjb

Sam Brody says: This is Moloch. His hobbies include war, passing children through the fire, and human sacrifice in general. Don’t be like Moloch.* *This post is sponsored by Jewish memory and is not necessarily endorsed by scholars of ancient … Continue reading →

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(Foucault) The Birth of The Clinic (Reading Notes)

Posted on April 21, 2020 by zjb

In the spirit of the day I’m including text on epidemic consciousness, medical fields, the medical gaze, death and the human. Below are more or less chapter by chapter reading-notes cribbing directly from the primary text, Foucault’s The Birth of … Continue reading →

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