ACCEPTING THE TORAH THROUGH THE PRISM OF CHAOS THEORY: A DEVAR TORAH FOR SHAVUOT Introduction Plato’s theory of ideas, and Aristotle’s more empirical approach, are the foundations of the Western intellectual tradition.1 Both wanted to achieve an ideal understanding, categorization and explanation of the world we inhabit and our position as humans within it. These intellectual giants have influenced Jewish…
Author: Jeremy Rosen
Ecclesiastes and Self Help
A recent need for self criticism and introspection drew me back to one of my favorite biblical books: Ecclesiastes (Kohelet). Traditionally it is attributed to King Solomon. Like all the books of the bible there is much debate about its origin, date and author. But I find it an amazing short book for lots of reasons, not least because it…
Toby
In my youth, school teachers were divided into two categories: non-Jewish, who were invariably competent and well trained, though often boring; and Jewish, who were mainly refugees or misfits who had found their way into education by accident or necessity. They were either terrible or inspirational (sometimes both). Amongst the latter was one man I am indebted to for giving…
Eve and Cain
We have started the annual cycle of reading the Torah. Every year I come to a familiar, beloved text and invariably see something new. The Bible can be read, sung, looked at numerically, literarily, mystically, and academically. In our cultural world we tend to focus on reading a text and we ignore the sounds of the words and the way…
Hannah Arendt Was Wrong
Hanna Arendt (1906–1975), the German-born American political theorist, was a regarded as a major influential thinker. In her day, she was the symbol of liberal intellectuality, lionized in academic circles. She is now largely out of fashion, because her ideology does not fit into today’s dogmatic and prejudiced liberal, academic world. I admit my bias against her. She was once the mistress of Nazi…
In Defense of the Haredi World
Most of the time, the Haredi world get a really bad press. Extremism. Lack of social responsibility, religious coercion, dirty party politics, and corruption. Everywhere politics are so dishonest, so one-sided, so immaturely simplistic and aggressive. In my opinion there is a great deal in the Haredi world that deserves criticism, even condemnation. Even so, I think the Haredi world…