The Jewish Book Arts Collective
דער קאָלעקטיוו אַרבעט צו באַערן די טראַדיציע פֿון דער ייִדישער דרוק־קולטור דורך לעטערפּרעס.
Meritocracy is a Lie
The danger isn't simply that some people win and others lose. The danger is what happens to us after we win.
Destroyed in the Name of AI
When I sold these books I thought that they were going to a person or an institution where they would be read as the books that they are rather than turned into data for a machine.
Essential and Superficial
God cannot force us to see Him as more important than the world that is right before our eyes.
“And I pleaded”
Why is it so important that Moses loses responsibility and the Children of Israel take it on, for Moses’ own failure?
Zion’s Fiction
Israel, like the Netherlands, is a small country with a strong literary culture and a healthy publishing industry. Nevertheless, certain types of subject matter don’t seem to get much play.
Embracing Failure
“…there is nothing like experiencing failure to give you a more intense understanding of responsibility—that is, if you manage to open yourself to it wholly and without prevarication—as responsibility for one's self.”
Social Narcissism
According to Fromm, narcissism was not only an individual trait. Individuals could sometimes transfer their narcissism onto groups. Instead of saying: "I am wonderful," they say: "My nation is wonderful, my religion is perfect, my race is superior, my political movement alone possesses truth, my denomination alone is chosen."
Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
The AI revolution is causing a realignment of the ways that we provide for ourselves economically. I could have said jobs, but even the idea of what a job is seems to be up for grabs.
The Worst of the Rebuke
In the poem that I have translated, Yehoyash references the expulsion of the Jews from Judea that Tisha B'Av commemorates, but turns his focus to assimilation that Yehoyash lived through in the Russian Empire and America, where children become instrumentalized to destroy the old world culture.
Klezcummington Festival (in Yiddish)
דער ערשטער מאָמענט וואָס איך בין אַרײַנגעגאַנגען אויפֿן באָדן פֿונעם פֿעסטיוואַל־אָרט, האָב איך זיך געפֿילט ווי איך וואָלט געװען אַרײַן אין אַ בלעזל, אָדער ווי איך וואָלט געהאַט ארײַנגעקומען אין אַ שלאָס.
Treatise on Tolerance
In his treatise, Voltaire wrote against religious intolerance and the fanaticism of the church. He claimed that religious intolerance is the cause of war and bloodshed, not, as the state put it, a means to preserve peace and stability.
Jewish Lives, Jewish Learning (Part 2)
Jewish learning is not the memorization of a catechism. Getting the right answer is less important in Jewish learning than developing an understanding for oneself of the question and an answer.
Three Vantage Points
But the question is, what does it actually mean for Jews to be united? As Balak and Balaam discover, the Jewish people cannot be broken into pieces by sorting them into “good” and “bad.”
Jewish Lives, Jewish Learning
Working your way up to a strong level of competency as a Jewish learner is not an end unto itself. It is a foundation for further learning, deeper self-knowledge and a balanced integration of one’s Jewish and secular identity.
Rebbe Nachman’s Story of the Only Son (in Yiddish)
ס׳זענען דאָ לעכער, פֿעלער, אין די מעשה, און אַז מע לייענט פֿרעגט מען וואָס דווקא איז געשען. נאָר דער עיקר איז אין גאַנצן קלאָר: מע זאָל לעבן אָן מורא, און זוכן נישט קיין סיבות צו האָבן מורא. מע זאָל גײען אויף רײַזעס צום צדקן און אים שטעלן די קשיות, און ער וועט געבן גוטע עצות.
Demonizing Korach
Korach seems unpleasant at least. We can easily judge him for that alone. The rabbis have been much harsher in their judgment.
Freud and Philosophy
The philosopher Jonathan Lear writes that Freud had 3 primary contributions: “a science of subjectivity; the discovery of an archaic form of mental functioning; the positing of Love as a basic force in nature.”
Moral Decisions
Yeshayahu Leibowitz (1903-1994), the Israeli philosopher, scientist and polymath, raises a question we still grapple with today: what is the “correct will?” Is there such a thing as correct will?