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Showing posts from July, 2010

Devarim, Tisha Be’Av, and that Empty Argument Feeling

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Have you ever thought about how we need to be right most of the time? We always seem to think that since we thought of it, it must be true and therefore, anyone with an opposing opinion is obviously deluded for some reason. The hardest thing in the world is... to admit that we were wrong—not because we think someone else was right, but because we just cant admit that we were wrong in the first place! Think back to an argument that you had recently. Do you remember when it was over; all you could think was that you were glad it was over and that it probably wasn’t worth it to begin with? This Shabbat, we will read Parshat Devarim (Things or Words), the beginning of the book of Deuteronomy in English. I have gone on-and-on in past blogs about how words and things are one-in-the-same (for a refresher, click here and here too if you dare), so why does Moses need to recap the adventures of the Israelites? The things were already said, so to speak... Maybe we should start with the fact that...

Caution: Parental Advisory Recommended

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Disclaimer: This blog may contain material that could be perceived as offensive or culturally dogmatic and as well, could be seen as the exact opposite of this idea or contrary to any preconceived notions that you may have been force-fed as a child or otherwise ingested over your lifetime and you might not like it either… Picture is of the Golden Gate in Jerusalem. When I was young, I lived in a world that I have referred to as The Precious Green Mold of My Life , where I often perceived myself as the only human being on an alien world set up as an experiment, just to see how I would react to introduced, or inserted into my consciousness, stimuli. We discovered that this was not so far from the truth, as it turned out. Well, the green mold grew and filled with air, hot and cold, and by the time I graduated from 4 years of high school, traveling around the world a bit, and then 7 years of art school, the precious green mold became an enormous sponge-monster that could absorb anything it...