Tzedek

March 17, 2025

Another Week Back in College

I'm catching up on the whole week, after preparing for and celebrating Purim…. The week's notes in Lit and Arts were a lot about the successors of Charlemagne, and the disjuncture between the disintegration of their authority and their realm, and their self-representation in Christian books and architecture as Christ's designated earthly power. As I… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Art, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Justice, Power, Study, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
March 12, 2025

Recommended Links of Mine for Purim This Year

Here in one place are links to the pieces I've done related to Purim and our contemporary world that I think are particularly worth a look or listen this year. For reading, listening, or watching. Introducing Adar Conversations: Esther-Informed Spiritual Therapy (read and video) Getting to Mi Yode'a ("Who Knows") — Moral Clarity in a Topsy-Turvy World… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Esther, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, Jewish Education, Joy, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Power, Purim, Shabbat Zachor, Simcha, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tov! Podcast, Tzedakah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
January 29, 2025

Wrapping Up My First Semester

I am probably already getting a late start on my second semester of college review, so here I am bundling all my leftover notes about first term. I haven't mentioned my Hebrew literature class with Professor Safran. I don't know that I have notes. We read mostly Agnon stories, and talked a lot about his… Continue reading

Books, College, Ethics, Hebrew, Justice, Psychology, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
January 2, 2025

College: Wrapping Up “Justice”

For much of Justice, certainly the last many weeks of the course while I was a freshman, my main interest was finding a good philosophical justification for distributive justice. Both of my papers were critiques of libertarianism, attempts to buttress the politics I had (and have). The choices in the class were between a Rawslian… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, Money, Tzedek, USA
November 20, 2024

Back to College: From Aristotle to Rawls

So back to Justice. I’m trying to see if there’s anything from Aristotle that is in the notes but didn’t stick in my mind back then. One thing I see is the distinction between habits and character. Which is really what distinguishes Aristotle from any old consequentialism. One ought to act the way a virtuous… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, Ethics, Freedom, Justice, Middot, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, Youth
November 15, 2024

Avraham: Extraordinary Compassion and Justice in the Same Chapter

This is the draft of my D'var Torah for tomorrow, focusing on Genesis 18 within Parashat Vayera. One afternoon when Avraham did not feel at all great, two things happened. First, he saw three strangers going along their way and he ran out to them to bring them home. Second, and right after, he had… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Election, Justice, Love, Middot, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Vayera
November 13, 2024

Catching Up in College: Justice

I have more than a month of “Justice” to catch up on, after I took what I thought would be a short break for the Jewish holy days during which I’d catch up every few days. I’ll try not to do that again. It's also more than interesting that I have been thinking about this… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, Ethics, Freedom, Justice, Maimonides, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
November 13, 2024

Catching Up in College: Justice

I have more than a month of “Justice” to catch up on, after I took what I thought would be a short break for the Jewish holy days during which I’d catch up every few days. I’ll try not to do that again. It's also more than interesting that I have been thinking about this… Continue reading

College, Current Affairs, Ethics, Freedom, Justice, Maimonides, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
September 26, 2024

Back to College: Critiquing Utilitarianism

"Today" in Justice (Moral Reasoning 22), it was both a lecture and the first section! In the big lecture, the focus was on critiquing Bentham's utilitarianism, from the outside and the inside. I remember Professor Sandel's funny thing about how a research attempting to measure comparative utilities by survey found that living in Kansas was… Continue reading

College, Education, Ethics, Justice, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult
June 27, 2024

The Grape Cluster and the Two Who Carry It: A D’var Torah for Pride

This is the D’var Torah I gave for Pride Shabbat 5781/2021, for Parashat Sh’lach L’cha (Numbers 13:1-15:41). I love this parasha about the scouts, the m’raglim, and the fact that the Torah is so brutally honest about how hard it is to go forward even to a land of milk and honey, even when the… Continue reading

Calendar, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Friendship, GLBT, Gratitude, Hakarat Hatov, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, LGBTQ+, Parashat Hashavua, Sh’lach L’cha, Teens, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 15, 2024

Yom Hashoah Remarks 5784 (2024)

This is what I said at the ceremony of lighting candles at the end of our annual Holocaust Remembrance Program in Nashua which the Jewish community holds at Rivier University in conjunction with the school, our Catholic partner in remembering. After the thank you's I said this: We came here this evening to learn and… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Gaza, History, Holidays, Holocaust, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Justice, LGBTQ+, Power, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, Yom Hashoah, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 3, 2024

Tentative Torah For the Week’s Parasha and Week of Protests

Some meandering and very rough notes about the opening of this week’s Torah reading, Leviticus 16. It stands on its own, though originally this all emerged from me during the spring 2024 events at Columbia University and other places. The chapter appears to be just the description by the Divine to Moshe and Aharon (Moses… Continue reading

Acharei Mot, Antisemitism, Calendar, Current Affairs, Foregiveness, Friendship, Gaza, Holidays, Interfaith Dialogue, Israel, Justice, Leadership, Middot, Midrash, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Ritual, Tzedek, USA, Yom Kippur, Young Jewish Adult