Haim Watzman A preview of a conversation I’ll be leading at an all-night Shavu’ot study session this evening—happy holiday to all. Ostensibly simple, theologically maddening, Psalm 146 is one of my favorite biblical poems—precisely, perhaps, because its ostensible simplicity is so maddening. And since it gets recited each day in the morning service, where it [...]

[Read more →]

Haim Watzman The dust rose so high to the sky that heaven and earth seemed to have reverted to a dull yellow primordial chaos. The engines of dirt-caked, drab army transports rumbled, the horns of master sergeants’ white vans honked. I stood, trying to be seen and heard, at the Fatma Gate in Metula, seeking [...]

[Read more →]

Haim Watzman In response to my post The Torah-Who Needs It, “Haskalah” asks: Can a Jew “think hard about every action, about what it means and what its consequences will be, without the Torah?” Did no one do so before the first Sha’vuot? In short, is it possible for a Jew to be moral and [...]

[Read more →]

Poor God. You created the world, you are the power and glory, but everyone thinks you’re a Republican. But the association of the Most High with the most right-wing doesn’t stand up to philosophical scrutiny. Conservatives, after all, love order. They want today to be like yesterday, and tomorrow to be like the day before [...]

[Read more →]