Jack Micheline, the poet, said, “To be Jewish is to be free and beautiful.” I love this statement, but I find it challenging. Is it actually true? Is it a truth that accords with the kind of Rabbinic Judaism that I have been a part of? Is it true from the point of view of a Secular Jew like Micheline only?

We need to take a risk, which sometimes means to literally leap into the absurd, simply because… we have no choice.

My new goal is to create a separate Der Nister-distributed monthly newsletter, available to those who specifically sign up for it, which I call “Der Zunenshtral” (The Sunbeam), in homage to the many Yiddishists who came before to LA and fell in love with the sun.

Ahad Ha’am’s greatness is not in either his originality or in his successes. It lies in his struggle to overcome his flaws and to share what was best in himself despite those flaws.

We were made to create, we were made to become participants in the act of creation. The modern process of alienation in labor took it away from us.

״מצװה גדולה להיות בשׂמחה.״ אַזוי האָט רבי נחמן געזאָגט, ״כִּי טֶבַע הָאָדָם-לִמְשׁךְ עַצְמוֹ לְמָרָה שְׁחרָה וְעַצְבוּת מֵחֲמַת פִּגְעֵי וּמִקְרֵי הַזְּמַן, וְכָל אָדָם מָלֵא יִסּוּרִים.״ (װײַל דעם מענטשס נאַטור איז זיך אַרײַנצוצויגן אין אַ מרה־שהורה און טרויער צוליב די אומגערעכטיקײט פֿון זײַן תּקופֿה; יעדער אײנער לײַדט פֿון יסורים.) צו װאַרטן אויף עולם־הבא איז נישט קײן לײזונג.

Ahad Ha’am was exposed to manners and mores of the leadership of the Hasidic movement. While he was strongly critical of it, once he was able to put some distance between it and himself, he was never able to separate himself from the social thinking and organization that he experienced within it.

“Fashion is tyrannical and utopian at the same time: it imposes a norm which it claims is freedom.”

How moral is a tax system, and can it ever be? Is it a violation of human rights to coerce people to contribute their money towards purposes they might disagree with? 

The collective consciousness that is possible in Los Angeles is of the most diverse, the most interesting, the most wonderful people. As a metal box blocks out radio waves, so too does a car block out the emotions of others. Sometimes, those emotions are scary. Sometimes they are disturbing. But precluding those out of fear also precludes the generosity, the surprises, the opening up people do when they talk.

We forget sometimes how much history we are sitting on and what kind of a hold it has on us.

The sages compared a fire to a calamity which one does not have control over, calamity which may start at no fault of one's own, and becomes fueled and spread by thorns (the wicked) but unfortunately consumes the righteous first (the standing piles of grain.)

Cultural Zionism is neither Cultural Judaism nor the opposite of it. Rather, it is an idea that came into focus in opposition to Political Zionism.

A.D. Gordon viewed the world, the entirety of existence in fact, as a network of partnerships.

I keep thinking of Wollstonecraft, who took that leap of faith for all of us women, who risked everything and jumped into the waters herself, metaphorically and figuratively.

Many people want to pass on the books that they have so that others can make use of what they no longer need; however, the wise among them often fear that they lack the ability to discern what among their old books continues to be useful and what isn’t.

I believe that we can make space holy by designing it to be that way, not through our own will, but by shepherding and arranging elements of a space so that it conjures our most deeply held feelings and spiritual yearnings.

די סאָלדאַטן פֿונעם אַמעריקאַנער אַרמײ האָבן דערנענטערט יוטאַ, און די מאָרמאָנער האָבן זיך צוגעגרײט צו קעמפֿן. אָבער אין דער לעצטער מאָמענט, זײ האָבן שלום געמאַכט, און די אַמעריקאַנער ברירה פֿאַרן גובערנאַטאָר, אַלפֿרעד קומינג, האָט די שטעלע גענומען. אַחוץ די מאַסן־מאָרדערס, בוקאַנאָן האָט דערלאַנגט באַגענעדיקונג (מחילה) פֿאַר די מאָרמאָנער װאָלטן זײ געבליבן געטרײַ צו אַמעריקע.

Black Mountain would ultimately fail to attract almost any black students or faculty. Soltz credits this to the fact that the school, being unaccredited, was less useful to the type of Black students who might have been interested in the academic level of the school. But she also points to a serious failure of the culture.

We should get to know our students, respect them and let them know that we are here as companions, and know that their questioning of everything will help us, the adults, also question the systems that we have placed around us.