philosophy
When Taking a Stand is Futile
When the Greeks took over Judea a few thousand years ago, they were very into sports. Just as today, men throwing things and fighting each other determined who was cool, popular, and deserving of sponsorships. Naturally, the Jews wanted to fit in with the Greeks and be athletic and cool, so they built a stadium (…)
Can We Have More of This? On The Skills That Make For a Better Society
To my knowledge, I have never once modeled the behavior of flushing public toilets that were not used by me. My daughter (she’s five) tells me, “There are a lot of poops in the bathroom at school and people just leave them there.” I listened wondering why, of all the things to share about your (…)
Enjoying Yourself While The World Burns
I managed to coerce myself to have what I’m told is called “fun” a few weekends ago and it got me thinking about the difficulty inherent in “letting go” and enjoying yourself while the world burns. For me, I can’t. I get instantly assaulted with guilt, then shame, and then my brain tells me that if I just (…)
On The Privilege of Hiding
There are a few places outside of Texas or California where I will agree to eat tacos. Born and raised in Texas, I am a taco snob; so when a new taco joint opened in Jersey City about 10 or so years ago, I agreed to go reluctantly. There were maybe seven of us at dinner (…)
Exist
One of the things you grow up thinking about when you are the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors is, “What would I have done?” Who would I be? There are things that get discussed fairly openly that you don’t realize are odd until you are exposed to “non-Holocaust” families. Like: How many languages can you speak? (…)
Apology Demands Admission (My Annual Yom Kippur Sermon)
Yom Kippur is coming up which means it’s time for my annual sermon on forgiveness. This year I’m going to tell you a less-known fact about the tradition and assert something that appears on the surface sacrilegious but hear me out. You do not have to forgive. The commandment is to ask for forgiveness. Not (…)
The Subtle Transmission of Dangerous Ideas
We were all sitting around the living room trying to ignore the chaos of children around us and have a decent conversation when someone made the trying-to-be-funny comment about how their son should marry that person’s daughter so they could be in-laws. “Or son,” I said. “What?” the father said back to me. “He could (…)
Talking is Dangerous Which is Why You Should Do It
“What are you STUPID?!” I watched a grown man scream at his daughter. “She’s $%#@(* stupid, You know better! What are you doing???” I don’t remember much of the scene except to tell you that we were at a lake, visiting friends and the scene happened on the dock. I recall the mother pretending like (…)