Monthly Archives: January 2015

Along with my grandfather, Philip Zeitlin z”l, gone since before my Bar Mitzva, Rabbi Israel Rosenfeld z”l first introduced me to Gemara in 1963. As a way of thinking and analyzing, it has been my lifelong passion and, along with … Continue reading →

Of course, everything I wrote about ignorance leading to slavery is at least as applicable on the personal level. We’re hobbled not merely by ignorance, but by self-ignorance. If only we could bring to consciousness everything that our souls and … Continue reading →

There are slaveries and there are slaveries. Sometimes one group of people enslaves another and sometimes we enslave ourselves. There are oppressions and there are oppressions, aggressions and aggressions. Sometimes the oppressor and aggressor is external, sometimes we’re our own … Continue reading →

Blame it on social media, but the latest tokenism of support for victims of various outrages, slaughters and natural disasters has been to hold up a sign (or more likely just copy a ready-made one that’s already gone viral) identifying … Continue reading →

When I grew up in Denver in the early 1950s and 60s, it was a very different world. Perhaps we over-simplified our values with fewer areas of ambiguous grey, but we knew who the good guys were, the US, and … Continue reading →