The sixth month of the year, Elul, is my birthday month which usually translates to the Gregorian calendar as occurring in September. As the months of the Jewish/Hebrew calendar are strongly associated with their mazalot (constellations), so Elul is associated with the mazal of Betulah (Virgo). Perhaps it is already well established that the sigil of Virgo ♍ looks somewhat like a closed fist, so I thought I’d illustrate the association with the attached image I’m titling “Virgo Power.” . . . → Continue reading: Virgo Power
A graphic I prepared for a 2016 essay I had written on alliances between right-wing Jews and Christian nationalists got itself published as a frontispiece in Daniel Boyarin’s The No-State Solution (Yale University Press: 2022). . . . → Continue reading: “Wherever we live, that is our homeland” – a frontispiece in Daniel Boyarin’s The No-State Solution: A Jewish Manifesto (2022)
I’m here for Doykeit (also, Doykayt, Here-ness) and I’m here for cats, not only the living creatures but also the idea of cats who will make any place they rest their haunches appear to be their own, until they leave, as is there want. Who else lives in the here and now? I present the doycats, which were always here if made invisible by their veritable ubiquity. Asked to announce their presence, they prefer to curl up and rest, or to stare into corners regressing infinitely, or to peer defiantly at even more obscure sheydim. . . . → Continue reading: Doycats of Doykeit
By coincidence, I just happened to be watching THE HUMANITY BUREAU (2017) last night. I say coincidence since I had no idea this low budget Nicholas Cage film was a fever dream for right-wing conspiracy types, so watching it, I felt like I was getting a glimpse of their thought world in the aftermath of last week’s real-life insurrection. . . . → Continue reading: The Humanity Bureau (2017)
My friend Brian and I viewed BLADE RUNNER (henceforth, BR2049) last Thursday. Our discussion, animated by a bit of delirium on my part (dehydration plus lack of sleep), helped to process my lingering combination of amazement and disappointment following end credits. (I’ll give a half-hearted spoiler alert now — the sort I’d appreciate before being . . . → Continue reading: First thoughts after viewing Blade Runner 2049
About ten years ago, at a Jews in the Woods gathering nearby the Pearlstone Retreat Center in Maryland, I offered my first shiur on biblical mythology and on the Leviathan and the Behemoth. (I subsequently wrote up some of what I talked about in several posts back here and here and here on the Omphalos, . . . → Continue reading: Levi, the Leviathan
It’s been a long while since I’ve shared any audio experiments. I can’t/won’t admit to any creativity on my part for the material I mix aside from my recognition of something delightful in the juxtaposition. Such was the case this evening when visiting an old blog page of Rachel Barenblat and was surprised to hear a number of poems read simultaneously via some old javascript. I thought it was worthy of sharing given that the ephemeral nature of accidental beauty deserves recognition. . . . → Continue reading: Velveteen Rabbi Mix
“A human being without the proper empathy or feeling is the same as an android built so as to lack it, either by design or mistake. We mean, basically, someone who does not care about the fate which his fellow living creatures fall victim to; he stands detached, a spectator, acting out by his . . . → Continue reading: Happy Birthday Philip K. Dick
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