Satire
Velvel He Was
Shimon and Shmuesster are proud to present the newest title in the "Rebbi Stories"...
The Penis Gemach
I originally wrote this post while I was still religious, and published it under a...
Ba’al Teshuva, or: “Mental Health Issues”
I have alluded to this before in other scathing posts, but it's becoming more and...
Conditioning for Pleasure
I’ve been working with a coach on experiencing pleasure. It’s not that I haven’t experienced...
Raindrops on Flowers
A precursor of things to come...
If God Were a Medication, He Wouldn’t Get FDA Approval
A key Aish tactic in proving God’s existence, was emphasizing the unusual.
There is no nation...
Book Covers
This one’s a doozy. Bear with me. Also, if you have a bit of context, you’ll know this ones strike quite close to home. TL;DR at the end.
Here’s how the spiel goes: Judaism is amazing. It’s enlightened. It’s changed the world for the better. Judeo Christian values are da...
Interesting anecdote about this book cover. It's a composite of two different Rabbi faces, i.e. it's not any specific Rabbi, so that I wouldn't poke fun unnecessarily at someone. That's how much of a tzadik I am.
From the back cover:
Rabbi Shlomo Levi Birenshmaltz (ZATZHA"L: of blessed, blessed memory), like...
Having grown up deeply ingrained in the Orthodox Jewish world view, it’s a constant process for me to re-examine what I was taught. Some things obviously rubbed me the wrong way, and I questioned them as part of my journey.
Other things were less aggravating, so I simply accepted them...
Biography
Philosphy
I Had a Dream
I was back in Aish Hatorah.
I guess like positivity childhood memories that resurfaced after I'd dealt with...
The Book of Brutality
The barbarism displayed by Hamas on October 7th horrified, the world, as well it should.
Who harms...
Fiction
Accounting
He never learned much math.
Math was limited to two hours a week with a secular studies teacher who spent more time shouting at...
Kiruv
I hate this time of year.
I hate personal growth that gets scheduled on a calendar. A month where everyone goes on their best behavior, like they’re being audited by some heavenly oversight authority.
I hate scripted apologies. A specific time of year wherever everyone needs to ask everyone else to forgive them at the exact same time.
Aww, isn’t it nice...
One of my biggest struggles, even when I was still religious, was with the realization that as a person I had grown way more from therapy and self-help books than from any amount of “Torah wisdom”.
This was unacceptable to me. I didn’t want it to be this way. Torah was wisdom for living, I was taught. It was God’s...