Philosophy

A key Aish tactic in proving God’s existence, was emphasizing the unusual.  There is no nation as oppressed as the Jews.  No other nation claims public revelation. No other book can spell the word Pizza or Hitler with this unique arrangement of letters. This tactic is a huge part of the discovery seminar,...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And water. And light. And trees. And all the other stars and the moon and the sun too. Yes, in that order, motherfuckers, it says so right there in the book. And the fishes. And the animals. And the...

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...

I was back in Aish Hatorah. I guess like positivity childhood memories that resurfaced after I'd dealt with parental trauma, my subconscious felt I was ready to find some good beneath the wreckage. The building was even bigger and more magnificent - and more rambly. I wandered through towering mazes...

On Purim, they almost killed us, but in the end they didn’t, we killed 75,000 of them instead.  And these weren’t normal enemies, mind you. These were descendants of Amalek, whom we are commanded to kill every last man woman and child of. You can’t cure an Amalekite baby of...

Spot the meme. Also, double negatives are so not not cool.

My partner just came back from an eight-day silent meditation retreat. She remarked (with some jealousy) how all the serious meditation teachers were childless, which seemed necessary for one to seriously pursue enlightenment. They were thus free to traipse around from one retreat to the next, unfettered by responsibility...

We're currently in family therapy, all nine of us and two parents. Even with sessions being 90 minutes long, that gives each of us 8 minutes a week to talk about what is most important to us, assuming the therapist doesn't talk at all. (spoiler: she does) The best possible...

It’s hard to be compassionate when you’re afraid. And charedim are afraid of everything. Of God, of change, of novelty. Growing up, a healthy dose of compassion would have gone a long way, but there was none to be found. Yiras Shomayim, fear of God, is what it was...

Torah! Oh Torah! It’s the absolute truthIt’s better than coke or ice cold vermouthThe Torah’s our guide to tell us wrongful from rightfulTo make the right choices, now ain’t that delightful?Because you can't ever just trust your own teensy brainTo make moral choices, that would be a strain Our purpose...