Once Upon a Shutdown…
The American government shutdown that welcomed 2019 into the world brings to the front my of mind a stark reminder: the temporary and the eternal.
The American government shutdown that welcomed 2019 into the world brings to the front my of mind a stark reminder: the temporary and the eternal.
On Kabbalah Pod I aired an episode briefly highlighting an interesting semiotic tidbit from Parshas Chayei Sarah. In the episode I mention the Torah’s repetition of Eliezer’s journey and the connection to prayer, but only in a brief form. I really want to bring this up as I connects beyond Kabbalah and finds a real…
In last week’s episode, which this post is associated with, Terry and I discuss semiotics and rehash the basics of it from our individual perspectives. We both bring up semiotics from a philosophical and religious perspective, which is similar yet different from secular semiotics.
The notion of upgrading is a uniquely human problem. The concept is simple – there are improvements/revisions and thus a change that justifies upgrading and/or replacing. The famous Apple iPhone cycle is a perfect example of it: each year Apple comes out with a “better” handset and people upgrade to the newest device. Even the operating…
If you could travel anywhere, where would you go? You have a vessel you can board that could take you anywhere…
In this week’s SemioBytes episode, Terry and I (very) briefly discuss Kabbalah. I have written on Kabbalah on YidBrik and even published an essay with field research on the topic. Additionally, I host a podcast about Kabbalah from my Orthodox Chassidic-Yeshivish approach. Below you will find an embed of this post’s episode aired on Anchor and following…
“And He said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light. G-d saw that the light was good, and G-d separated the light from the darkness. G-d called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day.”
Counting the Omer is not just a mitzvah, but is a mitzvah based in Kabbalah. We are instructed to count the Omer, but what are we counting? Why count 49 days of the Omer at all?
Are you in sync with your life? A core Jewish concept is the inner goodness of mankind. While there is an evil inclination, mankind is intrinsically good and pure. Otherwise, how could HaShem ask us to be holy before showing us how?
The Torah is full of metaphor, and in some cases, a metaphor of itself (sounds meta, right?). Being able to see these metaphors and apply them is to go beyond the first level of Torah interpretation. There are four levels of interpreting Scripture: PaRDeS.
In Parashat Terumah, we come across the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, which is semiotically rich with allusion and importance.