The United States is in a perilous time. Semiotically, it’s easy to see not only the painfully obvious signs of distress and fracture, but it’s also clear that we are in an unprecedented time. It can seem like a scary time to be an American. In fact, it’s scary just to be in the world…
Everybody has a religion. For some, this religion is theological. For others, it is the religion of science. In fact, most have a religion of nationality. Religion is the belief in and worship in a superhuman controlling power. Google Dictionary, February 2020 To fully appreciate this conversation, some history may be of benefit for the…
The higher the tension in a situation, the more likely things will go sideways. It isn’t just about nuclear treaties or missile threats – the same applies in basic physics and daily life. This is where we can take a clear lesson using a far more dangerous approach – rubber bands.
The world today has a fascination with the dark. It used to be that the fascination was with the light – and that was only a mere year ago. But again, as Koheles writes, there is nothing new under the sun.
In this week’s Parasha, Ki Savo, the text opens with the bringing of fruit to the altar. This seems rather normal, since it takes a year to read through the Torah. What is rather abnormal about it, however, is that it is actually quite a timely portion to read.
One thing that many religions have in common is the concept of an all-knowing deity and free will of humankind.This is an interesting paradox, and is one that Judaism professes as well. Since this site is grounded in a Jewish approach, we’ll stick to this lens for the conversation.
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 discuss the Nation-State Law that Israel passed in July 2018.
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…
