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Kingdom of Priests

When the New York Times derided this book for children — as possibly giving comfort to religion! — I wanted to buy it right away but of course it was already out of print. So the King County public library system was my best alternative. It’s a very clever yet simple allegory by William Steig, the author of…

On Wednesday night, I’m listening to my 2nd-favorite radio talk show, Coast to Coast AM, and even host George Noory is poopooing the threat of swine flu? Then you know the apocalyptic peril has been hugely, hugely overblown.

An outfit called the Presidential Prayer Team is praying that President Obama should effectively lead the fight to combat swine flu. Meanwhile, my father went into the hospital this morning for relatively minor surgery — though at his age, no surgery is truly minor. I prayed that it should go smoothly and successfully.  The other evening…

How fascinating — the underreported revelation of modern evolutionary, genetic, and DNA science — that physical, material causes are not enough to explain the history of life’s evolution and development — was understood by the rabbis more than a millennium ago. Rabbi Bahya ibn Paquda in Duties of the Heart:

Which is the country’s local culture most beset by moral confusion, New England or the Pacific Northwest? Seattle icon Knute Berger at Crosscut notes a fascinating contrast between these two regions that are America’s top strongholds of secularism: In New England…same-sex marriage is being legalized. It was signed into law in Vermont and is recognized…

Tomorrow is Israel’s 61st birthday, Yom Ha’atzmaut. I love the country and only wish I could go more often. I can’t wait to bring my children there for their first visit. The culture of Judaism in Israel is healthier than here in the U.S., far less haunted by neurosis. I was reminded of that on a trip…

Let’s talk about some rules I’m now initiating in this space, which will become more relevant as the blog, so I hope, grows.  According to the Talmud, God allowed the first Temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed by the Babylonians because the Jews at the time engaged in sexual immortality, idol worship, and murder. That…

My mother-in-law is flying in from New York City on Thursday for a visit. We live in Seattle but the New York metro area has 28 confirmed swine-flu cases, Washington State so far none. I’ve actually found myself wondering if she’ll bring the fabled swine flu pandemic with her. Among swine flu symptoms, I wonder…

A.N. Wilson goes into more fascinating detail about his return to religious faith from atheism in an essay in the New Statesman. Now isn’t this interesting: the literary critic, biographer and historian credits his gradual re-conversion in no small part to a counter-reaction to the “superstitious” materialism of Darwinian evolution and, yes, the dreaded Darwin-Hitler…

So you still think Judaism doesn’t seek to influence the spiritual path that non-Jews are on? That Jews have no plan of “conversion” in mind for the rest of the world? That Judaism has no “mission” to humanity? This week’s Torah reading (Acharei-Kedoshim, Leviticus 16:1-20:27) begins with the description of the high priest’s service on Yom…
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