This is a tough time. As the election approaches, our collective psyche is berated with polarized messages amid widespread lack of faith in the political system of the United States. Surviving the next five months…
[Thomas] Sowell’s habit of challenging liberal orthodoxies that are held dear by most of his fellow intellectuals and the mainstream media has led to a good deal of criticism over the decades. This book explores…
“Nothing Jewish is alien to me.” [Gerschom] Scholem liked to say that. We argued about it many times. I objected that a great deal that is Jewish is alien to me (and to him, too)….
Andrew Ivers continues to guide me when it comes to the delights of the Western Canon. Last week I asked him where I should start with Joan Didion and without hesitation he suggested Slouching towards…
If we have spiritual wisdom, it has to show itself in our daily living. 301 You get rid of bad habits by bringing in good habits which will force them out…. 241 If you want…
At the time I wrote that small book [The Miracle of Mindfulness], I could not have imagined the effect it would have in the world. It has been translated into twenty-five languages, reprinted many times,…
Today we must take the most important thing that [Peretz] possess and that shines through in all his works, in all their times: his love for Jew and man. Also his universalism and humanism, his…
Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters: 1940-1956, v. 1 As I’m convinced of the the utility of “pulling”* from my reading, I found the following gems in some of Kerouac’s letters up till he had to deal…
Indeed, the very use of the word “revolution” is suspect because every historical event that people want to invest with drama and importance is given the honorific title “revolution.” –Avishai Margalit, Views in Review: Politics…