HeyJaredExistential Angst and Plushies - Tim Lieder's Substack
Tim Lieder writes about books, movies, Judaism., and politics. Currently this substack is discussing John Cheever and the Book of Job (Iyov). His fiction has appeared in Shock Totem and Saturday Evening Post.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 11
- Latest publication
- Oct 1, 2026
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- Jul 13, 2026
Latest issues
For Sukkot 2026, I’m Busy but Read What I Wrote Before (opens the original)
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It’s Sukkot and I would love to give an update on my Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur articles, but I do have a ton of work. I would love to write a Sukkot article but I need to get things done. There’s a ton of laundry that has piled up and I suspect that the cats pissed on some of it. Apparently, I wrote only one particular Sukkot article, but I have other ones. Overall, this Sukkot has been pretty good. The stinky roommate has moved out, but I now have a house guest who has a whole new set of anno
Yom Kippur 2026 (5787) (opens the original)
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Last week, I went to a local burger place and an ex-friend was outside selling his bogus perpetual motion business. For many years, I thought that he was full of crap, until I realized that he was not just bullshitting. He truly believed his bullshit. Had I known that his delusions came from mental illness I would have never contradicted him. But since I had contradicted him, he blames me for his failure. Because I told him that his screenplay was awful, he thinks that I told everyone else that
Judge Chapter 3 (opens the original)
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All those people, all those lives, where are they now?With-a loves and hates and passions just like mineThey were born and then they lived and then they died“Cemetery Gates” by The SmithsIn 1955, Aharon Meggid wrote “Yad Vashem” (The Name), a story about Israel wrestling with the Shoah. Some wanted to honor the memories of the murdered. Others wanted to throw off centuries of diaspora. Goodbye Sherman and Morty and Mendel. Hello Shimshon and Nimrod. Meggid depicts a couple that refuses to name t
Rosh Hashana 2026 (5757) (opens the original)
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I had a great Rosh Hashana article churning in my brain, about being a better person and trying to reach for my best self and how this holiday means more the older I get. I even learned that a former friend had died. It inspired me to apologize to another former friend. I can only try to be less toxic today than I was before.Then the marshal letter came saying that I had to pay all the back rent or they could change the locks on the 19th. Even worse, the judge refused to sign an order to show ca
“Mr Biervald” (Fiction Extra) (opens the original)
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When I was a child, my mother told me about the creature that lurked behind the pubs, eating rats and pulling eyes from homeless dreamers. She’d lean into my bed and with a whiskey breath and told me to behave; lest he find me. She called him Mr. Biervald. I found this strange as Biervald was my family name.She described him with bitter fear and death on her lips. He was six feet tall, pale with yellow teeth and blood eyes. His hair was blacker than a hearse. His clothes reeked from the women th
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