HeyJaredIntellectual Shmaltz
Fiercely independent thoughts on society, politics and religion.
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Naomi Kanakia’s Fascinating Post on Little Magazines (opens the original)
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In her excellent post on “Little Magazines,” Naomi Kanakia writes:“I would suggest that this magazine’s real impact was that it showed the power of stinging and fearless critique. It was founded by young intellectuals, mostly Jewish, who were at the margins of America’s intellectual culture. Through their displays of rhetorical brilliance, they impressed the media and academic worlds, and these intellectuals moved from the margins of American life and got hired by larger magazines to write and o
Some Observations on Halakha and the Way of Psak: Based on What I Have Seen and Heard from My Teachers: Part III (opens the original)
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Halacha is hard to see as the poet said. Part I of this essay discussed where halacha comes from…Part II discussed minhag, mesorah, Kabbalah, and cholent halakhaSo how about non chulent halacha. How does that work? For one it is often conceptual, things have to make some sense. It can be hard as chulent halacha has been going on for a while, and we’ve gotten to the point where people no longer understand the conceptual basis of halakha. Today it’s almost unknown for more religious people or even
Some Observations on Halakha and the Way of Psak: Based on What I Have Seen and Heard from My Teachers: (opens the original)
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Part 1 discussed about where halacha comes from (see embed below).Now what about minhag? Minhag is something that we develop and we adopt and keep, but it needs firm foundations. If not a Talmudic foundation, something almost as strong. You see the great poskim, mostly until recently, were suspicious of recent minhag. To be clear, I would differentiate minhag vs. practice. Poskim often defend practice if they can source it, but minhag without sources was a different kettle of fish.Today, on the
Some Observations on Halakha and the Way of Psak: Part I (opens the original)
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I think much contemporary halakha discourse obscures an older and important way of weighing sources. No, not that all poskim have always operated according to one method or one rigid hierarchy, but perhaps much contemporary discourse obscures an older and important way of weighing sources.Many people will probably agree that the more common and probably correct way of understanding what to do in halakha was very different from what we see today. It was very different from the “maximum position c
The Tale of Kopelwitz, and the Word That Cannot Be Said (opens the original)
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It was above his head. He must have seen it. It stood in its frank Anglo-Saxon sexuality.That ever-so-prost Word. Written on the board above a man who, come Christmas time, ripped the “goyish” Santa Claus off bottles of Coke like a co-op Marxist protesting exploitative marketing.Did Kopelwitz see the Word? What would he say to its robust and proud offensiveness?The Word was not just the most offensive term in the English language. It was even more offensive in the Frum world, where profanity was
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