I grew up in a modern Orthodox household but when I was in high school I discovered (ironically through my Talmud teacher) Greek Philosophy, Descartes and the Enlightenment. I truly felt as if a light had shined in my mind, although I never could embrace the German philosophers & all that followed them. And while I soon lost faith in Rationalism as the Truth, I always defended the Enlightenment against its critics and the Haskalah as well. I also felt the Athenic way is superior, and I never could quite figure out where G-d fits into the life of an agnostic—of what use is G-d to us?
I won’t put all the blame on your writings—many years of experience since first reading Descartes, but especially the events of the past year and a half played a critical role in the evolution of my view of the world. But reading your essays helped give me new tools to understand & critique what I was seeing, particularly since I am so steeped in the Athenic. Meta-critique was exactly what I needed.
Now I fully agree with everything you wrote in this essay and I too am far more inclined to view the world through the eyes of our rich and sacred texts and traditions, and see the ultimate superiority of Jerusalem over Athens, while still appreciating the latter. And having freed myself of the domination Athens had over how I see the world, Hashem as we Jews call the divine, is easier to experience.
So please continue with your “unrefined” musings. You have nothing to apologize for. You are an important modern midrashic voice.
Armed with what I've learned here, I am better prepared to read again the earlier essays, like "The Villainy You Teach Me" and "Rise and Fall of the Whore of Babylon", with a better background than I had the first time.
"my skills limp beside those shaped by venerable institutions" Hardly, those institutions are no longer venerable and, looking at their recent outputs, not shaping many skills. It's work like these essays that should be in these institutions (although as a humble mathematics, science and engineering student, I would still not have encountered them. My loss).
I enjoy your writing.. !!! Its very rich i have seen you in interviews and enjoy hearing you speak as well. Few days ago I watched you on a Tikvah interview and listened intently to your insights into the Iranian regime particularly at end. It was frightening and disturbing as you spoke of the psychology of these people and how such destruction of their facilities could spur them on. Yet it had to be done.. you grapple with human thinking foibles contradictions evil hypocrisy yet look to a better more holistic way forward by embracing and living from the 3 traditions .. thank you.. keep writing.
I've been looking to start with Hamann for a while. When I was at university my tutor spoke very highly of him. Would you recommend beginning with the Isaiah Berlin book or just going straight for it? I consider myself to have a decent grasp of the philosophical background required.
Wow! Just wow! So much to ponder. I stayed glued to every word, every line, every paragraph and found myself constantly nodding in agreement. I look forward to this journey with you and your followers. There is much that rings true here and soars out over the cacophony like a tenor in a choir. Thank you.
A wonderful revival of the medieval intellectual commons of Muslims, Christians, and Jews drawing on the common language and in tension with the dominant humanism.
No worries! I think the issue was that you had to accounts registered using two different Gmail emails and one of thing is paid. I unlocked access to the other email anyways so no matter how you log in, you can read all content.
I was born into an atheist household, with a Jewish maternal grandmother, educated at a Christian school, became a medical researcher, married a Jew and brought up my children as Jews. I have long been sympathetic to Palestinians and critical of Israeli policies. Over the last few years I have become increasingly disturbed by the rise in anti-semitism in the west. Since October 7th 2023, it has pervaded all our major institutions and is now thoroughly normalised amongst our University educated elites. In the past year my son has married into a Muslim Arab family (refugees from Iraq), and I have spent time learning more about Islam and Muslims.
The alliance between the secular left in the west and many Muslims has alarmed and puzzled me. What can possibly unite such disparate groups?
Reading your article about the Enchantment of the Arab Mind has helped me understand this puzzle.
Reading this article has also helped me understand the limits of humanism and human reason.
Your work seems to be forming into a book. I sure hope that is your intention. There are enduringly important ideas behind these contemporary metacritiques.
The most important thing to do is to continue educating any unaware people about these major unprosecuted crimes like the 9/11/01 scam and anthrax "vaccine" scam on people including on myself and many others in the U.S. military, and how and why electronic voting machines have never been valid, as HBO pointed out in Hacking Democracy (2006) (1:21:58) https://old.bitchute.com/video/jsHTV8JdIlAt/
Additionally, people are either intelligent, respectful, and responsible enough to acknowledge reality, history, that fake man-made religion labels, books, symbols, and buildings were made by mankind, that Americans have a Republic not a Democracy scam, that there is no "left" or "right", or they're not. "Jimmie" Carter even pointed out that Americans were taken back over by an illegal oligarchy, aka a fake government and mainstream media that's comprised of unelected, "gaslighting" scam artist posers.
I only belatedly came to read this essay. Impressive, and challenging. I am self-taught, rambling and unsystematic, too old and mentally creaky to master complex and difficult ideas, but always ready to be “nudged beyond the worn ramparts of orthodoxy and convention.” Thank you for this
I would love you to do a riff on hanif, "the original, pure religion of Abraham," as it is reputed to have existed in the Arab world before the rise of Islam. What do you know about it?
On a related note, you might like to see this discussion I've been having over at bloggingheads.tv:
I grew up in a modern Orthodox household but when I was in high school I discovered (ironically through my Talmud teacher) Greek Philosophy, Descartes and the Enlightenment. I truly felt as if a light had shined in my mind, although I never could embrace the German philosophers & all that followed them. And while I soon lost faith in Rationalism as the Truth, I always defended the Enlightenment against its critics and the Haskalah as well. I also felt the Athenic way is superior, and I never could quite figure out where G-d fits into the life of an agnostic—of what use is G-d to us?
I won’t put all the blame on your writings—many years of experience since first reading Descartes, but especially the events of the past year and a half played a critical role in the evolution of my view of the world. But reading your essays helped give me new tools to understand & critique what I was seeing, particularly since I am so steeped in the Athenic. Meta-critique was exactly what I needed.
Now I fully agree with everything you wrote in this essay and I too am far more inclined to view the world through the eyes of our rich and sacred texts and traditions, and see the ultimate superiority of Jerusalem over Athens, while still appreciating the latter. And having freed myself of the domination Athens had over how I see the world, Hashem as we Jews call the divine, is easier to experience.
So please continue with your “unrefined” musings. You have nothing to apologize for. You are an important modern midrashic voice.
Thank you for another outstanding essay!
Armed with what I've learned here, I am better prepared to read again the earlier essays, like "The Villainy You Teach Me" and "Rise and Fall of the Whore of Babylon", with a better background than I had the first time.
"my skills limp beside those shaped by venerable institutions" Hardly, those institutions are no longer venerable and, looking at their recent outputs, not shaping many skills. It's work like these essays that should be in these institutions (although as a humble mathematics, science and engineering student, I would still not have encountered them. My loss).
All the Best, Sir!
Just to say that I really appreciate what you are doing -- some of the most insightful writing around on so many important topics.
The zig zag medium is the message. Making crooked lines on the earth not stairways to heaven.
Unfortunately you’re much too brilliant to appeal to those whom needs to be appeal to .
I enjoy your writing.. !!! Its very rich i have seen you in interviews and enjoy hearing you speak as well. Few days ago I watched you on a Tikvah interview and listened intently to your insights into the Iranian regime particularly at end. It was frightening and disturbing as you spoke of the psychology of these people and how such destruction of their facilities could spur them on. Yet it had to be done.. you grapple with human thinking foibles contradictions evil hypocrisy yet look to a better more holistic way forward by embracing and living from the 3 traditions .. thank you.. keep writing.
I've been looking to start with Hamann for a while. When I was at university my tutor spoke very highly of him. Would you recommend beginning with the Isaiah Berlin book or just going straight for it? I consider myself to have a decent grasp of the philosophical background required.
I would very much recommend starting with,
James C. O’Flaherty's Johann Georg Hamann
Oswald Bayer's A Contemporary in Dissent
W.M. Alexander's Hamann Philosophy and Faith
Berlin can be added with them for a measure of liberal reading of Hamann.
A dense text that provides an in-depth study, delving deep into Hamann's cryptic and forbidding texts, is John R. Betz's After Enlightenment.
Thank you!
I was just thinking of Berlin. His essay on Hamann was my first exposure, as well to Hamann's forerunner, Vico.
Wow! Just wow! So much to ponder. I stayed glued to every word, every line, every paragraph and found myself constantly nodding in agreement. I look forward to this journey with you and your followers. There is much that rings true here and soars out over the cacophony like a tenor in a choir. Thank you.
A wonderful revival of the medieval intellectual commons of Muslims, Christians, and Jews drawing on the common language and in tension with the dominant humanism.
Sorry to be messaging you in a chat but I am not sure how else to reach you. I believe my subscription is paid but I can’t access as a subscriber
Hi Yvette,
No worries! I think the issue was that you had to accounts registered using two different Gmail emails and one of thing is paid. I unlocked access to the other email anyways so no matter how you log in, you can read all content.
I was born into an atheist household, with a Jewish maternal grandmother, educated at a Christian school, became a medical researcher, married a Jew and brought up my children as Jews. I have long been sympathetic to Palestinians and critical of Israeli policies. Over the last few years I have become increasingly disturbed by the rise in anti-semitism in the west. Since October 7th 2023, it has pervaded all our major institutions and is now thoroughly normalised amongst our University educated elites. In the past year my son has married into a Muslim Arab family (refugees from Iraq), and I have spent time learning more about Islam and Muslims.
The alliance between the secular left in the west and many Muslims has alarmed and puzzled me. What can possibly unite such disparate groups?
Reading your article about the Enchantment of the Arab Mind has helped me understand this puzzle.
Reading this article has also helped me understand the limits of humanism and human reason.
Thank you.
Your work seems to be forming into a book. I sure hope that is your intention. There are enduringly important ideas behind these contemporary metacritiques.
Have you tried poetry? I'm thinking in the style of Donne and come of the other 17th century English metaphysicals.
My own favorite era of English poetry, one foot in the medieval, the other in the modern.
Hussein and all,
The most important thing to do is to continue educating any unaware people about these major unprosecuted crimes like the 9/11/01 scam and anthrax "vaccine" scam on people including on myself and many others in the U.S. military, and how and why electronic voting machines have never been valid, as HBO pointed out in Hacking Democracy (2006) (1:21:58) https://old.bitchute.com/video/jsHTV8JdIlAt/
Additionally, people are either intelligent, respectful, and responsible enough to acknowledge reality, history, that fake man-made religion labels, books, symbols, and buildings were made by mankind, that Americans have a Republic not a Democracy scam, that there is no "left" or "right", or they're not. "Jimmie" Carter even pointed out that Americans were taken back over by an illegal oligarchy, aka a fake government and mainstream media that's comprised of unelected, "gaslighting" scam artist posers.
https://michaelatkinson.substack.com/
Thank you,
Michael
🦖
I only belatedly came to read this essay. Impressive, and challenging. I am self-taught, rambling and unsystematic, too old and mentally creaky to master complex and difficult ideas, but always ready to be “nudged beyond the worn ramparts of orthodoxy and convention.” Thank you for this
I would love you to do a riff on hanif, "the original, pure religion of Abraham," as it is reputed to have existed in the Arab world before the rise of Islam. What do you know about it?
On a related note, you might like to see this discussion I've been having over at bloggingheads.tv:
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/68514#comment-6678226238