Asher Keren

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Sep 27, 2014, 11:25 PM

The Amish and ISIS

Both the Amish and ISIS reject to a great extent Western culture and both have serious issues with the principles of modernity. One chops off heads and one does its thing, in peace and with dignity and love. Given...

Sep 19, 2014, 9:12 AM

Americans can be proud of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Louis Armstrong, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Neil Armstrong, Pocahontas and a multitude of others. For the Brits, there is Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Winston Churchill and again, a...

Sep 17, 2014, 6:48 AM

The Possibility of Prayer – Lev Shestov and Niels Bohr

"Learn to pray from the Hassidim," was the advice given to me by a friend. This counsel is not trivial. Much can be learned from the Hassidic Masters about prayer, but in the modern world, before being able to...

Sep 10, 2014, 9:49 AM

Losing Our Heads Over Decapitation

Beheadings seem to be all the rage these days so I started to think about the famous Viennese composer Joseph Haydn, who was decapitated – after he died, of course - by his long time friend and associate, Joseph Carl Rosenbaum. This...

Aug 13, 2014, 7:26 AM

When Immorality Poses As Morality

In the time of the Maccabees, it was thought to be a sin to fight even a protective war on the Sabbath. The Greeks knew this – and they massacred many Jews. Judah Maccabee proclaimed an end to this...

Jul 15, 2014, 12:34 PM

The Religious Jew’s Favorite Things

Dancing with Torahs and singing in minyans Zohar with cookies and countless opinions Everything is for good and Kabbalistic Yang and Ying These are a few of our favorite things Kiddush with brownies and kugel with noodles Give a guy an Aliya and hope...

Jul 7, 2014, 4:15 PM

How the Brain Works – or Doesn’t

No matter how grieved, empty, devastated, saddened and traumatized we feel over the loss of the three Jewish teenagers, we do not feel as bad as the parents do. We still have within us the hope that it will...

Jul 3, 2014, 3:18 PM

Do Not Disregard the Words of the Satmar Rebbe – Just Change the Emphasis

The current New York based Rebbe of the Satmer sect of Hassidism, Aaron Teitelbaum, has reportedly blamed the parents of the three kidnapped and murdered youth for their own sons' demise. Make no mistake, the Rebbe's pronouncements were full...

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About Me

Asher Keren writes about science and philosophy, is an author and religious settler who has lived in Israel for over thirty years.