Yoseph Needelman-Ruiz, at The Blogs

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May 25, 2024, 11:28 PM

Hey Bibi! Need a plan for Gaza? Consider Naturalization!

Quite a crisis we're in. Hamas has to be destroyed and removed from power, but what should become of Gaza in their absence? Fatah expects it to come under their jurisdiction once this is all over, as part of...

Feb 29, 2024, 7:23 PM

3 things I learned about Israel from Chapo Trap House (and One they could know)

Idealisms are, at our best, what we organize around. Our idealisms define our social and consumptive priorities, what kind of hekhsher; what kind of impact. What kind of people we identify with, and encourage. Judaisms are defined, ultimately, by their...

Feb 12, 2023, 11:50 PM

The Gadlus and Tragedy of Rabbi Joshua Fishman, B”DE, ZYA

The depth of Torah that is possible to give over and share, somehow amidst a profound popular disinterest, cynicism wound and trauma, unspeakable, literally unfathomable A way of hearing and a way of speaking that lets the depth of the thing WITHIN THE THING be heard. R Joshua/Yehoshua/Shea...

Dec 22, 2022, 11:10 AM

The challenge of Jewish anti-nationalism in Israel; after Hanukkah, after Trump

The past few weeks, years and epochs have renewed a mighty and unyielding spark of Nationalism amongst the Jewish people, both religious and secular, even in the context of our modernity and market liberalism (Right-wing as well as Psuedo-Left/Centrist)...

Nov 22, 2022, 5:05 PM

Frumkeit needs a better Torah for LGBTQ issues

How much is the Torah of traditional Judaism to blame for homophobia, and homophobic violence? How much responsibility should, or can, we as Orthodox Jews take for overcoming that violence, within our own selves if not our own communities,...

Oct 14, 2021, 2:47 PM

“Space Jews” vs. “Decolonized Judeans”: Getting the Jokes

There are a number of global crises currently active, one, at least, quietly, has to do with the mystery of what's to blame and resent in a world seeming to offer more fluidity and opportunity than ever, at costs...

May 10, 2021, 4:31 PM

To Recover its Moral Core, Judaism Needs to Overcome its Nationalisms

All our nationalisms, not just the militant or casual extremes of Zionism. It's a problem in Satmar. It's a problem in Chabad. It's a problem in Breslov, and all the Eidot Hamizrach, as well as any of the localized...

Mar 31, 2021, 5:58 PM

This election really could just go either way.

I'm not so old, but this is the strangest election i've ever seen. Usually, a winner wins and that's basically it. Here, it's really not clear and the closest things to precedents seem impossible, worse than irrelevant. Bibi is both...

Feb 25, 2021, 5:48 PM

Purim for drugs: a midrash taken literally

"Haman in the Torah from where? המן העץ the from the tree that you ate" "Esther in the Torah from where? "אסתר אסתיר פני I will hide my face "Mordechai in the Torah from where? "מר דרור = מרה דכיה(((???)) head spices,...

Nov 12, 2020, 2:30 PM

What We Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Shlomo Carlebach

In light of the assorted power dynamics being engaged this week, beloved leaders of concience like Rabbi Jonathan Sacks leaving this world, and presidencies in question with charismatic aggressiveness efforted in the hopes of silencing questions, I was struck...

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About Me

Yoseph Needelman-Ruiz a.k.a. Yoseph Leib Ibn Mardachya is the author of "Cannabis Chassidis: The Ancient and Emerging Torah of Drugs" (Autonomedia press, 2012) an epic devotional study of Cannabis and other ethneogens in Judaism and its heresies throughout history, into super-modernity, in the hopes of passing on a useful counsel with regards to their use beyond "do" or "don't." He is currently working on a book about Pop Cartoon Kabbalah, and alternates between leading services and sermons in Williamsburg Brooklyn at Cong. Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom, and living in Israel's Elah Valley.

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