Open Search form

religious-secular divide

Apply for a Blog

Jun 3, 2026, 11:00 AM

… and how Naftali Bennett made me politically homeless

... and probably hundreds of thousands of other voters too.... Having written yesterday about one of the multiple problems that deters me from voting for the parties of Israel's current governing coalition, I write today to complain how Naftali Bennett...

Jun 2, 2026, 10:18 AM

Beyond Patronage: The People as Custodians of the Nation

The People as Custodians of the Nation. AI Illustration. (Credit: ChatGPT)

Partha Chatterjee’s political society, Hindu democratic agency, and the West Bengal verdict of 2026 The Framework and Its Horizon For more than two decades, Partha Chatterjee’s (2004) distinction between civil society and political society has done more to clarify the actual texture of democracy in...

May 29, 2026, 7:58 PM

When Nations Set the Terms Israel Chooses Tolerance Over Temple Restoration

Israeli police arrested 21 Jewish activists in May 2026 as they tried to bring a young goat onto the Temple Mount for a korban Pesach offering during Pesach Sheni. Officers stopped the group at the gate and detained them...

May 26, 2026, 6:52 AM

One Idol Is Enough

The real danger was never many gods, but making one thing absolute Monotheism is often reduced to a math problem. One God versus many gods. Judaism, however, has always argued that the real danger is not polytheism. It is absolutism. Because technically speaking,...

May 24, 2026, 6:35 PM

Gaay, Gayatri, Gita

Krishna and Cowherd. AI Image. (Credit: ChatGPT)

On the Sanctity of the Cow and the Grammar of Civilizational Love Before philosophy, there was milk. Before the child could receive the Gayatri mantra, that solar hymn breathed into young ears at dawn, before the young man could sit with...

Israel Ben Iosef

May 17, 2026, 4:26 PM

Karet and the Demographic Judgment of the West

Speaking without vaseline: Karet and the Demographic Judgment of the Diaspora In the Torah there exists a divine punishment called Karet. It means to be cut off from your people, to see your name erased from history and your family...

May 13, 2026, 3:44 PM

A Reply to Dennis Prager

The Laws of God's Universe Do Not Require a Belief in Him to Save a Stranger What follows is adapted from the first chapter of my treatise, The OR Axiom, at Dennis Prager, in his book If There Is No...

May 13, 2026, 4:19 AM

The child is theirs: Secular Zionism

Enjoying the beach in Tel Aviv on a hot summer day. August 06, 2025. (Photo by Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Israel's founders sought a Hebrew identity separate from the Judaism of exile, but, in a country rooted in biblical memory, religion must be more than a private hobby

May 7, 2026, 8:48 PM

Ibn Rushd and the Maharal go to the Knesset: Defending Academic Freedom

Framed as a defense against “political” academic strikes, Likud MK Avihai Boaron’s proposed law would grant the Minister of Education full discretion to lower or cancel university budgets in order to prevent such strikes. Historically, I am told by...

May 3, 2026, 6:29 AM

Lag B’Omer, Turn On Your Love Light!

One of my favorite songs that the Grateful Dead used to cover is “Turn On Your Love Light,” written by Joe Scott and recorded by Bobby Bland in 1961. The chorus of this composition is powerful: “Turn on your...

Load more