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Author Archives: N.S. Palmer
Ending the Violence, Part 1
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: “The road to disaster is paved with pleasant illusions, and the way to deal with evil is not to ignore it,”1 advised Abraham Joshua Heschel. The English philosopher Francis Bacon wasn’t Jewish, … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Aggression, Empathy, Evil, Evolutionary Psychology, Francis Bacon, Hatred, Heschel, Kin Selection, Racism, Sociobiology, Territoriality, Terrorism, Violence, War
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Moral Patterns and Moral Decisions
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Some things in life are simple. Some aren’t. In fact, a lot of them aren’t. That’s a problem, because we always want things to be simple. And if they aren’t, then we still … Continue reading
For Hanukkah, Free Yourself
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: What’s the most important freedom? During Hanukkah, we celebrate religious freedom. That kind of freedom is vital. But it’s not the only kind, or even the most important. When modern people talk … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, The Jerusalem Post
Tagged Blanshard, Buddhism, Freedom, Hanukkah, Heschel, Moral Law, Virtue
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Law, Tradition, and “Stare Decisis”
My latest blog post for The Jerusalem Post: Should Orthodox Judaism ordain women as rabbis? The Rabbinical Council of America recently said no, but not based on Jewish law. Instead, it was in deference to tradition: “Due to our aforesaid commitment … Continue reading
Orthodoxy, Truth, and Half-Belief
My new blog post for The Jerusalem Post: People who have a secular worldview often wonder how Orthodox Jews can believe what they do: for example, that the Torah is literally true, that God commanded all the mitzvot, or that the … Continue reading
What Is Faith in God?
What does it mean to have faith in God? It’s not a simple question. Lately, I’ve been wrestling with The Tenacity of Unreasonable Beliefs, a book that tries to analyze religious belief from a psychological perspective. The author, Solomon Schimmel, … Continue reading
Costs, Benefits, and Beliefs
By N.S. Palmer I’m puzzled. No worries. It’s my normal state. I’m revising the draft of my book Belief, Truth, and Torah. I want to make it engage more fully with arguments from one of our professors at Hebrew College, … Continue reading
Logical Results, Lived Faith
Logic gives us good answers, but is there something the answers miss? At Hebrew College this semester, I’m taking a class whose assignments include Torah readings, Jewish philosophy, and “midrashim” — that is, ancient rabbinic commentaries on various issues. Midrashim … Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Philosophy, Judaism
Tagged Bialik, Binding of Isaac, Kant, Midrash, Midrashim, Ravnitzky, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, The Book of Legends
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Facing Up to Evil
The devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth … — Genesis 8:20 On October 1, multiple terrorists shot a rabbi and his wife who were in the car with their four children. On October 3, a lone terrorist … Continue reading
Seeing Life in Context
As I said the morning prayers today, I realized something: That act sets a context for my whole day. No matter what happens to me today — good, bad, or indifferent — the prayers remind me that it’s not all … Continue reading
Posted in Epistemology, Jewish Philosophy, Judaism, Philosophy
Tagged Astronomy, Faith, Prayer, Science and Religion, Times of Israel
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The Thousand-Year View 