There is a well-known story about a woman who attended a lecture, and heard the lecturer say that the universe was going to self-destruct in a hundred billion years. The woman fainted immediately. After being woken up she was asked whether the reason she fainted had to do with the hundred billion years mentioned. She […]

Jerusalemites suffered two disasters during the recent few days. In one of them, a building exploded due to a gas leak. A whole family – a father, a mother and a little baby – were killed. The other disaster involved a poorly-carried-out extermination of pests, which also resulted in the poisoning of two little baby […]

(Original version in Hebrew: http://hofesh.org.il/articles/halacha/talmud_logic/talmud-logic.html, using http://www.daatemet.org.il for many resources) “New generations are inferior to older ones” – this is a common idea in Judaism, somewhat reversing the known facts of human and cultural development. According to this idea, the ancient sages are said to be “closer to God” in spiritual power, so they surely […]

It hit me. The solution to all our problems. And it’s all based on a mathematical attribute named ‘Transitivity’. Quoting Wikipedia: In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b, and b is in turn related to an element c, then […]

This morning I watched the Israeli Channel 2 morning program. The interview that caught my attention hosted two known figures, Dov Halbertal and Emily Amrusi, allegedly representing “left” and “right”, eagerly discussing “from both sides of the fence” the future of the Jewish nation and the State of Israel. Two people who believe that some […]

The art of inventing excuses is an old art. Most of our ancient “sacred” texts contain a myriad of contradictions and conflicts, but being “sacred” – these contradictions and conflicts must be resolved… How can the gods be mistaken? The good news is that it’s relatively easy to come up with solutions to practically everything. […]

From the chapter ‘All Is Foreseen Yet Freedom of Choice Is Given’, from the book ‘Games of Awareness‘. … A slightly different topic, yet related to our current conversation, is the old debate about ‘What if…’. In many cases, this phrase is used innocently, replacing future tense by past tense: Instead of asking: ‘What will […]

Today is the Jewish “Yom Kippur”. It’s a day full of contradictions, some of which are rather odd. According to the Jewish “Halacha” (religious laws and tradition), it used to be a happy day, in which men chose women for the purpose of establishing a family. According to the same “Halacha” it is now a […]

“Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about” ‘Strawberry Fields Forever‘, The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 1966 Theorem: Given God’s religious definition, it is impossible to prove the existence of God. Proof: Part 1 – Some definitions and basic conclusions Rene Descartes‘ idea of our entire world being no more than something […]

That’s me in the corner That’s me in the spotlight Losing my religion Trying to keep up with you And I don’t know if I can do it — R.E.M. Recently I’ve been confronted with an increasing number of people who are in the process of leaving their religion, but find it difficult. They may […]