I Believe: A Poem
Please remember, contestants, to phrase your answer in the form of a question.
—Alex Trebek, host of Jeopardy!™
I believe with a perfect faith in the coming of the messiah, though he may tarry.
—Late medieval reformulation of Maimonides’ 12th Principle of Faith, Commentary to the Mishna, Sanhedrin, Perek Helek.
In the days of the Messiah, each individual will perfect his soul to its root, and the holy sparks will ascend from their husks, which will become entirely null.
—Restatement of a key doctrine of Lurianic Kabbalah by R. Kalonymus Kalman Epstein (1753–1825).
I believe, with a perfect faith, that the messiah will
be a Jeopardy champion,
whose answers, phrased as questions, will raise sparks of memory
from husks of forgetfulness,
and return us to ourselves.
Suggested Reading
Bread and Vodka
Mendel Osherowitch's 1933 book about life in Ukraine not only bore rare eyewitness testimony to one of the worst atrocities in a barbarous century; it did so from the vantage point of a brother of two of the perpetrators.
Ba’al Teshuvah Poetics
Part of being a ba’al teshuvah is the yearning to stop being one—to finally blend with those who never had to return because they never left.
Shababshubap
Black hat chic: Shai Secunda's review of Shababnikim, the new television show about cool yeshiva students.
The Future Is Now
Response #3: Edieal Pinker argues from statistics that American Jewry is at an inflection point containing the seeds of a revival.
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