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Archive: Lox et Veritas
I Just Got Back From the Holy Land
Riding in a van from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, I realized that nowhere am I totally safe from people who hate me because of my blood.
By Michael Pomeranz | January 8, 2009; 02:41 PM ET | Comments (1)
Merry Christmas from Yale!
A Daily News column wonders why Jews are so afraid of Christmas. "I suppose I can understand - the holiday does have the word "Christ" right there in the name. And perhaps it used to carry some meaning you wouldn't...
By Michael Pomeranz | December 24, 2008; 03:36 PM ET | Comments (1)
Holy Day for Civic Religion
I study, in particular, civic religion, and today is our civic Feast of All Saints and Easter, Eid and Rosh Hashanah all rolled up into one.
By Michael Pomeranz | November 4, 2008; 10:05 AM ET | Comments (1)
"That Every Jewish Mother Will Know"
Speaking of the deal to exchange a live murder for the bodies of two murdered Israeli soldiers, the head of Israel's National Religious Party, Zevulun Orlev, said "The approval of the deal transmits an important message, that every Jewish mother...
By Michael Pomeranz | June 30, 2008; 09:55 PM ET | Comments (6)
Awake to Justice?
As you may know, the federal government raided Agriprocessors, a kosher meat factory in Iowa, alleging labor abuses. To my knowledge, no one has been convicted. The lack of federal convictions has not prevented criticism. One critical group is Uri...
By Michael Pomeranz | June 21, 2008; 07:31 PM ET | Comments (4)
Religion is a Public Good: Is That OK With Us?
Can we, as practitioners of religion, tolerate governors who ignore what may be the essential claims of our religions? In a pluralistic country like America, can we afford not to? I look forward to your thoughts.
By Michael Pomeranz | June 11, 2008; 08:41 PM ET | Comments (5)
Moving from Home to Home
Even now, as we celebrate 60 years of the State of Israel, and it seems like Jews finally have a home again, we remember our usual condition is on the run, leaving, counting, waiting, celebrating, and leaving again.
By Michael Pomeranz | May 20, 2008; 11:05 PM ET | Comments (0)
What We Believe
We find meaning not in the pews but in pigs in a blanket.
By Michael Pomeranz | March 18, 2008; 09:54 PM ET | Comments (1)
A Chicagoan in Israel, Part I
I only have a new year coming at me, a Chicagoan who stepped past the buried Jesus into the Muslims rushing to pray as he walked towards the Temple of his fathers.
By Michael Pomeranz | December 31, 2007; 11:26 AM ET | Comments (2)
Exam for Uses of Religion 101
It’s no wonder every semester a Dean sends out a letter reminding the student not to judge his self worth during the cold, dark, lonely days of examinations.
By Michael Pomeranz | December 19, 2007; 03:07 PM ET | Comments (1)
Quantum Leaps of Faith
Theology overheard while studying: EE: Hey, {Computer Science roomate}! Guess what? {Mathematics roomate} is in a quantum state! He says he tends towards belief in God. CS: That's interesting! {Mathematics roomate}, you're in a superposition between belief and disbelief. What...
By Michael Pomeranz | November 13, 2007; 11:08 PM ET | Comments (3)
The Meaning of Life, Part I
Fiat Lux and Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale today host a discussion with Professor Anthony Kronman and Rabbi Jim Ponet about the Meaning of Life (which seems to need capitals, somehow). There was some confusion as to what...
By Michael Pomeranz | November 13, 2007; 09:20 AM ET | Comments (3)
The Back to Reality Show
No TV, no Broadway. Let me be the first to ask: Does this mean we’ll have to talk to each other now?
By Michael Pomeranz | November 11, 2007; 03:08 PM ET | Comments (4)
Midterms and Midrash
As we slog through midterms, canceling club meetings left and right, it’s hard to remember why this whole college thing is better than what we want to do.
By Michael Pomeranz | November 3, 2007; 10:10 PM ET | Comments (0)
All Aboard
Dear New Jersey Transit worker #1: I got off the train in Trenton, a place that I have never visited before and may never visit again, unsure of how long until my next train left or from where it left....
By Michael Pomeranz | October 26, 2007; 03:11 PM ET | Comments (4)
Teachers and Saints
USA Today announced the best teachers in America today. Full disclosure: my high school Latin teacher, Mr. Tylinski, was honorably mentioned. I know from observing him the hours upon hours these teachers commit to their students. The students, perhaps, are...
By Michael Pomeranz | October 18, 2007; 03:38 PM ET | Comments (2)
The Faith of Football Fans
The Cubs lost. The Bears lost. I am still smiling, though, because two weeks ago, the Packers lost. I love baseball, but there is something to be said about super-modern professional football as religious experience. One can understand religious rituals...
By Michael Pomeranz | October 15, 2007; 01:18 PM ET | Comments (5)
Education's End, Part I
I just got my hands on the book that people are talking about up and down the East Coast: Education’s End. Written by former Dean of the Yale Law School Anthony Kronman, Education’s End: Why Our Colleges and Universities Have...
By Michael Pomeranz | October 4, 2007; 03:13 PM ET | Comments (4)
God and Man (after Yom Kippur) at Yale
During Yom Kippur services, the Yale Jewish clergy stressed the theme of God’s ability to eliminate sin totally. Of course, Jewish tradition emphasizes that God only can do this for affronts to God; affronts to other people, you have to...
By Michael Pomeranz | October 1, 2007; 03:59 PM ET | Comments (1)
How to Lose a Generation
The problem Liz outlines is, as David suggests , not limited to the Church. In reaction to over-reaching orthodoxy, everyone that used to offer normative claims – let’s call it “morality” for short – defers nowadays, instead playing guitar and...
By Michael Pomeranz | September 25, 2007; 07:42 PM ET | Comments (0)
Rosh HaShanah, Shofars, Markets, and a Child
A series of short toots, a series of short exclamations from this little boy.
By Michael Pomeranz | September 24, 2007; 03:06 PM ET | Comments (3)
Forgetting Theology
“You, Lord, are truth.” Draped in a prayer shawl with four fringed corners, decked in full suit and tie, swaying back and forth per Jewish custom, I read those words aloud from the prayer book one week ago on the...
By Michael Pomeranz | September 22, 2007; 09:31 PM ET | Comments (541)
Frumspringa
In Manhattan on the Lower East Side someone has written on a brick building “rumspringa.” As I understand it, that’s the phrase for the period a young adult member of the Amish community goes through “running around” the world before...
By Michael Pomeranz | September 20, 2007; 12:37 AM ET | Comments (5)
An Open, Uneasy Mind
Newsweek and the Washington Post bring us “What Islam Really Says” about various issues. They, correctly, have asked various Muslim experts. After all, the inheritors of a faith tradition have a privileged relationship with that faith tradition’s meaning, as do...
By Michael Pomeranz | July 25, 2007; 08:13 AM ET | Comments (99)
President Kennedy and Rabbi Tarphon, Part II
I wrote several days ago about doing good. I wrote yesterday about President Kennedy’s inaugural asking people to do goo. He asks us citizens of the world to sacrifice in order to bring “a new rule of law, where the...
By Michael Pomeranz | July 20, 2007; 09:42 AM ET | Comments (643)
JFK's Manifest Destiny (Part 1)
In teaching John F. Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address, I noted, for the first time, how the speech ends: “Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength...
By Michael Pomeranz | July 19, 2007; 08:35 AM ET | Comments (2)
Green Balloons
I have come to a conclusion that you doubtless reached long ago: work is hard. And I’ve come to another conclusion: good work is not necessarily romantic, or large, or even particularly interesting. Good work is work that makes a...
By Michael Pomeranz | July 16, 2007; 06:58 AM ET | Comments (6)
Citizenship and Pluralism
Recently I've been reading Building the Interfaith Youth Movement, a series of essays and reports compiled by Eboo Patel and Patrice Brodeur. Patel, whom I know and like very much, founded and runs something called the Interfaith Youth Core, the...
By Michael Pomeranz | June 13, 2007; 02:25 PM ET | Comments (9)
Yale Graduation (Part I)
Yale graduates her students with the pomp of a Northern European, 15th century, Catholic university, in the circumstance of an American, 21st century, vaguely atheistic college and university. Senior Week, an ecumenical Baccalaureate Service, festive Class Day exercises, traditional Graduation...
By Michael Pomeranz | June 3, 2007; 03:07 AM ET | Comments (2)
Bad Yiddish (Part I)
Yesterday, I attended a lecture given by Michael Chabon in the Harold Washington Library in downtown Chicago. The lecture was part of a series of events put on Nextbook, “public programs on Jewish literature, culture & ideas,” which derives its...
By Michael Pomeranz | May 22, 2007; 05:44 PM ET | Comments (1)
Damn Yankees
It’s officially spring. Heck, as far as I’m concerned, it’s officially summer. Evidence: 1) I don’t go to school anymore. 2) The amount I can think about baseball has leaped up about 10000% in the last two days. I have...
By Michael Pomeranz | May 18, 2007; 03:47 PM ET | Comments (7)
Done With Finals!
I was trying to figure out what about Liz’s http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/faithbook/2007/05/this_4286_catholic.htmlpost bothered me so, before I was subsumed by studying for finals. With the macroeconomy safely behind me, at least for a little while, and a week of saying goodbye to...
By Michael Pomeranz | May 11, 2007; 08:11 PM ET | Comments (3)
Habits ancient and modern
So we’ve begun to hit final exams, which, in addition to explaining why I haven’t posted in a while, explains why I haven’t been, shall we say, acting out the rituals of my forebears in a while. This is problematic...
By Michael Pomeranz | April 30, 2007; 07:23 PM ET | Comments (1)
After Tragedy
What does one do after tragedy? Classmates of mine were stopped on the street by a professor. He wanted to know whether students were changed by the shootings at Virginia Tech. “Not really,” they said. They said no more. “Well,...
By Michael Pomeranz | April 19, 2007; 08:27 PM ET | Comments (6)
Where is the Light? The Truth?
This week, Yale welcomes upwards of 1000 admitted students to campus in hopes of convincing them through a mixture of Dean’s talks and ad hoc alcoholic revelries. I had planned to write a letter arguing the reasons why I find...
By David Waters | April 17, 2007; 02:38 PM ET | Comments (4)
