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"Luke Ford reports all of the 'juicy' quotes, and has been doing it for years." (Marc B. Shapiro)
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff) LATEST POSTS:
- Dennis Prager v Cedars-Sinai Lawsuit
- Dennis Prager Through Randall Collins: Interaction Ritual Chains
- What is a ‘Received Idea’?
- Jordan Bardella: The Manufacture of Normality
- Everyone Became Television: Bourdieu’s Warning and the 2026 Iran War
- Marine Le Pen
- The Coalition-Proximity Rule
- Nigel Farage
- Bernard Haykel: A Life Between the Text and the Gun
- Walker Connor (1926-2017)
- Benedict Anderson and the Nation as Imagination
- Anthony D. Smith: The Student Who Kept the Question and Rejected the Answer
- Ernest Gellner
- Eric Kaufmann: The Man Who Made the Majority Visible
- Dominic Cummings: A Biography
- Steve Lopez: The Last City Columnist
- California Historian Kevin Starr
- Stephen Kotkin: A Life in Power
- William T. Vollmann: An American Life in Excess
- Rod Dreher: A Life in Exile
BEST POSTS:
- * The Enlightenment Wasn’t Enlightened (6-23-26)
* Mr. Burge Draws The Line (6-23-26)
* 'Improving on Democracy' (6-17-26)
* People Leak To People Who Are Fun (6-11-26)
* Why Does Australia Produce So Many Great Journalists? (6-11-26)
* Steve Wynn and the Press: Power, Litigation, and the Contest Over Las Vegas (6-3-26)
* Sheldon Adelson and the Journalists (6-3-26)
* The Vigilant Animal: Thinkers Who Reject the Myth of Human Gullibility (6-2-26)
* The Cost of Refusing the Misunderstanding Myth (6-2-26)
* Show Me How It Travels (6-2-26)
* The Norm Explainers (6-2-26)
* Centering Marginalized Voices (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Washington Post put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What would it look like if the Financial Times put its reader first? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for the Los Angeles Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* What It Would Mean for The New York Times to Put the Reader First? (6-1-26)
* Why Wembanyama Lives on the Perimeter (5-31-26)
* The Emotional Palettes Of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco & Sacramento (5-27-26)
* The Administrative Capital: Sacramento Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* San Diego - The Quiet Republic (5-27-26)
* The Quiet Bar: San Diego Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* SF v LA Legal Culture (5-27-26)
* Why Talent Travels Poorly Between San Francisco and Los Angeles (5-27-26)
* San Francisco and Los Angeles as Rival Models of Urban Access (5-27-26)
* Social Cliques in New York, 2026 (5-25-26)
* Social Cliques in San Francisco, 2026 (5-25-26)
* The Rival Courts of Washington (5-25-26)
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Tag Archives: shlomo carlebach
Are Women More Spiritual?
David Suissa writes: That idea is a woman’s spiritual edge over man. I got a taste of that edge last Friday night at Temple Beth Am, where a packed house welcomed their new cantor, Magda Fishman, a soulful trumpet player … Continue reading
Posted in Beth Am, David Suissa
Tagged billie holliday, conservative synagogue, magda fishman, orthodox shuls, receiving from god, shlomo carlebach
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Bad Jews
Class. A middle-aged liberal Jewish woman starts talking to me. "What do you think of Shlomo Carlebach?" she asks. "He did some good things. He did some bad things." "I saw a religious Jew doing a really bad thing this … Continue reading
Posted in Jews, Personal
Tagged bad jews, jewish area, jewish woman, psychic healer, religious jew, shlomo carlebach
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Did I Join A Cult And Not Even Know It?
For the past three months, I have been 100% enthusiastic about Kundilini Yoga. Don’t think my emotions had no foundation in fact. I read the Wikipedia entry on Yogi Bhajan and at the time it only contained neutral or positive … Continue reading
Posted in Cults, Guru Singh, Yoga
Tagged bloke, khalsa, manly man, shlomo carlebach, straight man, yogi bhajan
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Judaism & Yoga
I’ve been having a hard time of late reconciling Judaism with yoga. In particular, the teachings of Guru Singh with Judaism. I have a hard time putting my hands in prayer position because that reminds me of Christianity. I have … Continue reading
Posted in Judaism, R. Shlomo Carlebach, Yoga
Tagged dirty jew, hard time, image of god, impossible time, Judaism, paintings and drawings, prayer position, shlomo carlebach, yoga west, yogi bhajan
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‘Want Some X?’
I’ve just finished my Mussaf Amidah. I’m standing around looking for a good time. A friend comes up to me and says, "Want some X?" "What?" "Want some X?" "Huh?" He gives me a tract called "Ecstasy for the Soul: … Continue reading
Posted in Prayer
Tagged good times, shlomo carlebach, spiritual ecstasy
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Marc Gafni Returns To His Rebbe Role
Marc refers to himself as a "rebbe" on the front page of his new "Jewish Liberation School." I thought Marc was leaving the rabbinate behind him. That he was now a spiritual artist. Marc’s partner in this new endeavor, Gabriel … Continue reading
Posted in Marc Gafni
Tagged boundary issues, gabriel cousens, marc gafni, new endeavor, shlomo carlebach, spiritual artist
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JConnectLA Friday Night
Workmen’s Circle. 6:20 p.m. I’m the second person to arrive. It’s my first Shabbat in over eight years without my black undertaker suit. Instead I’m wearing this striped ill-fitting number I got for $20 from the Jewish thrift store on … Continue reading
Posted in JConnect LA, Personal
Tagged Alcohol, bima, boss, daven, davening, floating in outer space, friday night, ground control, heart, jconnect, joyful noise, major tom to ground control, minyan, mizel, peculiar way, planet earth, prayers, Sabbath, second person, sermon, shabbat, shlomo carlebach, starman, stunning dress, thrift store, undertaker, workmen
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Where Can One Find The Most Transcendent Prayer In Pico/Robertson?
Without a doubt, it is the Happy Minyan (Shlomo Carlebach style but without the child molestation) and its marvelous cantor Yehuda Solomon (lead vocalist for the Moshav Band). This place’s prayer beats the pants off every other minyan in town. … Continue reading
Posted in Happy Minyan
Tagged cantor, child molestation, doubt, glenville, karate academy, map, minyan, Prayer, shlomo carlebach, west pico blvd, yehuda
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