Monday, August 2, 2010

Table of Contents for Open Minded Torah

Open Minded Torah: Of Irony, Fundamentalism and Love

Prologue: Velvel, Govorovo, Poland, 1944

I. Desire and Self

Making Exceptions

Do it Again Denzel: Fantasy and Second Chances

Caught in the Act: Torah and Desire

Swaying Towards Perfection: Torah, Worldliness and Perversion

The Big Game: Baseball, John Milton and Making Choices

Just Dreamin’: The Sages and the Interpretation of Dreams

Isaac’s Bad Rap

Identity is Out

Writing an Inspirational Story

Eros and Translation

Of Rabbis and Rotting Meat

Jacob’s Scar: Wounding and Identity

Cheeseburger: Torah, Swine and Desire

Torah and the Pleasure Principle

II. Community and Dispute

Oedipus in a Kippa

Open Minded Torah I: Judaism and Fundamentalism

Irony Uber Alles: An Episcopal Passover

The Dangers of Magic: Of Parenting and Idolatry

From Sinai to the Uzi: New and Old Zionisms

The Poetry of the World: God’s Place

Stepping Up

Open Minded Torah II: Judaism and Postmodernism

Lost and Found

Prayer and the People: A New Siddur

A Religion for Adults?

Modernity is Hell: Korach and Hobbes

Don’t Take Away My Mitzva!

Of Fundamentalists, Rabbis and Irony

Fear and Loathing in Jerusalem

Open Minded Torah III: Between Fundamentalism and Postmodernism

III. Time and Memory

Carpe Diem, Dude

The Antidote for Religion: Fear of God

Speech in Exile and the Voice of the Shofar

Back to the Future: Yom Kippur and Creative Repentance

Shades of Faith: My Sukka is Not Insured by AIG

A Special Conversation: Freud, the Maharal and Shabbos

Lighting Up: The Beauty of Hanuka

Whose Letter is it Anyway: Esther, Aristotle and the Art of Letter Writing

Cosmic Consciousness: The Beatles, Passover and the Power of Storytelling

Why I Gave Up Biblical Criticism and Just Learned to Love

Trauma’s Legacy: On Israel’s Memorial Day

Faceless: the Ninth of Av

Epilogue, Shmuel, Jerusalem, 2011