Yom Kippur is no time for neurotics

The Days of Awe. Well, as I said before, I have some problems here.


Sukkoth, which is within sight, I can embrace wholeheartedly. A celebration of harvest and bounty, of earth and open air, it gives the soul (if there is one) a healthy does of this worldly pleasure and a glimpse, perhaps, of something more.


Yom Kippur reeks a bit to me of radical self-denial. Rendering oneself a corpse for HaShem bespeaks a kind of guilt and fear that I believe we should move away from in our conceptions of God.


But my thinking on this is far from advanced. I'm sure there are many differences of opinion out there, and mine, no doubt, is quite narrow. There is certainly something to the seeking forgivness aspect of the day. Who have we not hurt this year? Who should we not seek forgiveness from? If my words have caused you needless suffering this past year, I ask your forgivenes.

Islands in the Stream

Islands is part of Hemingway's posthumous body of work, published in 1970 under the auspices of his last wife, Mary Hemingway. It was carved out of the UR text that Hemingway worked on after the war, which ultimately produced (or spawned) The Old Man and the Sea, The Garden of Eden, this work, and by extension, A Moveable Feast.


Islands is a compelling novel, and in terms of structure and action, the best of the posthumous works. It drags a bit on dialogue; there are times when the reader feels he has read parts already. But beyond that, the novel stands on its own as a work, and also provides glimpses into Hemingway's post-war preoccupations. There are long mediations on the nature of art, productivity, and the act of expression. There is a longing look cast backward, toward Paris, which found greater expression in A Moveable Feast.


The novel is also unremittingly dark. We get a glimpse into the Hemingway in his declining years, as his power receded, and his depression and anxiety rose.

The Best Review

This is one of the best reviews I have ever recieved. This one, for my first book, Religious Syncretism. A savy blogger (his true views are often hard to discern) and religious enthusiast wrote it, and I was pleased to read it.




By Curtis Steinmetz (just outside the beltway) -


Syncretism is a very controversial subject. It is also an intrinsically complex subject, since by definition it involves the ways in which religions "mix" together, rather than the far simpler (but in truth simplistic and hopelessly unrealistic) approach of treating religions as neatly separated, mutually exclusive clubs.


Controversies over syncretism arise because of two inter-related questions: (1) is syncretism a good thing or a bad thing? and (2) is syncretism a natural state or is it a sign of the "decay" of a once "pure" religion? While scholars tend to shy away from the first question as irredeemably subjective, the second question is unavoidable. But the second question inevitably yields only one answer: that syncretism is a natural, universal feature of all religions. But that, in essence, also answers the first question.


Maroney confidently handles this complex and controversial subject. His writing style is clear and engaging, his examples are thoughtfully chosen and well presented, and the book is structured in a way that presents the world of religious syncretism in all of its luxurious messiness without overwhelming the reader (the forest, as the old saying goes, is not lost sight of in the course of examining representative trees).


This is a subversive book. It "deproblematizes" syncretism in a way that many will find discomforting. As Maroney himself points out in the first chapter, the monotheistic religions of the world have a tendency to view syncretism as their "sworn enemy". In spite of that attitude, though, Christianity, Judaism and Islam have all engaged in syncretism throughout their histories not only with each other, but also with those other, Pagan, religions.


Although he has chosen what has generally been considered an esoteric topic in the study of religion, Maroney has actually produced a book that in many ways is far superior as a general introduction to Religion (with a capital "R") than the usual survey books on World Religions (ie, Huston Smith, Stephen Prothero, etc). Because he focuses on Christianity, Judaism and Islam, the otherwise forbidding subject of syncretism is made accessible to a wide English speaking readership. I wish such a book had existed many many years ago -- but I am very glad it is here now!

The Days of Awe

There is a great deal of old imagry for the days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur that are hard for many modern people to swallow. The Days of Awe are the time when God inscribes people in the book of life; that is, if you have lived a proper life (according to Halakah) then you will live another year. If not....


Yom Kippur then is the great equalizer. On that day, one cannot eat or drink for 25 hours. One can't shower, shave, have sex. In essence, one makes oneself into a corpse, or one of the quasi-dead. Once more, this is for the benefit of a punishing God. There is a hint of old magic in this custom. "Don't count me in that book, you angry old god in the sky. I am dead already."


I appreciate the magesty and importance of the Days of Awe. But I often have problems with the nuts and bolts of the thing.

There is no such thing.

I gave up negative expressions about people about a year ago (alas, not yet about myself). I found myself increasingly occupied with such negative thoughts, to the detriment of my outlook on life, and to those around me.


Of course I have thoughts about negative things. I see a person and have a negative thought, but I don't allow it to congeal into words, and especially into any organized form of expression. Is it that easy? Maybe so. Maybe not.


If we believe certain philosophies and orientations about thought and mind, there is no such thing as the Self or the Mind. These are a series of discreet events, which we mistakenly tie together into a bundle that we call Self. But really, there is no Self, just a self. We are not what we think; we are what we think we think. The thing we call self that we believe is organized and stable is actually the exact opposite.


So if you stop thinking a certain way; if you exercise your powers to stop thinking a certain thoughts, eventually the glue that holds everything in the universe together, Habit, kicks in, and you lose something or gain something or morph into something else althogether.


But don't think it is easy...

People of the Land

The novel I just finished (in about six months of writing, six months of editing) came together quickly, but had behind it a great deal of germination time. There was energy stored away for this work, and when it came out, it was very well formed in my mind how the story should go.


First, the character, Yasha Schulevitz, is as familiar to me as the contents of my sock drawer. I wrote an entire novel about him in the present universe, from World War I until the conclusion of World War II. So I had a definite biography of this man, a Hebrew poet and European, one of the last of his kind.


Since I liked him so much as a character, since there was so much more to mine, I decided to write some short fiction about him and pass them around. "And Moses Made a Serpent of Brass" taken by OUR STORIES in 2008, is a Yasha piece. "Memorial Year" taken by ARCH in 2009 is as well. So, I had written about Yasha in the novel in real world form, then created yet another Yasha, similar but different, in the short pieces. Then it was time for round three.


Putting this character in a created world, in an alternate history, gave him elements that I did not see before in the two previous incarnations of his existence. Yasha was Yasha but he was also different.


So, for a writer's project, it was a great learning experience. It was also tremendous fun.

The Summer of Writing

I spent most of the summer writing short fiction. Really, it was an experiment writing. I was to write a story a week. I did do this, and now the 'final' story of the summer sits at my desk, and I think it is my best.


As one continues to write, and write a great deal, certain steams of thought and narrative flow(s) reveal themselves. This is not a flashy way of saying I repeat myself. No, I think it is the realization that we have, as writers, certain strata in our psyches (or selves, or personae) and that this is the root level of where our material comes.


One must be true to these levels, and work them as you would anything that requires work. The form is there, one just give it substance.


And of course there are various resistances that shall remain nameless...