The philanthropist wears no clothes

Great post on Jewschool responding to the Jewish Week's article on "hipster Judaism". And it includes shouts-out to Kol Zimrah and the rest of the independent minyan scene.

Hiatus? I hardly know us!

I've been away from blogging for a while. Between teaching, KZ, NHC, Limmud NY, a visit to the old country, learning Talmud on the proverbial bus, a transit strike, and fighting the war on Christmas, there just hasn't been time. But I'll be back to it soon. I don't know if I'll ever catch up on blogging the Talmud. Summary: Many dapim later, Masechet Megillah is still engaged in midrash on Esther, though we're almost done with the first perek. Masechet Makkot has produced lots of plots for tannaitic murder mysteries, and we're also almost done with the first perek.

Upcoming posts:

• Chanukah: divine agency vs. human agency
• New Year's Eve: performative ritual
• fawning book review of Al Franken's The Truth (with Jokes)
  
• nitpicky review of the first few chapters of The Physics of Superheroes