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Gershon Hepner

Gershon Hepner

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

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The Yom Kippur of Shell Shock

A failure, Bernard Shaw declared, can be more interesting than a success. A failure happens when you’ve dared to act in ways that although they are...

22.09.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Survivors, a New Ancient History

Though designated like pius Aeneas to become survivors of the horrendous Hellenistic holocaust of Troy, many Jews no longer see themselves as...

13.09.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Jews Have Nothing in Common with Haman: An opinion 9/2/23

Finding nothing in the whole world in common with himself, Kafka asked why men seemed to expect him to resemble any of his kin or kith or other...

07.09.2023 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

An Alter Kakker Reminisces about Bobolinks

Bar-tailed godwits non-stop fly, Alaska to the South Pacific, curlews with a bristled thigh fly as far, and this terrific distance by the...

31.08.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Clash of civilizations, Jonah and Prigozhin

With prescience, he sang the about the clash that faces our uncivil civilizations, whose differences might lead to nuclear ash descending from...

27.08.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

He Could Have Asked for Redemption

When admitted into heaven, Bontshe Shtok told the angels of the favor he wished to receive. “Fresh rolls with butter ever morning.” ...

19.08.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Why Paradise Was Lost

Specialization calls for the renunciation of universality, replacing it by focusing on what mistakenly might seem to be a detail that may be...

10.08.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Gemora is Better than Chess, said Samuel Reshevsky

Although chessmaster Sam Reshevsky stated, “Chess is great, but I prefer gemora,” the only thing that makes me as elated as both of them...

03.08.2023 30

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Happy Ending to the Ninth of Av

Arguing the pros and cons of regulations God prescribes, identifying as black swans false prophets, foolish priests and scribes,   ...

28.07.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Only when Recollecting Our Despair

Only when we’re recollecting our despair can we communicate it. We don’t ever care to do so when we’re sorely overcome by it. ...

22.07.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Kafka Unscanned as a Hung Jury

While fascinated by Ostyidden, Eastern Jewry, Kafka by theatrical performances of Yiddish plays became inspired, observing them like...

06.07.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Two Jerusalems

Two Jerusalems there are, one above and one below; double-named as double star, one a celestial entrepôt, while for the other nations...

01.07.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Treating a Person as a Lulav

Some students, who were visiting Rav Yitzhaq Hutner when he was quite sick, said “We’re glad that you have made us biqur holim mitzvadik.” He...

22.06.2023 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Contra Doomsayers Like Cormac McCarthy,  Plowsharing with Isaiah

Since all flesh in the past has slowly turned to dust, and will no more endure when flesh to it has been transformed apocalyptic words become the...

15.06.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

All Is Possible and Impeachable

We know subjectively that all is possible after Hitler, Stalin, declared Auden, and should not trust, after this Fall, ourselves, expelled for...

09.06.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

The Pillars of Martin Luther King’s American Dream

Martin Luther King’s great speeches had three sources. The Bible, and the Declaration of Independence, two great pillars of the third one, the...

01.06.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Ruth Rewritten

My favorite bible book, to tell the truth, is short and sweet and called the book of Ruth. Regarding what she looked like, whether short and...

24.05.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Short-Circuits of Sense

Harmless short-circuits of uncommon sense that are made by mythological connections between the present and the past unrealistically by means of...

19.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Delight and Knowledge and Poisoned Fruit

If there is no delight, all knowledge fails, and, cast in thought, perception pales unless the studied rationale of learning delights,...

11.05.2023 60

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

God’s Punchlines

by those who think his punch lines rather sick, then maybe there is something to be gained by laughing when he does his Godly shtick.  ...

04.05.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Hearing the Redeemer When He Knocks

If you are wondering if you’ll hear the redeemer when he knocks on your door, perhaps you fear the sound, and keep him out with locks....

27.04.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

The Tenth Commandment

Because of the last of the Ten Commandments, wrote Meir Shalev, no one can be by God awarded a perfect score card, the whole world being guilty of...

20.04.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Not Explaining the Song of Songs

Reading commentaries before you read Bible text is comparable to reading program notes before you hear a piece of music, or feeling far more...

05.04.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Counting Israel’s Miracles Beseder, with Respect

Posture is important at the seder: every Jew who’s ever gone to cheder knows that at the seder we must lean towards the left, to feel...

31.03.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Blood on the Doorposts

The blood is on the doorposts and the signs are very clear for everyone to understand the end is drawing near. The lintel is one...

25.03.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Another Game, But Why?

Said Sandy Koufax: “I could pitch another game,” significantly adding then, “But why?” When you can see I’m writing just the same ...

17.03.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

The Book of Esther is a Midrashic Explanation of Ezra 4.6

This brief article suggests that the Book of Esther should be seen as a midrashic explanation of Ezra 4:6, describing the effect of the hatred of the...

13.03.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Saffron-Stained Windows and Jewish Holy Books

The saffron used to stain during pre-Renaissance middle ages’ many gorgeous windows of cathedrals, Gothic, was for...

24.02.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

God the Father

The Church of England allegedly now plans to put a  spanner in God’s gearbox, setting it in permanently neutral gender, a change that’s...

14.02.2023 7

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

The Biblical Ladder and its Spectrum

Biblical interpretation may be thought of as a ladder,      an ascent for the alleged plain meaning of the text — peshat — often as...

11.02.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

How to Resolve the Catholic Church’s Problem

Ross Douthat writes that there is a debate between two cardinals, George Pell and Robert McElroy. Their conflict I most shamelessly can state ...

30.01.2023 20

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Bibi’s Political Longevity

When Bibi Netanyahu became the Prime Minister of Israel in 1996, Bill Clinton was the US President, John Major the UK’s Prime Minister and Helmut...

24.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Beyond Completion

The Babylonian Talmud is a work beyond completion, which may help to explain, perhaps, why God invented not just Tosafot, but Aharonim, who...

20.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Pharaoh Foreshadowing the Forgery called ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’

As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, the forged “Protocols of Elders” were in Exodus foreshadowed, when in Egypt Pharaoh claimed that Israel had...

12.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Pulling Meanings Frankly out of Texts like Genesis

Like spring when pulling from bare arms of trees once winter has been left behind astounding and perhaps astonished leaves, great scholars carefully...

03.01.2023 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

Thoughts on Nittelnacht Regarding Christmas and Hanukkah

Christmas is the festival of trees, but Hanukkah’s the festival of lights, each one equally designed to ease, when darkness of the...

27.12.2022 10

The Times of Israel (Blogs)

Gershon Hepner

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