Spirits in Bondage by C.S. Lewis. Book 29 of 2022

Spirits in Bondage is the work of a young man, a teenager.  In those years, between ages 15 and 18, C.S. Lewis lived through some of the highest and lowest experiences of his young life. 

He finished his preparation for University (Oxford) being tutored by W.T. Kirkpatrick.  In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, Lewis said these were the best years of his early education. By contrast, the title of the chapter about his first school was "Belsen." 

At age 17, Lewis went to Oxford. Soon after arriving he volunteered to serve in World War I. He was Irish and did not have to serve, but he did.  He was twice wounded, nearly killed both times.  

When I read these poems I tried to keep his life experience in mind.  The range of the poems and beliefs they express gave me a feeling of what this brilliant and sensitive young man must have felt in the rapid changes his life endured from the intense learning with Kirkpatrick, the wonder of Oxford, then leading men in battle in the horror of World War I.

If you are a fan of C.S.Lewis, these poems will give you a window into his early life. He wanted to be a poet. He became a literary critic, novelist, Christian apologist, and essayist, but not the poet he hoped to be. 

 

First 28 books of 2022:

Reflections on the Psalms by  C.S. Lewis

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer

The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah Arendt

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton

If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. 

Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins

Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt

Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

First Principles by Thomas Ricks

Political Tribes by Amy Chua 

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson

1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen

Rabbi Ratifies Replacement-Theory Racism

Since August 2017, I have been trying to make sense of a world in which torch-carrying Nazis marched on the campus of the University of Virginia chanting "Jews will not replace us" and "Blood and Soil." A world in which three days later, the American President said there were "fine people on both sides" of the clash in Charlottesville between murderous Nazis and counter protesters.

Soon after the protest, my friend Cliff told me about a series of podcasts called "The Land of Israel Network."  He particularly wanted me to listen to a debate between two rabbis about Charlottesville.  The rabbis, Ari Abramowitz and Jeremy Gimpel, were veterans, comrades in the Israeli army, and neighbors building a worship retreat house in the desert. 

Abramowitz was alarmed by Charlottesville, Gimpel was already deep in Trump religion world even endorsing the idea that Trump was the modern day King Cyrus of Persia--the gentile king who allowed the exiled Jews to rebuild Jerusalem. The Trumpist evangelical world widely believes the King Cyrus story. 

Abramowitz and Gimpel argued. That in itself was a vast improvement over American evangelicals who simply worshipped Trump.  

The Land of Israel Network is politically conservative. I listened to all of the hosts and found them to be bright and interesting even if I disagreed with them on American politics.  

The exception was Rav Mike Feuer and his weekly "The Jewish Story" podcast.  I have listened to every episode of "The Jewish Story" and met with Rav Mike in Israel twice.  He sees contemporary politics both in America and Israel differently than the other hosts.  

By 2020, all of the hosts except Rav Mike had gone further into Trumpism.  Eve Harow had leading election deniers on her podcast. By this year she had Gil Hoffman on her show. Hoffman was reporting from the Ukraine border for the Jerusalem Post. Harow voiced the "both sides" opinion of Tucker Carlson et al and Hoffman shut that down. "Ukraine was attacked. Putin is evil." he said.

Yishai Fleisher also moved further into the American far right.  Last month he said Ben Shapiro should be the spokesperson for diaspora Jews.  Wow! So Ben Shapiro would fill the space held by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.  This is something akin to the descent from William F. Buckley to Rush Limbaugh.  

And then in his most recent episode, Fleisher aired a recording of him praying at CPAC in Dallas and participating in a panel.  CPAC 2022 began with a keynote address by Victor Orban.  A few days before speaking at CPAC Orban addressed a gathering in Hungary and endorsed "Great Replacement Theory." Short of full-blown Naziism, you can't get much more anti-Semitic than Great Replacement Theory.  

The week-long celebration of White Christian Nationalism that is CPAC began with Orban and ended with Trump--King Cyrus reborn.

So I wrote to Yishai asking how he could participate in CPAC. Here is what I wrote:

Yishai,

Happy 20th Anniversary to you and Malkah. 

I am writing after listening to your prayer and panel at CPAC.

Just a week ago, August 10, was the fifth anniversary of the worst night of my life.

Nazis with torches marches in Charlottesville on the UVA campus chanting "You will not replace us" and it's variant "Jews will not replace us."  "Blood and soil" was another chant echoing across the campus. 

The French Fascist Great Replacement Theory was fringe five years ago. It's now accepted orthodoxy with the CPAC crowd and most Republicans, particularly followers of Tucker Carlson.

And it is government policy in Hungary under Victor Orban, the CPAC keynote.

Does any of this worry you?

Neil

His answer:  Does Ukrainian Nazism worry you? 

(This is the equivalent of blaming Antifa for January 6)

My response:

Yishai,

Not even a little.  They are defending Ukraine since the invasion.  They are like American Nazis on December 8, 1941. Lindbergh tried to join the AAF. 

The fascist Great Replacement Theory in America and Hungary worries me.  It is real and hateful and bad and finds drooling acceptance at CPAC.

We Jews will not replace them, but they will eventually say we did and kill us if not stopped.  

There are never fine people on both sides. 

Neil

His response:  [crickets]

Apparently, two Jews three opinions applies even to Great Replacement Theory. 

Today is Ukraine Independence Day, and Six Months Since the Start of the Russian Invasion

 

Today is the 31st anniversary of Ukraine's Independence, the day it broke free of the Soviet Union and became an independent nation.  

Sadly, it is also the 6-month anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine--a vile and illegal and unprovoked attack.  Russia was one of the countries, along with the U.S. and the U.K. who guaranteed Ukraine's national borders and security in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal. The agreement was the Budapest Memorandum, singed in 1994.

Since 2014, Russia has broken its word, broken the agreement, and should not just be sanctioned but be defeated by the U.S., the U.K. and the United Nations.  The U.N. charter provides for taking action against member countries who invade other countries.  

I know the dangers of escalation, but I also know the dangers of allowing a ruthless bully like Vladimir Putin to act with impunity.  

The countries who guaranteed Ukraine's borders should join the fight and smash Russian forces in Ukraine and sink Russia's Black Sea fleet: all of it.  

I will continue to do what I can as a volunteer, but my hope for Ukraine is full restoration of its territory along with utter and ignominious defeat for Russia.  

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman Book 30 of 2022

 

At the beginning of his third lecture/chapter in the book QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter, Richard Feynman says:

Most of the phenomena you are familiar involve the interaction of light and electrons--all of chemistry and biology for example.The only phenomena not covered by this theory (QED or Quantum ElectroDynamics) are phenomena of gravitation and nuclear phenomena; everything else is contained in this theory.

And QED is a theory because it predicts the behavior of light and electrons better than any other theory. That's how a conjecture becomes a Theory.

Everything about science is contingent. A new discovery submitted to rigorous testing can and will replace the previous understanding.

In his inimitable way, Feynman walks the reader through adding arrows of probability and showing how these probabilities are behind all of matter, everything we see and touch and all the processes that keep living beings alive.

The final chapter of the book is about nuclear physics--the particles inside atoms surrounded by clouds of electrons and photons that hold atoms together and give them their chemical character. And in one last paragraph, Feynman says gravity is something else entirely, vastly weaker the electromagnetic forces which are vastly weaker than nuclear forces.

By then end of the book, I could see the oak table next to me as swarming with energy and activity. Uncountable electrons around and between and among billions of nucleii. And these hard, heavy centers of atoms, while held in a rigid grid also vibrate with activity, exchanging baryons, muons, mesons, and other particles while held rigidly together.

Even a glimpse into the mind of Feynman is as exciting as a story of discovering a new world.

First 29 books of 2022:

Spirits in Bondage by C.S. Lewis

Reflections on the Psalms by  C.S. Lewis

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer

The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah Arendt

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton

If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. 

Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins

Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt

Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

First Principles by Thomas Ricks

Political Tribes by Amy Chua 

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson

1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen

Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis. Book 28 of 2022

 

I re-read this book as a break from reading the intensely analytical translation of the Psalms by Robert Alter. All of Alter's work translating the Hebrew Bible brings the latest and best scholarship and Hebrew source material together to make a translation focused on meaning and clarity.

Lewis reads the Psalms as a lay person (he always denies being a theologian since he had no formal theological training) so he uses the Anglican Prayer Book version of the Psalter with occasional reference to the more recent Moffat translation.

Lewis begins the book with a chapter on "Judgement." The Christian links judgement first to the final judgement of each believer, standing before God.  Judgement in the Psalms is in many cases more like the accused standing before a judge declaring her innocence, or in a civil suit saying, "Defend me, I was wronged!"

In Chapter 2 "The Cursings" Lewis deals with how he as a Christian reads passages recommending "snatch up a Babylonian baby and beat its brains out against the pavement." Lewis explains the Christian view, but in explaining how difficult these passages are for him, he makes a case for just how sadly horrible Christian Nationalism really is.

Israel is a nation. Defending the Land of Israel is intrinsic to Judaism. There are many arguments among Jews about how to defend Israel, but Jews prayed for two millennia return to the land and celebrated when Israel became a sovereign nation.  

Christianity, to the extent it claims territory and wealth and power, is always wrong. Always. Worse, it is using the Hebrew Bible to justify its claims.  Because there is not a word of Jesus that is anything more than tolerant of taking power and riches.  

The rest of the book moves through the use of the Psalms. Lewis quotes more than half of the 150 psalms in his exposition.  It is a perspective I found nowhere else.  

First 27 books of 2022:

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler by David I. Kertzer

The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah Arendt

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton

If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. 

Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins

Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt

Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

First Principles by Thomas Ricks

Political Tribes by Amy Chua 

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson

1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen

The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler. Book 27 of 2022

 

Pope Pius XII has had an ambiguous history until the opening of the Vatican archives this book was based on. The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler  ends the ambiguity about the record of Pius XII during World War II and makes clear he chose to preserve the Vatican and the institution of the Church and never condemn Nazis or Fascists while they were in power.

Beginning in June 1945, when the guns were silent, the Vatican relentlessly defended Pope Pius XII. The task was easier until March 2020 when the archives of Pius XII were opened.  Access to the archives would have to wait several months until COVID restrictions were relaxed, but when the doors were opened, David I. Kertzer was there. 

The result is a 500-page story of a Pope, the leader of the Catholic Church beginning in March 1939, who chose to preserve the Church as an institution and the Vatican itself rather than exercise moral leadership.  

His predecessor, Pius XI, was, by Kertzer's account, a man who saw evil in Fascism and Naziism. He was set to publicly denounce both regimes in February of 1939 when he fell ill. His remarks were printed in 150 copies for distribution to Church leaders. When Pius XII became Pope, he had every copy of his predecessor's attack on Fascists and Nazis destroyed.

By March of 1939, Catholics in Germany, Austria and other lands the Nazis occupied were being persecuted.  Pius XII was secretly negotiating the Nazis for better treatment for Catholics, but he believed the Nazis and Fascists would win the coming war.  

Further, Pius XII, like the Germans who supported Hitler, were more afraid of communism than anything else.  

Then in September 1939, the Nazis conquered Poland and divided the demolished country with the Soviets.  Hitler and Stalin were persecuting and killing Polish Catholics. Church leaders were clamoring for the Pope to condemn the Nazis. Later they were joined by French, Dutch, Belgian, and other Catholic leaders. Pius XII never condemned the Nazis publicly.  

By 1941, the reports of extermination of the Jews reached the Pope through his own envoys and Italian military leaders.  He knew in considerable detail that a million Jews were dead and the pace of slaughter was accelerating.  Pope Pius XII never said the word Jew during the entire war.  He never went further than to regret the death of minorities. 

In 1943 when the fascist government in Italy failed and the Nazis occupied Italy, Pius XII did his best to protect Rome and the Vatican. With the Nazis in charge, the Jews who were already in fascist camps and ghettos were deported to death camps.  Pius XII made some effort to save Jews who were converts, but nothing for Italian Jews. During his papacy, the Vatican newspaper published justifications for keeping Jews away from Christians in ghettos that were Church policy hundreds of years before. 

In 1941, Pius XII spoke to a Catholic youth group about maintaining morality and staying away from movies and other temptations.  It is sadly funny to hear the moral leader of a world Church talking about morality when he has a perfect record of never condemning persecution, death and murder. 

Pius XII also made passionate pleas to stop the bombing of Rome in 1943 and 44 and not to bomb the Vatican.  Winston Churchill was especially vehement in rejecting the Pope's pleas. Pius XII had never condemned the Nazi bombing of London nor spoke out about the suffering of British Catholics under the Blitz. 

The Pope and the Vatican survived the war. When the shooting stopped the rationalizing began. The Pope who never said Jew and never condemned Nazis stayed in office until 1958.  Then his canonization process began.  Hopefully, the archives that are the basis of Kertzer's excellent book will stop the sainthood of a man who chose to save the Vatican and the Church and never condemn evil. His place in eternity is better described in Canto 19 of Inferno by Dante Aligheri. 

First 26 books of 2022:

The Last Interview and Other Conversations by Hannah Arendt

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

The Echo of Greece by Edith Hamilton

If This Isn't Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut

The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium by Barry S. Strauss. 

Civil Rights Baby by Nita Wiggins

Lecture's on Kant's Political Philosophy by Hannah Arendt

Le grec ancien facile par Marie-Dominique Poree

The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay

First Principles by Thomas Ricks

Political Tribes by Amy Chua 

Book of Mercy by Leonard Cohen

A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew Knoll

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Understanding Beliefs by Nils Nilsson

1776 by David McCullough

The Life of the Mind by Hannah Arendt

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss

Unflattening by Nick Sousanis

Marie Curie  by Agnieszka Biskup (en francais)

The Next Civil War by Stephen Marche

Fritz Haber, Volume 1 by David Vandermeulen

Courage, Like All of Life, is Non-Linear

Sir Lewis Hamilton, 7-time Formula 1 World Champion

Courage, like so much of life, is non-linear.  Lewis Hamilton has won more races than any driver in the history of the Formula 1 World Championship. Several times in his 15-year career he has had crashes that shredded and splintered his 1100-pound arrow shaped car at speeds well above 100mph.  Most recently his title rival, Max Verstappen, caused a crash that end with with Verstappen's car on top of Hamilton's car. 

After every crash, Hamilton was back in the car the next week, racing at speeds over 200mph into corners with 5-g side loads. 

But Hamilton is very afraid of spiders.  Very afraid. 

In this month's cover story in Vanity Fair magazine about Hamilton, he tells the interviewer that during the race each year in Australia, he insists on a high floor in the hotel, to make extra sure no big Australian spiders are in his room.  Hamilton says he watched the movie Arachnophobia as a child and has been afraid of spiders ever since.  

All of us are complex accumulations of genetics, experience, motives and attitudes so there should be nothing surprising that a person who is very brave in one situation is afraid in another.  And yet, that ideal of the Medieval Knight says the brave person should be afraid of nothing. It lingers in our imaginations.

My Dad was a boxer. He wasn't afraid of facing another man and fighting with his fists. His last fight was in a warehouse with a 30-year-old truck driver who took a swing at him. Dad was 62 years old. He knocked the younger man out.  Yet Dad was afraid of doctors and hospitals.  I lost every fist fight I was in and love hosptials.

Recently, I was talking to a friend about his recent trip to several countries in Europe.  He had a seven-hour layover in Helsinki and decided to go and see the city.  

I could never do that. Ride the Alps and Pyrenees and hills in Israel above 50mph on descents--awesome.  Leave the airport and have to pass back through security and customs?  Not me. I would be worried the moment I left the security area. 

Riding across Paris in traffic is pure excitement. I don't imagine what could go wrong.  But dealing with bureaucracy, I can't easily imagine things going right. 

Is it years in the Army that makes me distrust bureaucracy? I don't know.  Nothing in my childhood could have done it.  Until I flew to Basic training at 18 years old, I had never been in an airplane.  Our family never traveled further from Boston that a couple of trips to Cleveland, Ohio. 

On the other hand, I have a fear of needles that is physical and deep. I don't look at needles when I get IVs and blood drawn. But that fear is straight out of childhood.  In the basement of our home was this horrible torture device.

Vintage Singer Sewing Machine and Terror Device

One day, I was alone in the basement and stepped on the treadle of this terrifying machine, got the wheel spinning fast then (I have no idea why) slid the first finger of my five-year-old right hand into the path of that needle.  I screamed. So when my guts tighten up for a routine blood draw, I know where it comes from.  

I walked to my most recent bone-repair surgery feeling really happy. I was going to see old friends who had treated me before.  And walked home just as happy.  But I did not look at the needles during my stay the hospital.