A few thoughts on Pope Francis — lux aeterna luceat ei — and his successor.
Yet one thing that is true about the Haggadah is that it is emphatic about liberation being in God’s hands. That’s why the text very nearly erases Moses from the story. Over and over, the text says, liberation from Egypt was something God did for me, not something I won or that was handed to me by some lesser mortal savior. In this populist era, where both Trump and Netanyahu style themselves kings and messiahs, that’s one reason I can still put forward confidently for clinging to the traditional text, even at the risk of being irrelevant.
Holy Week recommendation: the Netherlands Bach Society performing the St Matthew Passion. ✝️ 🎵
Brad Mehldau’s cover of “Little Person” is just sublime. 🎵
My friend Jim Beitler on Tolkien, Lewis, George Herbert, and trees.
Not really interested in the Bauhaus Clock screensaver, but if it were based on John Harrison’s H4 I’d be saying TAKE MY MONEY.
I’ve got a post up on Harvard’s argy-bargy with the Administration — mainly quotations, which I’ll probably be adding to.