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The Secret of Judaism’s Two Triangles and the Mystery of Antisemitism

The key to understanding antisemitism lies in Judaism itself. This is because what Judaism esteems most highly is the very thing that incurs the wrath of antisemites.There is something that they intuitively hate about Judaism, even

From Theodicy to Mysticism: A Personal Account

One morning, several years ago, after awakening from a restful sleep, I sat upright on my bed for a few moments. And then, something amazing happened: I awoke from what I had just awoken to. I awoke, in other words

The Dark Knowledge at the Root of Acrophobia & Agoraphobia

Neurotic fears and phobias are puzzling and perplexing, for they run counter to our practical interests and to all common sense. Consequently, they seem merely irrational. There exists, though, a logic or method

Some Clues to the Mystery of Depression

Why do they call it the blues? Blue is the color of the sky, which symbolizes transcendence of earthly labors and woes.

The Deeper Meaning of “Oy, am I thirsty!”

Once again, we analyze a joke for insight into life’s deeper questions. Apparently it’s an old joke, but I only first read it in the June 2010

A Strange Case of Unconscious Shoplifting

Sometimes a psychological problem has its day in court. Last year, I was contacted by a middle-aged woman from Pennsylvania,

The Secret of Uncanny Valley

Japanese scientists have been making rapid strides creating automatons that look and act like human beings.But, in recent years,

The Deeper Mystery of the Faux Brownstone

“…for the soul is dead that slumbers, and things are not what they seem.” — Longfellow. There’s an apartment building in Brooklyn,

The Aesthetic Mystery of a Fantasy Clock

On the first Friday of every month, various cities throughout America hold an art walk. If you’ve never been on one, it simply consists of

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But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who

loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?