Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests

oops

“R. Israel Najara—the greatest Hebrew liturgical poet of his era; rabbi, scribe, preacher. R. Israel Najara—a filthy-mouthed drunkard, who feasts rather than fasts, sings loudly, eats meat and drinks wine during the period of mourning; a sodomist, wife-abusing, Sabbath-violating fornicator with Gentile women. "And I, Hayyim, told him about this matter and he acknowledged that such indeed had happened,” Vital wrote in his diary. Here again we confront a scene not bereft of ironies, as the most erotic Hebrew poet of the age is condemned via a young girl, for sins of a largely sexual nature. Have we here a confrontation between competing images of religiosity: Hakham Piso/Anav, austere and Hasidic, Najara a rabbi of ‘amkha, the people, whose flaws are those of so many of “the people of Egypt… and the inhabitants of Damascus?” Are the critiques voiced against the establishment, or are they of the establishment? The spirit in Anav, for all the inversionary radicalism entailed in the use of a woman’s body as a vehicle for revelatory public preaching, speaks with a voice that is reaffirming of traditional mores and piety. Even as he or she attacks individual rabbis, the attacks assert the ultimate authority of the rabbinic system in its most puritanical guise. This critique is not directed against men but against men and women, and is voiced by an essentially androgynous creature who champions the pietistic ideal of the religious establishment. Like the seventeenth-century Quaker female prophets studied by Phyllis Mack, the presence of Anav in the public arena “constrained her as firmly, in some ways more firmly, than the walls of the nunnery did the behavior of the Catholic visionary of the Middle Ages.”

Clearly, the possession and repossession of Anav was originally understood, as well as publicized, for its didactic value. Through Anav, Hakham Piso was to bring the Jews to repent. This penitential emphasis has much in common with what we know of many contemporary possession episodes in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe. Perhaps ironically, in both Jewish and Christian settings, “evil” spirits provided a powerful spur to repentance. The spirit would identify the transgressions of unrepentant sinners in his audience, leading to large-scale confessions, as many attempted to avoid the public revelation of their sins. Priests were stationed at every pillar in the cathedral at Laon, and “thousands confessed for fear that their sins would be revealed during the exorcisms.” Often, the spirit would directly call upon people to repent. H. C. E. Midelfort tells the story of a pious girl in 1559 who was possessed by the Devil, who claimed that God had sent him “in order to warn people to give up their godless pride, gluttony, and drunkenness.” A similar case in 1560 led Luther’s student Hieronymous Weller to accept the Devil’s words as “a serious sermon of repentance, which should move us as directly as if it were a good angel’s voice.” Although Vital reports that Abulafia and others broke down on the spot in contrition after being subjected to Anav, the case ended with mutual recriminations between the spirit and Abulafia. Abulafia went on the offensive to salvage his own maligned reputation and the reputations of his colleagues, excommunicating the spirit. For her part, Anav sent word from Tripoli that in the “Supernal Study Hall” the spirit pronounced a ban on Abulafia and his associates on a daily basis.

Even though the system as a whole may have been strengthened, Anav denounced individual authorities and exposed the ugly secrets of leading personalities and common folk alike. It would be wrong, moreover, to construe Anav as merely a pathological agent of rabbinic authority. In her vituperative clairvoyance, Anav expressed more anger than hope. Yet the sense of mission to community, of the possession of secrets to be vouchsafed to the worthy, of mediation between the living and the dead all indicate just how complex was the religious profile of the young daughter of R. Raphael.“

-pgs 111-113, Between Worlds by J. H. Chayes

Reconceptualize Joycean Literature

An analysis of James Joyce’s linguistic play and conceptual engagement with innovative geometric constructions in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake reveals how his topographical depiction of place reflects a shared dilemma between geometric and linguistic modalities of representation. Joyce’s intricate interplay between linguistic creativity and geometric structures reveals a profound exploration of representation, highlighting the tension that exists between language and spatial form. His topographical depictions serve not only as a mapping of physical spaces but also as a commentary on the limitations and possibilities inherent in both geometric and linguistic frameworks. This duality invites readers to reflect on how our understanding of place is shaped by the words we use and the shapes we perceive, suggesting that neither representation can fully capture the essence of experience on its own. Ultimately, Joyce masterfully weaves these elements together to create a richly diverse fabric that challenges us to reconsider how we interpret our surroundings and articulate our identities within them. “Penelope” is the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and “Ithaca” is the penultimate chapter. Its distinctive question-and-answer format distinguishes it. The visible world is geometrized by Joyce, who translates natural phenomena into their ideal Euclidean equivalents. It illustrates the rectification process that variably curved surfaces undergo in a topographical context, mediated by the catechetical narrative. This process results in a discrepancy between maps and their territories. This chapter also examines the mythical notions that arise from the mathematical catechism’s amalgamation of geometric objects and the visible world, in light of the narrative’s conceptualization of Molly Bloom as both a human and a celestial being. This duality invites readers to explore the intersections of geometry and existence, prompting a reevaluation of perception and reality. Ultimately, it encourages a deeper understanding of how our interpretations of space and identity are shaped by both mathematical constructs and the narratives we weave around them.

By converting the variable manifestations of Bloom’s and Stephen’s visible worlds into ideal Euclidean entities through an active rectification of curved lines and surfaces, the narrative reconciles formal inconsistencies, allowing Joyce to expand and cultivate an interwoven system between lines of thought and geometric objects or forms within his narratives. Through his masterful untangling of conceptual divergences, Joyce transcends the chaos of everyday life, transforming the tangible experiences of Bloom and Stephen into idealized Euclidean constructs that provide clarity and coherence. By rectifying curved lines and surfaces, he enhances the structures of his narratives and reconciles the formal inconsistencies that can arise in human thought and perception. This intricate weaving of thought lines with geometric objects invites readers to explore a deeper understanding of reality, where abstraction meets the physical world.

Joyce transformed modern advances in aesthetics and physics into literary modernism by imposing strict geometric measurements for aesthetic structure and by employing analogies derived from contemporary geometric notions to explore metaphysical themes. His adherence to strict geometric measurements reflects a meticulous craftsmanship that serves as a foundation for the thematic complexities woven throughout his work. By employing contemporary geometric analogies, Joyce transcends traditional storytelling, allowing for a profound examination of existence and consciousness. This synthesis of form and content ultimately transforms his literature into a multidimensional experience, challenging readers to consider the intersections of structure and meaning in their interpretations of reality.

“What motivated the spirit’s possession of the widow? Early modern Christian attitudes regarding demonic motivations underlying possession reflected theological premises quite remote from Jewish conceptions. In his Traicte des Energumenes of 1599, Leon D'Alexis (Pierre de Berulle) explained the Devil’s motives in a manner that reveals how broad the gulf could be between Jewish and Christian views. The Devil, he argued, being "the ape of God,” is dedicated to incarnating himself in men, as did Christ himself. This, he suggested, accounts for the proliferation of possession since the birth of Christ. Catholic theologians of the sixteenth century also assumed that demonic possession was most likely to occur as a punishment for the sins of the possessed, whereas popular accounts most commonly portray victims of possesvvsion as “pious young Christians.” Is there a similar disparity between learned and popular views of this issue in Jewish culture? R. Moses Cordovero stated in his Drishot be-‘Inyanei ha-Malakhim (Inquiries Concerning Angels) that “the types of 'ibbur depend on a man’s moral and spiritual state, whether his soul is entered by a good soul— because he has done a mizvah—or an evil soul—because he has committed some sin… ,” Even though we have few sources that can directly provide a “popular” Jewish conception of the typical victim of spirit possession, we may be able to infer a disparity of this kind from the degree of inner confu-sion on this point displayed in Jewish sources. Early modern Jewish possession accounts shift inconsistently between affirmations of the innocence and even piety of the victim, and ascriptions of blame—often of the same per-son. When the exorcists in the Falcon case asked the spirit of Samuel Zarfati what allowed him to possess a “kosher” woman, he replied that the woman had inadvertently cast some mud upon him as he was hovering in her midst. In the case currently under consideration, we know that the most egregious sin of the spirit was sexual, but what of the widow? The sin that allows for the possession to take place seems not much less trivial, though “justifiable” on the basis of the positions staked out in the contemporary Jewish demonological literature. As Vital himself wrote in his treatise on transmigration, “it sometimes happens that notwithstanding the presence in a person of a pure and sublime soul, he may come at some point to anger. Then, [that soul] will depart from him, and in its place will enter another, inferior soul.” Before concluding his exorcism of the widow (and the woman in Case 7), Vital asks the spirit how he obtained permission to enter his victim’s body: “The spirit responded: 'I spent one night in her house. At dawn, this woman arose from her bed and wanted to light a fire from the stone and iron, but the burnt rag did not catch the sparks. She persisted stubbornly, but did not succeed. She then became intensely angry, and cast the iron and the stone and the burnt rag—everything—from her hand to the ground, and angrily said, 'to Satan with you!’ Immediately I was given permission to enter her body.’ ” What appears to us as a small matter, a casual curse out of frustration, was evidently taken quite seriously. This severe approach to cursing had its basis in the strict enforcement of the third commandment, and traditional Jewish law prescribed penalties for such verbal crimes that paralleled those meted out to witches and idolaters.

Sixteenth-century Jews were not alone in regarding the consequences of cursing most gravely; many Christian tales of possession dealt with the consequences of the curse “the devil take you.” Maureen Flynn has recently noted that “blasphemy was the most frequently censured religious offence of the Spanish people in the early modern period, far outnumbering convictions on charges of Judaism, Lutheranism, Illuminism, sexual immorality or witchcraft.” J. P. Dedieu’s work has shown, moreover, that, as in the expression by the woman in the possession case under our consideration, the Spanish Inquisitors were concerned with “petty crimes … of the word … that never attained the status of formal heresy, much less of unbelief.” Concern over these types of verbal offenses, known in Spain as palabras, seems to have been particularly prevalent in the mid-sixteenth century. In addition to her angrily spoken words, the woman had thrown down the stone and rag in frustration. Such an act, like cursing, was traditionally considered an invitation to the demonic forces to act, as we read, for example, in zoharic passages. Nevertheless, according to our account, Vital could not accept the idea that a woman could be possessed for letting an ill-chosen word, rock, or rag slip on that cold morning. The spirit, for his part, was forthcoming with a more serious transgression that indeed justified his siege. Here, we return to the issue of skepticism; the curse was merely the outward expression of a deeper heretical posture.“

-pgs 51-53, Between Worlds by J. H. Chayes

“Just as certain practices might nullify evil ‘ibburim, other practices were designed by Spanish rabbis to cultivate propitious contact with the dead. These venerable practices were designed to bind the practitioner to the lowest portion of the tripartite soul of a departed saint, the nefesh. The nefesh was thought to remain in contact with its former body and was thus accessible at the grave. Cordovero’s discussion of these practices appears in his commentary on the Zohar, pericope Aharei Mot [3:70b], in the wake of a discussion of the enduring presence of the nefesh near the bodily remains.

[…]

According to the Zohar, in times of crisis, living saints visit the graves of their righteous predecessors. Their cries serve both to bind them (the root DBK, as in dybbuk, is used here) to the souls of the dead and to rouse them to action on their behalf. The righteous dead then ascend to commune with the souls of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people—"those who sleep in Hebron,” in the Cave of Makhpelah—hoping to obtain their intervention. In his commentary on this passage, Cordovero is interested in exploring the means by which the living are able to cross the divide that separates them from the dead. How is it that an embodied soul can communicate and commingle with the disembodied souls of the dead? And embodiment is indeed taken to be the heart of the problem; coarse flesh suffices to obscure the refined spiritual form of the dead from the eyes of the living. A metamorphosis of this fleshy garment of the soul is indispensable. So writes Cordovero:

“This matter will be apprehended and discovered in the secret of the Garment [ levush] prior to Adam and the rest of worldly existence, before Adam’s sin, the secret 'Garments of Light.’ For after the sin and the corporealization [of the Garment] as matter, it was said to him, 'you are dust, and shall return to dust.’ ” The garment of skin ('or) fashioned by God for Adam (Gen. 3: 21) was created first as light (or). Sin resulted in its corporealization, and with physicality came opacity and, tragically, perishability. In other words, when Adam was first created, like the dead, he too was formed of a fine, diaphanous body of light, partaking of immortality.

This original Garment of Light was removed from ordinary men as a consequence of Adam’s sin, yet remains available to the righteous, whose recovery of this ethereal body enables them to communicate with the souls of the dead. “This Garment and the existence of this subtle world is received by the righteous in the mystery of their soul, and is transmitted only to the refined of mind whose spiritual souls vanquish their corporeality, and who nullify their bodily desires. They then pass beyond the veil and threshold of the physical world and enter the World of Souls.” Those who refine their intellects and strengthen their spirits, who manage to overcome their physicality, transmute their Garments of Skin. Attaining the Garments of Light, they become capable of commingling with the souls of the righteous dead. “[There] they apprehend according to the degree of their merit, to hear them [the souls] and sometimes actually to see them, as did R. Shimon and his comrades, as explicated in several places in the Zohar.” Once they have exchanged their coarse flesh for ethereal bodies, the righteous find them-selves in the world of souls. At this level of spiritual attainment they hear, if not see, the dead. The heroes of the Zohar, explains Cordovero, enjoyed such interaction with departed souls precisely through the process he has described. Yet hearing and even seeing are not enough; in times of crisis, the living righteous must bring about the adhesion of their souls to the souls of their dead predecessors, and arouse them to act on their behalf. This calls for the implementation of a more magical necromantic technique that takes the living zaddik to the grave of the dead zaddik whom he seeks to arouse. “This is the secret of the binding of one soul to another, which is given only to one located in this world, who is able to bind his embodied soul with the soul of the righteous. This is done through his pouring out of his soul upon the grave of the righteous, and he clings soul to soul and speaks with the soul of the righteous and informs him. This soul then awakens the other souls, and this is what is said: 'Why? Because they make it their will to cling to them…. ’ ” It is the presumption of the Zohar that the presence of the lower soul (nefesh) of the zaddik remains at the grave; his spirit (ruah) is taken to be in Gan Eden (paradise), his higher soul (neshamah) far beyond. It is the nefesh of the living that clings strictly to the nefesh of the righteous, which has remained in this world precisely to aid the living when the need arises.

Cordovero’s closing remarks on this passage are particularly striking: “This matter was still done in Spain by great men who knew of it. They would dig a trench in the grave over the head of the dead. In it, they would pray for the benefit of the whole community, and they would cling, soul to soul, in solitary meditation.” In Spain, the technique is said to have involved laying prone in a trench, head aligned with the head in the grave, the communion enhanced by proximity. A meditative engagement of the practioner’s soul with the soul of the dead would then culminate in a state of adhesion, soul to soul. According to Cordovero, then, the technique described by the Zohar was practiced not only by the Tannaitic saints whose exploits were so magnificently depicted in pseudoepigraphic style, but also by the great men of Spain, apparently in the recent past. These men practiced a form of hishtathut, or gravesite prostration, that was to become extremely popular among the kabbalists of sixteenth-century Safed. Indeed, in his paraphrase of Cordovero’s commentary, rather than concluding with the original’s recollections of Spanish practitioners, R. Abraham Azulai (1570-1644) substitutes, “And this matter has been verified among us, as this happened in our own times. Speakers of truth have testified to me that they saw this practiced by the AR"I [R. Isaac Luria] and his students, the comrades, may the memory of the righteous be a blessing.”

Not only did R. Isaac Luria practice these techniques, he broadened their applicability considerably. In his conception, hishtathut practices were to be undertaken to achieve a positive 'ibbur in the practitioner, and not only in times of crisis. In his autobiographical dream diary Sefer ha-Hezyonot (Book of Visions), R. Hayyim Vital records that in 1571, Luria sent him to the burial cave of the talmudic sage Abaye so that the latter might penetrate him as a positive 'ibbur. “In that year, my teacher, may his memory be a blessing, sent me to the cave of Abaye and taught me that yihud [unification]. I clung to his soul, and he spoke to me of the matters of which I wrote in the aforementioned tract.” Yihudim (pi.) were the staples of Luria’s magico-mystical contemplative system. Scholem defined such yihudim as theurgic acts “based on mental concentration on the combinations of Sacred Names” that “contained … an element of magic.” Vital’s own definition of yihudim makes it clear that he viewed them primarily as a means for cleaving to souls of the righteous, achieved through a circulation of energies initiated by the intender of the yihud. […]

The yihud is thus a meditative practice that promises to grant the practitioner clairvoyant contact with the dead and, moreover, to cleave to them in spiritual ecstasy. The yihud awakens the dead and allows the practitioner to ascend through the energy of his devotion while simultaneously drawing down enlightenment from above. The practitioner-driven devotion is characterized here by the kabbalistic term Female Waters, understood as the spiritual arousal and “lubrication” of the practitioner that stimulates the divine partner and calls forth the shower of divine effusion, itself called “Male Waters” in the literature.“

- pgs 18-21, Between Worlds by J. H. Chayes

the first five pages of “love letter”, my hand-bound accordion book :)

What Do Sharks Hear? BYU Students Measure Sound Inside Shark Tank

MY ALMA MATER DID A SHARK RESEARCH PROJECT WITH MY FAVE AQUARIUM jkl;fas ;asfd;fdsakj;sdfa

From the description:

How loud is life behind the glass? BYU study measures sound in shark tanks Sharks at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah, glide silently behind glass walls — but just how silent is their world? A team of BYU researchers set out to discover how much of the aquarium’s daily bustle filters into the shark tank, and whether that noise is affecting the animals who call it home. The aquarium welcomes nearly one million visitors each year. While facility managers carefully control visitor noise and background music, the aquarium has never been able to accurately measure how much sound passes through the glass and water. The uncertainty posed a real question: Could even well-managed human noise still disrupt the natural environment of aquatic animals? “While we have tools for measuring sound in the air, the behavior of sound underwater is totally different,” Ari Fustukjian, the vice president of zoological operations at the aquarium, said. “We want to really understand how sound works in this space and interacts with the animals.” In collaboration with the aquarium and the BYU Acoustics Research Group, led by Professor Traci Neilsen, BYU student researchers confirmed that although noise does travel into the fish tanks, the sound levels remain well within a healthy range for the animals. To measure sounds within the tanks, BYU researchers couldn’t use standard microphones, which are designed for air. Because sound travels faster and more intensely in water, they used specialized hydrophones that detect sound pressure in liquids and convert it into electrical signals. “A hydrophone is an underwater microphone. These were placed very close to the acrylic walls and then in the water. On the other side, we had sound level meters that were reading the level in the rooms that could then be compared to the levels in the tank,” Neilsen explained. BYU students placed hydrophones at various locations in the tank to track the distance sounds traveled underwater. They played a variety of noises in the viewing area — from white noise to high-pitched chirps — to see which sounds carried into the habitat. Fish don’t hear the way humans do — and sharks are especially unique. They detect lower-frequency sounds and “hear” with their whole bodies. A network of sensory cells along their sides enables them to detect vibrations and movement in the water. “With their unique hearing, sharks can detect animals in the water from miles away,” Madilyn Randall, the lead student researcher, said. “Because of their heightened senses, they would be the first animals to key into any disruptive sounds.” Randall and her team found that sound from both the viewing area and the tank’s maintenance system did, in fact, travel through the water. Their hydrophones primarily picked up lower-frequency sounds, suggesting that higher-pitched noises don’t make it into the tanks. Interestingly, the low-frequency sounds that traveled best through water lie within the same range as human speech and the sharks’ natural hearing range. With few aquarium-based studies that have been done, Neilsen recognized that this was a unique opportunity to partner with the aquarium. “Our findings were a tool that the director of the aquarium was able to use in building a new, large tank in their new facility. He was able to use this as evidence that the filtration system in the new tank should be higher quality and have a lower background noise level,” Neilsen said. Fustukjian says the goal of the project wasn’t just to congratulate themselves for maintaining safe noise levels at the aquarium, but to gather insights that would help them continue raising the standard of animal care. “At our heart, we are an educational organization,” Fustukjian said. “It is our mission to facilitate education and pursue scientific investigation. This type of scientific collaboration with groups like BYU is really the whole point.” That collaborative spirit also opened doors for BYU students like Randall, who was one of the few undergraduate students nationwide to present her findings at the 2025 Acoustical Society of America Conference. “I hope that in my future career I can continue making an impact using acoustics,” Randall said. “Acoustics crosses over into almost every type of science. It affects how we feel — how happy we are.” The research was sponsored by the College High Impact Research Proposal Funding (CHIRP) and College support for the undergraduate research assistants provided by generous alumni donations.

Follow along using the transcript.

“Jonathan added, "One of the major themes of our entire encounter there, from my perspective, was the relation between the two, between the esoteric and the public. It’s something the Tibetan Buddhists face because of people like Chogyam Trungpa and others who made things public that shouldn’t have been public.” But if the teachings remained private, how are most Jews supposed to learn about them? Jonathan himself had not been born into kabbalah like Zalman Schachter. I asked him how he’d learned it.

He’d grown up in England in what he described as a not very observant Orthodox family, in a country where “Orthodoxy was the only club in town”. As a young man he’d come to Israel for Zionist reasons. He felt he was fighting against his religious impulses- “just saying no for a long time before I said yes.” He worked as a cowboy on a kibbutz until he had the misfortune of contracting polio in the winter of 1956.

After that, he came to Jerusalem and found work in publishing. He collaborated with the distinguished Talmudic scholar and mystic Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz for 4 years as his personal editor and edited Shefa Quarterly. The magazine brought attention to a number of important scholars and mystical Jewish texts. He also worked with Gershom Scholem, editing for the Encyclopedia Judaica his articles on kabbalah, which touched Jonathan very deeply.

Personally, Jonathan found Scholem “a very impenetrable person who sometimes gave a glimpse beyond”. Following that glimpse, he enrolled in Hebrew University to study kabbalah, but “I realized that wasn’t the place. It gave me some useful tools, but I sought out more traditional teachers after that.” Like Alex Berzkn, Omer-Man wanted the practice and wanted to learn from living teachers, not just from a text. Jonathan did not belong to the ultra-Orthodox communities in Jerusalem where kabbalah was taught at the time. But his two most important teachers “were trying to communicate to people who were not in the direct sociological lineage.” One came from a Hasidic Bratzlaver influenced community, the other brought teachings from an extant Kabbalist community in Tangiers. “The Hasidic teacher knew I wasn’t going to join his community, but even so, taught me. In some ways I took this as a challenge from him to transmit it elsewhere.”

After many years of study, Jonathan personally received an ordination (semikha) from Zalman Schachter. Recently, he conferred his own first semikha upon Rabbi Judith Halevy. So the mystical transmission continues outside its original closed circles and has been passed on to a woman.

Still Jonathan’s story is more exception than rule. Accessibility is still quite difficult- the door is mostly closed. For instance, even now Jonathan declined to publicly name his teachers. “When ultra-Orthodox people teach less Orthodox people, they can get into deep problems in their own community,” especially if the less Orthodox reveal this to the world at large. After all, as Jonathan had explained, the Talmud greatly restricts who can receive such teachings. To pass them on outside of a given community might seem a betrayal to its members.

Jonathan’s presentation to the Dalai Lama also made it clear that, in the past, women rarely received a destruction in kabala. That gave Joy Levitt'a joke an unintended irony. “Some of us are hearing this for the first time as well,” she’d said. As long as the transmission of kabbalah is confined to ultra-Orthodox circles, women are unlikely to receive it.“

- pg 209-210, the Jew in the Lotus

“In Dharamsala, the rabbis could not provide a detailed explanation of the use of the interior tree in kabbalistic meditation that would permit a full comparison to tantra. But the leading scholar of kabbalah today, Moshe Idel, speculates that precisely here kabbalah, by way of Sufism, was "infiltrated” by Hindu concepts. He sees a marked resemblance between Hindu mandalas and the kabbalistic inner tree, or body maps. Since Buddhist tantra is also derived from Hindu texts and teachings, there may even be a point of common origin for both esoteric systems.

Supposing that is true, still the same concepts would have encountered very different environments, and therefore manifested in very different ways. Tantrayana is practiced in both householder and celibate contacts within Tibetan Buddism. Marpa, a great 11th century teacher and guru of the kagyu lineage, was married, and his student, the poet and sainf Milarepa, had many consorts. Up through 1959, many of the great Tibetan tantric practicers or yogins were householders, and some were women.

However, in the dominant gelukpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism, tantra was set into a celibate, monastic system. The mysteries of higher tantric meditation are reserved for those who have spent many years refining themselves through study, debate, and meditation practice. It is very unlikely that such a trainee would fall into a merely vulgar interpretation.

Judaism is definitively a householder religion. Historically, its experiments with monasticism were brief, the Essenes being the best known group. (It’s not clear that all Essene groups were celibate.) Even the holy man, the tzaddik or prophet, must be part of “this world” as Jonathan had stressed. Therefore, in the Jewish context, the practice of sexual yoga- if one can borrow the term from tantra- is exclusively between husband and wife.

Another major difference today is that the Tibetans have a well preserved, complete, and highly developed path of meditation, which they are willing to teach to qualified Westerners. For many historical reasons, the doors to the Jewish esoteric remain shut to most Jews.“

-pg 207-208, the Jew in the Lotus

“In Hasidic prayer, attention is constantly paid towards the union of the heart sefirah (Tiferet) with the Shekinah (Malkhut) also visualized as the union of [the first two and last two letters] in the name of God. According to Gershon Scholem, "the Kabbalists held that every religious act should be accompanied by the formula: this is done ‘for the sake of the reunion of God and his Shekinah.’ And indeed, under kabalistic influence, this formula was employed in all subsequent liturgical texts and books of later Judaism down to the 19th century, when rationalistic Jews, horrified at a conception they no longer understood, deleted it from the prayer books destined for the use of Westernized minds.”

In general, Scholem explains, the Kabbalists aimed at “the transformation of essentially profane acts into ritual,” especially eating and sexual activity. “These acts are closely bound up with the sacral sphere.” At one point in the discussion, Jonathan Omer-Man described a group of Kabbalists in Jerusalem who spent 6 hours a day just on morning prayers and hours reciting blessings over every activity. He used this example to suggest that to the Jewish mystic, every act, no matter how mundane, was part of an ongoing meditation.

In the same vein, Scholem cites the story of the patriarch Enoch, “who according to an old tradition, was taken from the Earth by God and transformed into the angel Metatron” and “was said to have been a cobbler. At every stitch of his awl, he not only joined the upper leather with the sole but all upper things, with all lower things… he accompanied his work at every step with meditations which drew the stream of emanation down from the upper to the lower (so transforming profane action into ritual action) until he himself was transfigured from the earthly Enoch into the transcendent Metatron who had been the object of his meditations.” Scholem points out “that a very similar legend is to be found in a Tibetan tantric text, the Tales of the 84 Magicians (translated by A. Grunwedel in Bassler Archiv, V, [1916], p 159) Here… the guru Camara (which means shoemaker) receives instruction from a Yogi concerning the leather, the awl, the thread, and the shoe… For 12 years he meditates day and night over this shoemaking, until he attains perfect enlightenment and is borne aloft” (Scholem, On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism, page 132.)“

- pg 206-207, The Jew in the Lotus

Germany expands interdisciplinary surveillance to curb rising antibiotic resistance

OHIS stands for One Health Integrated Surveillance, i.e. the monitoring of antibiotic resistance in the sense of a holistic, interdisciplinary One Health strategy. In addition to the BfR, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (FLI), the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) are also involved in the…

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https://eliseelsacker.substack.com/p/blurring-boundaries-reflections-on

On interdisciplinary work.

A poster about IDL. What it is, planning & ideas.

I have been playing through Faruzan hangout recently and firstly, i love how as a student writing a thesis it really hit some of the academic experience, and second of all, it also underlined an issue of lack of interdisciplinarity in academics. I know some universities and teachers are trying but it is a real problem.

I took an interdisciplinary course this year. It was truly amazing, a lab very hands on with people from multiple tracks. One of the highlights of my year. Talking about it with my teacher, apparently the uni really love the project, but it is incredibly complicated to get money because it doesn’t fit any specific department so non is incline to finance it.

Looking for 5 Creative Minds to Form an Interdisciplinary Collaboration Group!

Hi everyone! I’ve been thinking lately about the power of diverse perspectives, and I’d love to create a small group of 5 people to work with on creative projects and workflow development.

What I’m Looking For:

• People from all fields of knowledge - whether you’re in tech, arts, business, science, education, or any other area
• Collaborative mindset and enthusiasm for cross-disciplinary work
• Commitment to contributing ideas and helping develop efficient workflows
• Available for regular virtual meetings/collaboration

The Process:

I’ll be conducting online interviews to get to know potential members and ensure we have a good mix of backgrounds and personalities. This isn’t about credentials - it’s about curiosity, creativity, and willingness to think outside the box.

What We’ll Do:

• Brainstorm innovative solutions to various challenges
• Develop and refine collaborative workflows
• Work on projects that benefit from multiple perspectives
• Learn from each other’s expertise and approaches

If you’re interested in being part of something unique and collaborative, please comment below or send me a DM! Include a brief description of your background and what excites you about interdisciplinary work.

Looking forward to building something amazing together! 🚀

Thinking Frameworks

Challenging Habits of Thought via Interdisciplinary Studies

The Cambridge Creation Lab (CCL) is an interdisciplinary institution that provides specialized education and training. If you are interested in setting up interdisciplinary educational concepts, organizational and professional development, and consultancy for both students and instructors, please feel free to seek help from the institute. The Cambridge Creation Lab’s Interdisciplinary Courses department offers a dynamic platform and the opportunity to investigate the world through the convergence of various disciplines, thereby challenging the boundaries of traditional learning. Our courses not only focus on the theoretical aspects of interdisciplinary studies but also provide practical skills that are directly applicable in real-world scenarios. These practical skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication, are essential for success in any professional field. History has demonstrated the extensive and profound historical origins of the concepts of interdisciplinarity, design, and creativity. The creative process is distinguished by the dynamic integration of mental representations and ideas that have not been previously investigated, whether they originate from memory or imagination. This process necessitates the integration of distinct modes of thought. Interdisciplinary studies are characterized by the utilization of a diverse array of academic disciplines to address intricate issues or inquiries that are beyond the scope of a single field of study. The process of interdisciplinary research allows us to combine knowledge and methods of thinking from various fields, resulting in cognitive advancement that will enable us to approach real-world problems from a unique perspective. By engaging in guided activities, completing written assignments, and having conversations, students will develop their capacity to conduct in-depth investigations on their chosen academic topics using various media. Our courses concentrate on the procedures and methodologies employed in numerous fields, enabling students to explore multiple research avenues and establish connections across a wide range of disciplines. Ultimately, this course serves as a vital catalyst for cognitive growth, equipping students with the tools necessary for innovative problem-solving in an increasingly complex world. By honing their ability to conduct thorough investigations through diverse media, learners deepen their understanding and cultivate a versatile skill set applicable across various fields. The emphasis on procedural methodologies fosters a structured research approach, empowering students to navigate and explore multiple avenues while establishing meaningful connections across disciplines. This multifaceted learning experience enriches individual knowledge and prepares participants to tackle real-world challenges with creativity and insight.

Astronomers are tackling their carbon footprint not by limiting discoveries, but by being more discerning with their data and working more efficiently through interdisciplinary collaboration.

More in our conversation with Sabine Bellstedt, Astronomer.

Watch or listen on your favourite platform: https://steampoweredshow.com

Show notes at https://steampoweredshow.com/shows/sabine-bellstedt

Blog 4: Production & Technical Execution

Mithesh S Kotian

As a lead of Unreal Engine, I was responsible for designing environments and technical implementation. My workflow included various components:

Underwater Scene: I used Fluid Flux to simulate realistic water dynamics, bubble generation, and fish behavior. The initial build was incompatible with Unreal Engine; hence, I shifted to Fluid Flux v3.0, which solved rendering issues and boosted workflow optimization.

Cave Environment: I modeled the exterior of the cave using 3Ds Max and exported it to Unreal Engine. I used coarse ground textures to provide a natural feel and added stone and moss assets that I sourced in the Unreal Engine library.

Architectural Pieces: Rooshil modeled the pillar and surrounding buildings, while Alisa and Giorgia helped in creating new textures to provide more realism. Another team member Wang Yang developed character modeling. I integrated these pieces in Unreal Engine to enable their easy inclusion in the scene.

Solutions to Problems

Rendering Issues: In implementing panoramic rendering in dome projection, I experienced black spots in the scene that appeared during rendering. After consulting my module leader Neil Gallagher, I changed rendering settings, eliminating the problem.

Optimizing Performance: The increasing scene complexity was starting to impact rendering times negatively. I was tasked with striking a balance between visual fidelity and improving performance.

During this process, I developed my scene composition, water simulation, and problem-solving in Unreal Engine.

References:

Unreal Engine Documentation, 2024. Fluid Flux Water Simulation. Available at: https://www.unrealengine.com

Building Ecosystems for Innovations in Institutions | Prof. William Masters

What does it take to become a leading tech university?
Find out as Professor William Masters shares his expert insights on building a world-class institution. Drawing from his experience at the forefront of academia, he explains why fostering interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for innovation. Learn how the right mix of fresh talent and seasoned faculty can propel an institution to the top and discover his strategies for creating a dynamic academic environment that attracts the best minds in the field.
If you’re passionate about higher education and the future of tech, this is a must-watch!