1/ Quick thread on how I spent my Shabbat: I fully rested. I learned Torah again, went through the parsha like I was able to do pre-COVID. I read football analysis (esp. from the heilige @MikeTanier). It was amazing

From COVID's start until now, I was under intense pressure
2/ I read over 300 pages every Shabbat on all the emergency topics: the virus, the polling, the political science, the social science. Why?

First, b/c it's real-time data of social change & cultural assault. I'm a sociologist & anthropologist & philosopher. The data! (Mmm hoy)
3/ I wanted to study what was happening, adjust or add to my theories, keep records for the future. That's in my role as a scientist.

2nd was my role as a communal leader. As opposed to what the oafs tell you, the real world is like school: you can get a pop quiz at any time
4/ I was blessed with the ability to view the world dynamically: as a shifting array of future possibilities based on current data. I needed to know how to protect my family, my neighbors, my community.

When COVID hit, this was my tactic & I think I helped a lot of people
5/ Through my rabbinic/Jewish leadership network, I tried to educate about best practices given my sociology of health expertise.

Dynamic thinking was key: I "saw" the virus in the community because of data-extrapolation even before the testing was available.
6/ Later, through the incredible combination of my wife & myself, we used these abilities to help lead our community through the pandemic. How to have a safe set of camps, how to open our day school. It has worked so far.

By helping our school, we helped our shuls & our town
7/ The 'pop quiz' came at any time, so I needed to be ready. But that level of high-alert comes at a cost. The price is in preparation & study, but also being "on-call"

When I lived in Israel, I remember this feeling. I was on guard duty and more.
8/ For this election, there were so many things to keep track of! Street protesting to plan, the politics & the polls etc. And then one of the biggest pop quiz: reminding people about the Red Mirage, which I thought was well advertised, but turned out not to be!
9/ I won't go through all of the scenarios I gamed out (emigration or stay & fight? how to best arm myself in case things went Mad-Max?) but my research determined these were low percentage events.

Ultimately, I was able to use my preparation to help others, & that's all I need.
10/ Lastly, in full disclosure, we all needed a way to handle the immense anxiety of this period. For me, that always means knowledge. I'm an existentialist, so the knowledge I have, the more secure I feel.
11/ Note, I won't fully relax & stop researching, because lord knows the battle continues. Reconstruction was incomplete in 1865, that is job one. Trump (ym'sh) and his toxic RedHats just added more to do, but it's actually an increase in degree, not kind.
12/ This will be it, for now.

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More from @JoshuaCypess

10 Nov
1/ The latest gambit by the GOP to retain power is definitely worrisome (which is about a 3 on the fear scale, 0 = meh, 10 = take to the streets) but all the government lawyers I read say that it's another paper tiger

2/ The rule I use to analyze these particular plots & conspiracies is (a) how many moving parts & (b) who profits

This gambit has way too many moving parts. To work, a lot people need to pervert their offices & those people won't directly benefit. That's a bust plan
3/ This plan needs law firms, state governments, judges etc. to all act corruptly in order to help the GOP overturn an election that Biden won with a bigger mandate than DJT did as well as a popular vote disparity growing daily, by the millions!

Read 9 tweets
9 Nov
1/ Quick #Steelers thoughts about being 8-0. First, if the time travelers who made the Chicago Cubs win the 2016 World Series caused Clinton to lose, may the Steelers great season be the reason Biden won. Good job, chrononauts!
2/ Coach Tomlin deserves coach of the year for 1.5 seasons of brilliance plus lifetime achievement. Going 8-8 with the lowest offensive DVOA in the same year that showed his ability to coax good behavior & performance from AB & Bell, is praiseworthy.
footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/team…
3/ Add onto that an 8-0 start, confirming yet another season without a losing record (he's never had one), should put him over the top.

Now, onto the Cardiac Steelers season.

(1) The team defense has recently looked porous, esp. vs. the run
Read 13 tweets
9 Nov
1/ Many of the analysts & pundits who are paid for hot takes are, by virtue of lucre, making those takes oh so hot about the Meaning of the Election despite NOT HAVING FULL DATA.

It's driving me crazy.
2/ I understand, though, that this is their job.

However! I will permanently dock points for these Hot-takers if they don't include two caveats when they emit their burblings about The Meaning

1. The Voting Rights Act was gutted
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelby_Co…
3/ Without a robust protection vs suppression, the will of the people will never equal the results of voting. This is why Roberts & the GOP killed it.

2. The propaganda onslaught of Facebook/Youtube, FoxNews, Sinclair etc.

Voters did not know the truth about the candidates!
Read 7 tweets
9 Nov
1/ The signs were an act of leadership

In the pulpit it was crucial to be non-partisan (I was always political, b/c halakhah covers every topic). But even out of the pulpit, no signs; e.g. in 2012, despite my support of Obama, I didn't broadcast it.
2/ I never put up signs until I needed to repudiate Trump (ym'sh). As a rabbi & thus a moral leader I had to show my politically conservative community it's possible to be 'civil' & cordial while standing up publicly for what the Torah demanded: anti-racism, compassion, justice
3/ It took a lot of risk. It came with a cost to our social life.

I knew it would be costly, yet that's why bravery is the highest ideal. Courage is risking for a mitzvah. It's what being Jewish is supposed to entail. It's the 'true' in "Torah-true Jew"

Read 13 tweets
7 Nov
17.01/ Did I miss anything over Shabbas? OHHH!

I knew it! I knew it would be announced on Shabbat! I'm late for all the celebrations, but OH MAN

#BidenWins! It will take time to process, but this is an incredible day for America
17.02a/ OMG Barukh Dayan ha-Emet, two giants of Torah passed away over Shabbat. Oh no!

Rav Dovid Feinstein z'l, son of Rav Moshe Feinstein z'l
vosizneias.com/2020/11/07/__t…
17.02b/ And Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks z'l!

It's a great day for America and democracy but we need to share it with the great sorrow of the deaths of two giants of Torah.
vosizneias.com/2020/11/07/rab…
Read 60 tweets
2 Nov
1/ I say this often: power is people. It's the root of 'social constructionism' it's the validity of voting & the virtue of democracy

Power is people.

I bring this up because I hear the despair in Leftists' voices that the Democrats will let them down even if they win
2/ Biden will win because of demography. The number of non-white supremacists has risen to the point of gaining cultural force. Because power is people.

Until now, all power was held by structures set up to maintain a white male Christian hegemony.
3/ In 1992 the GOP, being the identity party of white grievance, saw white male Christian hegemony start to shake. Clinton was a poor white un-moneyed hillbilly ex-hippie but his wife was everything they feared about the 60s: female power. Female SCOTUS judge, female AG etc
Read 19 tweets

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