quotation: “Always do what you are afraid to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

quotation: “Always do what you are afraid to do.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

(1803-1882) Discuss

word: zealot

zealot 

Definition:	(noun) An immoderate, fanatical, or extremely zealous adherent to a cause, especially a religious one.
Synonyms:	drumbeater, partisan
Usage:	Jane, who had dabbled in vegetarianism during high school, became an environmental zealot while in college. Discuss.

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TODAY’S BIRTHDAY: THEODOR HERZL (1860)

Theodor Herzl (1860)

Herzl was the founder of modern Zionism. A journalist, he was sent to Paris to report on the Dreyfus Affair and was appalled by the vicious anti-Semitism he observed. Concluding that Jewish assimilation in Europe was impossible and that the only solution to the Jewish problem was the establishment of a Jewish national state, Herzl organized the first Zionist World Congress. At the time of his death, Herzl’s organization was considering establishing a Jewish homeland in what region of the world? More… Discuss

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ARTICLE: MAIMONIDES

Maimonides

Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides, was the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages. His great philosophical work, Moreh Nevukhim (Guide for the Perplexed), attempts to reconcile Aristotelian philosophy with the tenets of Jewish theology and addresses such metaphysical and religious topics as the existence of God and the principles of creation. A physician as well as a scholar and philosopher, he also wrote a number of medical texts. Why is he called “Rambam”? More…Discuss