Britain’s Ruling Party Gives Its Jewish Constituents a Punch in the Face and a Get-Well Card
The vague sense of doing the right thing.
September 25, 2025
Amnon, Tamar, and the Psychology of the Sinner
A wicked deed can transform beauty into ugliness, desire to revulsion.
In this powerful excerpt from a 1971 lecture, Joseph B. Soloveitchik—great-uncle of the author of the previous Pick—explores the deformative effects of sin on the human soul. His discourse was delivered during the stretch of the Jewish calendar known as the Ten Days of Repentance, a time of contrition and self-reflection that joins Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. This great sage begins with what became one of the foundational texts of this time of year: the T’fillah Zakkah or “uncorrupted prayer,” a sort of formal confession composed by the talmudist Abraham Danzig. (Soloveitchik here refers to Danzig as the Hayyei Adam, the name of his best-known work.) But the real subject is the story of Amnon and Tamar, one of the Bible’s most shocking passages, found in 2Samuel 13. (Video, 8 minutes. Yiddish with English subtitles.)
September 25, 2025
The Secular Messianism of the Peace-Processors
In a godless society, failed leaders try to be the messiah.
Amnon, Tamar, and the Psychology of the Sinner
A wicked deed can transform beauty into ugliness, desire to revulsion.
How the Iron Beam Will Transform Western Military Operations
Israel’s laser revolution.
Did It Matter That the Greatest American Journalist of the 20th Century Was Jewish?
Walter Lipppman and totalitarianism.