Sixty years after Orwell’s masterpiece, his message is more prophetic than ever.
And my apologies for the typo in the fifth from the last paragraph. Essays on language should be pristine.
Seeking direction in a misdirected world
Torah Ideals
1984 and the Language of Confusion
For a wider range of topics visit me at
- Join 189 other subscribers
Recent Comments
It looks good from h… on The Scent of Spirit Norvel Vloperman on Is life unfair? Yonason Goldson on Unmasking Frum Women VISUALJEFF on Unmasking Frum Women Inversion « Pr… on Tu B’Shevat: The Roots o… Greg Sean Maclean on More Moral Confusion over… Markowitz, Linda on In Memoriam — Rav Ephrai… Yonason Goldson on Why Marriage Matters TG on Why Marriage Matters Sender Axelbaum on Answering the Once-a-year… Culture
- Behind the Hero on the Screen
- Bullying and Anti-Semitism
- Cellphones
- Elbowing God Out
- Embracing the Telescreen
- Fed Up!
- Freedom to Think
- Guns or Butter?
- How to Stop a Fight
- If you could be Superman
- Interview with a Repentant Vampire
- Isn't it Ironic?
- Legal Larceny
- My intolerance of faith
- Nothing but the Truth
- Profile in Courage and Conscience
- Searching for the Way out of Exile
- Skeleton in my Closet
- Spiritual Gridlock
- The Death Watch
- The Drifters: a generation lost in space
- The Gift of Boredom
- The Happiness Quotient
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe
- The Illusion of Influence
- The Limits of Liberalism
- The Man on the Street
- The Midpoint of the World
- The Poetry of Pop
- The Power to Change the World
- The Second Amendment and the Oral Torah
- The Unfairness Doctrine
- Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
- Tony Soprano
- Vengeance is Mine
- What Ferguson teaches us about ourselves
- When Prejudices Become Principles
- When Violence seems the only Answer
Education and Parenting
- A Matter of Respect
- Building Character and Acquiring a Civil Tongue
- Handle with Care
- In Praise of Struggle
- Mirroring Parents
- Mistaking Identity
- No More Training Wheels
- Skydiving
- Thanking the Garbage Man
- The Danger of Lowering our Expectations
- The Death of Education?
- The Fallacy of Moral Relativism
- The Language of Confusion
- The TV Fix
- What teachers really want to tell parents
Festivals
Science and Nature
- Atheists in Bubbleland
- Dance with Joy
- Darwin's Appendix
- Face Off
- Is Altruism a Programmed Response?
- It's Right Before Your Eyes
- Noah Redux
- Random Nature?
- Spiritual Dialysis and the Biology of Virtue
- The Betrayal of Experience
- The Girl with X-Ray Eyes
- The Great Mistake
- The Illusion of Wisdom
- The Natural Order
- The Scent of Spirit
- The search for disorder
- The Self-Esteem Fallacy
- Walking in Circles
Tragedy and Suffering
- After the War is Over
- Flight 1549
- Grappling with the Mysteries of the Universe
- How the righteous have fallen
- Making Sense out of Senselessness
- Refelctions on 9/11
- Reflections on the Pacific Rim Tsunami
- Revisiting the Cause of Terror
- Spiritual Impressionism
- The Other Face of Tragedy
- The Puzzle Master
- The True Rewards of Giving
- Two Cheers for Pain
- What is Faith?
Torah Ideals 
#1 by Yehoshua Friedman on June 17, 2009 - 12:27 pm
It was a great essay. I saw it at Jewish World Review. I have great sympathy for you as a teacher trying to get that concept through the heads of current American high school students. Leo Strauss worked very hard to do that in the last generation of academia. Keep up the good (and hard) work.
#2 by charlie on June 17, 2009 - 4:49 pm
I am a gentile Christian who rejoiced in the truth of this article and look forward to reading other articles you have written. Absolute Truth is awesome!
#3 by Keith Albers on June 17, 2009 - 5:50 pm
Dear Rabbi,
Regarding your article “1984 and the Language of Confusion,” you have certainly written about a complicated subject with much clarity. Our most recent presidential election has occurred because of the epitomy of the language of confusion.
#4 by Wim de Vriend on June 18, 2009 - 1:12 am
Dear Rabbi,
I’ve greatly enjoyed your essays, particularly “1984 and the Language of Confusion”.
The typo in this piece, which mixes up singular and plural, is less confusing than the one in the second paragraph from the end in “The Happiness Quotient”.
Are you including typos to remind us that even rabbis are imperfect?
#5 by torahideals on June 18, 2009 - 7:23 am
Very few people need help remembering that rabbis are imperfect.
😉
#6 by Norm Pressman on June 19, 2009 - 11:24 am
Rabbi:
With regard to your statement on abortion-I thought that Talmud did not recognize the soul of a fetus embryo until quickening no earlier than 40 days after conception and thus aboriton to that poitn was acceptable-Am I incorrect? And while I know the Catholic Church does not accept abortion even in the case of the life of the mother-I am told that even Orthodox Jews accept it. Right?
#7 by torahideals on June 19, 2009 - 1:08 pm
The Talmud does teach that the neshoma (soul) enters the embryo 40 days after conception. However, life itself begins at conception, so abortion is prohibited any time. Even the male sperm and unfertilized female ova have sanctity because they are potential life, thus prohibiting the use of birth control under normal circumstances.
However, as in most cases, there may be exceptions — always in accordance with Talmudic law and precedent. In cases of potential harm to physical or mental health, birth control may be permitted after rabbinic reveiw. In cases of extreme degenerative disease detected early enough (or, perhaps, cases of conception from rape), abortion may be permitted within the first 40 days, again after review by a rabbinic authority competent in these matters (which I am not).
Finally, abortions are always permitted when necessary to save the mother, since her life takes priority until the moment the baby’s head emerges, for the simple reason that until birth, the baby depends upon the mother for life and not vice verse.
These are the broad outlines of an extremely complex body of Torah law. Individual cases must always be decided in consultation with a qualified Torah authority.