The crisis of civilization can only be resolved from the cornerstone of reason on up. PaRDeS is the primeval common-sense at Creation. We need to reconstitute culture by way of this original common-sense, instead of the ordinary common nonsense used of our times. I make the case in my book, publis…
005_ Catalonia’s, EU’s, & Civilization’s crises, sole exit, is the same Join the PaRDeS Cause, and help the Universal ReConstitution Movement for World Repair! Visit my website www.pardesism.com, podcasts with pdf included, or at iTunes and other places. I have a calling; a book to deliver, “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”; and a job to perform, PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair. Title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101” Subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth) Author: Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla. Where: At Amazon Formats: In paperback and digital, in English and Spanish translation. As we are creative, here and now, the universe reconstitutes. ~ Iberia and Europe are straight-jacketed to the configuration of Medieval times. Fortunately, after numerous debacles, Europe has only recently partially moved forward with the European Union, EU. (Partly after seeing the success of the US model.) However, it is stuck in first gear and is in dire need of fresh air. Suddenly comes Catalonia, with its independence bid from Spain, equally caught in the time-tunnel of times long past. But these are just closeup, and middle-take, to the background crisis of civilization, and framing it all is the history of creation of humanity on the face of the Earth. What’s cute about this lineup of ducks is that their sole crisis exit is the same. The cue is to transition by configuring from nation-states to people-states, and the vehicle is the University. Allow me to now explain it standing on one foot. But before proceeding, I will include the PaRDeS, primeval common-sense, Universal ReConstitution for World Repair T-diagram upfront, though will not refer to it directly at present. This is taken up more fully in other podcast episodes which may be found in the web platforms, as well as in my webpage with pdf included to follow along. This could very well prove to be the spring of the New World. The long-awaited ticket that Europe has been yearning for; and the whole wide world, might I add. Secession has been tried before, as recently as say, in Quebec respect to Canada, Scotland with respect to Great Britain, and Great Britain from the EU, with the successful Brexit. Why, then, not Catalonia from Spain? But, these cases somehow lacked the specificity that universality requires. Perhaps, it’s the fact that the Spanish Constitution disallows it, on top of the love for independence of Catalans. I’m not sure, but whatever it is, it has become a white-hole of creativity that could very well turn the page of history in the III Millennium. The Old World has reshaped itself of late, though the New World is still in budding. The Old World has gone through Reforms and Revolutions, but it’s still the same Old World. By this I’m including the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the rest, not only Europe. The present-day European nation-states are a product of the aftermath of the dissolution of past empires. Only a reconstitution could transform the Old into the New. What kind of reconstitution? You might be asking. A PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair, nothing short of this will do the job. The European Union has been very actively reinventing itself, almost beyond recognition, were it not that its pieces are still the same, though better bonded than previously. A further integration of Europe can only proceed swiftly, if a further dissolution of the nation-states happens concurrently. Before the creation of the European Union, such dissolution of nation-states was not advisable, for protection was their reason of being, in the first place. That is, protection of peoples from aggression from neighboring countries, as the series of conflicts testify, up to, and including, the last world conflagration. But, with the protection that the EU offers Europeans,
004_ What is the secret of Jewish Survival? Join the PaRDeS Cause, and help the Universal ReConstitution Movement for World Repair! Visit my website www.pardesism.com, podcasts with pdf included, or at iTunes and other places. I have a calling; a book to deliver, “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”; and a job to perform, PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair. Title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101” Subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth) Author: Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla. Where: At Amazon Formats: In paperback and digital, in English and Spanish translation. As we are creative, here and now, the universe reconstitutes. Dear Jewish Learning Institute: The reference to the main query of “What is the secret to Jewish survival?”, arises in an ongoing Jewish Learning Institute course entitled, Great Debates in Jewish History, imparted by the talented and innovative Chabad Rabbi Mendy Levertov, at the Austin Texas Dell JCC. But, previous to the main query you ask the following two coupled questions in the textbook. On page 17, you ask: “What are the advantages/disadvantages of a system that relies on prophecy for legal rulings”, and “What are the advantages/disadvantages of a system that relies on reason to derive legal rulings from the Torah?”. My answer to your coupled question is enthusiasm, that is, my reply is second story to the options provided of prophecy and reason, since each has something to recommend it. Continuing now to the main query, on page 23 of the same textbook, you inquire, “What is the secret of Jewish survival?” Now, regarding this question, the multiple options provided are: a) Antisemitism, b) Divine miracle, c) Torah observance, d) Jewish stubbornness, e) Jewish wisdom, and f) Diaspora. My reply to this second question, in consonance to the first one, would be g). That is, in keeping alive and well the Reception of the handed-down live-tradition, (Kabbalah), of primeval PaRDeS, the original common-sense. IMHO, an argument for the sake of heaven, is that there can only be peace, Shalom, if we're of one piece, PaRDeS. Standing on one foot, allow me to explain what I mean by PaRDeS, of this unique primeval common-sense. This I will undertake by presenting a template of PaRDeS, the primeval common-sense, followed by three examples that illustrate the claim made, that in ordinary usage, Torah-engrossed Jews use this treeseed quite intuitively, without as much as seemingly being aware of it, by all accounts. I arrived at the above conclusion, that there is a cornerstone of reason, this PaRDeS primeval common-sense, docked in the one Creation Story, in my work whose subtitle narrates the plot: title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101, and subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth)”. My book is available at a popular website in paperback and digital formats, in both English and Spanish translation. More information at my website, www.pardesism.com, #RicTurullolsBon on Twitter, #RicTurullolsBon on Facebook. So, then, with that out of the way, the narrative is that we all have a primeval PaRDeS, original common-sense, that is hard-wired in our hearts, as found encrypted in the Bible’s Creation Story, Bere’shith Genesis 1:1-2:3. The source-code is PaRDeS PaRaDiSe (פרדס): acronym standing for Peshat Plain (פשט), Rémez Remite (רמז), Derash Discover (דרש), and Sod Secret (סוד). As science teacher and author, always striving to simplify, otherwise complex things, to my students to get the concept across, it is the case that I rely heavily on a user-friendly teaching device, the T-diagram. The “Seed of Life” T-diagram Model consists of a square, containing an ellipse, and inside it a right-triangle.
Join the PaRDeS Cause, and help the Universal ReConstitution Movement for World Repair! Visit my website www.pardesism.com, podcasts with pdf included, or at iTunes and other places. I have a calling; a book to deliver, “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”; and a job to perform, PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair. Title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101” Subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth) Author: Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla. Where: At Amazon Formats: In paperback and digital, in English and Spanish translation. As we are creative, here and now, the universe reconstitutes. 003_Catalonia, Iberia, New EU, by PaRDeS ReConstitution Dear World-Wide University Faculty, Students, and Alumni: Hi, I’m Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla, remote paternal ancestry Catalan and maternal Castilian, crypto Latino Jew, originally from Mexico, and UT, University of Texas at Austin Physics ’70, IC, Imperial College London, UNAM, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and UIA, Iberian American University, Mexico City. This makes me 5-way stakeholder in Catalonia’s Independence bid from Spain. My request is that we install a forum to dialogue University world-wide this issue ASAP. The end result has to be a win-win-win-win situation to all concerned, namely, Catalonia, Spain, Europe, and by extension, world-wide. We shouldn’t let a good crisis go to waste. In this singularity, unique state of affairs, it happens to be the case that the topic is the issue. What we have before us is a crisis of the mainstay of the West, what we understand by democracy. But here again, it’s not democracy alone that is at stake, rather, democracy might be the topic, but the issue is understanding. Let me first explain what I mean by saying that the topic of Catalonia’s independence bid from Spain, actually showcases the issue facing modernity moving forward. For too long we have been living out a stalemate situation of a prolonged crisis of Western civilization. The initial impulse given to the West by Israel, Greece, and Rome, has long since vanished into the gray background. What is now needed is a grassroots renewal, not more of the same top-down rancid Continental and Anglophone philosophies of postmodernity that miss the point to a considerable degree, if not entirely. Enough vitality has already been shed in useless struggles in the far and near past, that we surely need creativity to step up to the plate. Necessity is verily the mother of resourcefulness, and there’s nothing like a good crisis to put the stressed system to the test. The question is, will the globalized world of East-&-West deliver this time around? The understanding democracy theme is actually the issue of the primeval, the original common-sense, the ultimate source of reason. For reason is at the cornerstone of all learning, what universities do for a living, such that updating it would have a refreshing overall effect on civilization. I wrote a book precisely on the above theme, entitled “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”, same that can be found on the Internet, in paperback and eBook format, in English, and in its Spanish translation. If we want the social edifice to continue ever higher, scraping the skies, then we need to concurrently dig deeper, till we reach bedrock. Nothing less than this will do on the long run. This essay addresses Crisis City, covering worldviews, starting with modernity of Newton; of the School of Athens, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; of the three schools of the preSocratics, Thales of Miletus, the Milesian, Xenophanes of Colophon and Parmenides of Elea, the Eleatic, and Pythagoras of Samos, the Pythagorean; and finally, Moses of the Pentateuch Chumash Five Books, of the Kabbalah. What I found was that there is an ultimate cornerstone to reason, a primeval,
Join the PaRDeS Cause, and help the Universal ReConstitution Movement for World Repair! Visit my website www.pardesism.com, podcasts with pdf included, or at iTunes and other places. I have a calling; a book to deliver, “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”; and a job to perform, PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair. Title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101” Subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth) Author: Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla. Where: At Amazon Formats: In paperback and digital, in English and Spanish translation. As we are creative, here and now, the universe reconstitutes. 002_PaRDeS, as primeval common-sense My claim is that PaRDeS is primeval common-sense, hence PaRDeSism would be the hermeneutics of Biblical exegesis for Reconstitution, based on that principle. Or conversely, if PaRDeS is the original common sense, then crisis is today’s quite ordinary common nonsense. The Jews, as such, are never mentioned by that name in the Bible, I mean the Torah Teaching, as the five books of Moses. This word Jews appears much later, in post-biblical times, and then referring to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judea, when the Promised land, Israel, had divided into the northern kingdom of Israel, with capital Samaria, and the southern kingdom Judea, with capital Jerusalem. In any case, in the Torah Teaching, what is only mentioned is Beney Yisrael Children of Israel. Ben means son, and bat means daughter, so the masculine plural is Beney, or children, hence Beney Yisrael Children of Israel. Since my work is limited in scope to the Creation Story, verses 1:1-2:3, neither Jews nor Beney Yisrael Children of Israel are actually mentioned. Rather, ’Avraham Abraham, the patriarch of the Beney Yisrael Children of Israel occurs much later, close to the end of the Parashah Section Noach Noah, 6:9-11:32, and more fully in Lech Lecha Go to yourself, 12:1-17:27. My point of view of the Creation Story is that it is the seat of understanding. I would mention Beney Yisrael Children of Israel, not Jews, though in modern parlance, they stand for the same thing. But it is important to distinguish it, for Jews is more akin to Judaism, as religion, as an ism. Recall that ism, as system of belief is more of Greek construct, like in Platonism, Modernism, Realism, Idealism, you get the idea. But this notion of ism is quite alien to the spirit of the Torah Teaching, and this is my point. The Torah Teaching is more about PaRDeS, about Creation, followed by humanity and about Beney Yisrael Children of Israel, and ultimately about the interaction of these two. Judaism as such is a later development, as is Zionism and the modern state of Israel. I mention all this to dispel the notion that I am trying to proselytize in favor of Judaism. Let me be clear, I am not a scholar of Judaic studies, much less a rabbi, though I am a cryptic Jew, better known as Hispanic Jew or Latino Jew. By this later concept I mean that I descend from those Sephardic Jews in Spain back in 1492, who were made an offer they could not refuse: burn, banish, or convert. My story of PaRDeSism is universal, humanist at its best. It is clearly linked to the Abrahamic religions, of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but for that matter, as well as to the non-Abrahamic religions, of Hinduism, Buddhism, and many more. But that is not my main focus of attention. Some people advise me to take the Hebrew out from my narrative, that not everybody is fond of Jews. That this fact will play against people willing to read my book, PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101, and ultimately to join the PaRDeS primevalism cause-movement for ReConstitution. What can I respond, should I use English, instead, a language that didn’t even exist a thousand years ago, much less at the dawn of civilization?
Join the PaRDeS Cause, and help the Universal ReConstitution Movement for World Repair! Visit my website www.pardesism.com, podcasts with pdf included, or at iTunes and other places. I have a calling; a book to deliver, “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101”; and a job to perform, PaRDeS Universal ReConstitution for World Repair. Title: “PaRDeSism ~ Human Science 101” Subtitle: (PaRDeS primevalism ~ treeseeding our original common-sense on the Bible’s Creation Story 1:1-2:3; World ReConstitution, from Crisis City to PaRaDiSe Earth) Author: Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla. Where: At Amazon Formats: In paperback and digital, in English and Spanish translation. As we are creative, here and now, the universe reconstitutes. 001_Addressing Drugs by School Dialogue Austin ISD, Travis County JJ 1 Dear Colleague: Thanks for requesting suggestions on reducing the consumption of Drugs, Tobacco, and Alcohol, by way of school activities on the upcoming Red Ribbon Week. You came to the right place, for education is the baton of culture in the race of civilization. What doesn't get solved here, only gets worse out there; better still, if it's done wrong here, it gets amplified in the field of greater society. Teaching is learning, but let's not confuse the many topics with the single issue. Topics might be drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, but the issue is what we understand by education. Moreover, it's not education that's at issue, but rather understanding. Just like a building, it all starts off from a cornerstone; same here, reason has an original common-sense which lays the ground-work for understanding through language. The problem is that this original common-sense has somehow been corrupted by a virus of ordinary common nonsense. Austin ISD would be right-brain dead if it didn't listen to the sounds of the hallways. If you feed junk-food to the mind, you get the urge for unhealthy substances. Imho, the place to start is dialogue: we, here and everywhere, now and always. 2 Dear Colleague: Glad to know that we agree that the starting point of a conversation is dialogue, but dialogue is not small talk. Rather, it goes back to the ancient Greeks with the Dialogues of Plato, where Exercise and Science and Philosophy would be taken up at the gymnasiums, as part of their daily discussions on matters of common interest to their city-state. Education is half, part of the problem, and half, part of the solution. Education has to be held accountable for its role in the deplorable state of schools regarding substance abuse and dependence on drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Let’s not be so charitable and forgiving, and start calling things by their real name, as we understand them, and not by something that it is not. We as educators should, to the best of our ability, try to solve the problem that our students face in schools. The fear of making a mistake is so overpowering, that we end-up not trying anything at all, forfeiting taking risks and making creative leaps. We need to recognize that by suggesting school activities to our students, we’re combating topical effects, not addressing issuance causes. Back then the ancient Greeks would look at the big-picture view of things, not like we today, parceling things, sweating the small stuff, and losing sight of the ball, the essence. I suppose I am old school, very old school, more like school of antiquity, and more precisely, the archaic, that preceded it. Short-sighted remedies have been tried before, and all have failed. Isn’t it time to use a deep-search approach, to solve it once and for all? The whole, big-picture view of things, comprises the universe of discourse, the surroundings, and the system of interest. This I try to make it my approach to the question that you opportunely place before the faculty of what activities to recommend in addressing the use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco in schools. 3 Dear Colleague: