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Jay Michaelson is an award-winning journalist, meditation teacher, podcast host, and author of ten books.

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Books
- The Secret that is not a Secret:Ten Heretical Tales
  
  The Heresy of Jacob Frank:From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth
  
  Enlightenment by Trial and ErrorTen years on the Slippery Slopes of Jewish Spirtuality, Postmodern Buddhism, and Other Mystical Heresies
  
  The Gate of TearsSadness and the Spiritual Path
  
  Evolving DharmaMeditation, Buddhism, and the Next Generation of Enlightenment
  
  Redefining Religious LibertyThe Covert Campaign Against Civil Rights
  
  God vs Gay?The Religious Case for Equality
  
  Everything is GodThe Radical Path of Nondual Judaism
  
  Another Word for SkyPoems
  
  God in your BodyKabbalah, Mindfulness, and Embodied Spiritual Practice
  
  isHeretical Jewish Blessings and Poems
  
  AnthologiesAnthologies featuring Jay Michaelson
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- Spirituality/Meditation
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Recent Articles

The Nakedness of the King

Jan 21st, 2026 in Both/And
What Must Be Done and What You Can Do

Jan 12th, 2026 in Both/And
Heated Rivalry’s Closet — and Mine

Jan 2nd, 2026 in Both/And
2025 Fears vs. Realities

Dec 30th, 2025 in Both/And
My Favorite Music, Film, and TV of 2025

Dec 23rd, 2025 in Both/And
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Academic @ emory @harvard
Journalist @jdforward @arc.magazine.jcdc
Writer Speaker Rabbi Dad
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jaymichaelson.substack.com

This week, I decided to do something different in

This week, I decided to do something different in the newsletter: situate this profound political moment into a philosophical, even mystical, context.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

The "meaning crisis" refers to the loss of structu

The "meaning crisis" refers to the loss of structures of purpose, value, and community in contemporary Western society. This is a widespread cultural phenomenon, and has fueled the rise in mental health issues on the one hand, and the rise in ultra-right-wing nationalism, religion, and morality on the other. In this conversation, dharma teacher Dave Smith and I will talk about the main features of this crisis and how contemplative practice can be one of the many tools we have to address it. The conversation is free -- register at seculardharmafoundation.org/programs.

#meaningcrisis #dharma #jaymichaelson

Just for reference. #umbertoeco

Just for reference.

#umbertoeco

Instagram post 18106354207739550

Instagram post 18106354207739550

God asks Cain where Abel is — though of course, Go

God asks Cain where Abel is — though of course, God already knows. Cain replies “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

But God responds, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.”

Read closely and see. Cain is lying, of course; he knows exactly what he has done. He also denies responsibility; it’s not his job, he says, to take care of Abel. Ha-shomer achi anochi, he asks. Literally, am I my brother’s guard? His protector? Am I supposed to keep him safe?

Cain’s lies are like those of Miller, Bovino, Noem, and the rest. They are transparently preposterous. We are not God, but we can all watch the videotape; we can all inspect the freeze-frames of Pretti lying on the ground being beaten and then being shot.

And we can all easily learn that Pretti, like Abel, was innocent. He was not violently resisting, he posed no threat to these officers. He was no more a “terrorist” than I am.

Pretti’s blood cries out from the ground. And it is louder than the lies of the murderers.

My latest in @jdforward - link in bio.

Even in Biblical myths, the cruel murdered the alt

Even in Biblical myths, the cruel murdered the altruistic.

#alexpretti

#amandagorman is still my poet laureate #alexpret

#amandagorman is still my poet laureate

#alexpretti

The Good shooting and the Greenland operation are

The Good shooting and the Greenland operation are mirror images of one another. Both invite us to disregard what is obviously true — the president is mad, the mom was innocent — and somehow believe the preposterous instead.

What Orwell could not have anticipated was the omnipresent overwhelm of our age of semiotic infinity: his world had a single telescreen, ours has infinite ones. But it turns out totalitarian propaganda thrives just as much in abundance as in privation.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

#davos #trump

I know this one's a little less subtle than other

I know this one's a little less subtle than other things I like to post, but this is basically all that I can think about right now, so.

Polling shows most Americans oppose what ICE is do

Polling shows most Americans oppose what ICE is doing. But it's up to us to keep this story alive. Here are four things you can do to help do so.

Videos and more information at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

There have been plenty of "takes" on the shooting

There have been plenty of "takes" on the shooting of Renee Good. Instead of yet another of those, I wanted to focus on what must happen now and how you can play a role.

Online now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

I've been saving this meme for the right moment, a

I've been saving this meme for the right moment, and now is obviously the right moment.

This hit TV show about hunky hockey players broke

This hit TV show about hunky hockey players broke my cynical gay heart. And, to my surprise, it awoke memories of an entire life I used to live, but had since quite forgotten.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

#heatedrivalry @rachelreidwrites #booktok @jacob.tierney @heatedrivalrycrave

If you journaled or otherwise recorded what you we

If you journaled or otherwise recorded what you were most worried about a year ago, how much of it came to pass? And what happened that you never would have predicted?

For me, the point is not to evaluate whether things are worse or better than expected (they are both), but to notice that they diverged from expectations in ways that are interesting, revealing, and grounding. In a zone flooded with excrement, it’s almost a kind of raft.

Up now at jaymichaelson.substack.com

Thoughts on sacred work, in this week of cultural

Thoughts on sacred work, in this week of cultural rest. #kahlilgibran

It was a hard year -- and not coincidentally, a gr

It was a hard year -- and not coincidentally, a great one for art that provided refuge.

My idiosyncratic Best-Of list, now up at jaymichaelson.substack.com .

The Sydney attack was both antisemitic and anti-Is

The Sydney attack was both antisemitic and anti-Israel in nature; it punished innocent Jews for Israel’s perceived sins, as if attendees at a Chabad Hanukkah celebration are culpable for (or even supported) the war in Gaza.

But once again, precision is needed. Some pundits and Jewish leaders – Bret Stephens, David Frum, Deborah Lipstadt – have rushed in to insist that this attack is what people mean by “Globalize the Intifada,” the infamous cri de coeur of some Palestinian protesters.

Not likely. In fact, ISIS and Hamas loathe one another – so much so that there was even a conspiracy theory among Gazans that ISIS was secretly being supported by Israel and the United States, in part because it prioritized the fight against Syria over the fight against Israel. ISIS also opposes Palestinian nationalism (and thus the Intifada) because they seek to unite the entire Muslim world in a single umma governed by Islamic Law (and by their own clerics). ISIS has no interest in the Intifada, globalized or otherwise. Nor, of course, does an ISIS-affiliating terrorist care what American campus activists or mayor-elect have to say.

The takeaway: Don’t believe anyone who says that a terrorist attack confirms their prior beliefs.

Read more at forward.com
@jdforward

Prescient words from the late Rob Reiner. (Source

Prescient words from the late Rob Reiner.

(Source: an interview I conducted with him last year -- https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/rob-reiner-christian-nationalism-trump-documentary-1234969196/ )

#robreiner
@robreinerofficial

I love the new TV show "Pluribus" -- and I'm not a

I love the new TV show "Pluribus" -- and I'm not alone; the show just became the most-streamed in Apple TV history. As it happens, it's largely about the dream of enlightenment and universal, shared consciousness -- and how that conflicts with humanism and some key religious values.

So naturally, I took a deep dive at
jaymichaelson.substack.com

@plur1busappletv @pluribusappletv #pluribus @pluribus

This week in the newsletter, I get to share with y

This week in the newsletter, I get to share with you all a longtime obsession of mine: the hard-to-pronounce word "antinomianism."

Antinomianism says: the written law says one thing, but often the conscience, the soul, the spirit says something else. And to honor that calling is, itself, the sacred act. Breaking the law can be holy.

And it is found on the left and the right -- especially in the age of Trump.

Read more at jaymichaelson.substack.com

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