I need to take a step backward in analyzing Challenge. There are some Jewish foundational truths that my rabbi keeps trying to drill into my head. I’ve recorded many of these in my Moleskine, but most of them have not made it into my musings. I’m very easily influenced by what I read, and because I’m reading Slifkin’s book about the interaction of traditional Judaism and science, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about Judaism. (Similar to when I was reading Kafka’s Metamorphosis, I was doing a lot of thinking about bugs.) Since I want to spend time recording Jewish thoughts, I need to explain this learning before continuing.

And my usual disclaimers apply: I’m an idiot trying to decipher and record the words of much smarter people than me. I probably don’t understand any of these topics well enough to write about them, but I do need to make Goal, and this is how I decided to Goal today. Blah, blah, blah, inadequate, only two readers, smelly feet, blah, blah, blah.

It turns out that I was not able to finish this discussion today. I made Goal but the parts I wrote still need much more work before I post them. I will (hopefully) return to this tomorrow, polish it off, and post the completed entry. As you can see I redefined the Goal slightly: it’s about writing 1,000 words a day, not necessarily posting those words in public form (I did post it in secret form to keep myself honest). Let’s see if I return to them.