Год, прожитый по-библейски

In Hebrew, evil tongue is called Lashon hara, and the rabbis compare it to murder. As the Talmud says, "The gossiper stands in Syria and kills in Rome."

God then drives home his point: Jonah lost his temper over a plant for which he "did not labor" and which lasted but a day. God says, "And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals." In other words, get some perspective.

I ask myself the question God asked Jonah. "Do you do well to be angry?"

Bertrand Russell - the famously agnostic philosopher - said there are two kinds of work in this world: altering the position of matter on earth, and telling other people to alter the position of matter on earth.

Tonight I invited a Jehovah's Witness into my home. I realize that this fact already puts me in an extreme minority.

And, mind you, I didn't just idly answer the door and let a Jehovah's Witness inside. I aggressively pursued the Jehovah's Witnesses. I phoned the headquarters and requested that a Jehovah's Witness be sent to my apartment. After three calls and not a little confusion on their part - it's not a common inquiry - I finally got my wish.

Plus, I'm already feeling guilty - which is how I know I'm actually Jewish.

That was something I hadn't expected: moderate creationists who view other creationists as too extreme. But it will turn out to be one of this year's big lessons: moderation is a relative term.

It's a vestigial reflex from my days as an encyclopedia-reading know-it-all: whenever I run out of things to say, I crowbar random facts into the argument.

Every time I read a book, it'll mention three other books I feel I have to read.