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The Torah Can Help Simplify Our Choices
Reading from a Torah scroll in accordance with Sephardi tradition. Photo: Sagie Maoz via Wikimedia Commons.
The acclaimed Iowa-born travel writer, Bill Bryson, known for his witty observations and upbeat take on life, offers a unique perspective on the modern world’s obsession with proliferate choice.
In his 1998 book I’m a Stranger Here Myself, Bryson humorously chronicles his return to the United States after two decades in England. Among other things, he is confronted by the overwhelming variety of consumer goods in American supermarkets in contrast to the somewhat more limited choices available at that time in the UK.
Bryson’s experience in the US retail world perfectly captures the complications and confusion thrown up by too many choices. For, as Bryson discovered, more options doesn’t lead to better decisions and good outcomes. Instead, it leads to frustration and bad choices.
In one particularly hilarious piece, Bryson writes vividly about his attempt to buy breakfast cereal on a visit to his local supermarket: “The breakfast cereals alone could have occupied me for most of the afternoon. There must have been 200 types, and I am not exaggerating. Every possible substance that could be dried, puffed, and sugar-coated was there.”
As he continued exploring the aisles, Bryson’s amazement at the level of choice grew: “I had no idea how the market for junk food had proliferated. Everywhere I turned I was confronted with foods guaranteed to make you waddle.” He lists a barrage of options: “jelly creme pies, moon pies, pecan spinwheels, peach mellos, root beer buttons, chocolate fudge devil dogs”—illustrating an excess of choice that left him more bewildered than satisfied.
Perhaps the most striking example was at Aisle Seven, or as Bryson dubbed it: “Food for the Seriously Obese.” There was “a whole section devoted exclusively to a product called Toaster Pastries, which included, among much else, eight different types of toaster strudel. And what exactly is toaster strudel? Who cares? It was coated in sugar and looked drippy. I grabbed an armload.”
Bryson later reflected on how many of the items he had somehow ended up buying were never even eaten; they lingered in his pantry for ages until they were finally discarded — proof, in his mind, of the folly of excessive choice.
Bryson’s humorous take on the overwhelming abundance of choice highlights a phenomenon unique to modern Western living. Unsurprisingly, sober studies on excessive consumer choices have begun to emerge in recent years, and the picture they paint is not pretty.
Professor emeritus of psychology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Barry Schwartz, coined the term “the paradox of choice” in his influential 2004 book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less. He argues that while having some choice is essential to human autonomy and well-being, an overload of options inevitably leads to decision paralysis and often also to anxiety and deep dissatisfaction.
Over the years, Schwartz has conducted experiments showing that when people are presented with too many options, they are more likely to feel overwhelmed and make poorer decisions — or worse, they avoid making decisions altogether, dovetailing with Bryson’s anecdotal experience in the supermarket, where the endless options he faced didn’t enhance his shopping experience, instead leaving him frustrated and, ultimately, unfulfilled.
Schwartz’s research and Bryson’s experiences highlight a critical aspect of human psychology: when faced with too many choices, we tend to second-guess our decisions, or we are hasty and impulsive, usually with poor results, resulting in us feeling less satisfaction. The bottom line is that the very freedom that abundant choice promises often backfires, leading to increased stress and painful regret.
In stark contrast to the modern dilemma of seemingly overwhelming choice, Parshat Re’eh presents a refreshingly simple definition of choices. The parsha begins with a clear, binary proposition: “See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you obey the commandments of God that I am giving you today; the curse, if you disobey the commandments of God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods” (Deut. 11:26-28).
Rashi, commenting on this verse, highlights the significance of the word ‘See’ (רְאֵה). He explains that the Torah urges each individual to open their eyes and truly perceive their choices. This isn’t just about physical sight but about clarity of understanding—being able to discern the real nature of the choices presented. The Torah wants us to see beyond the superficial appeal of specific options and recognize their actual value, or, more accurately, lack thereof.
In this passage, the Torah doesn’t clutter the decision-making process with a multitude of options, nor does it leave room for ambiguity. Instead, it draws a clear line between two paths — one that leads to positive outcomes and the other to adverse outcomes.
Clearly, the Torah’s intention here is not to simplify life’s complexities but rather to provide a framework that guides us in the whole area of making choices – teaching us that what may seem like options may not actually be anything other than a range of bad options, all tantalizingly attractive, but ultimately no good.
Schwartz’s concept of the “paradox of choice” highlights how excessive options paralyze us; the Torah’s approach in Re’eh reminds us that the best way to navigate life’s decisions is to simplify them. The Torah empowers us to choose wisely by reminding us not to be dazzled by choices that appear attractive but which, in reality, prevent us from making the decisions that are good for us.
In Parshat Re’eh, we are guided by Moses to maintain crystal clarity in all our decision-making — essentially a call to rise above the confusion of too many choices and to focus on making the decisions that truly matter without getting distracted.
There is a famous story of the Greek conqueror Alexander the Great. As he advanced eastward towards Asia to expand his empire, he arrived in Gordium, the capital of Phrygia. There, he encountered the Gordian Knot, an intricate and tightly tangled knot tied to the yoke of an ox-cart.
The Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus described it as having “several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened.” According to an ancient local legend, whoever could untie this knot would be destined to rule all of Asia. Over the many years that the knot had been there, many had attempted to unravel it and failed.
When Alexander confronted the knot in 333 BC, he initially tried to untie it by conventional means. However, after abortive efforts, he chose a different approach: he drew his sword and cut through the knot, solving the problem with a single, decisive action.
Since then, Alexander’s act has become a powerful metaphor for addressing seemingly intractable problems through bold solutions. Because, more often than not, the best way to address overwhelming complexity is through clear, decisive action — cutting through the complications and making the one choice that truly matters.
Sir Winston Churchill remarked, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” The choices we make define us, and in a world filled with distractions and diversions, the Torah helps us focus on what truly matters. By simplifying our decisions into “good” and “bad,” we not only avoid the pitfalls of decision paralysis but also align ourselves with the path of blessing, ensuring that our choices lead to meaningful and fulfilling lives.
The post The Torah Can Help Simplify Our Choices first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Ritchie Torres Blasts Airlines for ‘Effectively Boycotting’ Israel, Calls for Resumption of Routes to Jewish State
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) speaks during the House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, DC, Sept. 30, 2021. Photo: Al Drago/Pool via REUTERS
US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) lambasted several major airlines over pausing routes to Israel, suggesting that they have launched a silent boycott of the Jewish state.
“I am calling upon the CEOs of American Airlines, Delta, and United to end the unilateral + indefinite suspensions of air travel to Israel. The operative words here are ‘unilateral’ and ‘indefinite,’” Torres wrote on X/Twitter on Thursday.
“Air travel suspensions should have time limits and FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] approval. Instead of following the FAA, the three airlines have been acting on their own to suspend flights to Israel. These suspensions are so indefinite as to be indistinguishable from a boycott,” Torres continued.
Torres penned a letter to CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Airlines, and United Airlines to “express concern about the suspension of air travel between the United States and Israel.”
The letter was first obtained by Jewish Insider.
Torres wrote that the “prolonged” and “pervasive” suspension of flights to Israel has made travel to the Jewish state “less affordable.” Israel’s national airline El Al has become the sole air carrier to the Jewish state, becoming “a de facto monopoly,” Torres wrote.
The congressman took aim at American Airlines over its decision to “unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025,” arguing it is tantamount to “effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish state.”
Torres suggested that several major American airlines may have succumbed to pressure from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) — an initiative which calls on organizations and corporations to cut financial ties with the Jewish state as the first step toward its eventual destruction.
“Given the arbitrary length of the suspension, one could be forgiven for thinking that the BDS movement had taken over the American aviation industry without anyone noticing, much less crying foul,” Torres wrote.
Richard Goldberg, senior adviser at the Foundations for Defense of Democracies, also questioned why United Airlines has not chartered trips to the Jewish state despite offering flights “right across Israel on the way to Dubai from Newark.”
Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Forum, praised Torres’s letter on X/Twitter.
“He’s absolutely right!” Ostrovsky posted.
Torres, a self-described progressive, has established himself as a stalwart ally of the Jewish state, especially in the months following the Hamas slaughter of roughly 1,200 people across southern Israel on Oct. 7. Torres has repeatedly defended Israel from unsubstantiated claims of committing “genocide” in Gaza. He has also consistently supported the shipment of American arms to help the Jewish state defend itself from Hamas terrorists. Torres has levied sharp criticism toward university administrators for allowing Jewish students to be threatened on campus without consequence.
The post Ritchie Torres Blasts Airlines for ‘Effectively Boycotting’ Israel, Calls for Resumption of Routes to Jewish State first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Shipping Company Sees Soaring Profits Because — Not in Spite — of Houthi Red Sea Attacks
Explosions take place on the deck of the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion on the Red Sea, in this handout picture released Aug. 29, 2024. Photo: Houthi Military Media/Handout via REUTERS
A major Israeli shipping company is experiencing a surge in profits for a surprising reason: Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, which has been traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2021, achieved a 48 percent year-over-year revenue increase in the second quarter of this year to $1.93 billion.
And it’s not just revenue that has increased. Its net income rose to $373 million and its carry volume has risen 11 percent.
This all occurred amid rising tensions in the Middle East that began after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking another 251 hostage.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia, a US-designated terrorist organization, began disrupting global trade with its attacks on shipping in the busy Red Sea corridor after Hamas’s onslaught, arguing its aggression was a show of support for Palestinians in Gaza.
The Houthi rebels — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — have controlled a significant portion of Yemen’s land along the Red Sea since 2014, when it captured it in the midst of the country’s civil war.
The Iran-backed movement has said it will target all ships heading to Israeli ports, even if they do not pass through the Red Sea, and claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel. Since Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, which launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Houthi terrorists in Yemen have routinely launched ballistic missiles towards Israel’s southern city of Eilat. In July, they hit the center of Tel Aviv with a long-range Iranian-made drone.
These attacks primarily in the Red Sea, a key trade route, disrupted global shipping, raising the cost of shipping and insurance and having a major economic impact. Shipping firms have been forced in many cases to re-route to longer and more expensive journeys around southern Africa to avoid passing near Yemen.
However, ZIM’s increased revenue and profit appeared to have come because of these attacks, not in spite of them.
It was not just ZIM that experienced rising profits. According to Middle East Eye, “shares of Maersk, the Danish shipping giant operating more than 700 vessels, are up about 20 percent in the last month, while German company Hapag-Lloy — the world’s fifth-largest container shipping group — is up 17 percent.”
The reason they are making more revenue is ironically that they are taking alternative, longer routes, in order to avoid the Red Sea. The issue is that these alternative routes require additional fuel — which cost extra money. These additional costs are passed onto consumers, resulting in greater revenue.
However, the costs passed onto consumers are usually greater than the additional costs that the companies bear due to the longer routes. As a result, they are not just making extra revenue, but extra profit as well.
Observers have noted that these higher prices — which go beyond just the additional prices of fuel, for example — may be justified by pointing out that shipping has become increasingly risky, and so consumers ought to pay higher prices when companies are taking on greater risk.
Since the attacks began, the Houthis have damaged at least 30 ships. At least two cargo ships — one UK-owned and one Greek-owned — have been sunk.
Iran itself has also attacked ships. In April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seized what it claimed to be an “Israeli-linked” ship near the Strait of Hormuz and, in November, Iran attacked an Israeli ship with drones in the Indian Ocean, according to the US.
As for the Houthis, they have threatened and in some cases actually attacked US and British ships, leading the two Western allies to launch retaliatory strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
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Stanford Professors Call for Reform of DEI, Argue Such Programs Foster Antisemitism
Students are seen at an anti-Israel protest encampment at Stanford University during the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Stanford, California, US, April 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Two Stanford University professors have publicly called for reforming “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programs in higher education, arguing that they foster racial tension and contribute to antisemitism on college campuses.
“Rather than correcting stereotypes, diversity training too often reinforces them and breeds resentment, impeding students’ social development,” Paul Brest — professor emeritus at Stanford Law School — and Emily Levine — who teaches history and education at the university — wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times. “Overall, these programs may undermine the very groups they seek to aid by instilling a victim mind-set and by pitting students against one another.”
Throughout the piece, Brest and Levine, both of whom served on Stanford’s Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israel bias, described the way in which DEI’s promotion of identitarianism — a concept which reduces individual identity to racial origin — has in their view promoted flagrantly wrong theories of race whose logical conclusion is conspiracies of Jewish power and control, as well as antisemitic discrimination. As an example, they cited a Stanford DEI training program which prompted a federal civil rights complaint in 2021, a story The Algemeiner covered extensively.
Those programs, argued the Louis D. Brandeis Center, which filed the complaint, “endorsed the narrative that Jews are connected to white supremacy” and promoted “antisemitic tropes concerning Jewish power, conspiracy, and control.” It also excluded Jewish history and antisemitism from conversations about bigotry and racism.
What most outraged the Jewish community, however, was the program’s forcing Jewish mental health clinicians to join “segregated ‘whiteness accountability’ affinity [groups], created for ‘staff who hold privilege via white identity’ and ‘are white identified … or are perceived as white presenting or passing,’” a notion which, in addition to unfairly characterizing whites and institutionalizing racial segregation, does not describe the majority of the world’s Jewish population, many of whom are of color.
“I was placed in the white affinity group based on the idea that I can hide behind my white identity … and I was very disturbed by this because my parents survived World War II in the UK, which ended 11 years before I was born, and people like us were murdered because we were seen as contaminants to the white race. Not only did that feel like a betrayal to my heritage but to my parents,” Stanford employee Sheila Levin told The Algemeiner in 2021.
Brest and Levine believe that DEI can, if reformed, avoid similar offenses by dismantling its racialism and embracing a “pluralistic vision of the university community combined with its commitments to academic freedom and critical inquiry.”
They continued, “At the core of pluralistic approaches are facilitated conversations among participants with diverse identities, religious beliefs, and political ideologies but without a predetermined list of favored identities or a preconceived framework of power privilege, and oppression. Students are taught the complementary skills of telling stories about their own identities, values, and experiences and listening with curiosity and interest to the stories of others, acknowledging differences and looking for commonalities.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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