The Jewish Case for Sharper Thinking
Episode notes
You don't want to be so open-minded that your brain falls out. That's an old line I've heard somewhere along the way, and it kept ringing in my head while I read a book this week - because it gave me language for something I've never known how to say: you can be unapologetic and full of doubt at the same time.
No guest this week - just me, doing another book report on As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz (former head speechwriter for Michelle Obama). I'm no scholar here. I grew up going to Hebrew school and not really getting it, and this book taught me things about my own history I'd never learned.
What you'll take away:
- Why "unapologetic AND troubled" isn't a contradiction - how to love something and criticize it in the same breath
- The idea of an "argument for the sake of heaven" - and why arguing to win makes you worse at thinking
- Why an echo chamber quietly rots your judgment, straight out of a 2,000-year-old study practice
Chapters:
00:30 Why another book report - As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz
02:20 Nuance with conviction: the Zionism argument
06:40 Committed vs. troubled - the frame that stuck with me
08:00 Havruta: why you're supposed to study with a partner
09:00 Argument for the sake of heaven
11:00 Echo chambers and sloppy thinking
馃敆 Links mentioned:
- As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz
- Here All Along by Sarah Hurwitz
- For Heaven's Sake podcast (Yossi Klein Halevi & Donniel Hartman)
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Transcript
Transcribed from the recording and lightly formatted for reading. Nothing has been reworded, so the occasional mis-hearing is left as spoken.
Jeff Albaum
What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Curiosity Class. This week is a book report week. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback on previous book report episodes that I've done. so wanted to take the opportunity to do another one for this week. So this week is gonna be lessons from the book As a Jew, written by Sarah Hurwitz. Sarah's amazing. She's authored, well, for those of you who don't know her, her background is pretty unbelievable. She was a speechwriter for the Obama, specifically.
First Lady Michelle Obama. she wrote an amazing book, Here All Along, the which was the first book I think that she had published under her own name. and it was an amazing book. I read that as well, and maybe we'll do an episode on on here all along, but it was basically like an introduction to Judaism. and she came out with this book as a Jew, reclaiming our story from those who blame, shame, and try to erase us earlier this year, I believe in twenty twenty six or maybe the end of twenty twenty five. I think it was twenty twenty five, actually.
so it's a it's a really incredible book. It it's it's very she's an amazing writer in general, and I wanted to cover read a little a c a few excerpts from it, as well as just give some some spitball and free will and thoughts and reactions that I had to it, as well as go over some some main takeaways and lessons. so without further ado, let's let's dive in. So she does a really amazing job
holistically of writing in a way that's very accessible. She has a background that's similar to I think a lot of Jews in America, that's similar to to my experience growing up of of being aware but n far from religious, like going to Hebrew school and not really liking it, going to holidays and not really understanding, you know, not knowing anything about the texts or what they mean or who the main players are and were. and so she does a really
really great job of diving deep in an accessible way to say, like, hey, this is what this is, this is what this is, this is what the Torah is, this is what the Talmud is, these are, you know, the rabbis that I'm talking about when I say this. And she gives a really nice arc of of Jewish history in a way that I I hadn't experienced, you know, before reading this book. another huge difference in as a Jew as compared to to Hero Along is she she just dives deep and is
Is nuanced but unapologetic in her arguments about specifically Zionism and anti-Zionism. So, you know, writing writing a book after October 7th, I think is probably a challenge and a totally different paradigm than than pre-October 7th. But she just gives amazing arguments and excerpts about the the benefits of Zionism and and being unapologetically pro-Israel while being nuanced in a conversation about a complicated
country, right? And so yeah, she just does an amazing job of that. So I wanted to read a a couple excerpts. One on kind of the the I think it'll explain some of the nuance a very, very well. So this is basically talking about
People on the on the pro-Israel side and explaining their thought process. So I'm just gonna read read a little bit here. As Haviv Rete Gore notes, the grand strategy of the Palestinian national movement since the days of Yasser Arafat, a strategy upheld today mainly by Hamas, is a classically anti-colonial one. The idea is that just like the Algerians drove out their French colonizers in the mid twentieth century with relentless guerrilla warfare, Palestinians can use relentless violence to drive out Jews.
Show full transcript
Jeff Albaum
problem is that Israeli Jews have no other home to which they can return, so they're not going anywhere. And with each war Palestinian leaders and their Arab al allies have waged, with each suicide bombing and terrorist attack they have launched, hijacking airplanes, massacring Israelis in cafes, buses, schools, synagogues, at a Passover Seder, at the Olympics, with each statement from leaders declaring their intention to annihilate Jews, with each generation generation of Palestinian children.
Taught with school textbooks and children's TV shows that glorify violence against Jews, Israelis have become further convinced that Palestinians are more interested in preventing Israel from having a state than having a state of their own. So that's obviously a very you know, I like what she's saying in that like she doesn't the the blame can't all be on Israel, right? Like that's crazy.
and we can't say that like, wait, there there is agency and fault on on the other side, right? And so when you say, like, it's all Israel's fault, like I think this is a really good argument of like why that's not the case. But this is an example of her nuance in that she then goes on to say, I'm gonna read here I'm reading again. I find it no less infuriating when defenders of Israel lay all the blame on Palestinians and the broader world. Israel bears plenty of responsibility for the current conflict, particularly particularly with the rise of the right wing.
national religious settler movement in the wake of the 1967 war. Members of this movement believe that settling the West Bank, which is considered part of the Biblical Promised Land, is a crucial step in God's plan to bring about the Messianic era. They view Israel's victory in the 1967 war and subsequent military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the realization of biblical prophecies about Jews returning from exile and being restored to that land. So that's giving a little bit more clarity and, you know, to me I read that as
Hey guys, there's also like, yeah, like there there is blame to be had on the Israeli side. And it's not clear cut, right? And so I think the the lesson that I take away from from this section of her book is that the nuance here is extremely important. And you you can't just say like, you know, I I have no problem saying like I'm unapologet I'm an unapologetic Zionist. I'm very pro-Israel, right? And unapologetically so.
And that's not to say I don't disagree very strongly with actions that the country takes, right? Like I'm an unapologetic American. I disagree very strongly with a lot of stances that the American government takes. Like those I think that those are you can hold those truths in other areas at the same time. But as it comes to to Israel and Palest Palestinians, it's like it it's like this this third rail a little bit where it's like.
You can't say both of those things at the same time. and so the lesson that I took away from her book is that I think her nuance is is really refreshing. And her it's nuance with unapologeticness, right? And I think that's the that's the key because like what's the phrase? You don't want to be so open minded that your brain falls out, right? So she's not making claims, you know, she's she's very clear like I'm an unapologetic Jew. I'm an unapologetic.
you know, pro-Israel Zionist, right? Like, you know, period full stop. Then also saying, like, yeah, but there's also like these issues that are real that I, you know, I want to talk about and and not naming them has problems in and of itself. and one of my favorite podcasts, for Heaven's sake, the the two hosts, Yossi Kleinhale and Danielle Hartman, they talk about the the the committed versus the non-committed or the troubled, the troubled committed, as Danielle puts it.
And the the gist of it is basically that like he's he's willing to have any conversation with someone who is committed. And by committed, he means like you you you support the state of Israel, like you you agree that it is a place that exists, that should exist, that like there there's no question in your mind about like the fact that it exists and should exist. You're committed. You're also troubled because there's there's a lot to be troubled by, but the troubled committed versus the troubled uncommitted.
You know, he's not willing to have a conversation with with the troubled uncommitted, only with the troubled committed. and I I to me that just feels so Jewish. Like of course you have to wrestle with ideas and of course you have to have these nuanced views and and and multiple things to be true at once and be unapologetic in your stances. so I I think those are both beautiful concepts and and and the the lesson of nuance is one that Sarah writes about very beautifully. so that that was my my first main main takeaway from from reading her book.
The another lesson I got from from this book that I I thought was really beautiful is this idea of of Jewish study. And y in Judaism, the the way that you study is a little bit unique. You're supposed to study with a partner. And in Hebrew it's called a Havruta, which I don't it's I I think the translation is friendship or partnership. and the idea, I'm actually just gonna read you a an excerpt from her book that talks about Havruta.
When I first started doing Jewish study, I was struck by how different the process was from the way I often engage with content these days by scrolling through social media on my phone. Instead of being done alone, anonymously, in front of a screen, Jewish study is traditionally done face to face, often in a pair known as a chrutah, which means friendship or partnership. There's no audience cheering or jeering from the comments section, just two people grappling with the same sacred text.
The goal is not to win a debate or take down the other person. It's for each partner to push and question the other, sharpening each other's thinking, like iron sharpens iron, and learning from each other's opinions. It's to engage in what the rabbis called argument for the sake of heaven, to unearth the text's deepest meanings, to unearth the text's deepest meaning or meanings. An argument for the sake of heaven is one of, I think, my favorite concepts, maybe ever.
I think that's so cool. And I love that there's this this ancient wisdom drawn from it in that it's important to have arguments to to clarify your own thinking. And it's important to study with someone or people who sharpen your way of thinking. And so if you're surrounded if you're surrounded only by people who think the same way as you do, you you generate sloppy thinking.
And so I think it's amazing when if I say something to someone and and they say like, well, actually, what about this? Like I love that because I have the opportunity to to enhance my thinking. and so I, you know, I didn't I couldn't have put words to that until I I read this part, but but knowing that it gives me so much more comfort and meaning and knowing that like there is this almost like divine wisdom in argument for the sake of heaven.
As long as you're coming to it in good faith, right? Like I think arguing for the sake of arguing is is is very bad. And I personally I struggle with that. Sometimes I argue just for the sake of arg argument. And I have to really ask myself, like, is this an argument for, you know, with good faith for the sake of heaven? and so, yeah, it's one of my favorite concepts of of Judaism and the fact that you get to study and you're you're supposed to study with someone who can sharpen your thinking is something that.
I love in all aspects of life, in business, in in work, in career, in relationship, in friendship. you know, having people that can challenge your way of thinking, I think is is a concept that's coming around and and really well understood and believed in 2026. Like I don't think anybody hears that and says, nah, like I want to be in an echo chamber. but it's really cool that this has existed in the ancient texts for as as long as they have in that.
This concept has existed for as long as it has. So those are a couple takeaways from the book. I'll link the book to in the description in the show notes. You can get a copy for yourself. I'd highly recommend reading it, as well as Sarah's first book here all along. She's an amazing author. She does amazing work. and this was a a book report lessons learned from As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz. Thanks so much, everybody. Bye.