There's a quote from Maimonides' Guide for the Perplexed that sounds amazing: "Those who trouble themselves to find a cause for any of these detailed rules, are in my eyes void of sense..."
HOWEVER, as far as I can tell it is invariably out of context. He's not talking about the Torah overall, but about narrow particulars involved in animal sacrifice.
Weird question - in singing, how much is opening your mouth wide mechanical vs. aesthetic? So, like, I was noticing in this harmony, you can barely tell at a distance that their lips are moving: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-u7yPTDOQ4
Makes sense, since it's a somber tune. It's also hard to imagine e.g. Frank Sinatra opening his mouth wide. Whereas of course in pop or rock, you have to unhinge your jaw.
There should be a reverse Indiana Jones film where a South American tribe sneaks into the Vatican, steals some relics, and gets away on a boat while a bunch of men in golden robes shake their fists and shout their strange language.
Funny thing - when you read more scholarly histories of science it's amazing the extent to which nobody is ever that far ahead of the field. Even people we think of as rebels - Einstein, Cantor, Darwin, were firmly inside existing discussions and movements. I remember one author saying good scientists are a year ahead of the field, great ones are 5, the greatest are 10, and more and more that seems right, even generous.
So, whenever I talk about immigration on that Bird Website, I get people saying with open immigration you'll get more fentanyl "pouring across the borders." I don't actually understand what the specific claim is there. Like, being most generous... do they mean increasing legal immigration would make drug smuggling easier? That people south of the border are more into drugs and will bring that culture? Like, what's the particular notion they're scared of?