by Ram ben Ze'ev There’s Nothing Free About It: A Lesson in Government Delusion Today, I received a letter from the NHS—at first alarming, then simply aggravating. It wasn’t an invitation. It was a decree. I had been scheduled for an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening on 21 August 2025 at 9:30am. No consent requested. No conversation. Just a decision made somewhere in a bureaucratic maze that my body now belonged to their timetable. The letter itself—a three-page A4 missive

by Ram ben Ze'ev A Warning from the Edge: The Silent Death of Private Capital The future has arrived. Quietly, predictably, and almost without resistance. In my recent article, “ A Carrot for the Masses, a Burden for the Few: Rethinking the Universal Basic Dividend ,” I addressed the creeping notion of Universal Basic Income—or as I termed it, the Universal Basic Dividend (UBD)—as not a gift of liberty, but a velvet collar. Today, I issue a far sterner warning: we are on the

by Ram ben Ze'ev Bereshit: The Sacred Space of Creation Since publishing my earlier article, Bereshit: The Creation of Sacred Space, Not Time , I have continued to reflect on the deeper implications of the opening word of the Torah. The term בראשית ( Bereshit ) is commonly translated as “In the beginning,” suggesting a point in linear time. But this interpretation—while popular—is fundamentally flawed when measured against the eternal nature of the Creator. G-D has no beginn

by Ram ben Ze'ev When Will We Finally Understand? There is a moment in every generation when the Children of Israel must confront an uncomfortable truth — not about our enemies, not about the world, but about ourselves. That moment is now. We live in an age where suffering is explained away, where the sanctity of our identity is diluted by the very hands tasked with guarding it. We justify disobedience as progress, and we call transgression tolerance. But at what cost? We are

by Ram ben Ze'ev The Space Between the Letters: Where Return Begins Before the first word of the Torah is written, before even the first letter—there is silence. An empty parchment. A space. It is within this sacred silence that all creation begins. Not with time, but with space . Not with noise, but with stillness. And it is there—in that space—that תשובה (teshuvah, return) begins. Teshuvah is not only our journey back to G-D; it is the Divine journey back to us. Through אמו

by Ram ben Ze'ev The Down Pillow: Lashon Hara, Gossip, and the Irreversible Damage of Public Shame There is a well-known parable often attributed to the Baal Shem Tov, and later expounded by the Alter Rebbe and the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of a man who spreads lashon hara (לשון הרע, evil speech) about another member of the community. Realising his grave error, he turns to his Rav for a path to teshuvah (repentance). The Rav instructs him to take a down pillow to the top of a hill,

by Ram ben Ze'ev Why Is Steve Bannon Hiding His Epstein Tapes? It has been confirmed by multiple sources — including Bannon himself — that Steve Bannon recorded over 15 hours of interviews with Jeffrey Epstein in the months leading up to Epstein’s arrest and mysterious death. Bannon, a seasoned political operative and media strategist, has offered vague explanations over the years: the footage was intended for a documentary, perhaps titled The Monsters , exploring Epstein’s l

by Ram ben Ze'ev Bitcoin at $122,614: The High Before the Fall In my continuing narrative warning of the inherent risks of speculating with Bitcoin, it is now more important than ever to heed the signs. As of this writing, Bitcoin ($BTC) has reached the nose-bleed heights of $122,614.39 per coin. Bulls may be celebrating with chest-thumping bravado, backslaps, and snide dismissals of the so-called "doomsayers"—but the time has come to consider those warnings seriously. Bitcoi

by Ram ben Ze’ev A Carrot for the Masses, a Burden for the Few: Rethinking the Universal Basic Dividend It is easy—seductively easy—to dangle a carrot in front of the masses. The notion of a Universal Basic Dividend (UBD), as proposed by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, is a shining example of this practice: a bold vision of every citizen receiving a guaranteed monthly payment, funded by the state, as a remedy for poverty, inequality, and the excesses of capita