A. J. Orbach · The Writing on Emunah · Compiled June 15, 2026

The Collected Works

Master index, production edition. Every work in the corpus — ninety-six works across ten parts, English and Hebrew — numbered, placed, and accounted for on its way to a book.

96works
10parts
40en·he pairs
8slide-books
72in rewrite program
Production status. The deep-rewrite program runs every two hours, one work per pass in ledger order (originals preserved in backups/originals/). House style for production: no em or en dashes in body prose; sentences carry their own weight. Live progress: rewrite_queue.json.
Part I

The Spine — Seven Roads to Emunah

The core of the book: the prologue, the three foundation chapters, the apologia, and the last word from the road.

  1. 001
    Prologue
    Where the road begins.
    ENchapter
  2. 002
    Tzelem Elokim — The Sentence That Built the West
    Chapter 6. The image of God as the West's load-bearing sentence.
    ENchapter
  3. 003
    Emunah — The Word That Is Not Belief
    Chapter 7. The word we keep mistranslating.
    ENchapter
  4. 004
    Halakhah — The Technology of Becoming
    Chapter 8. Law as the instrument that makes the person.
    ENchapter
  5. 005
    The Default Is Belief · ברירת המחדל היא אמונה
    The personal apologia: Twain, Tolstoy, Pascal, Chesterton, Frankl, Heschel, Soloveitchik, and the case that belief is the human baseline.
    ENHEessay
  6. 006
    Belief Is the Default — Feature Edition
    Newspaper-style version of the apologia, with imagery; both languages.
    ENHEfeature
  7. 007
    El Mistater · אֵל מִסְתַּתֵּר
    The hidden God; a short gate into the seven roads.
    HEshort
  8. 008
    Epilogue — If You Have Read This Far
    A last word, from the road.
    ENchapter
Part II

Witnesses — Thinkers at the Edge of Emunah

Five places the secular road runs out, and the masters already standing on the far side.

  1. 009
    David Deutsch — The Atheist Who Almost Built a Religion
    The road from fallibilism to emunah.
    ENessay
  2. 010
    The Universal Explainer and the Lonely Man of Faith
    Deutsch × Rav Soloveitchik, in both languages.
    ENHEessay
  3. 011
    Sam Harris — The Contemplative Without a Covenant
    Meditation without a Commander.
    ENessay
  4. 012
    Yuval Noah Harari — The Historian Who Dissolved Every Story
    What remains when every story is a fiction.
    ENessay
  5. 013
    Nietzsche — The Madman With the Lantern
    The honest accounting of the death of God.
    ENessay
  6. 014
    Kant — The Philosopher Who Almost Didn't Need a Covenant
    Morality's debt to the covenant it tried to retire.
    ENessay
  7. 015
    Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik — The Lonely Man of Faith
    Adam I, Adam II, and the loneliness that is a vocation.
    ENessay
  8. 016
    Rav Abraham Joshua Heschel — The Legs That Prayed
    Divine pathos, radical amazement, Selma.
    ENessay
  9. 017
    The Kotzker Rebbe — The Rebbe Who Became an Idea
    Six structural reasons Kotzk will not let go.
    ENessay
  10. 018
    The Broken Vessel · הכלי השבור
    Loving rebbes whose conduct cannot be defended; how mesorah corrects.
    HEessay
  11. 019
    Ein Od Milvado · אין עוד מלבדו
    The Izhbitza essay: determinism as the deepest teaching of teshuvah.
    HEessay
  12. 020
    Zedonot as Zechuyot · זדונות כזכויות
    Reb Tzadok of Lublin as a philosophy of life.
    HEessay
  13. 021
    The Man in the Cave · האיש שבמערה
    Rashbi, the Zohar, and the 2026 return of the hidden Torah.
    ENHEessay
  14. 022
    Francis Bacon — The Man Who Taught the World to Ask
    The prophet of the method, read from within the covenant.
    ENHEfeature
  15. 023
    Bacon and Jewish Thought · בייקון והמחשבה היהודית
    Four hundred years of dialogue.
    HEessay
  16. 024
    The Ten Minds That Built the Modern World
    The makers of progress, in profile.
    ENHEfeature
Part III

Halakhah — The Living Law

How the law moves, who moved it, and why a living tradition must.

  1. 025
    On the Changing Nature of Halakhah · על טבעה המשתנה של ההלכה
    The source essay, companion to Chapter 8.
    HEessay
  2. 026
    The Changing Nature of Halakhah — Editorial Feature
    Magazine-style edition with imagery; both languages.
    ENHEfeature
  3. 027
    The Changing Nature of Halakhah — Rigorous Edition
    Expanded with Rav Kook, Haym Soloveitchik, and fuller mekorot.
    ENHEfeature
  4. 028
    Who Moved the Halakhah — and How · מי הזיז את ההלכה
    Thirteen thinkers from Chazal to Halbertal.
    HEessay
  5. 029
    Between Law and Conscience · בין דין למצפון
    Morality, halakhah, and conscience, with online mekorot.
    HEessay
  6. 030
    Torah and the Modern Conscience · התורה והמצפון המודרני
    Seven chapters on the modern moral pressure points.
    HEessay
  7. 031
    The Unchanging Thing
    Why a living tradition must move; both languages.
    ENHEessay
  8. 032
    Uveshochbecha Uvekumecha · ובשכבך ובקומך
    Is the twice-daily Shema a derashah? A deep dive from the Mitzvot SheNishtanu project.
    HEstudy
  9. 033
    Mitzvot SheNishtanu — The Index · מצוות שנשתנו
    The commandments that changed: a book-scale survey in progress, with its own article library (positive commandments 10–120).
    HEENproject
  10. 034
    The Path That Keeps Walking
    The halakhah-change essay as a 20-page children's picture book.
    ENpicture book
Part IV

Avodat HaTikkun — The Work of Repair

The hashkafa: thesis, dissent, return, and the full argument around the mitzvah of progress.

  1. 035
    Avodat HaTikkun — The Second Writing · עבודת התיקון
    The definitive post-dialectic statement of the framework. Canonical thesis.
    ENHEcanonical
  2. 036
    One Thing I Asked — A Dissent · אַחַת שָׁאַלְתִּי
    The full-strength opposite case, written as its own best advocate.
    ENHEdissent
  3. 037
    Two Things I Heard — The Return · שְׁתַּיִם זוּ שָׁמָעְתִּי
    The answer to the dissent: grants its diagnoses, refuses its conclusion.
    HEteshuvah
  4. 038
    Avodat HaTikkun — The First Writing
    The original framework essay, preserved; superseded by the second writing.
    ENHEsuperseded
  5. 039
    Talmud and Ma'aseh — Which Hand Builds the World? · תלמוד ומעשה
    The deep halakhic companion on learning versus doing.
    ENHEessay
  6. 040
    The Avodah Taxonomy of Work · טקסונומיית העבודה
    Six tiers of modern work scored against the framework.
    ENHEessay
  7. 041
    The Tragedy of Getting What We Want · הטרגדיה של לקבל מה שרצינו
    Openly on the side of kidma: ten chapters and a blessing for the builders.
    ENHEessay
  8. 042
    The Mitzvah to Heal the World — and the Mitzvah Not To · המצווה לרפא
    The two-sided beit-midrash essay on commanding technology.
    ENHEdialectic
  9. 043
    The Book That Was Buried · הספר שנגנז
    Chizkiyahu's Sefer Refuot and the world we were told not to fix.
    ENHEessay
  10. 044
    The Commandment He Did Not Write · המצווה שלא נכתבה
    Why there is no mitzvah to do science, and the five-layer answer.
    ENHEessay
  11. 045
    When Mercy Put On a White Coat · כשהרחמים לבשו חלוק לבן
    Knowledge and mercy: the opening statement of the cycle.
    ENHEessay
  12. 046
    When Mercy Put On a White Coat — Article Edition
    The condensed Hebrew article version.
    HEfeature
  13. 047
    Mercy Sewed the Coat Alone · הרחמים תפרו את החלוק לבדם
    The rebuttal within the knowledge-and-mercy cycle.
    HErebuttal
  14. 048
    When the Critique Became a Mitzvah · כשהביקורת נעשתה מצווה
    The counter-counter: answering the rebuttal.
    HEreply
  15. 049
    The Heretic Who Did Not Know He Was Praying · הכופר שלא ידע שהוא מתפלל
    The synthesis of the knowledge-and-mercy cycle.
    HEsynthesis
  16. 050
    The Mitzvah That Did Not Know Its Name · המצווה שלא ידעה את שמה
    Three chapters on knowledge, mercy, and the machine.
    HEessay
  17. 051
    What Could Not Be Given · מה שלא יכול היה להינתן
    Why the knowledge had to be climbed for, not handed down.
    ENHEessay
  18. 052
    Yom Shekulo Shabbat · יום שכולו שבת
    Life after the repair is finished: meaning when necessity ends.
    HEessay
  19. 053
    The Strength of My Hand · כוחי ועוצם ידי
    Wealth and the mussar of abundance. Part V, chapter 37 of the book shell.
    ENHEessay
  20. 054
    VeRapo Yerapei — The Mekorot · וְרַפֹּא יְרַפֵּא
    The sources the framework stands on, gathered in one ledger.
    HEmekorot
  21. 055
    The Chain of Repair · שלשלת התיקון
    Testimony of the ten layers of mesorah behind the framework.
    HEmesorah
Part V

The Book of Creation — Science and Belief

Where modern science came from, and what it was reading.

  1. 056
    The Lawgiver and the Law
    How belief built modern science; both languages.
    ENHEessay
  2. 057
    The Book of Creation · ספר הבריאה
    The world as God's other scripture in Jewish thought.
    ENHEessay
  3. 058
    Two Stories About Where Science Came From
    The warfare myth and the covenant reading, side by side.
    ENHEessay
  4. 059
    The Moral Law After the Lab · מן המצוי אל הראוי
    Hume's gap, Harris's landscape, and religion as moral ecology. Standalone EN and HE editions.
    ENHEessay
Part VI

The Horizon — AI, Omniscience, Mashiach

The machine as the strangest new witness for the oldest claims.

  1. 060
    The God Who Knew Everything — and the Machine That Almost Does
    How AI dissolved the 1950s objections to omniscience.
    ENHEessay
  2. 061
    When Omniscience Became an Engineering Problem
    AI as a modern analogy for providence and care at scale.
    ENHEfeature
  3. 062
    The Other Singularity · הסינגולריות האחרת
    Altman, Amodei, and Musk against the Nevi'im.
    ENHEfeature
  4. 063
    The Messiah and the Machine · המשיח והמכונה
    Seven chapters: the singularity texts against Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Rambam.
    ENHEessay
  5. 064
    The Machine, the Infinite, and the Hidden Room
    Simulation theory against tzimtzum and tikkun.
    ENfeature
  6. 065
    The Programmers in the Sky
    Simulation theory, Kabbalah, and the God-shaped hole. Earlier treatment of 064.
    ENessay
Part VII

The Inner Life — Avodah of the Heart

Prayer, suffering, joy, argument, and the audit of a commanded life.

  1. 066
    The Blockers of the Servant of God · החֲסָמִים של עובד השם
    What modern abundance did to prayer, and the avodah of feeling rescued.
    ENHEessay
  2. 067
    Better Not to Have Been Created · נוֹחַ לוֹ לָאָדָם שֶׁלֹּא נִבְרָא
    The Eruvin 13b verdict and the meaning-versus-pleasure axis.
    ENHEessay
  3. 068
    The Joy That Has a Structure · השמחה שיש לה מבנה
    Simcha shel mitzvah through twelve voices, from Reb Tzadok to Girard.
    ENHEessay
  4. 069
    The Argument and the Silence · הוויכוח והשתיקה
    When we push back on God and when we don't; the two Avrahams of Vayera.
    ENHEessay
  5. 070
    The Blessing I Said Ten Thousand Times · הברכה שאמרתי עשרת אלפים פעם
    The kidney-stone essay: approaching surgery with emunah, Asher Yatzar as centerpiece.
    ENHEessay
  6. 071
    When Suffering Has Your Name · כשהסבל נושא את שמך
    Tzaddik v'ra lo, rasha v'tov lo, and the Jewish grammar of personal suffering.
    ENHEnew
Part VIII

The Nations — The Stranger in the Vineyard

Where the goyim fit: two covenants, one horizon.

  1. 072
    The Stranger in the Vineyard · הזר בכרם
    The nations in Jewish thought from Tanakh to Sacks; thirteen chapters.
    ENHEessay
Part IX

Lives Across Time — The Lived Day

What a day of Jewish life actually felt like, era by era.

  1. 073
    A Day in the Hill Country · חיים של איכר יהודאי
    Chiram ben Azaryahu, a Judean farmer around 730 BCE.
    HEportrait
  2. 074
    Hoshea ben Elkanah · הושע בן אלקנה
    A villager of the First Temple, around 750 BCE.
    HEportrait
  3. 075
    Hoshea ben Elkanah — Through the Eyes of the Mesorah
    The same villager, reread by the tradition.
    HEportrait
  4. 076
    Two Yosef ben Chananyas · שני יוסף בן חנניה
    One day in a Jewish life, Second Temple and today.
    HEportrait
Part X

Parables & Slide-Books

The contemplative books: full-bleed painterly pages, read like meditations. Text is married to fixed plates; these sit outside the rewrite program.

  1. 077
    This Is Emunah
    100 pages in the This Is Water cadence; ends on hineni.
    ENslide-book
  2. 078
    This Is the Work · זו העבודה
    The pro-kidma companion, 100 pages, both languages.
    ENHEslide-book
  3. 079
    How It Works
    Heschel's parable of the old men and the motorcar; 28 pages, ends on pele.
    ENslide-book
  4. 080
    The Water We Were Swimming In
    The 100-slide Emunah meditation with symbolic plates.
    ENslide-book
  5. 081
    The Long Light
    Year 2100: two men, two cabins, one sixty-year voyage to Proxima. Complete edition.
    ENslide-book
  6. 082
    The Mirror and the Sanctuary
    Two voyages under AGI: curated isolation, covenantal wonder.
    ENslide-book
  7. 083
    When Nothing Was Missing
    A parable of abundance without need.
    ENslide-book
  8. 084
    When the Stars Came Near
    The newest parable; drafts of the first and second fifty pages in the folder.
    ENslide-book
Appendix

Maps, Compilations & Working Files

The entry points, atlases, and the shelf of superseded or working material.

  1. 085
    Avodat HaTikkun · Volume One — The Book Shell · עֲבוֹדַת הַתִּקּוּן
    The full book compilation: cover, 7,000-word introduction, six-part TOC, glossary, mekorot index.
    ENHEbook shell
  2. 086
    The Avodat HaTikkun Dialectic — Trilogy Landing
    One argument, three voices: thesis, dissent, return.
    ENlanding
  3. 087
    Seven Roads to Emunah — Original TOC
    The first book entry point; covers the spine and witnesses only.
    ENtoc
  4. 088
    The Map — Writing Atlas
    Explorable atlas of the corpus in ten threads, with journey panel.
    ENatlas
  5. 089
    The Mind Map · מפת התודעה
    Force-directed node graph of the whole corpus; both languages.
    ENHEatlas
  6. 090
    Old Library Index
    The first index; kept for the record.
    ENsuperseded
  7. 091
    From Is to Ought — Bilingual Edition
    Replaced by the standalone EN and HE editions (059).
    EN·HEsuperseded
  8. 092
    The Long Light — First Draft
    The 50-page draft, preserved for reference.
    ENsuperseded
  9. 093
    Halakhah Video Short
    Hebrew 9:16 short on halakhah, time, and moral progress.
    MP4video
  10. 094
    Haym Soloveitchik — Working Notes
    Notes toward the halakhah-change essays.
    MDnotes
  11. 095
    When the Stars Came Near — Manuscript Drafts
    First and second fifty pages, working markdown.
    MD·1MD·2draft
  12. 096
    Mitzvot SheNishtanu — Sample & Progress
    The article template sample and the project's progress ledger.
    HEworking