Reform Judaism and Spines

My Judaism Class this week was on the Holocaust. I didn't want to go. The Holocaust has been so overplayed that it disgust. It has taken too much importance in Jewish and recent history. I could go on for the next 500 years detailing the many terrible things that befell the Jews before Hitler was born. We could worry about the fact that the muslims want to murder the Jews in Israel now. Instead, we'll talk about the Holocaust.

The Rabbi was somewhat sympathetic to my feeling about the Holocaust, though she had other reasons for wanting to de-emphasize the Holocaust. She thinks by emphasizing our historic suffering, we attract more sufferings. While it sounds ridiculous, she does a have small point. Certain postures tend to invite attack more than others, but still Jew obsessing over their suffering has been a relative small reason for Jewish suffering. Christians hunting for scapegoats and Muslims loving to murder the infidel have been the major historical for Jewish suffering. The rabbi went on to claim that our historic suffering have made us more likely to be the oppressors. This was an invitation for some people in the Judaism to hint that Israel is now a bully. I have problems with converts to Judaism being taught that Israel's policy are evil. After the second use of the word bully. I spoke up and said that I strongly supported the policies of the Israel government, though of course in retrospect that are many policies that I don't approve of. I was just thinking of the policies relative to the surrounding populations.

We continued followed the idea of not basing Jewish identity on past suffering, but basing it on positive contributions. A leftist wimp brought up a Jew who helped fund Negro schools in the South in the 1950's as an example of the positive contrabution of the Jews. I was slow to respond, but if I had had the time I would have said he had entirely the wrong Jews. We need to say that the Jewish bankers provided the greatest contribution in terms of improving people's material condition. Europeans would still be peasents living in huts if it hadn't been for the services the Jewish bankers provided. And we really shouldn't forget Uziel Gal, creator of the Uzi, which has provided necessary self-defense for many a person.

Jewish-Muslim Dialog

Some liberal Jews wish to pursue peace. Nothing is quite like dialog for getting a tangible result, and thus we have events focused on Jewish-Muslim dialog. The tangible result is that everyone is happy for the same reason: the muslims lie about Islam. The muslims are happy for deceiving the stupid infidels. And the liberal Jews are happy for hearing what they want to hear.

Annoying Reconstructionists

I went to a Reconstructionist meeting. It was in the Zionist-Labor building. The Reconstructionist siddur is a little harder to follow than the Reform--unless you know Hebrew already.

The Reconstuctionists are an intellectual bunch. It's not just that many of the people had Ph.D.'s. Many, probably most people with Ph.D.'s are trained monkeys. It's that the Reconstuctionists actually had interesting things to say about the Torah. The conversation caroomed from one topic to the next. They started wondering why there are seven days in a week, but eight days for a circumcision. The cantor pointed out that it a baby's blood doesn't clot sufficiently from a a major cut until the eight day. She was amazed by the wisdom of the Rabbis to hold the Bris on the eighth day. I wondered out load how many babies the Israelites killed figuring this out. The conversation promptly ended.

entrepreneurial rabbi

I went to an Conservative introduction to Judaism group last night. I was curious about my earlier prediction that Conservative and Reform converts would be indistinguishable. I also went because the Rabbi seems the most active in trying to encourage Judaism. A major problem that I have liberal Judaism is that its strategy for survival is just to hope enough Orthodox kids don't want to endure the excesses of that faith and switch to liberal Judaism as a compromise. The blithe acceptance of declining membership in liberal synagogues bothers me. The entrepreneurial rabbi that lead the group last night seems to me to be an exception. He seems to truly want to encourage greater Jewish participation. He is Conservative and the language issue looms greater in that mostly English services seem out of the question. I hope for the success of his attitude in convincing others.

In terms of my original question about the difference between Conservative and Reform congregants, though I the sample size was small for the Conservatives, five, I think it more or less bears out my prediction. A romantic partner of the faith is why people convert. I asked the rabbi if he thought many people could explain the difference between Conservative and Reform and he thought not.

Conservative versus Reform

I wonder how many Conservative and Reform Jews could tell you the differences between Conservative and Reform Judaism, besides the Conservative are a little more serious about the Mitzvot. I wonder if there is any observable differences between Conservative and Reform converts. And just to make it easier to observe differences, restrict the converts to those converts who are converting not due to their romantic partner. I suspect that the decision to convert to Judaism overwhelms the small details between the two groups. If I converted Conservative, I still wouldn't spend the time kosherizing my kitchen. I would convert Conservative because I like the full reading of the Torah at the service. As it is, the Reform synagogue is closer and that's why I choose Reform. I'm not being glib in the last sentence. I do think a synagogue in walking distance is an acceptable reason to choose one over the other.

Also, the Reform makes more sense about the Holidays. But, gosh, that is such an insignificant detail.

modern circumcision

Judaism may have lost the religious battle of Antiquity because circumcision is too much to ask of most people. Now, Modern Judaism wants you to learn Hebrew to become a Jew. This is also too much for most people. There should be an all vernacular branch of Judaism for the less motivated. Quality control can be taken too far.

The Difference Between Christianity and Judaism

Jews obsess over Shabbat, and Christian obsess over Hell. One of these obsessions is healthy andt the other is mentally and spiritually ill.