Don and MicroBalRog...
Don,
I am not tolerant! I do not tolerate a perp here is the US who would kill me or mine. And I do not tolerate fanatical Muslim Arabs who want to kill me and my Israeli brothers and sisters (actually, they don’t exactly love you, either, Don).
I am for EXPULSION of the hostile, murdering Arabs from greater Israel. The Israelis must spit out the enemy from among them.
MicroBalrog said:
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Now what is that "survival of the people" nonsens?
I don't care about the survival of the Jewish people as an "entity".
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That, MicroBalRog is the crux of the matter. That is Shimui.
There is a Chassidic story told about a Jewish atheist in the 1800s who visited a town – the next Shtetl over.
Upon his arrival, the people took him in and fed him and gave him a place to sleep, as was Jewish custom. Hearing him say that he was an atheist, the townspeople suggested that he go visit the renowned atheist who lived a few towns over.
This atheist decided to take the advice and the next day he trekked to that town. The resident atheist took him in, fed him and then took him to see his library.
“So, you’re an atheist, too?†he asked his guest.
Showing his books to his visitor, among them the Torah, mishnah, gemarrah (Jewish religious texts), he asked his guest, “have you read this one? … this one? …this one?â€
Each time the visiting atheist had to admit he had not read the book.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,†said the resident atheist. “I’m afraid that you’re not really an atheist.†“What you are is an ignoramus!â€
I was that ignoramus 14-15 years ago, MicroBalRog. It was the birth of my precious daughter, now almost 15, that drove me to find out who and what I am. So I could teach her who she is.
And it may just be possible, with all due respect, that this is what you are now.
I, too, was ignorant of my glorious heritage. The heritage that Western society, with its concepts of freedom and justice, is built upon. Christianity is a daughter religion of Judaism. It is based upon Jewish values.
And every single nation on earth that is free, democratic, capitalistic is based upon Judeo-Christian values. No other religion can claim this. Shinto Japan, Hindu India are only democratic because they were conquered by Judeo-Christian nations and had this imposed on them. The very concept of justice and individual worth is Jewish!
I have heard western, democratic nations described as "cut flowers". The foundation of the values that raised them to the heights they occupy is in their traditions. And these traditions, whether we atheists like it or not, are embedded in the religion. That’s where they come from. We can argue whether they come for G-d, or as I believe – they represent a distillation of human experience collected by the sages, by the wisest people of the culture.
Either way, a nation that abandons the source of its values, abandons the source of its strength, and like flowers cut off from their roots, that nation will die. Is it not obvious that the Western nations are dying. Just look around you.
If you don’t care about the survival of your people, if you want to drop the ball after 3800 years, then what can I possibly tell you?
Tell it to those who died in all the pogroms down the centuries; tell those who died in the holocaust that the survival of the Jewish people as an entity is nonsense to you. Tell it to your grandparents.
So take it for whatever it’s worth to you.
To me, my Jewishness is the deepest, most meaningful part of my being.
All the best, MicroBalRog,
I'm done with this thread.
Matis
