tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post6491368662315475274..comments2023-10-26T06:29:39.824-07:00Comments on The Magnes Zionist: Selling Purim to Progressives AgainJerry Haberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15173892714754718716noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-23584586688121083842012-03-16T02:39:52.888-07:002012-03-16T02:39:52.888-07:00Dear D. C.
I wrote"
" it's the Han...Dear D. C.<br /><br />I wrote"<br /><br />" it's the Hanan Porat "Purim Sameah" ("Happy Purim") thing (That's what the Gush Emunim leader allegedly said when he heard about the Goldstein massacre, though he claims that he was not celebrating Goldstein, but urging people to continue with the holiday, despite the horrible thing that had happened.)"<br /><br />Should I remove the comma between <br />"holiday" and "despite"? Because I represented precisely his explanation.<br /><br />By the way, it is his explanation that is outrageous. Did he or did he not say, "Purim Sameah" after he heard of the massacre? Would he have said it had he heard that 80 yeshiva students were murdered? Answer me that.<br /><br />I hope his sleepless nights were over the theft and misery that his entire settlement project brought to innocent Palestinians. And I pray daily that the retribution that Hashem yisborah is liable to take against the Jews for their gezel and hamas -- on both sides of the green line will be lefi midas harahamim and not lefi midas hadin -- that Hanan Porat will be judged leniently because he was a tinok she-nishbah of an idolatrous ideology.Jerry Haberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15173892714754718716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-54351249516129568912012-03-14T02:17:26.708-07:002012-03-14T02:17:26.708-07:00This is a tangential point, but please remove the ...This is a tangential point, but please remove the libel against Hanan Porat z"l. He had many sleepless nights over the media's use of that unfortunate sound bite to imply that he was happy about the massacre in Hebron, and it's time to let that rest.<br /><br />Personally, I identify with the Right (albeit not to the extent of Hanan Porat), but I think that both the Right and the Left have "good guys" (and gals), who are genuinely motivated by a moral code and the desire to do the right thing, and "bad guys" who are motivated by personal gain or by hatred of "the other."<br /><br />You can agree or disagree with him, but Hanan Porat was one of the good guys. I have no problem with debating his legacy on all the issues, but please don't use a statement taken out of context to imply that his basic moral compass was totally out of tune and lump him in the same group with Baruch Goldstein.D.C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00444398343324530769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-28999899308546779352012-03-10T21:17:10.888-08:002012-03-10T21:17:10.888-08:00Professor, you already have editors — We, the read...Professor, you already have editors — We, the readers:) No worries. All is well.Tamar Orvellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14549414768121825308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-71833836212811443172012-03-10T17:11:33.462-08:002012-03-10T17:11:33.462-08:00Tamar and Michael,
You know, I think I just had a...Tamar and Michael,<br /><br />You know, I think I just had a mental lapse. I meant Protestant Christianity. I wish I had an editor.<br /><br />I have changed this. Please take points off for careless editing.<br /><br />In the meantime, I will doublecheck to make sure that this is not a phrase that Kugel uses it, but I doubt it.Jerry Haberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15173892714754718716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-13960939418332787692012-03-09T10:03:19.992-08:002012-03-09T10:03:19.992-08:00Tamar -
That one is new for me too. I think Prof...Tamar - <br />That one is new for me too. I think Prof. Haber is referring to movements such as Reform Judaism. Jewish Orthodoxy instinctively denigrates Reform as being a Christianized Judaism, therefore lacking in Jewish integrity. Orthodoxy was born in rebellion against the assmilationist drift of mainstream Judaism.<br />The influence of Protestant Bible studies on early Reform is clear but far from obvious today.<br />I do think that "Protestant Judaism" needs explaining, and comes across as offensive.Michael Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04594224614632993083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-79159378386846177172012-03-08T10:56:51.753-08:002012-03-08T10:56:51.753-08:00Protestant Judaism. What is this?Protestant Judaism. What is this?Tamar Orvellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14549414768121825308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-79176655993655320852012-03-08T09:35:23.797-08:002012-03-08T09:35:23.797-08:00Good point, pabelmont, if I get you right: the mor...Good point, pabelmont, if I get you right: the morality of your actions depends less on the predicament others have put you in than on the nature of those actions themselves.<br />It can't be said often enough that "good" and "evil" are not two camps into which people fall, or invariant properties of individuals like eye colour, nor do people (much less collectives) become "good" simply by having suffered injustice.<br /><br />I'm reminded of Wolf Biermann's meditation on a drawing by H.R. Penck:<br />http://www.thefiddler.de/tmp/penck.jpg<br />(in German, sorry if you can't read that. It hinges on the double meaning of "böse" - both "evil" and "angry": by calling the Evil One "evil" the Good One makes him angry - you see, the Good One is actually evil.)fiddler0https://www.blogger.com/profile/02209161426624203995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-78840417757701259042012-03-08T05:56:00.023-08:002012-03-08T05:56:00.023-08:00I read somewhere about Marduk and Ishtar as relate...I read somewhere about Marduk and Ishtar as related to Mordechai and Esther. Maybe?<br /><br />Another thought: big difference between those who may absrtractly (or abstractedly) wish to kill you (or your people) and those with the power and viciousness to do it. Barukh Goldstein had an actual gun and lots of viciousness, so 29 Palestinians at prayer (who had no king to protect them) perished and another 125 were wounded.<br /><br />The Iranians have not the means to damage or destroy Israel and (considering the USA's presence as Israel's protector) have not the inclination to actually attack Israel. They are simply not a danger to Israel.<br /><br />Perhaps Esther and her father were wrong to regard the people they later massacred as "enemies"; perhaps they were more properly "victims" (after all: they died). Or to put it differently, perhaps the people the Jews killed were, indeed, enemies -- but were so because they knew of the implacable hatred of the Jews -- hatred which ultimately expressed itself as massacre.<br /><br />Even if the story I just told is not accurately "Biblical", it sure fits the Israeli (some, with at least some reason, say Jewish) treatment of Palestinians, and proposed treatment of Iranians.pabelmonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02455552052993621134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7675600882597316438.post-90052311133842983882012-03-08T05:19:08.500-08:002012-03-08T05:19:08.500-08:00president obama should have anticipated this and g...president obama should have anticipated this and given netanyahu a megillat eicha (book of lamentations) in return.Utopian Yurihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00793188513692796773noreply@blogger.com