I believe in the ten commandments; the first one, “I am The Lord, Your God,” is a great commandment if it’s not said by the wrong people.
“
| — | Bob Dylan |
נעשה ונשמה
“
| — |
“We will do, and we will listen.” This is a hugely important phrase in orthodox judaism. It was (allegedly) recited by the jews at Mt. Sinai as god offered them the commandments. And the lesson it teaches, acc to ortho-judaism, is to follow first and ask questions later. Honestly, I couldn’t disagree more. I mean, it’s one thing if you’re told to treat your friends nicely, but somewhere between circumcision and genocide it makes a lot of sense to start asking first before doing. (via jewishatheist) |
today in hebrew class, we were asked to draw what we thought was the relation between man and god.
I really wanted to just turn in a blank paper.
And I even joked to the teacher about it, “If I were an atheist, I could just hand in a blank paper, right?”
‘If.’
Instead I drew a picture of a bunch of galaxies, and at the edge of one of the milky way’s arms, I put a little dot, and wrote “את\ה כאן” — “You [masculine or feminine] are here.”
When asked where god was, I said, “He’s emergent through the universe,” or some thing to that effect.
Which is, like, a semi-heretical statement, but no one gave me shit about it.
Because most of them knew that I could have just as easily handed in that blank paper.
“Leader Of Anti-Semitic Party In Hungary Discovers He’s Jewish”
How’s that hate thing working out for you?
No matter where.
I’ve been in that situation so fucking many times. Hopefully, no more though. {Man, how embarrassing! It was even a bit embarrassing then, when I did believe, so you can only imagine how embarrassing it is now that I don’t!}
Btw, I know a lot of orthodox people think, “yes. I’m setting a good example. A sign of the piety of hashem’s servants, and that we should serve him and be upright people, blah blah”. Reality check: The vast majority of people think we’re insane. Especially in situations like being in a crowded airplane.
Just a thought on religion
The form of one of the Hebrew words in the Bible that is often translated into “the Lord,” actually is in a possessive form, i.e. it actually translates to “my lord.”* Could religious people take this to mean that it’s “their lord,” but not necessarily that they need to proselytize, or assume that everyone else shares their beliefs?
It would certainly be nice.
[this is not, in any way, to call out religious people as a whole — just some specific people]
*Actually, it translates to “my lords,” since it’s also usually in a plural form, but it is never translated or understood as such, and that’s beside the point.
