My musings, reflections on life here in Shiloh, Israel. Original, personal, spiritual and political. Peace, security and Israeli sovereignty. While not a "group blog," Shiloh Musings includes the voices of other Jews in The Land of Israel.
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I see too many confusing rhetoric and statements coming from the American Right, davka rather similar to the anti-Israel Antisemitic ideology of the international Left. Then I thought a bit more about it when listening to the JNS interview with Natan Sharansky.
Socialism/communism began well over a hundred years ago, and they did something extremely clever. They embedded themselves in universities large and small all over the world, and the fruits of this invasion have been very successful for them and dangerous as we're seeing. I don't know if there's a country that doesn't have socialist/communist/progressive Left on their faculty plus their books in their libraries and on their "required reading" lists, from elementary schools to the most elite universities. And even worse, there's no label identifying their ideology, because their ideas have become mainstream.
People who don't agree aren't accepted, aren't promoted. They just don't fit in. As I've been saying for years, Liberals aren't liberal. I guess the source of that reality for me was when I was a high school student in Great Neck, New York. This was in the mid '60s when being Left and Liberal was the thing for the academics, especially the upwardly mobile Jews, like my peers. One day I overheard some fellow students talking. One said to the others:
To me that made no sense. As I understood the word "nonconformist," it meant an individualist, unlike others, who thought for themselves and didn't wear a uniform of any sort.
To be honest, I was one of the few actual nonconformists, having chosen paths different from others. And even among those who chose similar paths to my new one, Torah True Judaism and Zionism, we found different ways to do it and even dress.
Now just to throw out a few ideas on why both Right and Left are embracing antisemitic and anti-Israel policies... The extreme on both sides demand an unthinking loyalty from their followers. They feel threatened by anyone who thinks for themselves, like a 1960's "nonconformist" who carries books in a briefcase or backpack instead of the uniform green bookbag.
Jewish survival over the millennium is a "dangerous" slap in the face to classical Christianity, which markets itself as the "new testament," newly revised religion by their version of the Jewish god. The indisputable fact that Judaism has survived over two thousand years after the invention of Christianity goes against the very basic principle of Christianity. There may be just a few million of us Jews, but that makes Christian theologians terrified. Our survival and the rebirth of the Jewish State poke dangerous holes in their legitimacy.
Some Christians, instead of attacking Judaism for this. have admitted the false premise of their original religion and either become Noahides or even convert to Torah Judaism.
Back to my original question, there are two dangerous groups in the American Right. One is those educated by "undercover" socialist/communists, who may not even admit to that label. To them, the principles are proper and common sense. Think of who is making up the curriculum and writing the text books. Two are the Christian theologians and leaders, no matter, which type of Christianity, who consider the survival of Judaism a threat to their own theological legitimacy.
You may not have heard these reasons before... that wouldn't surprise me. What do you think?
There are some interesting things said by Natan Sharansky in this JNS video
In the past half a century quite a number of Christians have begun to doubt their own theology. Careful reading of the Jewish Bible make it clear that their religion goes against basic principles, Saturday Sabbath and more. Even more confusing for them is the survival, growth and military victories of the State of Israel and the fact that the Jewish People have somehow gotten stronger after the Holocaust. Christian doctrine makes it clear that the Jewish People would cease to exist. But we haven't cooperated. Thank Gd we're thriving instead.
How are Jews supposed to react to Christians who want to ask us questions? The tradition response was that it's forbidden to enter such dialogues with Christians because they must certainly have an ulterior motive to convert us, Gd forbid. But now things are changing. There are rabbis and knowledgeable Jews willing to dialogue and even teach Noahide Laws and Jewish Thought to searching/curious Christians. This sometimes even results in Christians converting to Judaism.
As a forty year resident of Biblical Shiloh, I'd find it ironic that davka church groups from all over the world were enthusiastically flocking to Tel Shiloh, the site of the Biblical Tabernacle, when Jews were ignoring it. We used to host groups in our home and led them on tours of the ancient site. Every time I go for a swim in nearby Ariel I'm reminded of them, because the swimming pool I go to in Ariel was funded by Christians in honor of Billye Brim, who had been a frequent guest of ours.
The essays in Adler's Lighting Up The Nations were written by a number of people, not just Adler. I'm not listing my "favorites," because I highly recommend that one real all the chapters. Granted this isn't light reading, but each chapter contributes something important. Read at your own pace.
Some chapters deal with Noahides, converts, Torah learning with Christians, and others correct the bad translations that Christians follow to reinforce their theology. Of course we shouldn't forget that quite a few Christians end up converting to Judaism as a result of their serious Bible studies.
I hope you get much out of Lighting Up The Nations, as I have.
