i watched part of the ou's tisha b'av production at one of the local brooklyn shuls. as usual the topic of sinas chinam surfaced. but of course. it is tisha b'av.
sinas chinam - hatred for no reason or baseless hatred.. well i guess this explains alot. the charedim in israel throw stones at the chilonim on shabbos for a reason (or so they say) so that folly isnt considered sinas chinam in their eyes.
when someone doesnt act respectfully toward someone less frum or more frum this isnt sinas china because they've got a reason for their dislike.
the goyim hate us because we have (anything that they dont) so i guess this isnt baseless either.
perhaps the reason the bais hamikdash was destroyed was due to sinas chinam, but it will only be rebuilt through the mitzvah of v'ahavta l'rayecha camocha. - through loving your neighbor as one loves themselves. the geulah will come through having respect for others humanity even though they may not be our spiritual clones.
all varieties of jews, reform , orthodox, conservative, conservadox, chassidish, charedi, reconstructionist , modern orthodox, carlebachian, yeshivish, yeshivish modern , need to respect the others level of judaism. by doing this it doesnt mean you are invalidating what you believe in, it just means live and let live. the rest of the world doesnt differentiate. to them we are one big group of jew. to them the syrian jews of last weeks notoriety and madoff are one and the same- jewish with a capital J. unfortunately we jews havent all figured that one out yet.
to me this is the only way to be mekarev any one into frumkeit. be nice to them. dont denigrate their beliefs even if its not as frum as yours. this does not dilute what you believe in.
if someone is downright disrespectful this is a different story. im speaking of people who just have a pareve opinion of frumkeit.
its tisha b'av (still) let's try to end the madness already!
18 comments:
First, letting you know that I tagged you Here.
"...need to respect the others level of judaism. by doing this it doesnt mean you are invalidating what you believe in, it just means live and let live."
very true, great point!
Unfortunately, never gonna happen. The only times there was love among Jews was during the various pogroms. When anti-semites showed Jews that they're all one nation, then they were one nation.
"im speaking of people who just have a pareve opinion of frumkeit."
This leaves me wondering if my opinion would qualify as pareve, milchig, fleishig, or just downright treif.
moshe-
unfortunately the reality probably is what you are saying, unfortunately i hope there is a chance things could change for the better.
yeshivish athiest-
judging from your screen name your view of yidishkeit most definitly is not pareve. though i have read some of your blog posts, i havent read enough to form a strong enough opinion either way. from what i have read i dont think that your opinion of judaism is trief, just effected by stupid shtick and insincertiy among religious people. thus the name yeshivish atheist.
Haha. So it's not pareve or treif. I guess we'lljust call it fleishig?
yeshivish athiest-
yes, fleishig sounds about right. milchig is not nuanced enough to define your perspective.
Yeshivish Aithiest: Fleishig is the best, so if it's imbetween parave and treif then maybe it's "OUD"?
Except fleishigs can't be OUD
I meant it's the best, so your blog can't be fleishigs, so it has to be dairy - OUD
It can if it's a cheeseburger. ;-)
"It can if it's a cheeseburger."
I knew someone would say that.
But no, cheeseburgers can't be OUD by definition, since it's not even kosher. It may have the fleishig part and the D part, but not the OU part.
Babysitter, cholev stam sounds alright. I'm a vegetarian anyway, so I'll take it over fleishigs.
yeshiish athiest- you're a vegitarian? this changes everything. are you a vegetarian for health reasons or ethical reasons?
Of course it can be OUD. If you use OUD cheese, it'll be OUD.
Well it would be quite inconsistent of me to be a vegetarian for ethical reasons, as I am an ethical nihilist. That is, I do not believe in Objective Morality.
On the other hand, I do act according to my meaningless subjective sense of morality; I do not kill, steal..etc. So I guess part of my reason for being a vegetarian is semi-ethical.
I do subjectively value the life of a human over the life of an animal. However, this does not mean that I have no value for animals at all, and thus, I would not kill nor would I support the killing of animals for trivial reasons (IE: Stimulating ones taste buds). The slaughter of any sentient life requires a solid justification.
On the other hand, some do have solid justifications and concerns, this is where the ethical issue can get convoluted with the health issue.
A common misconception about vegetarians is that we get protein deficiency. This is not the case, and in reality there are many sources of protein from non meat sources. The issue is B12 and Iron. Humans need vitamin B12 and Iron, and vitamin B12 really is only found in animal products. Iron can be found in some vegetables, but it is not absorbed as well as the iron from animal products.
My answer to these concerns is what my diet is today: Ovo-Lacto Vegetarianism. We drink milk and eat eggs, so we are getting our B12 and Iron, and we don't kill animals to do it. (although the methods of extracting eggs/milk from the animals is not something I would eagerly jump to support, I would prefer it to becoming vitamin B12 or Iron deficient.)
Besides that little hickup which can be gotten around by eating eggs and drinking milk, I find my diet to be healthier than my previous carnivorous preferences. I dropped about 25 pounds in about a month and a half, I find that I have much more stamina, energy, and happiness.
Moshe,
Semantics.
It depends on how you look at it. Does something need to be kosher in order to be OU-anything?
yeshivish atheist-
im glad that you value human life over animal life as im not so sure that many of the vegetarian persuasion would agree with you.i have found that many vegetarians dont like people very much, but are very benevolent to animals.
i agree that since you are not vegan you are recieving enough of vitamin b-12.
Vegetarianism =/= PETAism
I do not associate myself with PETA, as they are an intellectually dishonest organization which does not even share both my philosophical viewpoint on this issue, as well as many other vegetarian's philosophical viewpoints.
All PETA folk are vegetarians, but not all vegetarians are PETA folk.
The convolution of the two only results in an unnecessary, ill deserved, negative reputation for vegetarians.
yeshivish athiest
cool . this is why i asked, did not assume. my sister is a crazy peta person, yet i years ago i had a boyfriend who was vegetarian more in the way that you describe. im just always curious what angle people are coming from.
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