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From: dsg@mhuxi.UUCP (David S. Green)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Halloween and Jews (and Christians)
Message-ID: <227@mhuxi.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Nov-84 13:56:15 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxi.227
Posted: Wed Nov  7 13:56:15 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Nov-84 06:23:27 EST
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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> P.S. the question was posted to net.religion also. All comments - there were
> many - concur that there is nothing anti-semetic in the backround of Haloween.
> Of course, if there was a group "net.jewish" without the religion - I wish there were - I might have posted it there instead.

	A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.   The title of
the newsgroup was discussed over one year ago and it seemed okay.
A few weeks ago, the controversy over " Who is a Jew" formed most
of the traffic in this newsgroup, let's not start that again.  Suffice
it to say that it raises many difficulties to be Jewish without a religious
identity of some sort.

> I'm not very interested in religion per se, but certainly I am Jewish
> and it certainly does have meaning & significance devoid of religion.
> Lucky for us, it is not ancient times when religious fanctics would
> have had the power to stone be to death for mowing my lawn on Saturday.

	I seem to recall reading somewhere that if a Sanhedrin ( the
ancient Jewish court of law ) imposed the death penalty once in
seventy years it was a "bloody" Sanhedrin.   Reading the Torah 
( the old testament ) without commentary can lead you to erroneous
conclusions about Jewish Law.

> How can one pray for the coming of the Mesiah?

	By reciting a prayer called the "Amidah", which most
observant Jews recite daily, is a good place to start.

> Were it to happen, most Jews would face the death penalty.

	No, no, no, no, no!   Observant Jews believe in the
coming of the Messiah and the Messianic age.   I do not want
to go into details because it is an area that I am not really
qualified to speak about but the Messianic age is supposed to
be rather nice ( the world-to-come ).   All of Israel and the
rightous of the world have a share in the world-to-come.

> Here, I am 2 weeks into net.religion and turning ugly - that's all
> any religion accomplishes - it gives people something to fight about.

	Unfortunatly, communicating with "faceless logins" tends
to bring out some of the worst in people.   Many of the arguments
are between people who have been on the net for quite a while, and
some have actually met!   Sometimes heated arguments foster understanding,
sometimes not.   You have to look at the context in which these exchanges
are happening.   Look at it as arguments, differences of opinion, etc.,
not fighting.
 
> So Let me have it!!! You sanctimonious ...

	I've been called many things, "sanctimonious" hasn't
been one of them.   Besides, sanctimonious sounds like an ancient
Roman name ( JULIUS SANCTIMONIOUS )  (-: (-:
Shalom ( Peace ),
David Seth Green   {ihnp4|allegra}!mhuxi!dsg   201-564-4468