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From: samet@sfmag.UUCP (A.I.Samet)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Interpreting Antisemitism
Message-ID: <567@sfmag.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-May-85 14:29:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: sfmag.567
Posted: Wed May 15 14:29:45 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 16-May-85 08:16:28 EDT
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> Yitzchok Samet writes:
> > The argument that Jewish tragedies "prove" that our  religion  is
> > wrong  is  a  familiar Christain theme. Christianity considers it
> > valid to "prove" or "disprove" the basic  validity of a  religion
> > from history. We don't. The validity of our tradition is based on
> > logic (this is a broad issue which has to be treated  separately)
> > rather than interpretation of prophecies miracles, and historical
> > events.
> 
> But weren't you doing exactly this (i.e. trying to show that history
> agrees with the predictions of the Jewish religion, which certainly
> can be interpreted as trying to "prove" the Jewish religion from
> history) when earlier you wrote:
> 
> > This major theme, that our security is tied to our allegiance  to
> > the  Torah, is reiterated in the prophets and the sages. However,
> > one may have to be a prophet, or a great sage, to relate specific
> > Divine retributions to specific sins. However, this does not stop
> > us from recognizing,  in  general,  that  Divine  retribution  or
> > chastisement is behind major catastrophes. Also, some Rabbis feel
> > that they can extract general object lessons from something  like
> > the  holocaust.
> 
> Isaac Dimitrovsky

The topic being debated was how to view what happens. Frank Silbermann suggested
that the tragedies of our history point to an error in our fundamental
beliefs. I answered that our fundamental beliefs are based on more solid
ground than historical interpretation. This does not preclude us from
attempting to understand history however. Once we establish the fundamentals,
we  can use them to guide our understanding of the world. Still, we cannot
be sure that any Divine act was for a specific reason. (That would require
a prophet.) We can only attempt to draw general conclusions which conform
to the overall Torah outlook, and to react to tragedies by searching our
ways and trying to correct errors that we discover in ourselves (individually
and collectively).

					Yitzchok Samet