Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.5 12/10/84; site csd2.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!csd2!klahr From: klahr@csd2.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Beacon from a lost sheep from 11 lightyears away. Message-ID: <3780101@csd2.UUCP> Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 00:11:00 EDT Article-I.D.: csd2.3780101 Posted: Fri Oct 11 00:11:00 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 03:34:34 EDT References: <808@nmtvax.UUCP> Organization: New York University Lines: 104 Dear Andrew Jonathan Fine... I was innocently minding my own business, taking my daily stroll by the sea- shore, when the tides brought me a dark and musty bottle with your message enscribed within it. With trembling fingers, I swiftly broke the seal of the bottle, and pulled out the yellowed and crumbling missive. My heart was pounding as I held up the letter to the fading light of the rapidly departing sunset. My throat had become dry, a sweat had broken forth across my brow. I was paralyzed by hope, mentally gyrating in expectation, wordlessly mouthing what I had not dared myself even think these past twenty years: Are the Ten Tribes truly still alive? Is it possible that they are coming back? Sorry for going off the deep end, but your posting, so Kafka-esque in both substance and style (it especially brought "The Metamorphosis" to mind), somehow brought out the melodramatic in me. By your own description, you certainly have gone through many emotionally and intellectually battering situations and experiences. An unhappy home, suffering in the world, an authoritarian and rigid religious education mainly consisting of do's and don'ts, all seem to have helped drive you into the spaceship that you are now gradually getting out of. You wonder whether you should re-establish contact with the Judaism you abandoned. Is it worth giving up any of the tolerance and egalitarianism that are now your ideals? Perhaps I am stating the obvious, or just bouncing back some of what you might have had in mind when composing your essay, but here goes: 1. Your decision to abandon ship, or take off, while understandable emotionally, does not necessarily make any sense from a rational point of view. Judaism, as the belief and life system par excellance (it is more than a "religion", a catechism, an emotional high or meditative calm, it is a society, a peoplehood, and an entire way of life), neither promises nor guarantees any quick fixes. There are many philosophers to discuss the causes, nature, and reasons for suffering, but on a very simple level, Judaism tells how to cope with the life you enter, and maximize its meaningfullness. People can rise above the problems they are burdened with, and be the richer for the experience. I know that sounds trite, but it doesn't make it less true. Which leads me to... 2. You metaphorically say that you realize that Judaism is part of your fabric, a "family heirloom" you are considering retrieving from the scrap heap. Don't you think you should have the heirloom fully appraised, not just cursorily evaluated, before trying to decide whether to accept or reject it? If Judaism is a system that has literally held millenia of your ancestors the world over through pogroms, autos de fe', and gas chambers, isn't it worth figuring out for what they chose to "fight, rather than switch", as the old Tareyton cigarette commercials said? If you were the victim of a shoddy Jewish education, you owe it to yourself to improve upon it. Explore, ask questions, seek explanations from different sources, and try to see what sounds legitimate and what makes sense. Above all, because Judaism is not just an intellectual abstraction, try to learn about Judaism experientially! I have no idea where you are located in good old USA, but you can certainly look for, and if you ask you'll get recommendations for, a variety of books, schools, synagogues, and organizations to increase your J.I.Q. (Jewish Intelligence Quotient). But all those alone will lack the vitality of spending time with people who believe in living Jewishly, whatever that means, and seeing what it's like. 3. You say you don't want to give up your sushi, pork, variety of races, creeds, and colors, etc. Well, taking last things first, no level of involvement with Judaism I know of mandates your strict isolation from "all those heathen out there." You don't have to abandon any respect, friendship, and admiration for all that is good and worthwhile "out there." That sounds like a cop-out to me. Is it possible that your priorities and values may change? That's another question entirely (or as a teacher of mine once said, "that's a horse from another garage"). Back to your pork and sushi: If all Judaism amounted to was a pork-and-sushi boycott, I'd understand your objection. But what are you saying? That you don't want to find out any more about Judaism because there are parts of it you couldn't hack? This too sounds cop-out-ish. "None is better than some" never made much sense to me. Or do you mean that you're afraid of finding out more about Judaism because it will impose some discipline on me, and even if there is sense to the discipline, I don't want it? That doesn't strike me as a very reasonable argument, either. As that famous non-Jew Socrates once said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." No, that caricature of Judaism you presented as not allowing you to think for yourself and be nothing but a robot does not exist, but if the discipline makes sense to you, why recoil at the thought of it? Do you recoil at the discipline imposed on highway drivers not to drive in opposing direct- ions in the same lane? I read your message as announcing ET's return home. If my secret decoder has not led me askew, welcome back. Browse as you please, take your time, and if you've got specific questions, would appreciate specific suggestions or trees to bark up, or even if you'd like to know where we've stored those old toys you played with as a kid, just give a yell. Sincerely...Pinchus Klahr {allegra, ihnp4} cmcl2!csd2!klahr P.S. A man stayed in his house as a flood engulfed his town. Two men in a rowboat came to his house and offered to take him to safety. "No thank you", the man said, "G-d will help me". As the waters rose, the man retreated to the second story of his house. Now, two men in a motorboat came by and offered to rescue him. Again, the man declined, saying, "No thank you, G-d will help me." As the waters rose still higher, the man retreated again to the rooftop of his house. A helicopter came by, and someone inside it threw down a rope, urging the man to grab it and be pulled up into the helicopter. Once more, the man declined and said, "No thank you, G-d will help me." Whereupon a mighty voice called out to the man, "You idiot! This is G-d speaking. I sent you a rowboat, a motorboat, and now a helicopter. What more do you want me to do?".