From: david@bourbon.ee.tulane.edu (David Kaufmann)
Subject: Diatribes and Follies
Organization: E.E. Dept., Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 21:27:05 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host-[nntpd-11089]: bourbon


For your amusement,
A random sampling of diatribes and follies from scj during Chanukah
(indented, unquoted lines are my reactions; all sarcasm intentional):

"AJCongress has a very consistent and very complete separationist
policy.
They feel that if Jews are going to oppose crosses and creches on
public
policy, then they have to oppose Jewish religious symbols as well.
                                                                 
I realize that this may not sit well with some SCJ readers who seem to
believe
that US laws shouldn't apply to Jews."

         Is the US Government Hellenizing? 
         Which Jews get to be the Maccabbees?
   Or is this just the international Jewish conspiracy at work?

"Maybe Hasidim are pleased that their perversion of the relation  
between Kahal and Rav has spread, but should the rest of us be?"

        This person obviously wants a dictionary, a child's
   introduction
         to Talmud and Hooked on Phonics for Christmas. (No Jew could be
      so filled with causeless hatred, for one thing.)
 
"In fairness to the misnagdim, however, they cannot be accused of
peddling the heretical idea of a Rebbe who         
stands between man and God. Hasidim have that field to themselves."

        You mean to say Moses - Moshe _Rabbeinu_ was a heretic _and_ a
    Chasid?
         Wow! What a perversion!

"Lighting a menorah for the celebration of Chanukkah has meaning when
done as a Jewish religious ceremony.  I too object to it being done
as a ceremony participated in by members of the government acting as 
such, even (or maybe especially) if they are Jewish."

 	     You mean all those ecumenical things don't have meaning?
		You mean Jewish religious ceremonies have meaning?
      How does one perform a Jewish religious ceremony without
p      erforming a Jewish religious ceremony?
        Let's see, we can have interfaith seders and Christian-Jewish
        dialogue and invite non-Jews into the synagogue and for Bar
        Mitzvahs, but the one holiday where itUs a mitzvah to be
pirsumei
        ha-neis - to publicize the miracle - that we should hide in
the closet?
       
"If the state, acting as such, can participate in public Jewish
ceremonies, they can have state-sponsored Christian, Muslim, Hindu, 
Baha'i, Parsi, etc. ceremonies, and in fact will be asked to."
                                   
         A good thing they haven't started lighting a national
Christmas 
          tree or had a White House Easter egg hunt. 

         Maybe this poster also needs a dictionary: since when does
         participation equal sponsorship?

"I was at a shul elsewhere this past Shabbat.  The rav, during his
drasha     
(sermon?), complained that Lubavitch had argued--successfully--before
the Supreme Court that the menorah was a secular, not religious,
symbol,       
and could therefore be displayed in public as could a tree (as opposed
to a creche)."

          In other words, Judaism and its "symbols" can't have a
universal
           significance or meaning.

"I had in mind not the menorah (though the two I've seen are
exceedingly
 ugly) but the brouhaha surrounding their lighting, the cars racing
around  
blasting (poorly reproduced) "Hanuka" music, the totally phony attempt
at creating a "joyous" atmosphere."

           Since people singing, dancing and openly feeling proud to
be Jewish
            is phony, I guess we'll never know real joy.

       
"Vulgar is a tricky concept and I've been trying to figure it out for
myself.  One surprising conclusion so far is that O is practically
free of it, except as noted above.  I think that this is so because
O is most true to itself, because it thoroughly understands the
meanings of its symbols and gestures and admits none that it doesn't
understand.  Not so, alas, C."

            The Orthodox aren't vulgar because everything they
             understand everything they do. The Conservative are vulgar because
they
            don't. Faith is vulgar, the Orthodox don't have any, and
the
            Conservative do. (This is called a non-sequitur.)

"Anyway, and I emphasize that this is how I see it today, I suspect
that Habad's vulgarity stems precisely from its attempt at acting
in a world that it doesn't even begin to understand, so that many
of its gestures and symbols fail of their intentions."
 
            Chabad is vulgar because it doesn't understand what it
does.
            The Conservative is vulgar because it doesn't understand.
             Does this mean Chabad is Conservative, or Conservative is
Chabad?
            (This is also a non-sequitur.)

"In 1931 and 1932, as the battle over Germany became acute, I
recall that the communists were surprisingly unconcerned
about the prospects of a Hitler victory.  "Let them come",
they said "then the working class will unite and drive them
out".  After them, us.
 
"Now Habadniks are not communists, but their logic regarding
Jewish-Gentile relations is the same."  

And:
"One sure winner in such a scenario would of course be
Habad since it has already acquired considerable experience
in handling new arrivals (the fact that I admire and respect
this aspect of Habad's work is irrelevant)."

           Some blessings are curses, some curses, blessings.
            Some logic is only a non-sequitur in disguise.

"Let the nation's governors indeed declare that this is a Christian
nation,
let the public schools once again require that Jewish
children participate in Christmas and Easter celebrations,
let the Pat Robertsons and Pat Buchanans (and their friends
on the Supreme Court) beat back whatever gains have been
made over the years toward separation of church and state;
then America's Jews will realize that their well-being
consists in withdrawing from the general society into..a
European-style ghetto with its own schools, etc.  Intermar-
riage would vanish and most Jews would become baalei teshu-
va."                                   

               Ah, the international Jewish conspiracy at work again,
               this time manipulating our enemies against us! How
clever
               of Chabad and its co-conspirators!

"That, as I see it, is the logic behind the whole thing.  I
know that many Lubavitchers _appear_ to be uncouth loutish
stumble-bums who just can't help getting us all into a mess
from their ill-advised antics.  Not so: there are some very
cool heads among them and they know what they're about." 

           Some blessings are curses, some curses, blessings.
            Some logic is only a non-sequitur in disguise.
               Ah, the international Jewish conspiracy at work again,
               this time manipulating our enemies against us! How
clever
               of Chabad and its co-conspirators!

"There's a lot to be said for Habad's position--as there is
for O in general.  I have never believed that a secular
Jewish culture (chutz la'aretz) has any chance of surviving
and I agree with those who think that our future in this
country is bleak."

               With arguments like this, it's a wonder anyone makes
aliyah.
                We can only guess why it's author hasn't.

"That's the first objection.  My second is simply this:
-I refuse to have my future determined for me by an elite
activist group that claims to know what's best for me and
doesn't even pretend to ask for my consent."
      
               Unless, of course, the elite activist group is the
author, in
               which case he knows whatUs best for everyone without
their
               consent.

               A couple of lines from Shakespeare and Pope (Alexander,
that is)
               come readily to mind.
David Kaufmann
INTERNET:	david@bourbon.ee.tulane.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish