The (Un)Official Junk Drawer Of Aro The Jew

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Ark. Written by Ehud Lavski. Art by Yael Nathan. If you like it, please share.

“Looking up, he (Abraham) saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground” (Gn. 18:2)

[Representative Steve King] assumes the “America we need to strive for” is one where God and the folks who pray to Him aren’t around. This is a bizarre claim, since America’s founding ideals essentially came from the Bible, and while not all founders were Christians — and they did not create a theocracy — yes, prayers are actually quite embedded in the American ideal. In fact, the Continental Congress specifically set aside days for prayer and fasting. Obviously, they felt it quite important and necessary to help them ‘get things done.’

This complaint is opening the door for even stranger complaints. This one comes from a rabbi, no less:

Actually, the rabbi could not be more wrong. God absolutely wants us to pray. How do we know? Because He commands us to:

Matthew 5:44 tells us to pray for those who persecute us. Matthew 6:5 says “when” you pray, not if. In Romans 12:12 we’re again commanded to be “faithful in prayer” while Ephesians 6:18 says we should pray “on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we’re instructed to “pray continually” and 1 Timothy 2:1 says that “requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone” while Colossians 4:2 says to “devote yourselves to prayer.”

Seems quite obvious that God wants us to pray and pray often. All the time, in fact. We are simply being obedient when we pray for others. To not pray for someone in the wake of a tragedy would actually be an incredible insult. How much would we have to despise someone to drop everything we believe about prayer and it’s part in bringing healing, redemption, peace, endurance, joy, etc – just because some people on Twitter are tired of hearing about it?

All throughout the Bible in almost every situation, people appeal to God for protection, empowerment, healing, for greater faith, for strength, endurance, hope, discernment, unity, help, wisdom, help, miracles, for God’s name to be exalted – and much more. God commands us to do it, and in some cases, God changes people’s will in answer to prayer.

Day 1 of Navi class (Naviim is the book of prophets, we called the class Navi)

Rabbi: *walks in*

Class: *sits there, expecting to be instructed to open up our copies of Naviim*

Rabbi: so you know how people don’t know if Elvis is really dead? How they can’t prove he is or isn’t? That’s how I view G-D’s existence.

it’s not monday, so I’ll be less inflammatory now, but there is a definite chabad contingent who believe the rebbe is still alive - because he is the moshiach - and troublingly, there are those that think he is G-d (although, a different form.) 

like, I guess because I live in the bit of North London that has a lot of people who have left chabad & chassidus to join my community because of the alienation from this held belief & thus they join us to get away from it, that I see it so clearly as an alive and well type of thinking.

now to be clear, I’m very-very aware that this is a minority thinking & is shocking to many people even in chabad, but it exists & manifests in some of the rebbe devotion across chabad, that makes a litvishe Jew like me quite uncomfortable & unsure. especially because chabad is so kiruv focused, it’s fine that people hold by things for themselves, but they are often at the forefront of representing orthodox judaism, and bringing in new people with no previous insight into frumkeit. 

I’d much rather let people wear swatikas in public while not doing anything violent than push them into hiding where they become a secret organization that actually does work to bring about their ideals.

They actually do work to bring about their ideals. They rally. They recruit. They run record labels. They use the internet to radicalize people. They have people working as police (confirmed by the FBI, with three high-profile cases of cops getting publicly caught this month alone, without even touching the people who were caught posting things that make it obvious they sympathize with their Nazi coworkers). And it works. There have been dozens killed in white supremacist terrorist attacks in the last two years alone, and we’re still sitting here talking about whether or not it’s okay to let them openly recruit.

We saw where that went last time. They are literally making concerted efforts to bring about the extermination of people like me. They’re doing so in secret as they have been, but because of people like you, they now feel comfortable being open. And you’ll jerk yourself off about how brave it is for you, presumably someone who is not on one of the top few rungs on the “people they’re trying to kill” ladder, to defend their rights to build their movement until they’re putting a bullet between your eyes or those of someone you love.

1) Christians

2) Antisemitic

3) Appropriating Judaism

Messianic Jews are not 

I think I see where you’re coming from, that messianics want to eradicate actual Judaism as a religion. The question is though, how closely is Judaism the religion related to Judaism the culture? Athiest Jews are not a threat to Jewish culture. Are Christian Jews?

It absolutely is a perversion and heresy and NOT Judaism. But does that rise to saying genocide? 

The question is though, how closely is Judaism the religion related to Judaism the culture? Athiest Jews are not a threat to Jewish culture. Are Christian Jews? I juts question whether it’s an act of genocide or not to attack the religion of an ethno-religious people.

They particularly prey on Jews who grew up without a strong connection to Judaism (such as many Soviet Jews who grew up under state enforced bans on Jewish practice) who are looking for a way to reconnect.

A Jewish person who believes in Jesus (stop with the “Yeshua” BS, he hasn’t been called that in English ever until very recently) is a Christian with Jewish ethnicity or Jewish ancestry.  They are not a messianic Jew.  There is no such thing, as you cannot believe that the messiah has arrived and be Jewish.  If nothing else, Jesus failed to satisfy pretty much ANY of the requirements of being the messiah.

As for why everyone is offended, it’s because these movements, which you seem to be a member of, specifically target vulnerable Jewish populations in order to destroy the Jewishness of them and give license to Christians to appropriate sacred things within Judaism.

Let’s start simply: the moshiach will restore the Temple.  The Temple existed in Jesus’s time (he did some stuff there with moneychangers that was a real dick move) and it wasn’t destroyed until after he died.  ERGO, he couldn’t have restored it.

He would herald an age of peace.  *looks around* Nope, we’ve still got war.  And have continually for the last few thousand years.

The entire world would recognize Judaism as the true religion.  This absolutely hasn’t happened.  Notably, you disagree with this statement.  But in more general terms, no religion is universally acknowledged.

More details at the link.

it’s not a “second” coming if you’re jewish you don’t believe the messiah has come yet

Okay, so:

1. comparing atheist/agnostic Jews (a category under which both @vermiciousyid and I fall under) to messianics is a total false equivalency that needs to die in a fire. 

2. Yes, messianics (who also need to die in a fire) are attempting to commit cultural genocide (WTF is a Christian Jew? Do we mean people who are ethnically Jewish who convert to Christianity? Those are non-Jews of Jewish ancestry who are vulnerable to racial anti-Semitism. Not Jews. They don’t get to call themselves Jews anymore. There’s no such thing as a Christian Jew. Thanks for playing).

Okay so:

Struggling with and confronting G-d is one of the central pillars of Judaism. Unlike Christians, Jews are not expected to simply “have faith,” or to blindly accept the teachings of the Torah. On the contrary, Jews are actively encouraged to question G-d on both an intellectual and spiritual level. Challenging G-d through critical thought is actually an innately Jewish act.

Moreover, Judaism as a religion values actions much more than faith. Rabbi Andrea Berlin once said “As Jews, we are commanded not to believe, but to do. While most religions also command [people] to action, to response, to feeling and hearing, and then helping, [Jews] are commanded with no expectation of belief….One doesn’t really need G-d in order to live a Jewish life. To live a Jewish life, one need only follow mitzvot; doing so with a little compassion is even better.”

In short, not believing in a supernatural deity is not really antithetical to Jewish living or to Judaism.

Believing in Jesus as the Messiah, however, absolutely does negate the tenets of Judaism in a variety of ways (arrival of Moshiach, the trinity, etc). There is no valid version of Judaism that can be practiced while holding this belief, and trying to do so warps everything Judaism stands for in offensive, inappropriate ways. Attempting to take holidays like Rosh Hashanah or Purim and making them into observances underlied by belief in JC is like trying to write a paper arguing that Pride and Prejudice is a metaphor for the Reagan Administration. The connection isn’t there because it was never meant to be, and saying otherwise is bullshit. The only way to practice a religion while believing in Jesus as the Messiah is to practice Christianity, and if one is practicing Christianity then they are not practicing Judaism. It’s that simple.

Lastly, Messianic Judaism was formed by missionaries as a way to get Jews to abandon Judaism and become Christians. It is effectively a movement appropriates Judaism in order to weaponize it against the Jewish people as a tool for cultural genocide.

Everybody please fucking stop comparing atheist/agnostic Jews (many of whom like myself are actively practicing within various movements of Judaism that were actually set up by, you know, JEWISH PEOPLE) to Christian cosplayers trying to destroy our people. Just DON’T DO IT. 

כבש - lamb כבש - ramp כבש - soak כבש - squeeze כבש - capture/conquer

I’m “racist” with my chocolate choices though. I like white chocolate much better. :-P

Someone asked me (in person) what I think was the worst injustice in the movie “the Prince of Egypt”, and my answer is going to sound weird at first, but once you hear the explanation, maybe it will make more sense.

My answer is, they robbed the leader of the jewish people of his jewish education and Pharaoh’s daughter of her jewish identity.

Moses (Moshe in hebrew) did not grow up thinking he was an Egyptian. Not remotely. When Yocheved (his mother) put him in the basket on the river, Miriam followed the basket, until it reached Pharaoh’s daughter, whose name was Batya. Now, Pharaoh’s daughter wasn’t just coming down to the river to bathe herself. It’s explained specifically in Tractate Sotah (in the talmud) that she came to ritually immerse herself in order to convert to Judaism. I’ll say it again, Pharaoh’s daughter was converting to Judaism when she found Moshe. Miriam knew this, and went up to Batya and asked her if she needed a jewish caretaker to help her raise the baby and give him a jewish education. After Batya agreed, Miriam brought Yocheved, Moshe’s own mother, to raise her own son in her own jewish household (until about age 5-6 when he went to go stay by Batya in the house of Pharaoh). Moshe always knew he was jewish! His mother was jewish, his foster mother (Batya) was also jewish. He always knew his sister Miriam, and his brother Aharon.

Someone asked me (in person) what I think was the worst injustice in the movie “the Prince of Egypt”, and my answer is going to sound weird at first, but once you hear the explanation, maybe it will make more sense.

My answer is, they robbed the leader of the jewish people of his jewish education and Pharaoh’s daughter of her jewish identity.

Moses (Moshe in hebrew) did not grow up thinking he was an Egyptian. Not remotely. When Yocheved (his mother) put him in the basket on the river, Miriam followed the basket, until it reached Pharaoh’s daughter, whose name was Batya. Now, Pharaoh’s daughter wasn’t just coming down to the river to bathe herself. It’s explained specifically in Tractate Sotah (in the talmud) that she came to ritually immerse herself in order to convert to Judaism. I’ll say it again, Pharaoh’s daughter was converting to Judaism when she found Moshe. Miriam knew this, and went up to Batya and asked her if she needed a jewish caretaker to help her raise the baby and give him a jewish education. After Batya agreed, Miriam brought Yocheved, Moshe’s own mother, to raise her own son in her own jewish household (until about age 5-6 when he went to go stay by Batya in the house of Pharaoh). Moshe always knew he was jewish! His mother was jewish, his foster mother (Batya) was also jewish. He always knew his sister Miriam, and his brother Aharon.