I can find very little in Judaism that has not been adopted and in most cases (but not all, re-incarnation seems unchanged, for example) has been " Jewed" up, so to speak. as a polemic against what we shouldn't be.
The non-physical God, without geographical borders is a huge exception. I think Spinoza didn't comprehend the import of that.
One Sukkot Shabbat afternoon I gave a talk about the pagan roots of ushpizin. They wanted to assassinate me!
I blame the gemorra! It sharpened our minds and narrowed our perspective. So concerned with establishing rabbinic hegemony in a world of competing sectarian ideologies, and formulating rules to keep Jewish culture alive, the rabbis of the Talmud and their successors focused almost exclusively on the particular and lost sight of the universal. The great ethical ideas of v'nivrechu v'cha and ner l'goyim, were almost forgotten. Yet those ideas demand an engagement with the outside world, drawing from it and giving to it.
I was once talking to a kid of about 13 or 14 who was telling me excitedly that he was learning the halochot of an ox. I said "what's an ox?" He barely knew!
I can find very little in Judaism that has not been adopted and in most cases (but not all, re-incarnation seems unchanged, for example) has been " Jewed" up, so to speak. as a polemic against what we shouldn't be.
The non-physical God, without geographical borders is a huge exception. I think Spinoza didn't comprehend the import of that.
One Sukkot Shabbat afternoon I gave a talk about the pagan roots of ushpizin. They wanted to assassinate me!
Shabbat Shalom
mb
I blame the gemorra! It sharpened our minds and narrowed our perspective. So concerned with establishing rabbinic hegemony in a world of competing sectarian ideologies, and formulating rules to keep Jewish culture alive, the rabbis of the Talmud and their successors focused almost exclusively on the particular and lost sight of the universal. The great ethical ideas of v'nivrechu v'cha and ner l'goyim, were almost forgotten. Yet those ideas demand an engagement with the outside world, drawing from it and giving to it.
I was once talking to a kid of about 13 or 14 who was telling me excitedly that he was learning the halochot of an ox. I said "what's an ox?" He barely knew!
Gut voch, tsom kal.