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Amud (Pillar)
| Joined: | 30 Aug 2005 | | Posts: | 2579 |
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 Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:41 pm |
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Thanks Kira.
Of course, I believe that the best people on earth are the Jewish people, nobody is close enough to come in 'second'.
Proof: Traditional Jews surpass all neighbors in values which are shared by any surrounding non-Jewish community.
Compare rates for alcoholism, violent crime, literacy, charity, etc etc etc.
Above, by 'best' I mean morally, closer to G-d, both in belief and actions.
By 'people' I mean that which the Jewish rabbis define to be important to the definition of who the people are, namely, the Tradition, which is to say, the Torah / Law as defined by the legitimate authorities, the rabbis.
Above I am making an assertion that genetics, something not valued by the rabbis, is over-emphasized very slightly. The rabbis don't make this mistake, rather, in a very very few people in a very very rare case a subtle suggestion of genetics comes up, but even then it is only meant to compliment the person.
I'm only suggesting that there is a very subtle problem with any emphasis in biological value vis a vis merit.
Of course, even in those extremely rare cases, the suggestion that a convert may have a Jewish ancestor is probably meant to argue a connection for someone who may be feeling as an outsider.
My argument is merely to distinguish between the Torah value of merit and the secular value of biological descent (as some non-religious people think they are 'better'because they are 'of better breeding', 'the upper crust'. Also compare the idiocy of thinking one is better because one is 'rich'.
We had the choice to send our children to a number of 'rich' schools.
Some non-Jewish children who are 'rich', for some ridiculous reason, think they - the children - are somehow better because they are rich. They form exclusive groups and act as if they're better because their parents have money to buy them a different outfit for every day of the month.
Of course, the opposite is true, anyone who is poor and keeping the same grades as a rich kid is far superior, given their lack of tutors, advantages such as supplies, supportive parents, etc.
I don't confer any credit to a 'rich kid' due to something that they got due to their parents' efforts.
Which kid would you rather have as an influence, the kid who washes his own dishes, or the kid who leaves plates all over the house because they have maids?
The former has character, the latter would be an irritating person to live with.
Having said that, I don't completely exclude rich people, they should be given an opportunity to prove they can work just as hard in social settings.
In my community, they do very well and I'm proud of them for over-coming their extreme character handicap of being rich.
I credit that to the rabbis who taught them proper Torah values.
Iubelo, I did not mean to imply the converse, not at all.
Suggesting that a non-Jewish mixture might have advantages does not mean that a purely Jewish descent does not have those same advantages.
Rather, think of it this way:
A way to make up my deficit in failing to have a biological connection to Jews can be 'made up' by the fact that, instead of having superior people blessed by G-d, instead, my ancestors failure to figure out how to live in nature meant that the riff raff died off, coincidentally leaving a 'survival of the fittest', to help make up for my ancestors marrying their close releatives. (To be fair, it was a long way to the next grass hut.)
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