[net.religion.jewish] Attitudes to Ourselves, Politics, Stories, Etc.

meth@csd2.UUCP (01/29/86)

Barry Buchbinder writes :
> Many people today, and indeed the ancient Hellenistic society, believe
> that circumcision is wrong "in the eyes of our maker"; similarly, many
> feel kosher slaughtering of animals is cruel.   ....  Barry Buchbinder

If you recall, the whole story of Chanukah was the struggle of those who held
strong to the faith against the Hellenists. The Hellenists wanted to show the
Romans that they were just as good as them. They diluted, rejected, & changed
their practices, just to be like the Romans, to allow them to more easily
assimilate into Roman society. In fact, they un-circumcized themselves !!

>If we are not to be bound by scientific
>evidence, let us be reluctant to cite it as justification.

One of the dangers of citing scientific evidence to justify our religious
practices is that science is an ever-changing discipline. That which is
accepted by the scientific community as the state-of-the-art may be "here
today, gone tomorrow". Thus, we do not base our beliefs and justify our
religious practices on current scientific knowledge. We base them in our belief
that this is what G-d has taught us, through the teachings passed on to us by
the great rabbis; teachings based on the Written & Oral Law, given to Moshe at
Sinai.

>> (Sam Saal :) I don't want
>> to get into a big discussion about hunting, but compare trying to
>> shoot a deer from 100 feet with a high powered rifle and not
>> doing the job completely on the first shot.

> (Barry) If I recall correctly, the Torah permits hunting.  The animal's
>neck is to be cut as soon as possible to drain as much blood as
>possible, and the drained blood must be covered with dust.  Did the
>Talmud or Rabbis later either de facto or expressly prohibit hunting?

I don't recall it. Perhaps you would like to quote a source. What you recall
may be the following. 

The Torah records that there were a few hunters - (1) Lemech (the father of 
Tuval Kayin; according to RaSHI, Lemech killed his great-...-grandfather Kayin,
son of Adam); (2) Nimrod (the king of Bavel; he tried to kill Avraham in the 
furnace in Ur Kasdim); (3) Eisav (Esau, son of Yitzchak).

Instead of "hunting", you are alluding to another law. All permitted animals &
birds must be ritually slaughtered before becoming permitted to be eaten. The
classifications called "chaya" (of which there are 7 - ayal, tzvi, yachmoor,
ako, dishon, se-o, zemer) and "oaf" (bird - only the permitted ones, of
course), require "kisuy hadam" - covering of the blood, after slaughtering.

Hunting is *not* permitted, as it does not slaughter the animal in the
prescribed manner. There is a law concerning shechita (slaughtering) that if
the knife (or other permitted utensil) was thrown, the killing may still be
considered a shechita.

The laws of Shechita can be found in the Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De-ah, sections
1-28. Starting with section 29 there are sections dealing with other problems
that may make even a slaughtered animal unfit/not permitted for consumption.
This is called Tereifos.

>That we Jews have been so peaceful is likely a result of
>our lack of power.  (E.g. lots of Jews were killed by Jews after the
>Romans were thrown out of Jerusalem, during the seige!  The last few
>chapters of the Book of Judges isn't about a Shabbat walk!  Etc., etc.)
>G.. has not established an unbreakable law saying that Jews, even
>observant Jews, can do no evil.  I think that certainty of one's own
>rightiousness can be a first step towards sin because all actions are
>unquestioned and become justified in one's mind.  In the present time Jews
>are not as powerless as we've usually been in the past two millenia.  I
>worry that, if we're not careful, we could ruin our good record.

Please read the chapters in Joshua, Judges, & Samuel that describe battle and
preparations for battle. Note the differences in the ways the the Jews approach
battle & victory vs. the approach of the others. The Cannanite kings stored the
heads of their vanquished kings under the royal table; Jewsih kings (who
followed in the ways of the Torah) did not.

Also, power is not measured by numbers & throw-weight, especially when talking
about Jewish power. Our greatest source of power is following in the ways of
the Torah, as G-d has commanded us. Then, we have G-d on our side, and the
outcome is certain to be in our favor. Note the last 9 verses in last week's
portion, Beshallach, describing how Amalek (may his name & rememberance be
erased) attacked the Jews after they left Egypt. Shemos/Exodus 17:11 relates
that when Moshe lifted his hands the tide of battle flowed for the Jews, and 
when he lowered his hands, Amalek held the battle. The obvious question that the
Talmud asks is - Were Moshe's hands waging the war ? The answer given is that 
Moshe's hands were symbolic of the mood of the Jewish people. When they looked 
to G-d for their salvation and realized that they were His servants, they were
victorious; if they did not, then Amalek had the physical power to overrun the
weak, downtroddenn nation that had just left its bonds of slavery. All the
power in the world, (physical, too) comes from G-d. He can give power to the
weak underdog to enable him to overcome the obvious physical power of his
enemy.

Asher Meth ....... meth@nyu-csd2.arpa ....... allegra!cmcl2!csd2!meth