myunive@nsc.UUCP (Jay Zelitzky) (10/22/84)
What does it mean to be a Jew? I believe there is more to being Jewish in the world today than believing in God, keeping kosher, or living in Israel. For me being Jewish means caring about the poor and the underpriveleged in this world and doing something to help them. It means associating with Jews in helping to make this a better world. It means supporting education for everyone and giving our children a better world than the world we have. It means working to bring peace for this world and ending this insane arms race. What does being Jewish mean to other people here? There must be something more to it than making sure you don't turn on the lights on Shabbat. Jay Zelitzky nsc!myunive -And they shall beat their swords into plowshares. -And their spears into pruning hooks. -And nation shall not lift up sword against nation. -And neither shall they learn war anymore. -From Isaiah and also engraved on the entrance to the -United Nations.
martillo@mit-athena.ARPA (Joaquim Martillo) (10/31/84)
>What does it mean to be a Jew? > I believe there is more to being Jewish in the world today >than believing in God, keeping kosher, or living in Israel. I doubt that the grandchildren of a Jew or Jewess who does not do at least one of the above will be Jewish. > For me being Jewish means caring about the poor and the >underpriveleged in this world and doing something to help them. These duties are part of being a decent human being. They are incumbent on Jews because Jews like all people are required by God to be decent human beings. > It >means associating with Jews in helping to make this a better world. For this reason limudei torah (study of the torah) is a communal obligation and not an act of piety. Typically gemarah (discussion of the oral law) study begins with contracts because tiqun `olam (social reform) begins with the interaction and obligations of interation of human being to human being. The proper way to behave with a fellow is learned in this gemarah. >It means supporting education for everyone and giving our children >a better world than the world we have. It means working to bring >peace for this world and ending this insane arms race. Again these are obligations incumbent upon all human beings. Claiming behaving thus is particularly Jewish is somewhat insulting to non-Jews. > What does being Jewish mean to other people here? There must >be something more to it than making sure you don't turn on the lights >on Shabbat. Obeying such commandments (like avoid beniyah -- building [an electric circuit]) reinforce Jews in being decent human beings. The 'ahavat hashem (devotion to God) is obvious in the performance but also if Zeltitsky understood the symbolism he would not be so quick to denigrate. We light candles just before Shabbat comes in because flame is symbolic of intellect and spirit and man's higher soul (intellect and spirituality) entered just before the beginning of Shabbat at the end of the sixth day just before the beginning of the seventh day. On the seventh day spiritual development and consequently tiqum `olam commenced. We reaffirm our commitment to tiqun `olam and spiritual development by avoiding gashmiut (the material) in terms of physical labor. The point of emphasis is so important that that we must draw a line somewhere and decide absolutely what we mean by labor. Where we actually draw the line may seem like hair-splitting at the end but tiqun `olam is not served by intellectual fuzziness. Therefore a decision must be made in the case of electricity and by deciding such "trivial" cases, we gain the framework to deal with the issues Zelitsky considers so important that we must ignore our tradition. Without framework, attempts at tiqun `olam would probably only lead to greater disorganization.