mvm@whuxk.UUCP (MASON) (05/31/84)
FROM: Ken Wolman, BellCore, Morristown Senders of "flames" (that is the proper term, isn't it?) sometimes can get burned. I received one mail comment this morning based on yesterday's diatribe, and feel I owe my readers on the net some sort of clarification. Not an apology, mind you; simply a clarification and explanation of my thinking and why I am so angry. In reconsidering what I put into the net yesterday, I believe I was--and am--talking about religious extremism, whether Jewish or gentile. Goyishe extremism frightens me for reasons that are a part of all our bloodstreams (Jung probably had a point about the collective unconscious). Falwell and Robertson frighten me because Chmielniczki frightened my Polish-Jewish ancestors, and because beneath their mouthings about the importance of the return of the Jews to Israel, they are Amalek, given half the chance. But Jewish extremism makes me crazy. A Rabbi Kahane, Yehuda Schwartz or Menachem Porush exemplify divisiveness. They scare me more than Falwell because their targets are not simply "Palestinians" but, I fear, Jews who don't measure up to their interpretation of Torah or mitzvah observance. I am sorry, but when someone invades a Jewish-owned restaurant on Shabbos and begins firing at other Jews--shomer Shabbos or not-- that person is Amalek, and his smicha could have come from Moshe himself. God forgive my racism, but I EXPECT that kind of behemmische behavior from Palestinians, not from people of my faith who are supposed to be models for my own developing observance. Thus, when people on the net turn around and proclaim Orthodoxy as the ONLY form of Judaism, and declare me a Jew practicing a different faith, I find it difficult to control my temper. WHICH Orthodoxy? The faith of a Schneerson, a Soloveitchik, a Berkovits, which enobles and has inspired me to overturn 40 years of secularism? Or the faith of a Meir Kahane, preaching Ahavat Yisrael while dispensing Lashon Hara at anyone--Jew or Goy--who has the temerity to disagree with him? I would dearly love to back down and apologize for what I wrote yesterday; I am naturally timid and dislike controversy and what I expect will be a series of attacks. In fact, when I logged on this morning, read one very sympathetic and helpful correction, and got into the editor, I intended to back down and apologize. But I can't do it. I would love to exchange ideas and learn from observant Jews on this network, but I am wary of being flogged with the rod of Musar. My purpose in following-up today is to clarify my point of view; and I think (or fear) I've done precisely that.