mmc@gummo.UUCP (02/24/84)
#R:pegasus:-98100:gummo:67600001:000:1091
gummo!mmc Feb 24 10:55:00 1984
I was told (no authority cited, so this constitutes semi-informed
hearsay) that the prohibition on eating fish with meat is a Rabbinical
ordinance, based on a contemporary belief that the combination was
unhealthful.
Speaking from a somewhat traditional though non-Orthodox position, and
given that (1) my recollection is accurate and (2) that the basis of
the prohibition of eating fish with meat is as it was described to me,
I do not see a basis for this regulation today other than the argument
that our observance must follow the pattern set by our ancestors.
It might be interesting for our group to discuss the following general
question in the philosophy oh Halachah (Jewish religious law):
Given a Rabbinical ordinance explicitly based on information
available when that ordinance was promulgated, and given
information available to us now which significantly alters our
understanding of the basis of the ordinance, what should our
attitude as Jews be toward the original ordinance?
I address this question to all interested parties.
Mark Chodrow {zeppo,harpo,gummo}!mmcburton@fortune.UUCP (02/27/84)
#R:ihuxq:-70800:fortune:39800001:000:2646
fortune!burton Feb 27 10:18:00 1984
With regard to discussing the Holocaust with your children:
That has got to be one of the toughest questions ...
My children are 4 1/2 and one, and the older, a girl, is doing the
typical "I'm afraid to die" that all children her age experience. To
add the Holocaust experience, even second=hand, is a crusher.
I should add that my parents are both Holocause survivors. [No, I don't
want a subgroup for this, although these experiences could take many pages.]
I grew up fearful and dispite my efforts, I occasionally have this fear that
most other people don't have (except other Jews, including my wife) that if
I'm comfortable today, "they" will come tomorrow and take it all away. Actually
not a bad view for someone in the small computer business.
I can't blame my parents for any of this. They had to survive, and the
few pictures that survived (in the US, sent before the war) tell a terrible
story by the absence of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc. Of
my parents' extended families, no one except them, on either side, survived
throughout the entire war in Europe.
That's an incredible legacy, and today, I find it showing in some odd ways.
For example, and I don't want to discuss the issue per se, I'm not very
military, but if the Iranians and the Iraqis exterminated each other, or
the Phalange shoots up refugee camps, I'm glad, because those people are
myy people's enemies. Another reaction. Touring Europe in 1966, when I
was 19, I visited Berlin, the home of two great-uncles who left in 1933.
When I saw some old people on the subway wearing medals, I reasoned that
they weren't in Korea, and they weren't old enough for WW I, at which
point I started shoving these old people on the subway in my best
New York-subway style.
Obviously, this is for me a very emotional topic, and I can't examine myy
own feelings with detachment, and affects my feelings and identity as a
Jew.
The Holocaust was such a singular event for Jews that if a converted
Jew wants to discuss it with his/her children, it is probably necessary
to examine your own feelings about conversion.
One final thing. My father, who is a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto, has
told me that the only revenge on Hitler is to have children and teach them
what happened, so that six million didn't die unremembered.
Sorry to take up so much of the reader's time, but this is probably as
important as some of the finer nuances of kashrut.
Philip Burton 101 Twin Dolphin Drive
Fortune Systems Redwood City, CA 94065 (415) 595-8444 x 526
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{allegra decvax!decwrl!amd70 cbosgd harpo hpda ihnp4 sri-unix}!fortune!burton