tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post4586416975551493814..comments2024-01-30T12:26:03.019-05:00Comments on The Blog of Garnel Ironheart: Optional ObligationsMighty Garnel Ironhearthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09571194550300367249noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-23723314812342241152012-05-17T05:28:47.633-04:002012-05-17T05:28:47.633-04:00from what i can tell not all conservative rabbis a...from what i can tell not all conservative rabbis are idiots. recently there was one that lives in Israel in some debate and he did have a different point of view. And i think that in general it is hard to see the extent of the love of killing Jews that Arab have in America it is easier to understand this when you are yourself being shot at. It brings it more to home that the Arabs really don't like us. Americans simply don't have the mental vessels that are capable of perceiving infinite hate.Avraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-3794669479983485922012-05-16T23:16:45.337-04:002012-05-16T23:16:45.337-04:00Conservative rabbis are idiots these days and they...Conservative rabbis are idiots these days and they don't believe that Arabs see Israel/Palestine as a zero sum game.SJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10704885840004960450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-28799249695185765102012-05-16T05:36:16.559-04:002012-05-16T05:36:16.559-04:00i mean the the words "overriding values"...i mean the the words "overriding values" as in values that are in fact overriding. Not values that are given lip service. This is where I think that the conservative and Litvak world are close to basic Torah values. [Torah values I would define as things that you could find in things like the Ten Commandments or as being a major theme of Torah --ie things like the coming of the Jewish people to Israel would be considered a Torah value. the reason is that even if it is not one of the 613(not in the minyan hamitzvot of the rambam) it still is the major theme of the entire tenach. This makes it a central Torah values.]<br />Of course the Conservative inability to see thought the haze of liberal ideology bothers me.Avraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1097749014220347853.post-62817314786244374692012-05-15T05:53:01.463-04:002012-05-15T05:53:01.463-04:00"authentic" Judaism,that would be Talmud..."authentic" Judaism,that would be Talmud and the writings of the rambam. this stacks the deck for the litvak world. the overriding values of the chasidim are in areas that have nothing to do with these two sets of writings. The overriding absolute values of chasidim are black clothing, to speak Yiddish, to accept the particular rebbi of the chasidic cult as being with spiritual powers like a demigod.<br />So if i would be looking for authenticity i would in fact have no choice but to accept the litvak approach. The problem is that there are other criteria of obtaining evidence besides authenticity. For example reason. Reason is a faculty that can perceive and evaluate evidence and it can come to the conclusion that some fact is valid even if it is not authentic Judaism. Another things that can perceive evidence is the senses like sight. or touch. Like for example digging up a fossil and then measuring it s age by radioactive decay. In this the senses and reason work together to come to a conclusion that has nothing to do with the issue is the fossil in accord with authentic Judaism.<br />This leads to the Rambam revolutionary approach of faith and reason as valid criteria to determine truth. and in general i think that these two faculties work in different areas. There might be some areas where they contradict i admit. But i don't think there are. The way i see it the Talmud simply deals with other areas of knowledge that have nothing to do with how old a fossil is. To me the whole idea that the Talmud and science can contradict comes from people that don't know science or Talmud. what is wrong with chasidut is simply that it is not Judaism at all. what is wrong with the charedim is they don't accept other sources of knowledge. what is wrong with Conservative is that they have not developed enough philosophical understanding to know that secular liberalism is a fraud and not based on reason at all but on the state of nature of Russo who was simply factually wrong and on Hegel who denied the law of the excluded middle--so by definition anything he said after that is meaningless. on a personal more mu brother goes to Conservative shul in which they learn Talmud. I think Lieberman goes there also. It sounds to me like a good place.Avraham https://www.blogger.com/profile/07822433921393627746noreply@blogger.com