JewStuff for the Real World
I've sat out the last few weeks because I've been so wrapped up in the (secular) political scene that I thought I would probably just explode if I tried to write anything down.
Let's see how I do.
I've spent the last few weeks generally appalled at my government--a government that refuses to limit gun ownership but will outlaw medical procedures--as well as many of my fellow citizens, including those who were rooting for National Prayer Day. And then when you read that the Prime Minister of Israel has a 3% approval rating because he mangled a military situation and greatly magnified the body count and political damage and you think, why the hell is everyone so down on Israel for lack of political loyalty? I think the lowest recorded approval rating for a sitting American president has been in the low 20s. The low 20s, folks. Please don't hang up the next time John Zogby comes a-ringing, okay?
As happens, I'm now just waiting for the pendulum to swing the other way--the inevitable period of time when the mere sight of the NYTimes will make me queasy. In the interim, that strange middle state where I'm desperate for insight but simply cannot look at DailyKos again, I've taken my usual route, and have been searching out JewStuff that helps me think. JewStuff for the Real World, we might call it.
Thinking about abortion has been weirdly eased by the rereading of two articles--Kathleen Peratis' brilliant piece in the Forward, and a rather old piece in The American Prospect by Sarah Blustain. (I have a curious relationship to her work, as I currently fill a position she once held--and although our interests and stills are very obviously divergent, everything she does has a tinge of what-might-yet-be for me.) I am so impressed with the ability of these women to wrestle honestly with these questions that the abortion issue presents--something that Caitlin Flannagan aims for, and sort of gets, in this month's Atlantic. I think a willingness to grapple with the messy parts of a problem is a really Jewish thing to bring to the table--not in an essentialist way, but simply because the force of history helps it along. All of those rabbis and scholars dissecting point after point of Talmud, following arguments through because to argue is to accrue knowledge and engage in an admirable exercise. It's an argument I've made before, and one I plan to make many times again.
Plus, today's discovery of a very interesting post on Jewcy by David Klinghoffer, whose work I don't really know, provided what I've been looking for for weeks: a Jewish justification for gun-control laws. You should read the post, but the basic concept is that the injunction not to "put a stumbling block before the blind" is essentially a condemnation of providing people with that for which they have a weakness. And he inspired me to make the connections between Jewish law and democratic law that I've been groping for.
I don't believe religious law should have any teeth in civil government--if you haven't caught on that far, you haven't been paying attention. I am an absolutist regarding the separation of Church and State, and I believe that the democracy embodied in the Constitution is a result of the Enlightenment, not religious establishments. That said, I obviously find a lot of beautiful things about Judaism, and I'm most impressed by its ability to train into us the same basic impulses towards good that secualr government at its best seeks to enstatue. Leave grain at the corner of your fields for the poor to collect? It's not an injunction towards charity--it's the recognition that there needs to be a dignified safety net for people. Even kashrut, as I learned at BJ's recently, is much more (in my opinion) about metaphor. It's a way of dealing with the omnivore's dilemma--aka free will. We need to train ourselves not to do hurtful things. And in these pre-Messianic, post-Sanhedrin days, we need a civil government that's going to kick the shit out of us when we screw other people over. (Although the current system--wherein the Rockerfeller Laws trump Enron, doesn't quite fit the ideal.)
I don't know--it's all still a mess in my mind. But I do take a lot of comfort in the fact that my Jewish Judaism helps keep my internal compass on the right path.
Kol tov.
Let's see how I do.
I've spent the last few weeks generally appalled at my government--a government that refuses to limit gun ownership but will outlaw medical procedures--as well as many of my fellow citizens, including those who were rooting for National Prayer Day. And then when you read that the Prime Minister of Israel has a 3% approval rating because he mangled a military situation and greatly magnified the body count and political damage and you think, why the hell is everyone so down on Israel for lack of political loyalty? I think the lowest recorded approval rating for a sitting American president has been in the low 20s. The low 20s, folks. Please don't hang up the next time John Zogby comes a-ringing, okay?
As happens, I'm now just waiting for the pendulum to swing the other way--the inevitable period of time when the mere sight of the NYTimes will make me queasy. In the interim, that strange middle state where I'm desperate for insight but simply cannot look at DailyKos again, I've taken my usual route, and have been searching out JewStuff that helps me think. JewStuff for the Real World, we might call it.
Thinking about abortion has been weirdly eased by the rereading of two articles--Kathleen Peratis' brilliant piece in the Forward, and a rather old piece in The American Prospect by Sarah Blustain. (I have a curious relationship to her work, as I currently fill a position she once held--and although our interests and stills are very obviously divergent, everything she does has a tinge of what-might-yet-be for me.) I am so impressed with the ability of these women to wrestle honestly with these questions that the abortion issue presents--something that Caitlin Flannagan aims for, and sort of gets, in this month's Atlantic. I think a willingness to grapple with the messy parts of a problem is a really Jewish thing to bring to the table--not in an essentialist way, but simply because the force of history helps it along. All of those rabbis and scholars dissecting point after point of Talmud, following arguments through because to argue is to accrue knowledge and engage in an admirable exercise. It's an argument I've made before, and one I plan to make many times again.
Plus, today's discovery of a very interesting post on Jewcy by David Klinghoffer, whose work I don't really know, provided what I've been looking for for weeks: a Jewish justification for gun-control laws. You should read the post, but the basic concept is that the injunction not to "put a stumbling block before the blind" is essentially a condemnation of providing people with that for which they have a weakness. And he inspired me to make the connections between Jewish law and democratic law that I've been groping for.
I don't believe religious law should have any teeth in civil government--if you haven't caught on that far, you haven't been paying attention. I am an absolutist regarding the separation of Church and State, and I believe that the democracy embodied in the Constitution is a result of the Enlightenment, not religious establishments. That said, I obviously find a lot of beautiful things about Judaism, and I'm most impressed by its ability to train into us the same basic impulses towards good that secualr government at its best seeks to enstatue. Leave grain at the corner of your fields for the poor to collect? It's not an injunction towards charity--it's the recognition that there needs to be a dignified safety net for people. Even kashrut, as I learned at BJ's recently, is much more (in my opinion) about metaphor. It's a way of dealing with the omnivore's dilemma--aka free will. We need to train ourselves not to do hurtful things. And in these pre-Messianic, post-Sanhedrin days, we need a civil government that's going to kick the shit out of us when we screw other people over. (Although the current system--wherein the Rockerfeller Laws trump Enron, doesn't quite fit the ideal.)
I don't know--it's all still a mess in my mind. But I do take a lot of comfort in the fact that my Jewish Judaism helps keep my internal compass on the right path.
Kol tov.
posted by Di Freye Froy at 10:24 AM
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