RE: Re, Cantors...

[Marvin3809 <Marvin3809...>]

A reading of Jewish history, or a visit to a good Jewish museum like the one
in New York or the new Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, shows the many  ways
that Jews have adapted their religion to changing circumstances over time and
geography, while firmly keeping their basic tenets.  An important historic
example is the period around the itme of the destruction of the 2nd temple,
when rabbinic Judaism practiced in Synagogues (A Greek-derived word) kept
Judaism alive.

We are now a diversepeople, as we have been in the past.  Orthodox Judaism is
not a unified group.  There are TWO Chief Rabbis in Israel, andthere are
numerous Hassidic groups thateach  follow their own rabbi.  These groups do
not alsways get along with each other; there are even occasional stret brawls
between them.

Perhaps it is this adaptability, while preserving the basic beliefs, that has
kept Judaism alive far longer than any other religion.

> From: HST2nd (at) AOL(dot)com (HST2nd)
> Sender:       owner-jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> Reply-to:     jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
> To:   jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org (World music from a Jewish slant.)
> What folly to stick my goy nose between these two rollers!  And yet I will.
> 
> Pondering (from outside) the rising contention between pietistic Judaism of
> all stripes and secular Judaism, I can't help feeling that world culture and
> humanity are stakeholders in the issue.  As a history buff and sometime
> practicing futurist, I can image one possible outcome of this debate
> accomplishing what all the Eichmans could not:  if secular Judaism
eventually
> supplanted observance, what a wealth of not only music [Ari] but literature,
> reverence for scholarship, and diversity in its noblest form would be put at
> risk for all of us.  A world with Judaism as only a nostalgic ethnic residue
> would be much impoverished.
> 
> I may never get hear a Cantor (though I plan to).  But I take some quiet
> comfort in knowing they are still there. 
> 
> Stan
> 
> 
> 
>