Re: (OT?)"G*d does not discriminate"? (Was: KI)

[Sylvia Schildt <creativa...>]

Gotenyu !

If  I weren't already so exhausted by the KI debate, I could pen a volume of
counter-argument to friend Robert Cohen's arrogant, frummer-than-Thou end of
shabes diatribe.

But I also know better now that those who follow this line of thinking will
think it sage and reasonable, while the rest of us, a little humbler in our
belief that we have the inside track to ultimate truth, will heartily
disagree. And never the twain shall meet.

He will never realize the huge gulf in meaning between "discrminate", as
used in this discussion and the broader "make a distinction." He will never
realize how painful and insulting it is to be "discriminated against." He
will never realize that this may not be what God had in Mind.

And re: the special existence of Jewish music, and derivatively, the list,
there is another way to look at it -- a broader world view.  Since your God
and mine, Reb Robert, created all the peoples, not just us Jews, not just
males, but women as well, he gave us all different songs to sing, different
notes and rhythms in the larger symphony of humanity. It is for us to
discover and refine these distinctions and present the beauty of our
contribution to the world at large.

A gut vokh,


Sylvia Schildt
Baltimore, Maryland

 on 3/8/03 8:53 PM, music (at) sterlingmp(dot)org at music (at) 
sterlingmp(dot)org wrote:
>> Truly,  G-d does not discriminate!
> 
> I don't know how Trudi knows this, or what Jewish texts and traditions
> support it; but as I'm writing on Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night), it seems
> appropriate--if, no doubt, not worthy of extensive discussion here--to note
> that G*d--at least, the G*d of the Torah and Jewish tradition--does indeed
> make distinctions, which is presumably embedded in the notion
> of "discriminating."
> 
> "Havdalah"--the traditional ceremony ending Shabbat and differentiating it
> (see above, re:  distinctions) from the rest of the week,
> mean "separaztion."  In the core and concluding blessing of Havdalah, we
> acknowledge that G*d distinguishes (and, indeed, praise G*d for
> distinguishing), among other categories, between Jews and non-Jews.
> 
> Without such a distinction--or "discrimination"?--there would be no Jews,
> no Jewish people, no Jewish music, and, hence, no list.
> 
> In any case, the deeper point is, I think, that G*d, the Creator
> and "Supreme Being," can, by definition, create whatever universe, with
> whatever distinctions or "discrimination," G*d wishes.  Otherwise we have,
> not a Supreme and ultimately unknowable Being, whose ways are by definition
> not fully understandable or knowable, but (as per Marx, I suppose), a G*d
> created, or conceived, of in our--or Trudi's--liberal image.  That is, by
> definition, not G*d.
> 
> Shavua tov to all,
> 
> Robert Cohen
> 
> 
> 
> 

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