As the ladies have once said in my presence: “Oh my God! It’s huge!”

From her diary, I was expecting a sweatshop like structure, with 20 ppl crammed into one or two rooms. I get there, and it’s ilke the Biltmore Hotel, with private suites. Sure, they suffered under Nazi rule and cooked until nighttime, but they could still choose to eat among four different dining rooms.

Freedom comes with uncertainty, obedience with false certainty.

I have not been positively impressed by neo-pagans, because it seems to me that they are not intellectually serious–they’re just dressing up and playing roles out of a Renaissance Fair.

Especially what is put out by much of the Kiruv movement, a kind of lite jazz w/ out any soul. It’s like, hang out w. us here not w ‘them’ over there.

In a nutshell, one has to run away from Kavod, that is the foundation of Judaism imo. Everything positive stems from that.

Wishing all my Holy Brothers and Sisters a Shabbat Shalom UmoVorach.

However, the Jewish identity, at least for Jews, is self-created. (Let’s ignore how the goyim define us for a moment.) By deciding on what to emphasize, the organs and institutions of the Jewish community (schools, for example) can actively create the kind of Jew they want. My personal belief is that the unhealthy emphasis on thr Shoah is actively detrimental to the nurtuting of a healthy Jewish identity and that the institutions of the community should, while not ignoring the Shoah, concentrate on other things.

Each individual, of course, will shape their Jewish identity as they see fit. Personally, I prefer blintzes to genocide, but that’s just me.

And learn to spell, would you please? “They’re hear again?” What is that supposed to mean?

Still. I’m taking my toys and — uh on. THEY’RE HEAR AGAIN…SHOOT!

PRAY FOR MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

My remarks may be well, okay, STUPID sometimes, but they are said, generally (UNLESS YOU’RE A HUMORLESS DOLT LIKE YOU AND JOBBER AND THE OTHER GUY, WHAT’S HIS NAME FROM BEFORE????) you know, to lighten things up, amuse the masses and all that

Plus – I don’t comment on every string. And hey, who said it wasn’t a free country (for Canadians out there…FREE SPEECH does NOT have to be PC…duh! – Just in French!

Midboy- Chutzpah can’t keep away anyway…and it was funny! Gosh. So serious. “Youse guys,”

Jobber? Excuse me…ummm, when did Jsirpicco EVER say to take him SERIOUSLY you weirdo.

Well, then, fine. Good-bye.
(You’ll see…you’ll miss me when I’m gone. I may even stay away for AN HOUR OR MORE THIS TIME!!! I don’t need you guys. I don’t need anyone, see! I’m JSIRPICCO! I am a ROCK. I am an Island. You think I don’t have friends? Well, I do! More than you, Jobber. Way more than you, Ephraim fart boy! I’m outta here.

Serious thread….pheh!

(see new post a jsirpicco.blogspot.com )

And that’s spelled “youse”, not “use”. You must have been Hooked on Phonics or something. If you’re gonna fake a Brooklyn accent, get it right.

And I’m supposed to care about what’s interesting to something called “Generation Blue Tooth”? If the subject is boring to you, feel free to go to the local Starbucks and drink a nice hot cup of STFU.

Sometimes you can be amusing. But not every thread is just another venue for your one-note schtick.

Yes, that’s what I was getting at, Muffti. And, yes, what is essential to a Jewish identity is a very good question. Inevitably there will be differences of opinion. The Shoah is, undoubtedly, a very big part of the consioussness of post-Shoah Jews. How could it not be? But I certainly don’t think that one should base one’s identity as a Jew on it, especially when there are so many other positive things from which to choose.

Re: the “being Jewish means being a moral person” approach. Personally, if I were a goy, such an approach would piss me off. It smacks of Jews trying to arrogate morality to themselves and themselves alone. Goyim can’t be moral? I submit they can be and are. Trying to stake out “morality” as special Jewish turf is pretty damned insulting to the rest of the world.

And I suppose that the philosphical corollary to that would be: if being moral makes one Jewsih, then are all moral people Jews? Obviously not. So I don’t see it as a good basis for a specifically Jewish identity at all.

Jus’ askin’.

Cuz you know we don’t want you to have an accident.

On the other hand, we also don’t want nasty gratuitous attacks.

Well, maybe upon Mobius.

But on a serious note, how about not making nasty attacks where they aren’t warranted and that way we can all continue to see our esteemed Chutzpah visit us. Because she’s fun to have around. ‘Kay?