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Similarly,
the early secular Muslims were brilliant. They gave us algebra, the
numeral system we use, and the entire foundation of modern astronomy. They
once built magnificent structures, and even though it's hard to imagine
now, provided safety and protection for the Jews from the Church's
barbarity. We lived happily in Moorish Spain until 1492. We were safe
until our protectors were driven out. We owe them a debt for that. We
weren't treated as equals, but we ran into their arms for safety and were
allowed to exist. But even though parts of the Koran say that we are to be
protected because we are the People of the Book, other parts say we are to
be killed, and now, due to a choice of interpretation, there is senseless
hatred. Likewise, we have learned to hate them because of a dispute over
which son was on Abraham's altar. The one thing that makes us blood
relatives, brothers, who seek to kill one another is religious zeal.
Without it, we would have peace, and perhaps, we could join the minds that
invented Algebra with the minds that invented the Theory of Relativity.
Think how much we could accomplish!
As
for the wedding I mentioned, I said a "relative's wedding." That
means, if your Jewish relative marries a non-Jew, you are not allowed to
attend the wedding. We refuse to eat at one another's homes, even though
we have been taught that anyone's home who is shomer Shabbat must be
considered a kosher place to eat. We offend our "lesser"
Orthodox adherents who are shomer Shabbat and keep kosher for reasons we
have no justification for.
But
if we are not gerim or BT's, we flagrantly violate other laws and then
castigate them for asking us why we do that.
As
for my atheism, I would not take that label, although I have no problem
with those who do. No one can be disliked for an issue that is utterly
unknowable. I am careful not to be dogmatic if I can neither prove nor
disprove something. And since it is neither possible to prove nor disprove
the existence of a God, I choose to admit I don't know and reserve my
energy for things that can help someone. I just am fairly certain that if
there is a God, He would be more, not less, civilized, wise, and kind than
any man. Thus, none of our inspired books of any religion can be other
than the works of men.
If
you want an argument about the Torah, I would point you to Robert
Ingersoll's work, "Some Mistakes of Moses," which is available
on-line for free. Robert Ingersoll and his hero Thomas Paine were both
wildly popular with Jewish immigrants a century ago, and all of
Ingersoll's works were translated into Yiddish. I am a Jew; you can be
sure, as evidenced by my terminology in this letter. I will always be
proud to be born one, as everyone should be of their biological roots. I
simply choose, like 90% of all Jews, to channel my energy into social
action, the betterment of all mankind, and the hope of helping others tear
down the walls that make them hate each other.
As
I left my rabbi's home last week, who has all Muslim neighbors who live by
him with friendly peace, I saw a beautiful little Muslim girl with her
mother and waved to her. She shyly smiled and waved back. I noticed her
beautiful dark eyes and ringlets of black hair, much like my own curly
black hair, and wondered how we could give our beautiful children, not old
enough to have learned to hate, a world in which blood relatives want only
one another's harm.
If
we put Jewish children of this age and Muslim children of this age
together in a playground, they would not know that they should fight. They
would just play together with the joy of innocent, loving hearts. Perhaps
we should take our noses out of religious books and learn from the wisdom
of babies.
I
feel sorry for you, Mr. Lang, if you are so angry that you hate 90% of
your fellow Jews because they do not believe the same way you do. If you
cannot tolerate the honest differences of viewpoint that your own fellow
Jews have, how can you tolerate others? I don't want you to abandon the
beauty of our culture. I only want those like you to learn to tolerate
others. I would not know the history of my people if not for those like
you. But the stratification that breeds contempt among us must be removed.
Some progress has been made, as I know Orthodox Jews who refuse to do the
things we are told that are obviously mean behaviors.
I
have falsified nothing, and my letter was never intended to be an
exposition of halachah, but a deeply honest questioning of why some of us
behave the way we do. It was my observation of how we act in practice. And
if the justifications for that behavior are in our laws, we must rethink
our interpretation of them.
One
last thought. I work for a Chasidic Rabbi who knows I am not
observant and knows I have doubts. He respects me deeply and I work as his
driver to take his children to school. I love his children and would give
my life to protect them. Out of respect, I wear the clothing of his sect
when on the job. The children are so insulated that everything they hear
and read is controlled to only Chassidism. They are only allowed to play
with blood relatives, not the children of other Jews not so purely bred.
This saddens me, but not so much as a little five-year-old, who was
sitting with me one day, her little head on my shoulder, when a Black
young man walked by and cut through the schl parking lot on his way
to a friend's home. "Shwartz-uh" she whispered under her breath,
which we know means "black" but has morphed into a racial slur.
She said then, "We should have a sign that says, "NO Shwartz-uhs."
I informed her that many Jews are Black, too and that is wrong. She
is from a family that survived the Holocaust in
Russia
and came here in 1953. For all the money spent training her to be a good
Jew, someone hasn't bothered to tell her of all the signs her ancestors
saw that said, "NO Juden." This is the problem I have, Mr. Lang.
I am a liberal, secular Jew, and my children have gotten into fights in
the efforts to protect any child being bullied. They know I expect
this of them. Yet, this insulated little girl, the descendant of great
yichus, has learned from her own relatives to hate. Her ancestor was the
founder of Judaism of the heart, not the letter of the law, and it has
turned into the most insular sect in existence besides the hateful
stone-throwers of Mei Sheirim. My own dear Orthodox friend was injured by
a stone meant for someone else in that neighborhood. This should not be.
I
would love to be able to know that we have the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth. But we do not. I am your sister. Where is your
compassion? I left because I was tired of weeping at the injustice and
mean pettiness among religious Jewry. Would you not do well to wonder at
how we can drive our own most vulnerable members away? Do you not know
that the smallest kindness speaks more loudly than a thousand
castigations? Do you not follow Hillel's advice? I did not write to make
you angry or offend, but to make you think for yourself.
Sincerely,
Eleanor
Related articles:
•
Born Again as an Infidel Eleanor
Green 2005/04/20
•
Rebuttal:
Born Again as an Infidel Ivan M. Lang 2005/04/21
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