"Anyone who does not believe in miracles is not a realist"
This is a famous Ben Gurion quote that I was enlightened with this evening at a Jewish Pride lecture I attended that wound up leaving a pretty deep impact on me. I was not planning on going originally. There were flyers all over the Rothberg Center flashing "FREE PIZZA AND BEER!" I've been through this drill before: Jeff Seidel's ultra-religious brainwashing cohorts lure in unassuming college kids by offering free food and then go on to give an hour and a half lecture on some extreme Jewish ideology. For this reason I had no intention of going to the Student Center, the home of all of this madness...free beer or not. However, everything changed after I signed offline and fell asleep. During my nap today I dreamed about nothing other than indulging in all the free pizza and beer I could dream of (sorry). Waking up in a fit of sweat, I had only one thing on my mind: pizza and beer. I called up one of my friends who is very active in the Student Center and asked him what time the pizza and beer was supposed to take place. I was ready for it now, but he told me that it would not be for another 2 hours. I was very disappointed and contemplated not going, but I couldn't do anything to cure that craving. I do have some spaghetti and schniztel, but I knew what I wanted. Pizza and Beer.
The time finally arrives for me to go. I knew I coulnd't arrive too late or else there wouldn't be any food left so I came just on time. I walk in and to my dismay, pizza and beer is nowhere to be found. Instead, what do you know, are 2 aluminum tins full of spaghetti and schnitzel. "Are you kidding me???" I thought aloud. The kids who hang at the Student Center are nice but not the people I hang out with most of the time, so they weren't too sympathetic to my anguish. "Oh well." Argh. I made the best of the spaghetti and schnitzel anyway and loaded up on the free food. It wasn't bad, but I was still a little purturbed by the absense of my food of desire. Cruel, evil world! After the food was cleaned up, the presentation began. We were told to hush and I settled in on the couch on the side of the room. A little man with a powerpoint presentation. Nothing new so far. Title: "Jewish Pride." Uccch. More Jewish propoganda. Once it started though, I was immediately compelled by the well-placed graphic design and interesting pace of the lecture. It was not boring and full of text like usual. Rather, it was full of jokes and pictures. The lecturer, an Aisha Torah professor whose name I forget, listed, with fun graphics, the values that the Western world hold dearest today: life, justice, education, social responsibility, and family. He then took us on a thorough historical value by value analysis of these values, referring to Greek and Roman civilization mostly but at times South American and Asian, and how historically these were most certainly not the values. He wrapped it up by pointing out that not only during all of these eras and times the Jews have consistently valued those key concepts (all values derived from the Torah) on the highest level, but are also the projectors of those values onto all of the world. I know it sounds a little trite, but he referred to many non-Jews who have made very similar claims, most notably John Adams, and it was actually quite entertaining, if not convincing.
When I was in Paris with a good friend last semester, my friend asked me how I can not feel a bit pompous and "full of myself" being one of the "chosen people." I tried explaining that I do not, as do most modern Jews, believe that we are in fact better than, let alone "chosen" over anyone else, and if we are, he too then is "chosen" being a Christian...his religion just preferred to absolve itself of that burden. My friend was not too happy with that response, but I had nothing else to give him.
This lecture touched directly on that point by explaining that we are not the chosen people, but rather God was chosen by Abraham and thus through covenant Abraham was chosen by God. This explanation lead me to the realization that being "chosen" simply means having the responsibility to maintain that covenant with God -- that covenant to live life to the fullest through guidance of the Torah. Free beer and pizza or not.
The time finally arrives for me to go. I knew I coulnd't arrive too late or else there wouldn't be any food left so I came just on time. I walk in and to my dismay, pizza and beer is nowhere to be found. Instead, what do you know, are 2 aluminum tins full of spaghetti and schnitzel. "Are you kidding me???" I thought aloud. The kids who hang at the Student Center are nice but not the people I hang out with most of the time, so they weren't too sympathetic to my anguish. "Oh well." Argh. I made the best of the spaghetti and schnitzel anyway and loaded up on the free food. It wasn't bad, but I was still a little purturbed by the absense of my food of desire. Cruel, evil world! After the food was cleaned up, the presentation began. We were told to hush and I settled in on the couch on the side of the room. A little man with a powerpoint presentation. Nothing new so far. Title: "Jewish Pride." Uccch. More Jewish propoganda. Once it started though, I was immediately compelled by the well-placed graphic design and interesting pace of the lecture. It was not boring and full of text like usual. Rather, it was full of jokes and pictures. The lecturer, an Aisha Torah professor whose name I forget, listed, with fun graphics, the values that the Western world hold dearest today: life, justice, education, social responsibility, and family. He then took us on a thorough historical value by value analysis of these values, referring to Greek and Roman civilization mostly but at times South American and Asian, and how historically these were most certainly not the values. He wrapped it up by pointing out that not only during all of these eras and times the Jews have consistently valued those key concepts (all values derived from the Torah) on the highest level, but are also the projectors of those values onto all of the world. I know it sounds a little trite, but he referred to many non-Jews who have made very similar claims, most notably John Adams, and it was actually quite entertaining, if not convincing.
When I was in Paris with a good friend last semester, my friend asked me how I can not feel a bit pompous and "full of myself" being one of the "chosen people." I tried explaining that I do not, as do most modern Jews, believe that we are in fact better than, let alone "chosen" over anyone else, and if we are, he too then is "chosen" being a Christian...his religion just preferred to absolve itself of that burden. My friend was not too happy with that response, but I had nothing else to give him.
This lecture touched directly on that point by explaining that we are not the chosen people, but rather God was chosen by Abraham and thus through covenant Abraham was chosen by God. This explanation lead me to the realization that being "chosen" simply means having the responsibility to maintain that covenant with God -- that covenant to live life to the fullest through guidance of the Torah. Free beer and pizza or not.
posted by xdredd at 2:07 PM
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