1. t said:

Pof Paul not only do you continue to be brilliant, your zionist views are to be envied of all on Israpundit! You have the most clarity of thoughts and are of one mind. Iwish Belman and pipes and steyn had close to your intellect! This isn t idol worship but respect for an intelligent mind and one whose not afraid to speak it!

2. Ed D said:

I really don't know what to say after reading your essays that contain so much intellegence and wisdom. Perhaps I should practice anava; however, what I come up with is "envy", wishing that I could anilyze as you do. I say this with all "humility". I'm looking forward to the next edition.

3. Ted Belman said:

For the record. I have the utmost respect for Eidelberg. I have read his book Jewish Statesmanship and quoted it extensively in It pays to be Jewish.

This essay was followed up with Particularism before Universalism.

4. Mary Hogan said:

t, Ed, and Ted, you have got to be kidding. This is an article of pedantic verbosity beyond compare. It is a secular as it gets. On man priding himself on understanding a fool, because it makes him feel like he is something.

Moses was a humble man, the humblest ever...and it took work. There is Midrash about a king who sent the court artist to paint a picture of the famous Moses. When the artist returned with the portrait it was distorted and horrid. The king went to meet Moses himself, and there he was...peaceful and beautiful of appearance.... The king asked Moses, why was the portrait so distorted...? Moses replied, because that depicts how much I invested in eliminating the corruption of self.

Clarity, this author, of this article...is blind.

Sorry if it offends.

Get rid of Spinoza, and get rid of Socrates...there is not enough time in this life to study wiley egoists.

The, know how to wrap their ego around your truth.

Torah/Tanakh/Talmud

5. sckid said:

Mary, read prof. eidelberg's book "A Jewish Philosophy of History"
http://www.ebookmall.com/ebook/153342-ebook.htm

He is not secular in outlook or practice.

Part of humbling the ego is checking the facts.

6. felix quigley said:

Yes his views and writing are very important and I have respect for all of these.

I believe it is not the full story however. One of the strengths of the Jewish movement I have found over the past 3 years has been its openness to different solutions and interpretations of history. Not here but on certain points I would challenge Prof Eidelberg

7. Mary Hogan said:

sckid, I don't waste my time reading the madraga to which another has found himself reaching in this life.

The Rabbis say that in order for something to be convincing, it has to hold a lot of Truth.

Take the NT...these poor people have gleaned from the Torah a controlled amount of Truth.

The more Truth, the more deadly. Let's say, Mussar speaking, a person has reached a brilliant level of negating world... Now, mitvos goros mitzvos...one tiny step in the right direction leads to a desire for the next tiny step...and also aveiros goros aveiros. What the accuser does is...I'll go back to Moav and Bilam... Bilam told Balak, since he couldn't curse the Jewish people, he knew how to corrupt them.

When the Jewish People arrived in Moav, it started very small. They spoke to the old women of Moav, and slowly were induced to go further and further.

What does this have to do with this author. It is Hellenistic.....first off. I tweeks the ego...second. It is all about self on many levels.

Joe 1: likes to go back to the water cooler, because everytime he mentions Socarates, he knows he impresses a couple of women.

Joe 2: belongs to a club, like Tikkun or whatever that Secular organization is..(and I know what tikkun really means) When he joins the club, with a collection of impressive words....it could just send a frum Jew...down the wrong path... Covod...false and deadly. Guaranteed it will erode the Mussar work of working on self.

Joe 3: Is a borderline person, near Torah but holding on to the above mentioned covod. It is like treading in place and wasting time.

I never read anything that isn't ArtScroll anymore. Right now, I have quit procrastination and I'm going through the Hebrew side of the Stone Tanakh Translation. It has taken me a long time and hours and hours of work to get here. If I had wasted an iota of time of transient scholars of questionably ablity, I would kick myself...because I know the value of this life I've been given.

8. Mary Hogan said:

I am sorry about my typos. I am always doing three things at once.

Thank you for your patience.

Mary Hogan

9. Mary Hogan said:

And to Felix...there is no Jewish movement. There are the Jews who act like Catholics...and there are the Jews who don't believe that rules have changed to fit the fashion.

I abhor Conservative and Reform Jews. I know the value of a Jew....and the Spirituality they either bring, or short...to society. Take the rhinestones out of the kippot...put on a plain one...and decorate your time with Torah. This is not a game. A Jew is the light of the world...but it isn't the easy way.

I am not a Jew...only because I can't find an Orthodox Rabbi to convert me.

10. Ed D said:

Mary, in a way I pity you. Even though you are not a jew yet, I find you to be an extremist who can not tolerate anyone who believes differently. Extreme lefts or rights get no slaps on the back from me because in your eyes, it's my way or the highway. Open you eyes and you will see that Israels and Jews worldwide, love Israel and Judaism as much as you and I, but express it differently. If you expect everyone in Israel to be Ultra-Orthodox (nothing wrong with adhereing to that part of our faith), then you are no different than the terrorist who maintain the same idiology.

11. Mary Hogan said:

You know Ed...apathy is not me. If I am crying out for my generation, and I know that there are people who take their spirituality lightly, then I'd rather be classified an extremist who knows ther is One God...the God of Avraham, the God of Yitshak, the God of Yaakov.

Can't you see what really happened to Gush Katif? Apathetic, assimilated Spiritual People, would rather meld into the sidewalk, then stand up...for God.

God is not the God of the Arabs....He is not the God of any of the spin offs.

I am just a 55 year old woman from Ohio, who is sick of this generation bowing...to stuff, and self-ideology, one trying to prove himself better than the next.

Sharon is status quo....it is time for someone to say...."Grow up!!!!"

I pray to the only True God, no matter what CNN says! I am not politically correct. We are at a crossroad... Do you know the story of Egypt, really...why the Rabbis say that Eretz Yisroel had to leave before midnight? It was so important that Moshe didn't even risk being in error about midnight.

If in a world of flagrant nuclear acquirement...is just seconds away, then you had better learn to pray...now!!!!

I firmly believe that if every Jew would pray the Shema and the Shemoneh Esrei...the world would change. I firmly believe that if the Jew would honor Shabbat.....the world would change.

You would rather listen to the same old same old...LOOK AT ME, I NEED ATTENTION.... back patting, for nothing.

I will never be apathetic. Any time you want to go head to head with my Torah...I'm here.

Noach was not apathetic. Avraham was not apathetic. Moses was surely not apathetic, niether was Yirmiyahu, Dovid HaMelech, or Yehoshua.

Now it is clear, a person can either be on the road to clarity, or his erroneous clarity can be manufactured by CNN, or egocentric here today, and forgotten tomorrow..food for the worm.

I hope that you didn't want a forum for like thinkers going down on a ship of missed opportunity.

12. Mary Hogan said:

And, I did not mean the courageous Jewish People of Gush Katif...as apathetic. I was referring to the whole concept...of Jew as some sort of genetic pool, or social club...like what goes on with the majority of the Knesset.

Put on tefillin, be a man. We need Jewish prayers more than we need men who pride themselves on what they learned before their bar mitzvah...and that was the end of the Torah for them.

13. Mary Hogan said:

Don't pity me, Ed. I know the Talmud of the Angels at Sodom...and how no one would stand up for the Truth.
I pity you Ed, you think that it is like going to college. Pick your club and stick with it, even though deep in your heart, you hear a cry....and deep in your heart you know I am right.

I can say these things because, I don't know the Halachah of the Orthodox Jew...

You will someday see that the Orthodox Jew was right all the time.

I don't take shortcuts and easy roads. Know the story of the two men, tzaddik and RA...
The both stood before two pathways...one was beautifu, easy, lush. The Ra never studied...didn't know there were expectations...he ran to the place arms flapping. The tzaddik on the other knew the Torah. He knew that if he was placed on this planet, then there were reasons to work your fingers to the bone. He chose..the thistled path, the harder path. (I think this is a Baal Shem Tov...but I'm not sure.) So...it was hard, it was difficult, and it was a long road. (Remember the Rabbi and the Jewel that appeared in the field, and he asked God...was he at least half way through? If you don't know it, I'm not surprised) Where was I...hmm.. So after a few years in the glorious beginning, the Ra started hitting..let's see...nasty spot. After a while...that was it...one nasty spot after another...that was it. The Tzaddik after much suffering (God Bless you Refugees of Gush Katif) finally got to the proximity he work for all his life. Love, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitshak, the God of Yaakov...One God. Love.