fabs1 said:
an IDF one, with the girl's face behind the gun cartridges.
yes, that's just what we need in terms of images to associate with israel. "rei**** semihat ge'ulateinu", forsooth.
Then you're obviously unaware of how deeply many of us feel about supporting the refound homeland that others with to destroy.
i think you'll find that we feel pretty strongly about it as well. however, that tanned-and-muscular-kibbutznik-fighting-off-the-arab-hordes-and-dancing-the-hora-all-night stuff ultimately has more to do with leon uris than reality. there is a little bit more to the middle east than what they teach on the "birthright" programme.
pohaikawahine said:
dear fabs - speaking of your new picture, the size and boldness of the black lettering has an interesting effect on my eyes .... its leaves an imprint on my eyes and for about 30 seconds afterward I see the letters in white all over the screen ... I'm probably getting old and my eyesignt is changing, but it is an interesting phenomenah (spelling???) ...
"phenomenon" singular, "phenomena" plural. and, yes, there's a very good reason for that, meditation on the letters is a very important kabbalistic technique.
The revelation of the Torah at Mount Sinai is what sets Judaism apart from other faiths.
In many of the other religions, revelation involved people gathering around a charismatic individual who experienced dreams or visions in isolation or in sleep:
Jesus in terms of his visions and private miracles. Mohammed in terms of his withdrawal to a cave and his revelations in dreams.
At Mount Sinai, the entire Jewish people were assembled and had experienced Hashem's hand in taking them out of Egypt to bring them to this point.
There, at Mount Sinai, they experienced the divine presence and collectively accepted the Torah, passing down its laws from generation to generation.
ah, the standard "why we are right" answer no #241521 from the Big Book Of Kiruv Arguments That Haven't Been Run By The Philosophy Department. look, as much as we may believe that the jewish people experienced Divine Revelation at sinai - and i do, very much so - the fact remains that even if there were 600,000 witnesses, nonetheless the *account* of it comes directly through the chain of *tradition* and the authority of
haza"l - check pirqei 'aboth ch1. what this effectively amounts to is *trust* - trust that the tradition isn't lying to us. and, in any case, this wasn't even codified until much later, by maimonides. and very few people agreed with him then and even those that did didn't really understand what he was up to.
I was only staking Judaism's claim to being a true religion, not THE true religion, superior to all others.
yes, but the trouble with this line of argument is that it leads directly to the standard "why we are right" answer no #241522 from the BBOKATHBRBTPD. next you're going to tell me that because islam and christianity affirm the truth of judaism, the only thing all three religions agree on is that judaism is a true religion and therefore "logically" it has more going for it than the others. well, that's all fine, but you'll realise that the others also have BBOKATHBRBTPDs as well, so nobody's ever going to win this one until the Big Voice shows up again. that is why i'm here to listen, to talk and to dispel ignorance, in both myself and others.
b'shalom
bananabrain
?).
s can pull*
