A Couple of Observations from my Recent Trip and a Story

This is going to be controversial, but I’ll say it anyway.

I’ll explain why I hesitate and why I’m going ahead and posting it. I hesitate because I don’t enjoy airing out my people’s dirty laundry publicly. I’ll recount a conversation I had with a religious relative with close ties to Israel. I mentioned the genocide that Israel has committed – referring, of course, to the genocide, by secular Zionists, against the cultures of Mizrahi Jews (and some Ashkenazi Jews) starting during WWII and continuing into the 1960s or even later. This is the only genocide Israel (or secular Zionist precursors to Israel) ever committed – against fellow Jews. My relative reinforced my comment by mentioning a friend of hers who experienced this cultural genocide firsthand. She went on to say that we shouldn’t air our dirty laundry publicly. I then asked her if our dirty laundry is addressed PRIVATELY. “Do any of the Jewish schools you’re associated with teach the kids about this?” Her answer was, “NO.” In that case, we should air it publicly. If we don’t address our own sins privately, and if we don’t at least acknowledge them, then speaking about them publicly is fair game.

The ancient Hebrews were a low-IQ people, and they had to be treated like children. Traditional Judaism (both of the ancient and modern/Medieval varieties) and Islam were designed for low-IQ people. I think that most forms of ancient Christianity were the same. From my own, admittedly limited knowledge, I would say that if you’re looking for a more mature religion for personal growth, some forms of Buddhism might be a better choice.

Of course, over the course of history, many high-IQ Jews have contributed to Jewish literature, making it rich and complex. One could draw inspiration for many things from this vast body of literature.

I say this because my recent trip reminded me just how obsessed traditional Judaism is with ritual – and not just ANY ritual, but ritual that strays so far from the original forms and (sometimes) intent that it comes across as a farce. I found it painful to watch and listen to. A good friend of mine (an observant Jews) once told me that the definition of “religion” is: A group of people that worships itself. I think a lot of people, of all organized religions, pretend to worship “God,” but are actually worshipping themselves.

Without traditional Judaism, there would be no Jewish people. For all our flaws, I do want my own tribe to survive. Orthodox Jewish communities have a lot going for them. Families help each other, charities abound and they are high-trust societies. As it stands, our lifeboat is made of cheap plastic. There is no effort, or desire, to be faithful to the ancient sources, only to be “observant” as defined by famous rabbis. What this means in practice is that modern Judaism is almost exclusively a product of European rabbis. Its observance is defined by an assortment of European rabbis whose authority is based on fame and prestige. Sometimes, those rabbis were wrong, but nobody will listen to the evidence; in practice, disagreeing with prestigious rabbis is the same as heresy. Independent thought is not encouraged beyond a certain point – just as we find with Leftists. In both cases, any facts you throw at them will hit a brick wall when they perceive a danger of forbidden thought. The notion of “heresy” (by any name) is what protects them from leaving the confines of their faith-ghetto.

During my stay with my Orthodox family. A close friend of the family approached me and told me that even though the Zohar (the main work, and basis, of the Kabbalah) was, indeed, written in Medieval times (and not ancient times, as is claimed). I told him that this is so, but that it also contains beliefs that are polytheistic and contrary to traditional Judaism. He quickly ended the conversation. A similar conversation with another close family member was abruptly ended. Other conversations, concerning the traditional tanning process for the parchments used for holy scripts and the pronunciation of Hebrew, were met with a mixture of uneasiness and dismissal. This was on the airplane, where I was seated next to an Orthodox Jew.

Does any of this matter? Objectively not. Cultures change, and religions change. As a “non-neurotypical” person, it bothers me when people claim one thing (IE. “We’re being faithful to the ancient sources”) but actually do the opposite. So here I am venting – which is a big part of what this blog is all about.