I joined this forum about a year ago. Since then, I have had time to listen and discuss. I have been influenced by some of the views expressed here and I have sometimes tried to convince myself that I believed in opinions that did not actually reflect my true personality. Since I have been posting quite a lot here, I think I owe an explanation and a clarification. This is not a turnaround. I still have much respect and support for Chaim Ben Pesach. I still agree with him on the main points of his agenda for the survival of Israel – no new Arab state, support for the settlers’ struggle, resistance against world pressure, the need to speak the truth about Islam and the myth of the Palestinian people, etc. However, there are many topics on which I do not share views that are frequently expressed on this forum.
First, as much as I love the Jewish people and Judaism, I fundamentally trust rational thinking and values of individualism and universalism, and I am opposed to superstition and religious intolerance. As a consequence, there are some views usually expressed on this forum that conflict with my conscience. For example, I would not say : « I was born Jewish, so this Land belongs to me because G-d gave it to me as a member of the Chosen people ». I do think that Jews have the right to have their own state in the land of Israel but this right should not be grounded on a subjective belief that you cannot force the others to share.
Another consequence is that I would certainly not interpret every natural catastrophe that occurs on this planet as a divine punishment. I find it irrational to assume that there is a will and an intention behind a natural phenomenon. Science describes clearly and accurately the chain of causes and consequences that leads to such events.
Another consequence is that I reject the concepts of collective punishment and collective responsibility. Only those who have been proven to be guilty should be punished. If my brother or my neighbour did something evil and there was no way I could have prevented it, it is just not fair that I should bear the consequences of it.
More generally, I have much respect for the Tanach but as a book that stimulates reflexion and that calls for interpretation, not as a list of rules and bans that should be enforced in today’s society exactly as they were written thousands of years ago. The great Jewish tradition is precisely one of critical comment and discussion and I am convinced that this regularly renewed interpretation is one of the main reasons for the survival of Judaism despite all the attempts to wipe it out throughout the centuries.
I support liberty of conscience. I respect atheists as long as they do not express intolerance with regard to religious believers. To me, what defines a cultural community of individuals in a consistent manner is what they believe in, what they fight for, how they choose to live their life, not how they were born nor any other criterion that they did not choose consciously and deliberately and that is imposed upon them.
As far as I’m concerned, my mother is Jewish. But I received little Jewish education when I grew up. When I was younger, I met a wonderful human being. The fact that she was not Jewish did not bother me. I married her because she is a great individual, Jewish or not, and we love each other. Since then, I have rediscovered the importance of my Jewish roots and identity, something that was partly stolen from me when I was young because of the assimilated way I was brought up. I am giving my daughter, who is not Jewish according to the Halacha, a little of what I did not have the chance to receive, to the best of my limited capabilities. I believe there is a good chance that she will convert when she has grown up – although I will respect her decision if she won’t. And now, when I come to this forum, I am told that I am finishing Hitler’s work through my former intermarriage ! Well I have a message for those miserable souls here who equate me with a Nazi : I do not regret for a second marrying my wonderful wife and I will never even think of doing something as ugly as leaving her because she is not Jewish.
There are other things that make me feel uneasy here. For instance, the calls to refuse to serve in the IDF. I know this is a contentious issue and not all JTFers side with this. I have expressed my opinion several times on this matter. I am certainly not satisfied with the way the IDF operates today and I share most of the criticisms usually expressed against the IDF on this forum. However, I just can’t support calls to refuse to serve in the Israeli military for obvious reasons that I have already stated. Besides, as much as I find destructions of settlers’ homes shocking and insane, I find it very exaggerated, to put it mildly, to equate Tsahal with the German SS and to say that Tsahal is sworn to eliminate the Jewish existence in the Land of Israel, as sometimes read on this forum.
One other thing that I do not align myself with here is the number of extremely derogatory comments on « Blacks » in general. Of course I reject the jealousy and the hatred of some African Americans, their « culture » of violence, their claims to affirmative action in order to conceal their own failures, but there is too much blind generalization on this forum against all « Blacks » (as if this referred to a consistently defined group of individuals), that sometimes barely disguises crude racism under the pretense of not being politically correct. In this respect, one of the things that shocked me most was the almost unanimous expression of satisfaction at the earthquake and outbreak of cholera in Haiti, and the bitter criticism of Israel sending a modest rescue team out there, although Haiti has never been an ennemy of Israel and has never done any harm to Israel as far as I know.
Likewise, I do not share the obsession of some JTFers (not all of them) with homosexuals. I am opposed to gay activism and to the promotion of homosexuality, but apart from that I do not essentially judge someone based on their sexual preferences. Not all homosexuals behave like Sodom and Gomorrah, as many posts suggest. I have good friends who are gay. They have been a faithful couple for a long time, they do not indulge in the sexual debauchery fantasized by some here, and they do not brag about their homosexuality.
One last point where I differ from most members of this forum is my position on the economy. I am certainly not a socialist, I am basically in favour of free markets and competition as a more effective way to create wealth, but I am not opposed to some forms of wealth redistribution and I do not systematically view taxes as robbery. I also think that careful government intervention is sometimes needed to regulate the markets.
Finally, I’ve been thinking about the dangers of sustaining Internet-based relationships. Obviously, it can create some form of addiction. It can also lead people to say things that they would not say to each other if they met face to face. That is why I think I will post less from now on.
I know I have tackled many different topics. My point is not to raise a debate on each one but rather to clarify where I now realize I stand on issues that regularly come up here. I am doing this because I do not want to be some sort of misleading character on this forum. If someone feels surprised at some of the things I have written in this thread, I want to emphasize that I never tried to deceive anyone here – except perhaps myself… I am sincerely trying to know who I am, what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong.
