Distinguishing between “hating” and resisting evil. In European thought, the contrast was often made between “Christian love” and “Jewish Hate.”
Despite the fact that Psalms 97:10 adjures the faithful “O you who love the Lord, hate evil!” (Tanakh), I’m writing this blog because a dispute broke out on a friend’s FB page, regarding whether the emotion of “hate” was always to be detested and repressed, or whether it was the sane response to a world spinning out of control: authoritarian, death-obsessed, and failing. I was the “hater” who was stigmatized. So I’m writing this blog to defend not only myself but Philip Roth’s character “Mickey Sabbath” in his 1995 novel SABBATH’S THEATER, a righteous hater if there ever was one. Call Mickey crazy if you prefer: I call him and his creator genius artists, with out-of-bounds imaginations that are unsurpassed.
I laid out the longstanding antagonism between “Christian” love and “Jewish” hate here: https://clarespark.com/2010/08/15/nazis-exhibit-der-ewige-jude-1937/. I will quote the most relevant paragraph now to illustrate the “binary opposite” that any…
View original post 876 more words
The Clare Spark Blog 
I apologize for the the excessive brevity – due to major time constraints – of my previous comment, which consisted only of a link (to a long article, though)… 😉
I thank Clare for publishing it anyway and even adding a few explanatory words herself.
I wish to further contribute to the issue of hate and different attitudes toward it, which are very evident between (in general) Xtians and Jews, I think mainly because of major difference in conception of what constitutes forgiveness and how it comes about.
Here we are faced with radically different ideas of forgiveness…
I quote from an article published on Feb. 17, 2004 in the Commentator, Yeshivah University’s paper, penned by Rabbi Hershel Reichman, the Head of the Yeshivah, at RIETS in Y.U., titled: The Cardinals’ Visit: Thoughts of a Rosh Yeshiva, in which he gave a rather exhaustive and very authoritative explanation of certain differences…
Among the rest of very interesting things he wrote:
“[…]Both Judaism and Christianity preach forgiveness. However, these two concepts of forgiveness differ. The difference is in the basis for forgiveness. In Judaism, the basis is Teshuvah. In Christianity, it is Confession. According to classical Judaism, Teshuvah consists of four elements: 1) Hakaras ha’Chet — recognizing the fact of a misdeed; 2) Charatah Lesh’avar – expressing regret; 3) Tikkun ha’Cchet — fixing the sin — for example, returning a stolen item or paying for it; 4) Kabbalah L’habah — sincerely committing oneself never to sin again and really assuming a new lifestyle.
Christianity, however, suffices with confessing the misdeed and having faith in Jesus. It proposes that through faith, the sinner is forgiven. We Jews, however, cannot change our basis for forgiveness for theirs. The Catholic Church may have belatedly admitted that innocent Jews have suffered because of the Church. It therefore asks for Jewish forgiveness. However, the Church has yet to say that the various Popes themselves and the Church were ever wrong and guilty of sins during millennia of persecution! This includes the incitement by priests, which was a major cause of all the pogroms, rapes, murder, and plunder done to us for centuries in the Church’s name (See The History of Anti-Semitism, L. Poliakov, Schocken Books, p.47, 180, 330). We want to hear the full “Charatah Le’sh’avar” — the total expression of regret and acceptance of guilt for sins committed by the Church against Jews for 2000 years.
In addition, there is no “Tikkun ha’Chet” [fixing of the sin] — Vatican crimes against our people continue. The Pope tacitly approves the film “The Passion,” which will undoubtedly incite anti-Semitism. Additionally, the Pope and his Vatican spokesmen have consistently adhered to a policy of strict even-handedness, in effect equating Arab terror with Israeli self-defense, to the extent that he welcomed the chief terrorist, Yasir Arafat, in the Vatican after his expulsion from Lebanon by the IDF in the 1980s.
Furthermore, priceless Jewish artifacts and manuscripts — said to include items stolen from the Second Temple and original Rambam manuscripts — are hidden in Vatican vaults. Jews are not allowed to see them and certainly there is no intention to ever return them to our people. Would any normal victim forgive a thief who acknowledges that he has the stolen goods in his possession but refuses to return them to their owner? By any accounting, the Church has stolen billions of dollars of assets from the Jewish people for centuries — yet not a penny is now offered to pay victims, their families, or in lieu of that to pay the Jewish State of Israel.
We cannot forgive the Church even if it confesses and asks for forgiveness. The Catholic Church fails to meet the Jewish religious standard for forgiveness. For us to change Jewish standards of real Teshuvah is to compromise our faith for theirs — which is exactly what the Church wants us to do in its agenda of compromising the Jewish religion.[…]
I apologize but I cannot fine one single active link to the article except for my own translation of it into Italian nine years ago, which can be found here: http://www.kolot.it/2005/04/19/la-visita-dei-cardinali-pensieri-di-un-rosh-yeshiva-direttore-seminario-rabbinico/ : however I can send a copy of the original text to anyone interested. You can contact me at nutella59 @ ucla.edu [eliminate the spaces before and after the @]
Comment by HaDaR — August 5, 2013 @ 1:34 pm |
http://is.gd/pVEUqb
Comment by HaDaR — August 4, 2013 @ 6:00 am |
HaDaR says that this link is one of the best on Jewish thought and hatred.
Comment by clarelspark — August 4, 2013 @ 3:17 pm |