Puffin [any, they/them]

Puffin [any, they/them]

POSTING QUOTES FROM JEWISH PHILOSOPHY - FINAL

Today marks the end of me posting quotes from Jewish philosophy (and the start of Purim! These two things are not related.)

I didn't want to end having only posted quotes from hundreds to thousands of years ago. Jewish philosophy is still being done. While I could have posted from a modern Rabbi, I wanted to go for a more controversial choice.

A question I thought about during all of this is "What is Jewish philosophy?" I didn't want to post theology, but I also didn't want to post quotes from Jewish philosophers who were doing philosophy not particularly related to Judaism. For example, Rosa Luxemburg wasn't really doing Jewish philosophy per se, although she herself was Jewish.

Ultimately what I settled on is that Jewish philosophy must be done in the philosophical tradition of Jewish philosophy, referencing either the Tanakh, the Talmud, etc.

Personally, I think of Leonard Cohen as doing Jewish philosophy. A lot of his songs either implicitly or explicitly reference Jewish themes and express them beautifully. At least to the extent that one considers psalms to be a part of Jewish philosophy, I think Leonard Cohen's songs can fit in as well.

In this quote, Cohen touches on an idea from the Kabbalah. (I also did not touch the Kabbalah much as it is a little bit out of the mainstream of Judaism, although many` ideas persist.)

In particular, in the kabbalistic creation story, God contracted to create room for the universe and put vessels in the space filled with light. The vessels then shattered, scattering sparks in the universe. It is seen as the responsibility of humans to collect these sparks to return them to vessels. Admittedly I am not all that well versed in Kabbalah, as it is not particularly mainstream.

More generally of course, Leonard Cohen is telling us that it is due to imperfection that we can do good.

A few things I have thought about after doing this series:

I think it is very easy when frustrated in life to look to ancient philosophy to try to find meaning in the world. You might feel like there is something we as humanity have forgotten that you can find if you go back in time. But you will not solve your problems by finding the right words of wisdom from thousands of years ago. By all means, you should read about historical philosophy. However, you must not think that by virtue of it being old, it is better. We are looking at a time when humanity did not yet understand gravity, it is not a stretch to think that we have progressed in philosophy as well.

Do not look for Marxism in texts predating Marx. You may find some forms of proto-communism, but you are not going to find out that all of Marx's ideas were secretly around 2000 years ago.

This does not mean that the ancients have nothing to say. They spent a lot of time living, and have some good wisdom to share. I personally found a lot of the discussion about studying to be helpful in developing my mindset for how I should study. Take the good and critique the bad is what I say.

P.S. Anybody can feel free to continue this series if they want

Preliminary Rules

Rule 0: Follow the Chapo.Chat Code of Conduct.

Rule 1: No dehumanizing ANYONE, especially Palestinians.

Rule 2: No Israeli apologia.

Rule 3: Anti-Zionism is allowed. Anti-semitism is not.

Rule 4: Leftist ideologies are secular, not atheist. This is not a place to “dunk” on Judaism, but a place to help liberate it.

Rule 5: BDS is good and based.

"Love labor, hate mastery over others, and avoid a close relationship with the government" (Avot, 1:10)

"Anti-Semitism means spreading enmity towards the Jews. When the accursed tsarist monarchy was living its last days it tried to incite ignorant workers and peasants against the Jews. The tsarist police, in alliance with the landowners and the capitalists, organised pogroms against the Jews. The landowners and capitalists tried to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants who were tortured by want against the Jews. In other countries, too, we often see the capitalists fomenting hatred against the Jews in order to blind the workers, to divert their attention from the real enemy of the working people, capital. Hatred towards the Jews persists only in those countries where slavery to the landowners and capitalists has created abysmal ignorance among the workers and peasants. Only the most ignorant and downtrodden people can believe the lies and slander that are spread about the Jews. This is a survival of ancient feudal times, when the priests burned heretics at the stake, when the peasants lived in slavery, and when the people were crushed and inarticulate. This ancient, feudal ignorance is passing away; the eyes of the people are being opened.

It is not the Jews who are the enemies of the working people. The enemies of the workers are the capitalists of all countries. Among the Jews there are working people, and they form the majority. They are our brothers, who, like us, are oppressed by capital; they are our comrades in the struggle for socialism. Among the Jews there are kulaks, exploiters and capitalists, just as there are among the Russians, and among people of all nations. The capitalists strive to sow and foment hatred between workers of different faiths, different nations and different races. Those who do not work are kept in power by the power and strength of capital. Rich Jews, like rich Russians, and the rich in all countries, are in alliance to oppress, crush, rob and disunite the workers.

Shame on accursed tsarism which tortured and persecuted the Jews. Shame on those who foment hatred towards the Jews, who foment hatred towards other nations.

Long live the fraternal trust and fighting alliance of the workers of all nations in the struggle to overthrow capital." - V. I. Lenin, Anti-Jewish Pogroms

"There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen

"There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." - Leonard Cohen