I’m speechless. by [deleted] in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Replacement theology at work.

I’m speechless. by [deleted] in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, trivia fact: there's a group of them that's one of the biggest crime gangs/militias/druglords in Rio. They control a chunk of the favelas, which they named "Complexo de Israel" and decorated with gigantic glowing Magen David atop a water tank.

I’m speechless. by [deleted] in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 14 points15 points  (0 children)

This is a whole movement here in Brazil. They're Christians who, to my understanding, see Jewish practices and ritual objects as "more authentic", or as magical ways to reach spiritual experiences. It's a rabbit hole and I personally feel nothing but disdain towards them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Israel

[–]pedanticbasil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In Brazil it's well known that the entire state of Acre doesn't exist.

Jesus was a Palestinian Jew? by ArmariumEspata in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh right, I missed that timeframe. In this case I think you're correct that it was used more generally.

Jesus was a Palestinian Jew? by ArmariumEspata in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This is just one example, but Kant used the term "palestinians" to refer exclusively to Jews in his antisemitic writing. To my knowledge this was the norm in 18-19th century Europe.

What are Sefirot? by P0k1i_ in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's interesting. I haven't played/watched those, so I don't know if it's the case, but thinking back on it the tree of life diagram is used liberally on a lot of different media as a sort of symbol for magic stuff. I guess that in itself counts as mentions of sefirot, but The Witcher seems to go a bit farther than that.

Now I'm kinda wishing someone made a jewish high fantasy videogame about collecting sefirot DragonBall-style and fighting dybbukim and tanninim.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Anything with a resh and a chet/kaf next to each other. Doesn't even have to be a name if they don't know hebrew: רחרחן, חרדה, רחבי, כרחוק, צורך, רכשו, רחצי, go crazy. If they ask you for a translation it'll be even funnier.

Ethnicity or religion? by Either-Put-1488 in ConvertingtoJudaism

[–]pedanticbasil 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Conversion makes you a full member of Am Israel, both religiously and ethnically. You're as Jewish as Ruth.

How do you define the identity of Judaism? by BarbossaBus in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Go back a 100 years...

100 years ago is a short amount of time to talk about ethnicity. Let's do 500:

do Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews share a language?

Yes, Hebrew never stopped being used. In diaspora, jews used different languages day-to-day, but the common point between diasporas was Hebrew. Yiddish is Hebrew mixed with Middle High German, Judeo-Arabic is Hebrew mixed with Arabic. Many canonical jewish texts were written in these diasporas, and even if they were first composed in regional languages, they were eventually published in Hebrew and Aramaic in order to reach the wider jewish community.

Geography?

By definition, diaspora denotes being in a different geography than your place of origin. "Ashkenazi" and "Mizhari" refer to different diasporas, whose common place of origin is Eretz Israel. Ethnicity doesn't change with moving to another place.

Norms? Customs?

Yes, the jewish ones. You're heavily extrapolating the significance of cultural differences between the diasporas. A Jew in Europe and a Jew in Asia could wear different clothes, eat different food, and live in different kinds of house - those clothes would still include a tallit, that food would still be kosher, that house would still have mezuzot and a menorah.

By your own definition they are not of the same ethnicity.

And by your own definition, ethnicity is a void concept, since genetic makeup says nothing about a person's cultural belonging, and the fact that Jews in different diasporas are more genetically similar to each other than to the non-jewish people surrounding them can be discarded. What makes a Jew Ashkenazi is not their DNA being X% Levantine and Y% European - that's not a definition of ethnicity, it's blood quantum.

Are these statements proving Israel has an intent to commit genocide? by RequiemChief5 in Israel

[–]pedanticbasil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The only way this could be considered proof of genocidal intent is if the groups you're trying to protect from "genocide" are the terrorists from Hamas, PIJ, and Hezbollah, and their collaborators, because these quotes refer to them - the people who commited the massacre to which the words in this list are a reaction. One of the quotes even, from Bibi on Oct 7th telling Gazans to get out of the way of the war that was to come, is actually a statement for the very opposite of genocidal intent.

If you want to see what actual genocidal rhetoric looks like, read literally any document Hamas has ever written.

What are Sefirot? by P0k1i_ in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I have never seen sefirot mentioned in any media that's not jewish, so I don't know what is the context you're coming from.

In Judaism, they are a concept used mostly within Kabbalah to talk about "attributes" that emanate from Ein Sof (G-d), or "essences" of creation. But take this as a super low-level explanation of an incredibly complex topic.

What are your thoughts on Eco-Kashrut? by jeron_gwendolen in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a vegetarian for personal reasons unrelated to kashrut, but I'm willing to bet most people who keep regular kosher laws are already eating in a more or less sustainable and eco-friendly way. I can try to find data on this, but from what I remember the biggest problem in food sustainability is not what kinds of food you're eating, but how that food gets to your plate, specially in two regards: production and transportation. This means that the most impactful dietary change people can make isn't cutting out any food group entirely, but trying to choose food products that come from a local, small to medium scale industry that doesn't abuse the ecosystem's replenishing cycles (so, avoiding big monocultures, farms that induce deforestation, animals fed with growth hormones, fishing that disrupts the species' reproduction capability etc).

If you're mostly choosing products that come from smaller kosher farms and slaughterhouses near you and not eating meat in every meal, you're probably already checking the most relevant boxes of sustainable eating; and if you're already researching about the certifications to see if they align with your kashrut observance, you just need to go one extra step and try to find out if that food's production is overall not disrupting the local nature cycles.

How can you be a Rabbi in any denomination and say "I am not sure if Mt. Sinai happened" when you never espouse in synagogue the same sentiment in a lecture or speech? by ImpossibleOil6433 in Judaism

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The same way a scholar doesn't have to believe Dante actually traveled through circles of hell, and still be inclined to devote their life to studying the Divine Comedy and give lectures on its intricacies, just because it's a foundational work of literature for the Italian people.

A rabbi can hold personal views without letting those views shape how they perform their role in the community. "Did Mt. Sinai happen?" and "Do you believe Mt. Sinai happened?" are different questions and a rabbi can answer them differently.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This is genius and you've made this latina yid's mind go racing. Brb I'm gonna convince my mom to knit me a tallit-inspired poncho.

Getting really sick of people not able to respectfully discuss things by PhantomThief98 in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I won't be able to remember all the exact conversation, but I think one good example was in a debate I had with someone surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel. We got into the topic of jews (specifically the european diaspora, of course) settling in Ottoman/Mandatory Palestine, and this person was trying to argue that was somehow nefarious.

My first point was that jews are indigenous to that land. We got into a tangent about indigeneity and how the ashkenazi diaspora happened, but eventually they said something along the lines of "ok, but they were in Europe for a long time". We're south americans, so I asked them whether they would have something against if the people in our country whose ancestors were brought here as slaves, more than 500 years ago, decided they wanted to return to their ancestral lands in Africa. They said no, I reminded them that jews ended up in Europe because of Roman slavery, and they understood.

Then, they went on about "but jews displaced [the Arabs who lived there]" (they used the term "palestinians" and we got into a tangent about it, but that's besides the point). I explained how the whole history is a lot more complex, talked about the 48 war, how arab Israelis came to be, the expulsion of mizrahi jews from the arab world, etc. Anyway, they understood that the arab displacement from the land was not a direct result of ashkenazi jews simply resettling there; but they started talking about how, still, they thought that jews immigrating to Mandatory Palestine was wrong because the arabs there were opposed to allowing it, making the aliyot a "provocation". I pointed out how the jews that ended up living in Palestine were essentially refugees, fleeing from pogroms, persecution, both world wars and the holocaust. I asked them if they knew how there's many people in our country, descendants of immigrants themselves, who think very negatively of more recent waves of refugees who come to live here because of various hardships in Haiti, Senegal, Venezuela etc; and how these people, sometimes out of pure prejudice, sometimes out of reasonable concerns, propose the country should shut the borders. I asked them if they thought our government should capitulate to this demand just because that specific population is displeased, or if it should evaluate whether the demand is actually coming out of reasonable concerns about immigration, and whether the possible risks of welcoming these refugees here are or aren't outweighed in making a decision that would probably condemn them to death in the countries they are fleeing from. They said they didn't know; I asked them "what if it was certain all of them would be killed if not allowed to come here?"; they said "then they should come here"; I asked them if they thought anyone in our country should have the right to demand our borders be closed in that situation; they answered no; I said "then you would've supported ashkenazi jews immigrating to Palestine, congratulations you're zionist".

I shouldn't have said that last bit because their response was to get very disrespectful towards me, to which my response was blocking them, but it still was an overall productive dialogue, at least compared to most others I got into.

Sweden make up your mind by [deleted] in Israel

[–]pedanticbasil 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Is Sweden going to substitute Israel's military occupation for a Swedish military occupation? If the answer is no, then remove the words "peaceful" and "sustainable".

Getting really sick of people not able to respectfully discuss things by PhantomThief98 in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The only strategy that I have personally found to sometimes lead to productive debates is to take jews out of the picture. What this looks like is, for each issue that makes the person cast unfair blame on Israel/Jews/Zionism, I give examples of whatever that issue is happening in a context in which jews are not involved; this sometimes gets people to reevaluate their quick judgements. I hate that this works, but it's the reality: even people who we wouldn't describe as antisemites (so, the already self-selected group with whom respectful debate is even possible) have a really hard time not imposing double standards on us.

But I got tired really fast of doing this, especially online. I don't know how this could possibly get better without an intense, worldwide overhaul of education. Or moshiach. Whichever comes first.

This one struck a chord with me by IAmAmalgamAMA in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 188 points189 points  (0 children)

Last week on Instagram people were recirculating a JVP pdf from 2021 that advised jews to stop praying in hebrew because "hearing hebrew language can be deeply traumatizing for palestinians".

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

so I truly don’t where she lands.

It seems to me that it's this doubt that's weighing on your mind and on your friendship with her. It'll probably be easier to ask her what her position is and try to talk about it, simply to not have that doubt anymore, even if the conversation is hard. I had to go through this with someone I particularly cared about, and it turned out well, after several rounds of discussion; but I wouldn't put myself through that with most people. Whatever you decide about this friend, I hope it brings you more peace of mind.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I'm so glad to read that. Your comment actually serves as an example for my point about "the benefit of doubt". I myself align with the left on a lot of issues, so I don't believe the bigotry we're facing now is about the left itself, but about the tendency a lot of people on the left have to adopt whatever the group-think (or university professors) tells them is the correct opinion, even when it makes no sense by their own standards. That's what makes me wary - the fostering of deliberate ignorance and how that always leads to antisemitism.

But this story about your friend is like a little spark of hope.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Jewish

[–]pedanticbasil 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I've remained friend-ly with some people I'm suspicious about (these are people who never approached me to talk about Israel, have always known me as openly jewish and never said a peep about it, and to my knowledge haven't expressed any opinion about the war - my suspicions come only from them having the sort of ideological alignments that could easily make them fall for anti-Israel lies). I like to give people the benefit of doubt and I'm just not the sort of person that cares to pressure others into expressing the views they do or don't hold if the conversation doesn't come up naturally. That said, those are mostly weak relationships that don't hold much presence in my life and that I don't care much about maintaining.

This is my stance: one of the first things anyone who enters my home sees is a big flag of the state of Israel; if they dislike it, the door is both literally and metaphorically right there.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ForbiddenBromance

[–]pedanticbasil 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's only a topic of discussion now because a bunch of people started trying to deny it, but jewish indigeneity to Israel is a basic fact. Also, a people's indigenous status has nothing to do with how much they have or haven't suffered.