[2320] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: The role of religion
jik@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (jik@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Thu Sep 12 23:17:15 1991
>Read more carefully, jik. I said "hole yourself up", as in
>"sequester", not "hold yourself up", as in "become stuck up". Very
>different.
I know what you said, my "hold" was a typo.
Nevertheless, your comment about "(and down) on everyone else" makes
it seem to me that "hold yourself up" is also within the meaning of
what you were trying to say.
>In answer, no, I don't. If you were in a community like that, you
>wouldn't willingly spend time around MIT or any other community which
>wasn't strictly Orthodox.
So how can you say, "I don't think [observant Jewish living] can work
in the United States unless you hole yourself up in a community...?"
That obviously isn't true, and your admission that I don't hole myself
contradicts your original statement.
Your time in Israel was spent on a CONSERVATIVE Jewish program. It is
a common misconception, even among many Jews, that observance is
equivalent to Orthodox Judaism. How can you say that religious living
cannot take place in anything but a "strictly Orthodox" environment
when you earlier said you spent six weeks being religious in a
Conservative environment?
You just don't seem to have thought this through very well, Marc.
>Perhaps. But I know that I'd end up making the decision between the
>ritual and my friends that Rhu is battling with right now.
Why? You just said that you don't think I hole myself up. I manage
to have friends and be religious too. Why do you keep insisting it's
not possible?
