The Jews and Their Role in Our World
Transcript of The Jews and Their Role in Our World
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Vladimir E. Minkov, PhD
The Jews
and their role
in our world:Personal intellectual journey
to discovering Jewish identity
(for Jews and Gentiles)
USA
INVLAD
2010
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That is the beginning of the Jewish people:
Mount Sinai, God, Moses, Ten Commandments
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The Jews and their role in our world
Copyright 2010 by Vladimir Minkov
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproducedor transmitted in any form or by any means without written
permission from the author.
ISBN ????????????
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The Jews and their role in our world:
Personal intellectual journey to discovering Jewish
identity
Table of Contents
In lieu of an introduction
1. About the book, about the author and about potentialreaders1.1. Preface, necessary for a better understanding of this
book
1.2. A synopsis of the book for those who need it to gofurther
1.3. Who the author is and why he wrote the book1.4. Who are the intellectuals and why their understanding
of Jewish identification is important
1.5. Who may like this book and who may not2. 20-th century novelty in Jewish identification that put the
author on the road of personal intellectual journey
2.1. Identification with the goal of physical extermination how it was in the Nazi Germany
2.2. Identification with the goal of spiritual extermination -how it was in the Former Soviet Union
2.3. Neglecting the identification with the goal ofassimilationhow it was in the Czech Lands
2.4. Multiple identifications with the goal of adjusting to thenew social environmenthow it was and is in the USAand Israel
3. Intellectual examination of Religion and God as thefoundation of identity of peoples and communities
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3.1. Intellectual examination of Faith in Religion as the coreof identity of peoples and communities
3.2. Intellectual examination of the Higher GoverningSystem above us as God
3.3. God for believers and unbelievers4. Intellectual examination of the Torah and Judaism as the
foundation of identity of Jewish people4.1. The unique concept of the Gods Better World as the
foundation of Judaism4.2. The Jewish Choseness by God as the spiritual mission
of building the Gods Better World4.3. Spirituality and intellectual spiritual concepts of the
Better World
4.4. Individual responsibility in building the Better World not a collective irresponsibility
4.5. Spiritual competition in building the Better Worldamong orthodox, reform and secular movements
5. Jewish identification in Christianity5.1. The same man as revered Rabbi Yehoshua for the Jews
and Holly Son of God for the Christians
5.2. The Torah (the Old Testament) for the Jews and theChristians as unified Judeo-Christian guiding principles
of the Better World
5.3. The Talmud for the Jews and the New Testament forthe Christians as different interpretations of the unified
Judeo-Christian guiding principles of the Better World
5.4. The Ten Commandments and its contemporary Judeo-Christian interpretation
6. Jewish identification in social-economic institutions ofthe Judeo-Christian countries6.1. Science in harmony with the Torah and Judaism6.2. Democracy in harmony with the Torah and Judaism
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6.3. Free entrepreneurship in harmony with the Torah andJudaism
6.4. Jewish achievements in advancing science, democracyand free entrepreneurship
7. Jewish identification in the judgment of non-Jews7.1. From almost deification to almost demonization7.2. Who are treating the Jews as almost saints and why7.3. Who are treating the Jews as almost devils and why7.4. Spiritual cooperation and confrontation with the non-
Jewish world
8. Jewish identification in the countries of greater Jewishinfluence8.1. The USA8.2. The State of Israel8.3. European Union8.4. Russia
9. Finally, what does it really mean -- the Jewish intellectualidentification
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In Lieu of an Introduction
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IDENTIFICATION AND THE TORAH
For many centuries
theologians, archaeologists, historians and scientists
have been trying to prove or disprove
the truthfulness of the events
described in the Torah/Bible.
But from the point of view
of the identification of the Jewish people,
the truthfulness of the events described in the Torah
is irrelevant.
Even if all the events describedare a figment
of the people's collective imagination,
this imagination shaped the Jewish people,
made them unique,
and defined their spirituality,
which also is the identification
of these people.
All the descriptions and the interpretation
of the events of the Torah/Bible must be examined
from these positions in this book.
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IDENTIFICATION AND GOD
In recent decades debates on the subject
"there is a God, there is no God"
have come to such a head
that sometimes a discussion of the scientific essence
of the concept of God as some kind of a power
ruling over us, in a system in which people exist,
is replaced by an unscientific discussionof this power's interpretation in people's minds.
But all the peoples of the world,
including the Jewish people,
have identified themselves from the very beginning
in the way they have interpreted
the ideas of this supreme ruling powerin the organization of their life on our Earth.
Therefore, even if one were to accept
that the interpretation of the idea
of this supreme ruling power, called God,
for organizing people's life on Earth
is simply a figment of the Jewish people's imagination,
one must recognize
this collective imagination has shaped
the identification of these people.
It is from these positions
the intellectual identification of the Jewish people
must be investigated in this book.
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COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFICATION
In the course of Jewish history
individuals have been identified as
Jews by external forces
rabbis or anti-Semites.
"A Jew" was a kind of invisible
label affixed to an individual
regardless of
the desire and spirituality of the individual himself.
This book explores the Jewish identification
not as the verdict of these external forces,
but as the conscious decision of the individual himself
based on his intellectual understanding
of the history of the Jewish people
and their unique role in the advancement of the ideas
of "A Better World" for every human being.
And in itthe meaning
of Jewish intellectual self-identification.
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IDENTIFICATION FOR CREATION
According to the Torah/Bible,
the "Better World"
is not the realization of social systems
contrived
by earthly enlightened leaders,
such as the founders
of capitalism, socialism, communism,
halakhic Judaism or sharia Islam.
The "Better World"
according to the Torah/Bible
is the realization
of the combined efforts of individuals
of Judeo-Christian spirituality
continuing
the spiritual and material creation
of our world in accordance with
their understanding of their own role
in the continuation of what was createdat the very beginning by someone or something
subsequently called God
(regardless of how this someone or something
is imagined in the minds of people).
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IDENTIFICATIONFOR THE COMPETITION OF IDEAS
According to the Torah/Bible,
the "Better World" on our Earth
IS NOT
the totality of the worlds of
independent isolated and quarreling countries
when all individuals within each of them
follows the same creative plan
developed "from top to bottom"
by a country's authoritarian leadership.
According to the Torah/Bible,
the "Better World" on our Earth
IS
when the creative work of individuals
within each country
shapes a country's creative aspect
"from bottom to top"
and the totality of creative forces
of independent countries
cooperating spiritually
and competing peacefully
is a continuation of the creative work
begun at the very beginning
by someone or something subsequently called God.
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INDIVIDUAL INTELLECTUAL IDENTIFICATION
Most of the Jewish readers have reconciled themselves
to an interpretation
of Judaism's fundamental principles,
in particular,
the interpretation of the concepts
of the Torah/Old Testament
given by rabbiswho obtained the training
required at yeshivot, seminaries, colleges and the like.
In other words, one can obtain the knowledge
to understand the religion and abide by it correctly
only from a rabbi.
Everyone knows
the rabbis of the different streams of Judaism
Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Humanistic
interpret Torah concepts differently.
Therefore, it is thought
a Jew selects a stream closer to his world-view
and follows the instructions of its corresponding leader.
It is supposed to be somewhat that way.
But not completely!
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The rabbi plays the role of a teacher in Judaism,
while in Christianity a priest plays the role of a ministerpassing God's word to the parishioner.
The Jew speaks with God directly,
bypassing intermediaries in the form of rabbis.
Because inasmuch as all Jews, as all other people,
were created in the image of God the Creator,
that is they themselves are creators,
they should work in partnership with God the Creator
and be in constant contact with Him for it.
This means each Jew has the right, and perhaps is obligated,
to find for himself the most effective means
of such contacts with the Almighty
with the purpose of visualizing
the best individual way of creating a Better World
in family, workplace, community and nation.
(The author is talking only about Jews here,
though he believes everyone - Jews and Gentiles
have such a right and perhaps also are obligated).
And the author, just a scientist,
not wise in the lessons in a rabbinical Yeshiva,
but wise in intellectual, scientific examination
of various technical and human systems
availed himself of that right
and how it turned out for him
has been set forth in this book.
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IDENTIFICATION AND TALMUD
While the Torah is the foundation of understanding
the role and duty of Jewish people
in our world among all other peoples,
the Talmud is the foundation of determining
the practical means of fulfilling
the duty of Jewish peopleimposed on them from the Above
by something what we call God.
One of the most prominent Jewish scholars of our time
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
describes Talmud as
an inspired by God guidance
for finding the best possible wayin pursuing the duties of Jewish people
imposed on them by God.
The Talmud identifies the Jewish people
as intellectual researchers
pursuing the goal of finding the ultimate truth
of what is the purpose of human existence in our world,
and what the Jewish people
are supposed to do here and how.
Since this book is devoted to understanding
the role and duty of
the Jewish people
in our world among all other peoples,
this book analyses mostly the Torah.
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That is the beginning of modern revival of Judeo-
Christian spiritual friendship that is at the foundation
of Judeo-Christian civilization
In 1986, the highest Christian authority Pope
John Paul II went to a Rome synagogue to pray with the
city's Jewish community and Chief Rabbi of Rome.Noting Christianity's unique bond with Judaism, he
said, "You are our beloved brothers ... you are our elder
brothers" in the faith of Abraham.
In 2000, the Pope after meditating at Jerusalem's
Western Wall placed in the wall a written prayer to
God expressing deep sadness for all wrongs done to
Jews by Christians. It ended, "Asking your forgiveness,
we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood
with the people of the Covenant."
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Chapter 1
About the book,
about the author
and about potential
readers
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1.1. Preface, necessary for a better
understanding of this book
The three spiritual strongholds of the Western World are:
for the Jews Jerusalem, for the Christians the Vatican,
for Moslems Mecca. Religious authorities say that such
strongholds are a fundamental identification of all peoples
living in our world, including too the Jewish people.
To what degree is it possible and necessary to trust
identification authorities?
To what degree is it possible and necessary to trust in
one's own intellectual analysis?
Is it enough for a Jew to proclaim he is Jewish and then livelike Christians, or Muslims, or Buddhists
or the life and deeds of a Jew have to be different from
the life and deeds of non-Jews to consider himself a true
Jew?
And if indeed the life and deeds of Jews should be different,
should this difference be a natural outcome of the Jewish
religion, history and traditionsto be proud of it and not to be scared of anti-Semitism?
Those thoughts have been the true spiritual concerns of the
author from the very beginning.
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The Jewish peopleidentify themselves
with the Western Wall
in Jerusalem.
The most prominent
Christian
identification symbol
is Vatican.
All Muslims identify
themselves with
Mecca.
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This book is a result of more than 30 years of observations and
trying to understand how intellectual Jews understand theessence of being a Jew. They are the intellectual Jews living in
the countries of the former Soviet Union, in the United States
and in Israel. Among them are those for whom their native
language is Russian and those who understand only English.
Some of them think the Almighty demands steadfast compliance
with life's unchanging halakhic rules; many hold to the opposite
opinion, believing that the Almighty created the whole world,including too the Jews, which is constantly changing; and there
also are those who generally do not believe in the existence of
the Almighty, but nonetheless consider themselves full-fledged
Jews.
Attempts to find the answer to the question of Jewish intellectual
identification began precisely when the author began to
collaborate with different Jewish and Gentile social andprofessional organizations immediately after his emigration to
the United States from the former Soviet Union. He tried to get
the answer to a question tormenting him during this
collaboration: what are Jews and why do they garner such great
attention from everyoneboth friends and enemies? He received
many answers, but not one of them satisfied him.
And he was not satisfied because the majority of responses werenot very intellectual and boiled down to the following:
we all have been divided into groups and each group has itsown point of view;
all points of view are based on eternal traditions and if mygroup survives in spiritual competition with others, then our
traditions are true;
the discussion of other group points of view comes tonaughtit only brings disorder to our members;
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it is unnecessary to add intellectuality to identification they are completely different notions;
and so forth.And the author remained spiritually dissatisfied. And he began
his own personal search for the answer to his question. He thinks
he has found the answer and that answer is presented in this
book.
This book is an attempt not to divide Jews as "correct" and"incorrect," but to find what unites them intellectually as Jews.
Moreover, it is an attempt to show that there is a fundamental
spiritual commonality between Jews and Christians, despite all
the historic difficulties of living together. And furthermore, it is
an attempt to find what unites Jews and Christians with all the
others into a single mankind. Since a single mankind exists, there
must be something spiritually the same thanks to which mankind
spiritually exists, and there must be a power that created thisunity
There must be a single connecting meaning in the existence of
Jerusalem - and of the Vatican and of Mecca. And when Jews
exclaim, "Next year in Jerusalem," this exclamation should not
sound like a call for a trip and a change of one's residence.
Thousands of studies have been devoted to such philosophicalideas. But this book is not an overview of the ideas described in
these studies. This book is an attempt to find in these ideas the
Jewish identification and most of all, the role of Jews in our
world, while being based on the thoughts and personal
experience of the author himself. And the main thing here was an
intellectual reading of the Torah and the numerous commentaries
to it. Moreover, the opinions of numerous Orthodox and Liberal
rabbis, as well as interviews and discussions with manyintellectual Jews and Gentiles, both close to religion and far
away from it, were a fundamental source.
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But the reader will see no moral admonitions in this book in the
form of interviews with rabbis or references to authoritativestatements, because the thoughts cited here are not a compilation
of authoritative assertions, but the personal understanding of the
author himself. And because the author wanted to present
everything in as compressed a form as possible so contemporary
Jews trying to learn everything (and Gentiles trying to learn
everything) would be able to understand what is being discussed
at once without tiresome searches for the essence in traditional
quotations and facts known to everyone.
The word "Torah" is mentioned frequently in this book and the
usage of this word requires an explanation.
Two determinants are attached to this word in Judaism theTorah is written and oral in Judaism. The written Torah is the
Pentateuch consisting of the books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy. The oral Torah includes what iscalled the Talmud and in essence is comments on and
interpretations of the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch is included in
the Tanach including besides the Pentateuch the writings of
Jewish prophets. The age of the written Torah is counted from
when God appeared to Moses and the Jewish people on Mt. Sinai
more than 3,300 years ago, though the Torah we see now was
written significantly later.
The Tanach/Torah is called the Old Testament in Christianity,
distinguishing it from the New Testament which is in essence the
writings of the first followers of Jesus Christ himself (the
Apostles).
The Talmud in Judaism probably is the counterpart to the New
Testament in Christianity. The Old and New Testaments in
Christianity are united by the word Bible.
Thus, the Pentateuch (or Old Testament, as it is called in
Christianity) is understood in this book to be the Torah.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B5http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%98%D1%81%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%A7%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BBhttp://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B7%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%A7%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BBhttp://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%82http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%98%D1%81%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%8B%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%B5 -
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This book
is not an appeal to believe the authorities,
though most often they are right.
Mostly this book is an appeal
to intellectual thought
using one's own intellect
obtained by each person
individually from God,
and not the intellect
given by God to other people
who honestly earned the title of authority.
Compliance
with authorities
leads to joining a crowd, collective or group.
Compliance
with one's own individual intellectual analysis
leads to the affirmation of oneself
equal
"to the image of God the Creator."
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1.2. A synopsis of the book for those who need
it to go further.
The Torah as we conceive it now appeared, as many think,
nearly two and a half thousand years ago.
Afterwards appeared authoritative comments on the Torah
such as the Talmud (including the Mishnah and Gemara),Midrash and Rashi where the essence of Judaism (of being
the Jew) is laid out in detail. A multitude of comments to
each chapter of the Torah appeared in the last century
written by contemporary rabbis in which Torah concepts are
imparted a modern interpretation.
Just why is the discussion about what a Jew is continuing;why isn't it all sufficient for Jewish identification?
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It is no secret that all Jews understand in different ways why they
call themselves Jews.
Orthodox Jews think that only complete fulfillment of thehalakhic rules in the Talmud make a Jew a true Jew.
Reform Jews think that a Jew is one who just thinks ofhimself as a Jew, and the Talmud only is a reminder of what
happened in Jewish history, but its rules are not mandatory.
Traditional Zionists think only life in Israel makes a Jew atrue Jew and that is enough.
The majority of former Soviet Jews think they are Jews onlybecause they were born into a Jewish family and it is best
not to talk about it.
Many American Jews sincerely believe that to be Jew, it isenough simply to be a liberal who struggles for the
redistribution of tangible wealth in society so everyone is
approximately equal wealth-wise.
And this list of Jewish divisions can be continued ad infinitum.
Therefore, to the question of what divides Jews, the answer is
easy practically everything! It is said not without reason that
two Jews always have three opinions on the very same question.
It is more difficult to answer the question of what unites Jews,
what makes them a single people.
A common language? There wasn't one. Three languagesexisted the Yiddish language of the Eastern European
Jews, the Ladino language of the African and Spanish Jews
and the Hebrew language of the Palestinian Jews, plus theJews spoke the languages of those countries where they
lived. There was no common language, but there were Jews.
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A common territory? But there wasn't one for two thousandyears after the destruction of the Second Temple inJerusalem, and there were Jews.
A common culture? The Sephardic culture is completelydifferent from the Ashkenazic, but nonetheless, both groups
consider themselves Jews.
A common history? Jewish history has become part of thehistory of those Gentile countries where Jews have lived inthe last two thousand years, but they consider themselves
part of the general Jewish population as before.
General anti-Semitism, the Ghetto, oppression? Yes, theyhave united all Jews. But they had a way out of themthey
could do away with the anti-Semitism, the Ghetto and the
oppression, converting from Judaism to Christianity or
Islam, but the majority of them preferred to remain Jews.
If that is so, then there remains only one explanation: belief in
the special designation of Jews that makes them the chosen
people (not in the interpretation of anti-Semites, but in the
interpretation of the Jews themselves) and is their
identification.
This belief includes:
recognizing the one God the Creator, revealed by Abrahamand interpreted in different ways to different peoples;
understanding the concept of our original creation "in theimage of God the Creator" that identifies our chief
responsibility as God the Creator's partners in the creation
of the Better World on our Earth;
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following the covenants of the Torah, where God'sprinciples for building the Better World on our Earth havebeen identified, that boils down to the growth of spiritual
and material GOOD and a decrease of EVIL on our Earth;
knowing how to distinguish GOOD from EVIL according tothe principles identified in the Torah.
And that is what made some ancient pagan tribe the Jews. Not
only do those who uphold the position of Divine Chosenness
agree with it, but also those who think Jews made themselvesthe chosen ones in the sense of their uniqueness in the process
of their historical development.
Even those Jews can agree who consider themselves non-
religious, inasmuch as their faith tested by time transitions
from generation to generation, as they say, from "the mother's
breast" (or genetically as one can say now) even for those who
know neither God nor religion.
If after all the One God and the Torah are the main thing making
Jews Jews, then why don't Jews agree on how such unity should
appear in a single behavior of Jews, in the very same way of life,
the uniformity of which would allow one to distinguish Jews
from Gentiles immediately?
There are long and short answers to this question.
The long answer is based on the analysis of the 3,000 year
spiritual history of the Jewish people, including
the explanation of the essence of God and the Torah byfundamental competing Jewish sects of the pre-Christian
period such as the Sadducees, Essenes, Pharisees, and later
also the Zealots, Hellenistic Jews, etc.;
the Talmud and the Talmudic interpretations of the Torahwhich give opposite opinions on the very same questions
which reflected the points of view of the different sects;
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the halakhic rules of Jewish behavior (some of them led tothe Shulhan Aruk Orthodox code of behavior), which isimpossible to follow fully, inasmuch as they reflect the
completely other living conditions that existed many
centuries ago;
the numerous often contradictory explanations ofauthoritative rabbis who interpret the very same Torah
positions for different life situations;
the presence of many spiritual streams in modern Judaism,including too in Orthodox Judaism;
new spiritual streams in the modern state of Israel thatappeared from the very moment of its formation.
There are thousands of publications about the long answer in
which authors try to prove the correspondence of the point of
view being defended to the spirit of the Torah and the disparity
in all other points of view to the spirit of the Torah. It is simply
impossible to analyze all these publications in one work, but thefollowing short answer may help clarify the situation.
Inasmuch as we, human individuals, were created in the image
of God the Creator, we ourselves are the spiritual and material
creators of the Better Life on our earth in accordance with God's
design laid out in the Torah. And inasmuch as the main element
of any true creation is a competition of diversified ideas, the
diversification of ideas in Judaism is not only allowed, but is
obligatory.
Actually, inasmuch as we were created in the likeness of the one
unique God (in any of His representations), each of us is a
single, unique individual. Each of us appeared on our earth to
find our own unique path for the continuation of the work of his
predecessors in the creation of the Better World on our Earth,
and each of us will pass on everything created to those who will
continue this work after him.
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In order not to err from the chosen path, each one must
strengthen his faith by participating in the spiritual life of hiscommunity, be it the observance of the Sabbath and other
notable days of the Jewish calendar, the spiritual discussion of
political and social problems, etc.
The Better World is created by the individual in any place he
may beat home with the family, at work among colleagues, inany Gentile organizations and places where fate may bring him.
And it all is fulfilled individually, inasmuch as that is the way it
is supposed to be - we all compete spiritually with each other for
a better understanding and fulfillment of the concept of a Better
World "according to God."
While each Jew is an individual in his own creativeness, analysts
of Jewish life can symbolically combine all Jews into three
groups:
(1) Those who decided to be assimilated and leave the Jewishfaith because of the unreasonable burden, as it seems to
them, of being a Jew. They continue creation under other,
non-Jewish banners, and, it is possible, the ten lost tribes of
Israel are in this group. Many of them became good
Christians. Others became anti-Semites, most likely to
justify taking such a step for themselves. The most apparentrepresentative of anti-Semites in this group is the founder of
Communism, Karl Marx.
(2) Those who concentrated on the creation and strengtheningof the Torah's spiritual and ritualistic traditions for the
purpose of isolating the Jewish people from others, thus
preserving a unique connection with their God and creating
their own unique Better World on our Earth just forthemselves, in the hope it all will be adopted somehow and
sometime by others. The life and activity of such people as
Rabbi Kook in Palestine before the founding of the State of
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Israel, Rabbi Nakhman of Breslov in Tsarist Russia in
Uman, Ukraine, and the Lubavitcher Rebbe Schneerson inthe United States, are typical of this group. This group may
be called symbolically the Jewish custodians of the Torah.
(3) Those who, while remaining Jews and spiritual followers ofTorah concepts in the creation of the Better World on our
Earth for all Jews and Gentiles, have concentrated on
mutual creative work with others. The life and activity of
such people as the founder of Zionsim and humanistTheodor Herzl, the supreme scientist, physicist and
humanitarian Albert Einstein and the great actor and public
figure Solomon Mikhoels are typical for this group. This
group can be called symbolically the Jewish builders of the
Torah.
If under the assumption that everything being done corresponds
to some plan of the Almighty (in any of His representations),then one may express the Almighty's logic in the following way.
The Jews included in the first group are so removed from
understanding the Almighty's plan, that the Almighty has simply
decided to exclude them from the Chosen People to lighten the
load of the two remaining groups. Jews joined the second group
with an acute perception of the One God and His instructions.
Jews joined the third group with an acute understanding that theideas of the One God (once more in any of His representations)
should be transformed into a program of creative activities for
the creation of the Better World "according to God" for
everyone.
It is very important to agree, while discussing the predestination
and identification of Jews referring to the Almighty/God and the
Torah, on the form and representation of the Almighty/Godhimself. Without agreement on the assumption of the multitude
of God's images, the discussion of Jewish identifications often
stops when someone declares, "I don't believe in God," but as a
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rule there is no answer to the counter-question, "what God don't
you believe in?"
So for a discussion of the identification of Jews, it is enough to
recognize that we, the people on Earth, ARE NOT the superior
ruling power, that there is something over us that determines the
laws under which our world and we operate and exist, and that
the something over us is the Almighty.
Further detailed elaboration of God's representation and itsinfluence on our world, including nature and people, leads to the
division of people and that lays at the heart of the unfriendly
relations of the Jewish custodians of the Torah and the Jewish
builders of the Torah. But if such dislike also is included in the
Almighty's design, then it may mean that the spiritual
competition of these two groups is useful for the advancement of
His plan for the creation of the Better World on our Earth.
Very likely, the majority of Jews in all three groups will not
object to declarations that the state should be separate from
religion and that science and democracy have nothing in
common with religion. However, an intellectual reading of the
Torah leads to the opposite conclusion the separation ofreligion from the state, and science and democracy from religion
makes fulfillment of the Torah's covenants (the Almighty's
covenants in any of His representations) impossible.
The majority of Jews treat Judeo-Christian unity warily, though
such unity is one of the fundamental covenants of the Torah,
however paradoxical it is.
Almost all Jews and many Christians see nothing positive in
anti-Semitism, though, much as it is not considered paradoxical,
anti-Semitism is to a significant degree a recognition of the Jews'
success in their fulfillment of some mission in society, though
there is no agreement regarding the essence of this mission.
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Many Jews treat the concept of their chosenness warily the
reason for all this, in order to contrast themselves with all theothers, not understanding that a true understanding ofchosenness lies at the heart of their identification.
So, this book also investigates all these questions to determine
Jewish identification and the role of Jews in our world.
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Everyone knows and can explain
why they consider themselves someone.
A musician says that he is a musician
because he plays some instrument
not because his parents were musicians.
A builder says he is a builder
because he builds or designs something
not because his parents were builders.
A Russian says he is a Russian
Because he was born in Russia,
and his country's traditions direct all his life activities
not because his parents were Russians.
But ask a Jew why he considers himself a Jew
and the answer most often will be
because his parents were Jews.
Just what must a Jew do to consider himself a Jew,
whether he is from a purely Jewish family,
from a mixed family,
or if he is a Christian by birth
who made the decision to live a Jewish life?
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1.3. Who the author is and why he wrote the
book
On this and the next two pages there are one picture and
seven photographs: Moses on Mt. Sinai brings the Jewish
people the Torah from God, the author's grandfathers and
grandmothers on his father and mother's side, his father and
mother, he himself, his wife and their two daughters.
Is there a spiritual unbroken connection between Moses on
Mt. Sinai and this large family?
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In the center of thephotograph above are
the author's great
grandmother on the
father's side and on the
right his grandmother
on his mother's side.
The family on the
father's sideconsidered themselves
not religious, but on
his mother's side as
religious.
But they all were
indisputably Jewish.
How is it so?
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This is the
father whotrusted the
government
more.
And this is
the mother
who trusted
the traditionsof her people
more.
And this book's author, who is trying to sort out all this in his
spiritual and creative life, with his wife Inna and daughters
Natasha and Anya.
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And on this and the two following pages are presented
photographs from the author's spiritual and creative life,during which he attempted spiritually to locate all this on
Mt. Sinai where Moses received the Torah/Old Testament
from God.
Parade of cadets of the Soviet
Naval Academy, from which
the author graduated.
One of the power systems
that marked the beginning of
his scientific work for the
optimization of power
installations.
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One of the first Soviet nuclear bombs and its Soviet
developers and American colleagues (the author, one of theAmerican colleagues, is third from the right), who helped
Russian nuclear weapon developers in the creation of
peaceful atomic technologies in "turning swords into
ploughshares!" This photo was taken approximately 1990 at
one of the main Soviet nuclear weapon development
organizations.
Is the unseen spirit of Mt. Sinai, Moses, the Torah, God and
Judeo-Christian civilization present here? Is it "good" or
"evil" from the point of view of the Torah/Bible?
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The gift of a Torah scroll to the Jewish community of the
Ukrainian city of Konotop (author on the left), in whoserevival the author took an active part. This photo was taken
in 2007 in the city of Konotop in Ukraine.
Inasmuch as this is a gift of a Torah, a spiritual connection
between this event and Moses on Mt. Sinai undoubtedly must
exist.
But how can one place on that very same Mt Sinai both a
Torah, and Moses and a Naval Academy and science and an
atomic bomb?
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And the author has attempted to answer these questions,
analyzing his whole life.
The author came into the world in the former Soviet Union as
early as before the Second World War in a Jewish and a bona
fide Soviet family. He lived and worked the Soviet way
sincerely, but his mind regardless of his desire, most likely
geneticworked the Jewish way, as he subsequently determinedit. The mind operating the Jewish way was looking for
something better all the time. It doesn't obediently carry outinstructions coming "from above," but automatically subjects
these instructions to analysis hoping to find better solutions to
make everyone "happy" - from the nearest and dearest to those
furthest removed and not related at all (and that's it!) Then he
still would not have known that everything comes from some
incomprehensible God and some unknown Torah, and he was
acting, most likely, impulsively.
He graduated from the Naval Engineering Academy in the
Leningrad suburb Pushkin in the Soviet Union, where he
obtained true friends (Jews and Gentiles); served for a while in
the Soviet Navy and later was demobilized; went through post-
graduate school and became successful in sciencein the area offinding optimal solutions for new power systems.
Everything was good - his family, which brought joy; and thecreative results of his scientific work in a research laboratory he
managed; and his intellectual friends who helped him understand
everything happening around him.
No, all the flaws of the Soviet system were visible; there was the
sense that some traditional, perhaps even "Jewish" notions of
Good and Evil were hideously distorted; and there was the sense
that this system exceeded the bounds of "normalcy" that wasvery difficult to express in normal words. But there was hope
someone "above" saw it all and was working on a correction.
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But enlightenment ensued at the end of the 1970s: the system
itself presented irrefutable evidence it was hopelessly ill andcould not heal itself. The system was deaf to all the ideas of
honest people and patriots, not the false party patriots, but the
spiritual patriots who sincerely wished good both for their people
and for all others. And it was especially deaf to the ideas of
people of the "Jewish ethnic group" who always needed, as the
saying goes, more than the others.
And such enlightenment led to his immigration to America wheredemocracy and the Judeo-Christian spirituality of this country
made it possible to begin to figure out what Good and Evil
meant, and actively to defend the rightness of his ideas both inthe scientific field and in the spiritual area.
Everything was normal in the field of science in America: the
work brought him satisfaction and the ability to defend his point
of view on scientific problems being resolved was guaranteedand always used. The most interesting part of the work was joint
American-Russian projects with Russian developers of nuclear
weapons on the use of nuclear military technologies for peaceful
purposes. The apex of this work was a two-volume work in
English, "Nuclear Shadow Boxing," written with three
colleagues and devoted to the scientific history of the American-
Soviet nuclear confrontation in the "Cold War" years.
But in the spiritual area, his "soul" continued to seek the answer
to questions of identificationon the whole for everyone, and in
particular for the Jewish people.
What is this learning and science for, what we must do in this
life, what is the purpose of our life on the earth, what has come
to us from the past and what will pass into the future?
And the author thinks that he has found his own personal answer
which comes down to the following:
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The One God in His intellectual interpretation, the Torah in its
intellectual interpretation, Judaism and Christianity which cameout of Judaism in their intellectual interpretation are the basis of
the determination of the purpose of our stay in our world, the
basis of the definition of Good and Evil and the basis of our, as
many say, Western Judeo-Christian civilization.
And if we begin to forget all this, our civilization will begin to
surrender its positions to other civilizations and our world may
become completely different. And we may realize all this when itis already too late
And further, having sorted out what's what and having discussed
it all with a multitude of interested friends, colleagues and
correspondents, the author understood others might also be
interested in his spiritual discoveries.
Why did the author want to share his thoughts with others? Heconsiders himself a typical representative of the intellectual
Jewry and the desire to "make mankind happy" with their
discoveries is inherent in such people. And he thinks his spiritual
interpretations may be interesting to others.
But why him, not a rabbi or philosopher by training? Everybody
knows rabbis and priests are engaged in such interpretations and
their interpretations are accessible to everyone. Why those
interpretations are not enough? However, after conversations
with many typical clergy members and the study of their spiritual
interpretations, the author discovered that they are in no
condition to illuminate spiritual questions so they satisfy
intelligent people intellectually.
And it all is because the purposes of the clergy's spiritual
activity differs in principle from the purposes of the spiritual
activity of intellectually intelligent people.
.
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Life in two worlds
in the Jewish worldand in the Judeo-Christian world
is not an attempt to move from one world to another.
The intellectual reading
of Judaism's holy books
and writings of Christianity's founders
suggest
these two worlds exist"according to God."
The Torah (the Old Testament)
was given to the Israelites,
but it was not given to them for their exclusive use;
It was given to them by some almighty power
subsequently called God
for propagation to all peoplesliving in our world.
Therefore, life in two worlds for a Jew
should be a natural condition
independent of whether he does it
consciously or intuitively.
And that is what the author felt
during his reflections on his life
and what he thinks
may help others
to sort out their own spiritual life.
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1.4. Who are the intellectuals and why their
understanding of Jewish identification is
important
Presented here are God the thinker who created man in his
own image and likeness (as portrayed in Leonardo da Vinci's
self-portrait) and man the thinker created in the image and
likeness of God (as portrayed by August Rodin).
Can one assume this
identifier "thinker" also is
most essential in the
intellectual unity of God
with Man?
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The standard definition of intellectuals: they are people with a
highly developed analytical mind permanently turned on to theprocess of abstracting about truth and morality; who produce
and develop ideas that determine standards and cultural values
for the rest of society. The main thing in intellectuality is not
education, but a natural ability to think and generate new ideas.
Our forefathers, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, did
not have any formal education, but they generated those ideas
that created the foundation of the Judeo-Christian world'smodern standards and values (how to distinguish Good from
Evil). As is seen from the definition of intellectuals, the purpose
of the spiritual activity of intellectuals is to search for new
approaches to traditional situations and is the mindset of a new
creator.
And it brings together such people with an intellectual version of
God's image and the goals of our existence in our world. Indeed,as the Torah affirms (Genesis 1:26), God created people in his
own image and likeness. But God's main characteristic according
to the Torah consists of the fact that He is the Creator and he
created our world and all of us, and he created everything that is
constantly being further developed.
And constant development requires a constant generation of new
creative ideas with which intellectuals also concern themselves.
The goal of the spiritual activity of rabbis and priests is
something completely opposite: to bring people to their senses
the unchanged and stable connected with God's image and the
existence of our world created by this God (Darwin's
evolutionary concepts in no way contradict the creation of the
world by some Almighty Power over us that has received the
name God). For example, in Judaism Orthodox rabbis teach theconstancy of what was done during the world's original creation
while Reformed rabbis teach the constancy of that understanding
of a world emerging in a contemporary liberal social
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environment. In the Christian world, counterpart treatments in
the study of the constancy of our world exist both in Catholicismand the Orthodox Church.
Therefore, intellectuals in particular do not find a spiritual home
in official religious organizations, though they do not refute their
principle importance.
One more thing important for understanding the intellectual
approach to the subject: the importance of scientific assessmentswhere they are possible. In particular, for this book the
assessment of the probabilistic nature of events occurring in the
human community is important, and a clear, almost scientific
definition of the ideas being discussed.
Mentioning the probabilistic nature of events is important
because disclaimers may be found to all the assertions in this
book.
For example, the assertion that Judeo-Christian moral criteria
created our civilization will be contrasted with the slogan,
"Religion is the opiate of the people." Both assertions are true
actually, there were many examples in history when religion was
used not as a compass for building the Better World, but for
keeping the masses of people obedient. And only the appreciably
great likelihood of a positive influence on our civilization that
will build the Better World "according to God," and of the
Judeo-Christian morality that was proven by the events of the
last two millennia confirm its grandeur.
One more example. The assertion that one of the Ten
Commandments in the Torah calls out "thou shall not kill"
always contradicts the examples from that very same Torah
which describes "killing" committed by God in different Torah
episodes.
In order to sort this out, one needs to read the Torah carefully
and understand that "thou shall not kill" means "thou shall not
kill Good," but "kill Evil." The point is that God is destroying
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Evil in the Torah, and the destruction of Evil leads to an increase
of the probability of preventing mass murders of peoplefollowing the Good path. Further in the books this assertion will
be supported by an analysis of the statements of the biblical
prophets.
A clear definition of the ideas being debated is needed because
the most contrary of definitions may be covered by one and the
very same word, and very often disagreements arise in the
discussions because of that in particular.
Let's take, for example, the word "God." When someone says to
this book's author (who believes in the existence of an
omnipotent power over us) that he (this somebody) doesnt
believes in the existence of God, the author always puts forth the
question, in which God is there no belief? And most often the
author agrees with the opponent's assertion that, really, there is
no such God as the one the opponent described to him.Therefore, the ideas being debated must be clearly defined
before any discussion.
Here are some of them.
Religion. Religion consists of three components, and thesecomponents are faith, rituals and religious organizations. The
main thing in religion is faith. Rituals and organizations play
an auxiliary role, enabling the strengthening of faith and
helping in actions for fulfilling faith's covenants. Thus,
usually, while speaking about a person's piety, people have in
mind the fulfillment of rituals and the visitation of religious
organizations (synagogues, churches) by a person in
discussion. But in reality, a person's piety is determined by
faith which one can follow while not even fulfilling therituals and not visiting religious organizations. Faith is the
key determinant of religion and piety in this book, and not
rituals and religious organizations.
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God. When someone says that he does not believe in God,most often he has in mind an image of God as some kind ofman-like gigantic dictator controlling all the spheres of our
life as he wishes and who is looking after his subjects. One
must maintain good personal mutual relations with such a
God. One must pray for a good relationship to oneself, to
one's family, to one's people and to one's country from such a
God. It is not worth intellectually-thinking people, really, to
believe in such a God. But another image of God also exists.
He is a kind of omnipotent power over us who created ourworld and his laws that determine everything that changes
around us. And if we follow these laws, we prosper; if we try
to live contrary to these laws, we suffer. And this power can
carry out the same experiments on us as we carry out on those
who enter our sphere of influence. God's key determinant in
this book is the presence of laws created by the omnipotent
power over us and which must be followed and not the
personal relationships of this power with man.
The Better World. They sometimes say that a person who hasdied goes "to another world, a better world." Maybe there is
some kind of better world in heaven, but that is not the world
whose creation is urged by the Torah, recounting for people
God's ideas for the continuation of the creation of our world
created by this God. The Better World according to the Torah
is not a better world in heaven, but here on our earth, during
our life. If the Better World is a result of the collective efforts
of all who sincerely believe, there are not and cannot be
"working drawings" of the Better World created beforehand.
Such a world according to the Torah is the combined result of
the creative activity of all individuals doing everything
everywhere as it is seen to be correct by them in accordance
with their individual understanding of Torah (and forChristians Bible) concepts. That is how the Better Worldwe are building according to God and the Torah is defined in
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this book. The notion of a Better World "according to God" is
detailed in many places of this book.
The authentic (ideal) Jew As soon as the question is put, justwho is an authentic Jew, the majority propose the following
answer: he is one who was born into a Jewish family and for
whom the synagogue is a "home away from home" and who
fulfills all the rituals our Jewish forefathers followed in the
townships and shtetls of long-ago. While not refuting the
importance of the fulfillment of rituals and visits tosynagogues, the most important thing according to the Torah
is the creative activity in the creation of the Better World in
accordance with God's spiritual concepts laid out in the
Torah. If that is so, then an authentic (ideal) Jew should be
one who ideally follows all the Torah's creative covenants.
And that means an "authentic Jew" kind of status can even be
granted to one not born into a Jewish family, but one born
into a Jewish family can be essentially not a Jew at all if hedoes not follow the Torah's creative covenants. Thus, not only
Jews by the fact of their Jewish birth, but also all others in
our world can (and must) achieve spiritual ideality according
to the God of the Torah. This book adheres to such a position
of the Jews in actual fact.
Judeo-Christian commonality and morality.It is commonalityand morality, based on the Ten Commandments and their
derivatives described in the Torah, or the Old Testament,
which were developed further in the Talmud for Jews and the
New Testament for Christians. And so this book defines a
Judeo-Christian commonality formed from the very
beginning two thousand years ago and preserved despite all
the well-known facts of Christian oppression of Jews.
The Chosenness of the Jewish People. As soon as this subjectis touched upon, the assertion at once arises that the concept
itself of chosenness means Jews consider themselves smarter
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than others, they elevate themselves above others and they
know how to do everything better than others.Not in the least!
The essence of the Jewish people's chosenness concept
developed in this book consists of the fact the Jewish people
are the people of the Torah. And the Torah determines the
main goal of the existence of the Jewish people as assistance
to the Almighty/God in the building of the Better World for
everyone, Jews and gentiles, on our earth according to the
covenants of the Almighty/God himself. The Jewish peoplewere chosen to carry out this task, but not to elevate
themselves over others, but to shoulder a great responsibility.
The majority of Jews think that chosenness is God's dictate,
though some think evolution made them that way.
It is not essential from the point of view of a practical history
that's the way they are. As a people they consciously orunconsciously do everything originating from God and the
Torah, but, as in any nation, they have their own sinners among
them.
All of the definitions just cited are only examples of the
definitions needed during the discussions in this book.
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If one is to believe
that God the Creator
created all people as creators
"in his image and likeness,"and people of the Judeo-Christian civilization
believe it,
then each living person in our world
must consider himself
an intellectual and creator
realizing his own individual
creative capabilities
given him by God.
And it must apply to an equal extent
to all people
disregarding their profession
both to scientists and to cobblers;
both to poets and to printers;
both to those
elected to the government
and to those
who elected them.
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1.5. Who may like this book and who may not
Portrayed here is a sculpture of a bureaucrat carrying a
briefcase made by an artist in Russia, and a version of
Rodin's sculpture the Thinker found in Israel.
All the instructions that need to be followed strictly are in the
bureaucrat's briefcase. His main job is to prevent any
attempts to place the instructions in doubt and to suppress
any intellectual activity directed at looking for somethingbetter. He is the ardent enemy of any intellectual activity and
of any intellectuals.
This book's author thinks that Man the Creator recognizes
mankind to a great degree than man the bureaucrat. If that
is so, then one may assume Man the Creator may like this
book and man the bureaucrat will take a dislike to it. But
would he read it?
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It is submitted that those who attempt to understand what they
are doing here on our earth may like this book.
They are the ones who seek answers to the question of what
unites them with every living person in their country and around
the world, and not what separates them.
They are those trying to understand what then came to them,
what was before them and what will come from them to those
who will be after them. They are those for whom the spiritualfoundations of existence are no less important than the material.
They are the ones for whom creation everywhere and always is
life's goal both in the family and at work, both among friends
and in society.
And those for whom the peaceful competition of spiritual ideas is
more important than military conflicts, but they are ready todefend their own spiritual ideas with weapons in their hands
against those who are unable to stand up for their own ideas in a
peaceful competition and, therefore, have decided to "prove
themselves right" with war.
Among those who may like this book might be
scientists, for whom it is important not only to prove theexistence of some kind of law, but also to foresee how the
practical usage of this law will help make our world a better
place for all who live in it;
businessmen, for whom not only is it important to bevictorious over competitors in a free market economy, but
also to convince themselves the number of people whose
lives will be better as a result of it will be somewhat larger
than the number of the unlucky ones who were at adisadvantage;
engineers, for whom it not only is important to execute aproject within the limits of the money and time allotted, but
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also to feel this project is something creatively new that did
not exist before it; politicians, for whom their political career is not only a well
paying job, but also the chance to realize their ideas in the
creation of a better life for those who are electing them now
and for the children and grandchildren of their present
constituencies;
and just common people for whom the spiritual componentof life is no less important than the material.
And who may not like the book? Those seeking ones guilty of
what they themselves are guilty.
They are the ones unable to achieve with physical and spiritual
labor what others achieve, but are unable to take it in stride
either.
They are the ones who determine their prosperity not by the
realization of their spiritual and physical potential, but by the
comparison of their achievements with others: if others achieved
more, that is "they achieved it by dishonest means."
They are the ones for whom creative labor's equal material
results are more important than equal conditions in the
discovery of their capabilities.
In other words, they are the ones for whom an authoritarian
society, such as a communist one for example, with orders
coming from the top, is more valuable than a society of free
enterprise with clearly observed rules of fair competition and
with individual responsibility for the results of their labor. Many
of them are included in the ranks of anti-Semites for whom Jews
are, as it were, the "scapegoats" very necessary for taking theirminds off the fact that you yourself are to blame for your life's
misfortunes.
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Among those who will understand this books' basic ideas but not
grasp them may be scientists for whom the understanding of the physical nature
of things is their sole purpose;
businessmen, for whom only "making money," and not itsuse for socially significant projects of their own choice is
the goal;
engineers, who work only "for salaries;" politicians, whose life goal is personal material well-being
and the sensation of power; and just common people worried only about the material
side of life.
One would like
to believe
this book
can help one
who is looking for it
to experience joy
from the realizationof their God-given individual capabilities,
not to grieve
that someone has greater capabilities,
and someone has achieved
more in the material sphere.
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Chapter 2
20th century novelty
in Jewish identification
that put the author
on the road
of personalintellectual
journey
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2.1. Identification with the goal of physical
exterminationhow it was in Nazi Germany
Something new emerged in the 20th century in Jewish
identification in Nazi Germany that had not happened before
in all the many centuries of the history of the Jewish people.
It was state identification for the purpose of finding and
exterminating Jews.
Such identification was founded on Nazi ideology begun by
the savage theoretical anti-Semitism of the German
composer Wagner and brought to brutish practical
realization by Hitler and his Nazi regime. The Holocaust
with its six million dead Jews was the result of such
identification.
One such extermination action is shown in the photograph
on the next page in the city of Kovno in Lithuania, which
was occupied by the Germans in 1941.
What was it a logical development of anti-Semitism or a
return of part of mankind to a savage pre-human condition?
Is it possible to make sense of it in the light of the Torah, of
Ten Commandments, of the concept of God, of the Jude-
Christian civilization?
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Let's begin with the savage philosophy of the German composer
Wagner that is described precisely by the Soviet conductor YuriAranovich and submitted here.
The story of militant Wagnerian anti-Semitism again proves how
dangerous are the ideas of racial hatred and unhealthy
xenophobia, especially when they issue not from the mouths of a
tipsy sausage maker, but belong to representatives of the national
creative elite.
"Jews are worms, rats, flesh worms, tapeworms that must be
exterminated, like a plague, to the last microbe, because there is
nothing that works against them, just poisonous gases," Wagner
wrote in a letter to his wife.
In his book, one of the chapters of which Wagner called
"Jewishly Evil Art," he writes, "It would be a most profound
error to separate Wagner the thinker and philosopher from
Wagner the composer. Perhaps it is possible in other cases, but
not in mine."
Wagner left no doubts about what he wanted to say with his
music as the thinker and philosopher. In a letter to Liszt in
1848, he invited him "to commit musical terrorism." And
actually, one may by rights call Wagner the first musical terroristof our time, long before Hitler and Arafat who directed terrorism
against the Jewish people.
Wagner was an ideologue of a defined movement, with a defined
goal both in music and in politics and in public life.
Wagner expressed his ideology perfectly clearly in the last
chapter of his sensational book and which hasn't ceased causingheated controversy to the present day, one of the chapters of
which is called "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
(by the way, he first introduced this expression long before the
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Nazis). And the final solution is of course the complete
extermination of the Jews. Wagner wrote a letter to the Bavarianparliament in which he proposed such plan for extermination of
the Jews. Not one musician, and not only musicians, but also
philosophers overall ever had advanced a program for the
extermination of a whole race. Even Nietzsche, whom it is
difficult to suspect of sympathies toward the Jews, wrote him a
letter where he said that Wagner was worthy of "dying in prison,
and not in his own bed" for this proposal. Nietzsche declared
openly in his letter to Wagner, "You are not a man, you aresimply a disease."
Wagner saw to it his ideas were clearly understood by
subsequent generations. For example, at the celebration of his
68th birthday, a year before his death, Wagner said in reply to a
toast, "My baton will show future generations many more times
what stand they should take."
And this stance was freeing mankind of the Jews.
First, because "Jews are like flies and rats: the more you
exterminate them, the more they procreate. There exists no
means except total extermination. The Jewish race was born as
the enemy of mankind and everything human. And especially the
enemy of everything German. And German art cannot sleep
soundly until the last Jew is exterminated." This idea was, as
Wagner himself said, "the leitmotif of my life."
The opera "Parsifal" occupied a special place in Wagner's work.
He called this opera "a testament for future generations." In the
forward to the first edition of "Parsifal," Wagner wrote, "I am
presenting in my opera 'Parsifal' the idea of the figure of a Christ
that has been cleansed of Jewish blood." For Wagner, "Parsifal,"
as he called it himself, was an "escape from the Redeemer."Why does one have to escape from Christ? Wagner explained it,
"Jewish blood flowed in Christ's veins you know." Wagner asked
that before a performance of "Parsifal" a miracle play be
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performed on the stage in which "the body of Christ is burnt
together with other Jews as a symbol of escaping from the Jewaltogether." But no one ventured similar things even in Wagner's
time.
These ideas of Wagner were adopted by the Nazi regime and
there was no need to change either the melody or the words -
everything fit even without it. "The final solution of the Jewish
question" was the culmination of many years of Nazi anti-
Jewish policy beginning from Hitler's early works about theneed to solve the Jewish question in Europe.
After coming to power in the 1930s, the Nazis attempted to
invoke a mass emigration of Jews; afterwards, efforts were
undertaken for expulsion of the Jews to areas specially set-aside
for it. And in 1941, the Nazis decided to exterminate the Jews
physically.
In September 1919, Hitler wrote his first political paper where he
declared that the Jewish problem could be decided only by the
complete removal of the Jews from Europe. According to this
paper, the removal of the Jews was supposed to take place
without excess emotionalism, not being accompanied by
pogroms and the like, but should be effected with typically
German thoroughness, effectiveness and coordination. Hitler
thought that the Jewish problem should be fundamental for every
Nazi. He himself was possessed by it and adamant in the search
for a "final solution" - a way to get rid of the Jews forever.
During all of the 1930s Hitler believed mass emigration could
solve the "Jewish problem." Anti-Jewish law, introduced in
Germany beginning with Hitler's rise to power in January 1933
and until the beginning of the Second World War in September1939, had as its goal to urge, and later also to force the Jews to
leave the country. In January 1939, Hitler appeared before the
German parliament. He criticized the countries of the free world
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for their refusal to accept Jewish immigrants and cautioned that
one of the consequences of a war might be the "disappearance"of European Jews.
In 1939, after the German invasion of Poland, 1.8 million more
Jews fell under the control of Nazi Germany. Hitler did not
immediately issue an order for their extermination. Instead, a
plan was developed, in accordance with which all Jews living
within the boundaries of the Reich should be moved to a
reservation in the region of Lublin, in the Polish GeneralGovernorship. The Nazis attempted to implement this plan
("Nisko-Lublin"), but it was not realized. By spring 1940, it
became clear that the Lublin program could not serve as a
solution to the Jewish problem, inasmuch as there was no free
territory in Poland for relocation of the Jews.
The "Madagascar" plan was the next stage of the anti-Jewish
policya project for the deportation of all Europe's Jews to theisland of Madagascar, a French colony in Africa. However,
Germany was beaten in the Battle of Britain after only several
months, which made the Madagascar project impracticable.
In June 1941, Germany, violating the terms of the treaty of non-
aggression between the Soviet Union and Germany (the so-
called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) invaded the USSR. Mobile
death squads called Einsatzgruppen, in cooperation with units of
the regular military, police elements and local collaborators,
began the systematic extermination of the Soviet Union's Jews.
Massive, systematic extermination of people was undertaken for
the first time for "the solution of the Jewish problem."
In July of that year, Hermann Goering approved preparations for
"the final solution." At the end of 1941 and the beginning of1942, the Nazis created several extermination camps, began the
deportation to them of Jews and developed extermination
methods. The first experiment in the use of poisonous gas was
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made at Auschwitz in September 1941, and camps were created
in the late fall at Belzec and Chelmno. Sobibor, Treblinka,Majdanek and Auschwitz supplemented the number of
extermination centers in the spring of 1942. In the meantime, in
December 1941, Hitler reported to his closest associates that
Germany's Jews also were subject to extermination; thereby, the
policy of the "final solution" was being expanded over all the
territory of Europe.
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Representatives of Nazi Germany's government
and the Nazi armed forces of the SS
met at the Wansee Conference
in January 1942
for coordination of activities
for the exterminationof all Europe's Jews to the last man.
From that moment and until the war's end in 1945,
the "final solution"
was official Nazi policy
and meant only one thing
the complete extermination of European Jews.
For the first time in the history of mankind,
a god-man named Hitler
who decided to replace the One True God
with himself for everyone,
proclaimed his goal
to identify one racial group of mankind
for the purpose
of its complete physical extermination.
Just how could such a thing have happened?
Just what underlay the identification of people?
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2.2. Identification with the goal of spiritual
extermination - how it was in the Former Soviet
Union
Identification with the goal of the search for and spiritual
extermination of Jews was assumed as the basis of
communist ideology in the Former Soviet Union, the
beginning of the savage anti-Semitism of communism'sfounder Marx and brought to its savage practical realization
by Stalin and his dictatorial regime.
Section number 5 for indication of ethnic group, and the
Jews were one of the ethnic groups, was on the government
official employment-application forms and the passport in
the USSR. Indication of ethnic group in the passport and
other identification documents was mandatory.
The passport and official employment-application forms
identified Jews in the Soviet Union as people with an
objectionable and even destructive spirituality. And it was
impossible to live normally with such an identification.
The result was the mass desire of Jews to leave the country.
A picture of Mark Chagall's "Exodus" is presented on the
next page illustrating the exodus of Jews from Russia and the
Soviet Union when Russia existed in such form for some
time.
Was the main stimulus of the mass Jewish immigration from
Russia and the Soviet Union the hidden desire to change
their "destructive spiritual" identification attached to eachJew in Russia and the Soviet Union to a positive?
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Jews lived in the Soviet Union as did everyone, but tried to be
somewhat better than everyoneto study better, carry out worktasks more diligently, and so on.
On the one hand, it was caused by a vital needJews knew that
they had to be better than others to achieve on the job what
others achieved with somewhat less effort. On the other hand,
there was something inside them that many considered "natural"
unconsciously pushing them to propose and do something better
than other and, to be more compassionate toward people.
It could only cause the dissatisfaction of others to say, Jews
always stick their necks out! They always do things the other
way round! And so forth. But they continued to do so. Why was
that? Was it always that way? History has helped illuminate
these questions.
The Russian people, including too its short existence in the formof the Soviet Union, relate to people who need a strong leader
for the organization not only of all of society but even the
personal life of each individual person, in contrast to the some
other peoples who prefer to organize their individual life
themselves. Russia is an authoritarian country (as has been
noted, and that amounted to a frank, cruel dictatorship during
Soviet rule).
There were attempts in Russia's history to transition to a more
democratic system of governance, but they all ended in failure.
At the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, Russia once
more tried to democratize itself, but again slid back toward an
authoritative regime at the start of the 2000s.
An authoritarian regime is based on like-mindedness and theRussian people have been justifying and complying with like-
mindedness in an overwhelming majority.
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Dissidents always have existed, but they have not found any
support among the people. Russians prefer to stay on the beatenpath, and new social ideas make them nervous; the probability
life will become worse as a result of the realization of new ideas
is great, and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution is shining
confirmation of it.
Such a tradition and history of the Russians, and possibly, even a
probabilistic genetic combination which science is now stealing
up to. But even if science confirms a connection of a people'straditions with its average genetic structure, different genetic
structures and the traditions depending on them should not be
looked at in terms of "good" or "bad." It is necessary to pay for
all the social changes from the relatively "bad" to the relatively
"good" with transitional suffering, and for some peoples this
payment is intolerably high.
The history and the traditions of the Jewish people are somethingelse, and it all manifested itself contrastingly when fate brought
the Jews to Russia.
The Jews ended up in Russia as a result of the partition of Poland
several centuries ago. Russia wanted really very much to obtain
Polish lands in order to expand westward, and she obtained
them. But she obtained along with the large quantity of Jews
living on these lands a people with a completely different
historic and spiritual tradition.
The Jewish people are a democratic people who do not like
strong dictatorial leaders and prefer to search for new social
paths of development in their own communities (and if possible,
in the countries where they live) instead of staying on the beaten
path.
One must note for the record that the search for new social paths