Scientific Method and Studying Judaism

Jews: Deceiving Themselves and Gentiles

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

California State University–Long Beach Psychology Professor Kevin MacDonald addresses Jewish self-delusion and self-deception in Self-Deception as an Aspect of Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy while I visit the topic in Jewish History: Facts versus Delusions.

 

Was Jeffrey Goldberg simply lying to himself about something patently obvious when he attacked Mearsheimer and Walt in The New Republic? (See The Usual Suspect as well as Philip Weiss's blog entries Was Goldberg Courageous, or Just Goin' With the Progressive Tide? and Goldberg's Variation.)

 

Modern political science identifies the modern nation-state as a construct of the imagination, which therefore depends in various ways on deception and delusion, but MacDonald and I seem to be looking at something much deeper in modern Jewish identity.

 

If this hypothesis is true, intellectual dishonesty should appear in modern Jewish discourse on even apparently insignificant historical questions.

 

In Connecting Hanukkah, Christmas and `Idu-l-Adha, The New Jew & Mundoweiss: Jewish Christmas Thoughts, Jewish, Christian, and Palestinian Holidays, and Followup (II): Origins of Modern Jewry, I try to make the point that Hanukkah and Christmas are the same winter festival of lights and that they connect to different ancient understandings of Israel's covenant with God. During the discussion I point out that Jewish communities have often in the past considered Hanukkah a tremendously important holiday, but even citing the tenth century sage Saadyah Gaon, who is perhaps the most important figure in the transformation of Geonic Judaism into Rabbinic Judaism, produced no admission that my analysis might possibly have just a tiny grain of truth.

 

No Star Too Beautiful, An Anthology of Yiddish Stories from 1382 to the Present, edited and translated by Joachim Neugroschel, pp. 10-12, contains a translation of a sixteenth century poem in which Hanukkah itself argues for its status as the most important Jewish holiday. [I have put Hanukkah's comments in red.]

 

Not only was I probably correct about the historical importance of Hanukkah, but in the past century or two Jews may have consciously deemphasized Hanukkah to create a greater distinction between Judaism and Christianity.

 

Please note that the wish, "God grant that next year we will be in Jerusalem with all our tribe," expresses desire for the coming of the Messiah, who will rebuild the Jerusalem Temple so that the Temple sacrifices can resume.  The traditional invocation has no Zionist connotation whatsoever despite the lies of Israel advocates.

 

Zalman Khasak (dates unknown)

 

The Holy Days taking part in the free-for-all are: Hanukkah (the Feast of Lights); Passover (commemorating God's gift of the Torah to the Jews); Rosh Hashonah (New Year's); Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement); Sukkoth (harvest festival); Ninth of Av (the destruction of the Temple); and Purim (the salvation of the Persian Jews from destruction t the hands of Haman, the shah's wicked adviser).

 

This humorous narrative has an intricate rhyme scheme, which I haven't even tried to capture: aabccbededfgf, whereby the g-line remains unrhymed. This device -- the "orphan line" was used in medieval German poetry to lend a touch of disharmony, of dissonance. In this Yiddish debate, the dissonance may reflect the sometimes harsh if comical argument. As the penultimate line of each stanza, this orphan is part of the conciliatory finale spoken by Purim:

God grant that next year we will be

In Jerusalem with all our tribe.

The War of the holy Days (1517)

Oldendorf, Germany

 

 Now, my dear friends, do you see what you're doing? The Holy Days indulged in arrogant boasting, in envy and hatred and warfare. Hanukkah tried to fight them all and carry the day by force: "I want to present this to people so they'll understand this whole business. The Greeks failed to remove one small measure of oil, enough to burn for one day -- but the light lasted for eight days. Heaven worked this great miracle: the good Lord made a great sign to every single person."

 

"I don't wish to put it off any longer," said Passover, stepping forward. "I want the prize. On my day they started to tell the story, God chose my night and He also parted the Red Sea."

 

Hanukkah said: "I'm so delighted -- I've got my revenge. No one can stomach your food, people cook a lot better on my day. Young and old are cheered by the sight of me. So keep quiet, you talk too much!"

 

"You shouldn't break off with me," said Shevuoth. "Why, you're one of us. On my day God gave us the Torah and gave each man a crown as well. God Himself spoke  to us."

 

Hanukkah replied very sagely: "I've seen a lot of cake and milk with you -- you've simply lapsed into a fever because all the meat was fed to the dogs. I won't say a word about your great offense. Just take your cheese and butter and leave the land."

 

"Well, let me complain too," said Rosh Hashonah, the holy start of the New Year. "I'm stronger than you, for the world was born on my day, and people have to blow a horn to scare off Satan."

 

Hanukkah sneered: "You've lost to me; you are godly half the day, but I don't need to pray very much. Instead, people have to read from the Psalter. That's prohibited on your day, but I can enjoy it."

 

"Hanukkah, I've taken my aim at you -- for you're nothing compared with me," said Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the unique day. "On my day God forgives Israel for all its sins, and the children of Israel are just in all their bonds, like the pure and holy angels."

 

Hanukkah said: "I'm longer than you and hotter. You belong with the Ninth of Av in the summer. I'm longer than you and hotter. You belong with the Ninth of Av in the summer. I'm good at gobbling and guzzling, but people suffer grief and hunger with you, and they also have to go barefoot. Someone who hates you can't repent his sin."

 

"You're throwing out the baby with the bathwater. You always have the least provisions, so I'll give you another day. My name is Sukkoth, and people will know Israel because of me when the sun is hottest."

 

Hanukkah said: "I'm superior to you!" And they began to curse one another. "With you, people sit in snow and rain, but when I come, they heat their homes. I've shut your mouth -- you want to battle with me, and that makes me very angry."

 

"It's no miracle that you've promised the Holy Days, and they've shattered their share. But I, Purim, I'll catch you. On my day they cook the best and not the worst. Israel was saved, and Haman was hanged."

 

Hanukkah replied wisely: "You are my inferior, for I last a whole wight days, and even that I feel, is too brief."

 

Purim said: "You are the master and I am the servant. God grant that next year we will be in Jerusalem with all our tribe."

 

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