At 10:37 AM 5/1/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I do not question the qualifications of Dr. Landes, nor those of Hebrew
>College. I might observe, though, that Hebrew College defines itself
>"non-sectarian, trans-denominational," which means that it embodies many
>approaches to Judaism, some of them contradictory (as you will find in
>Christendom).
>
>More to the point, Kristin Solias did not respond to my comment that
>Judaism is not defined by a belief system, and (consequently) does not
>divide the world into "believers" and "non-believers." Further, I stated
>that Judaism does not attach much eschatological significance to being or
>not being a Jew. It is therefore impossible to respond to a conference that
>asks how Jews view "apocalyptic others (i.e., unbelievers)" if the term is
>undefined within Judaism.
i think you are the one here who is applying blanket generalizations here.
how did the *believers* in Shabbetai Zvi's messianic status interact with
those who rejected him; how do the most messianically inclined Lubovitchers
deal with a wide range of "others" from those in the movt who say the rebbe
is dead to those jews who say Lubovitch is no longer jewish, to non-jews.
these are all legitimate questions and need not involve the old chestnut
orthopraxis/orthodoxy.
>
>Further, I neglected to comment on the connection of the conference with
>the millennium. The current year on the Jewish calendar is 5757, it is 1375
>(give or take a year) on the Moslem calendar.
no. it is in the early 1400s AH (they do not have leap months and therefore
their calendar cannot be calculated simply by adding solar years to 622 CE).
1400 was 1979, the year Khoumeini took over in Iran, and many Muslims,
shiite and sunni are in full apocalyptic mode (Hamas, Algeria, Sudan, etc.).
We are approaching the
>"millennium" only on the Christian calendar. [anno domini, the year of YOUR
>Lord] Since you seem to object to my use of the word "facile," I will not
>characterize the assumption that the approach of a year divisible by 1000
>in the Christian calendar somehow has universal significance.
i heard a rabbi (haredi) explain that the messiah might come in 2000 because
according to the gematria of a passage in psalms, christians will have 2000
years of dominion over jews. when i suggested that might mean 2312, or at
best 2033, but surely not 2000, lest he give the incarnation cosmic status,
he waved me aside and said "Nostradamus says big things will happen in
2000." there is such a thing as contact-high apocalypticism, and muslims,
jews, new-agers, ufologists, even hindus, are getting it. do not
underestimate the power of a date, especially a big one, to get the roosters
crowing.
to paraphrase Billy Crystal, "owls need a reason, roosters just need a date."
>I will be happy to respond to comments that speak to the issues.
>
>
>
>At 13:44 04/30/97 -0400, Kristin Solias wrote:
>>
>>On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, Laurence F. Friedman wrote:
>>
>>> This call for papers is based on a facile assumption that the three western
>>> religions are essentially similar, and that all divide the world into
>>> believers and non-believers, i.e., that the defining element of the
>>> communicants is their set of beliefs. This is certainly NOT true of
>>> Judaism. Jews are typically referred to, in the Scripture and otherwise,
>> [etc]
>>
>>Actually, this conference has nothing to do with a zeal for ecumenism.
>>It is the outgrowth of a series of seminars held at Hebrew College, where
>>I think we can assume they have more than a facile understanding of
>>Judaism, as does Richard Landes, the director of CMS.
>>
>
>Laurence F. "Laurie" Friedman, Ph.D., CHP
>New York University
>205 Third Avenue, Apt. 16A
>New York, NY 10003-2526
>(212) 387-7957
>
>
Richard Landes
Boston University
History Department
Center for Millennial Studies
http://www.mille.org/
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|