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Wait what? Why contempt for the idea of the chosen people? It has no downside to you so why the contempt? 613 laws vs 7 laws. I can clearly see why a non-jew should feel contempt. Though no one is stopping you to live after those 613 laws.
And what has the state of Israel to do with this?
You have to be kidding me - you don't think there is any down side to believing you and your "team" are more special to "THE" god than everybody else?
But you do realise that there is nothing in judaism that favors a jew over a gentile right? Overall its more difficult to be a (oh i hate the term but i will use it) religious jew and be on the same step as a righteous gentile.
Should we change the words? How about we are cookies while gentiles are muffins. I would bet that some people would even take that as an offense.
How about we're all just people? We all have an ethnic heritage of some kind or other, and if there is any kind of creator god, then clearly She must have made us all. To believe that God Herself is primarily concerned with people with a Jewish heritage and doesn't half give a toss about the rest of us is barbaric.
Levite said:I have seen several times a common misconception that the term "chosen people" (which is a mistranslation anyhow) is thought to indicate superiority or supremacism, as though we think that we're God's favorites. And that is not at all what it means: we have been chosen to accept additional responsibilities and duties that other peoples have not been taxed with. Nor does it indicate exclusivity: we have been chosen to be the Jewish People, those who keep the Torah. Presumably, God could and would choose other peoples for different responsibilities, with different responsibilities and duties.
To believe that God Herself is primarily concerned with people with a Jewish heritage and doesn't half give a toss about the rest of us is barbaric.
Of course, I would feel differently if the Jewish god wasn't supposed to be the ONLY god. If Judaism taught that every cultural group had its very own god, primarily concerned with that individual culture's well-being, I wouldn't find the notion so off-putting.
I said above:
I don't know why that shouldn't be sufficient.
LOL.I've found that anti-semites often take issue with the concept of anti-semitism.
I know, it sounds totally bizarre, but it's true.
Well, it could be that I'm getting my impression of the "Chosen People" thing mainly from Christians rather than Jewish people.
I still think the idea does more harm than good. Nationalism / tribalism / cultural exclusivity / racial identification and all such stuff has a distinct tendency to lead to the oppression of minorities or violence between different tribes.
It is mainly Christians, especially fundamentalists, that harp on that in a very literal way.
This is true, but honestly, most Jewish people are not orthodox. Many, if not most, are secular. And even the orthodox have very nuanced views on this. A minority does take it to an extreme.
when you ,a genocidal tribe of warlords,declare yourself the chosen people of the God of the universe,expect some criticism
when you ,a genocidal tribe of warlords,declare yourself the chosen people of the God of the universe,expect some criticism
The Orthodox don't help in their assertions that a Jew who doesn't practice Judaism has no Jewish soul, and other such dogmas.
Pearls, Rebbe.. Pearls...Do you think that you could possibly universalize and oversimplify everything just a little bit more? While you're at it, why not accuse us of owning all the media and scheming to get all the money?
I have said it several times now, and it still bears repeating: you have no qualification to criticize something that you clearly know nothing whatsoever about. You might try reading my posts above on how chosenness doesn't mean what you've just tried to say it means, for starters.
There really has to come a point at which willful ignorance becomes equivalent to mere bigotry.
Not that I'm the world's biggest fan of Orthodoxy, as you know, but in all fairness, the doctrine that you're citing here is hardly embraced by all Orthodox. No Modern Orthodox person I have ever encountered believed it, and most centrist Orthodox folks that I know would absolutely reject such a doctrine. I even know some Haredim (ultra-Orthodox) who would reject it. Sure, I've encountered plenty of Haredim who wouldn't, too, but that still puts the doctrine in question squarely in the category of wide-eyed radical, and not all Orthodox are radical fundamentalists.
when you ,a genocidal tribe of warlords,declare yourself the chosen people of the God of the universe,expect some criticism