D.E.

“Just as the constant increase of entropy is the basic law of the universe, so it is the basic law of life to be ever more highly structured and to struggle against entropy.” — Václav Havel, letter to Communist Party of Czechoslovakia general secretary Gustáv Husak, 8 April 1975

@kan_immanuel I’m not sure what I’m trying to answer, though.

@tkdylan Take your time answering.

My genuine opinion of Judaism is that it has many problematic elements, such as a lack of a natural law tradition, or very little in the way of theology—which is why I’m a Catholic. But it’s also not the left-wing cult that anti-Semites or left-wing Jews make the faith out to be.

@kan_immanuel ...for it?

@tkdylan I don’t get your point. You are for or against the Oral Law?

@kan_immanuel So you deny the Oral Law?

@tkdylan Should have been written down much sooner?

@kan_immanuel Well, there’s the whole Oral Law thing...

@tkdylan What do you think should have been in the Torah to have a more complicated theology and tradition of natural law?

@FreeManDespair @FieldSpeakerZDQ Ha! Touché.

@tkdylan @FieldSpeakerZDQ OHH. Ok still

@FreeManDespair @FieldSpeakerZDQ Oh no, I meant the chain of yeshivos. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshivas_…

@tkdylan @FieldSpeakerZDQ *sighs* Chofetz Chaim... a great author, unfortunately his work is aimed towards practical guidance or basic moralizing.

@FieldSpeakerZDQ @FreeManDespair Yes, but revealed by what means? Anyway, I’m gonna have to have a discussion with my dad and my rabbeim about this 😤 Chofetz Chaim should have educated me in Jewish natural law philosophy

@tkdylan @FreeManDespair Well there’s the whole issue of Divine Law as revealed. Also whether antediluvian societies were constructed on their perceptions of natural law… Maimonides discusses this

@FreeManDespair @ByzCat Oh, right, sorry. I need more sleep.

@tkdylan @ByzCat (I used the English term because not everyone is familiar with the Hebrew one)

@FreeManDespair @ByzCat Moreh Nevuchim was never condemned?

@tkdylan @ByzCat Also, the Cherem was specifically against Iggeret Tehiyyat HaMethim (Letter on the Ressurection) and the Guide, because they misconstrued him as denying bodily Ressurection, a fact Maimonides resented greatly

@BMcGrewvy For Jews without a solid commitment to orthodoxy, yes, but I think for modern liberal Jews it’s about an instinctive reaction to Christianity.

@tkdylan So that leads to an instinct to always side with the alienated minority?

@FreeManDespair @ByzCat Interesting, I need to read this teshuvah.

@tkdylan @ByzCat Eh a partisan Cherem that was countered by a counter Cherem, the entire issue was resolved within a short time- the leader of the anti-Maimonideans (R Jonah of Giron) actually recanted and wrote a whole tract about repentance as penance

@VNudnik Hm...

@tkdylan Being raised in it, I always felt Judaism meant living by a set of rules & ethics that boiled down to "Be a mensch and not a schmuck" in order to honor the gift of life God gave you & return that love to God as well.

@Murmurs16477916 Nope.

@tkdylan They haven’t been in a good long while.

During the COVID-19 pandemic here in New York City, the Episcopal Diocese of New York refused to collaborate with an evangelical organization to set up a field hospital because the latter group required its own employees to adhere to Christian sexual morality. It’s not Christian.

@FieldSpeakerZDQ @FreeManDespair Why not?

@tkdylan @FreeManDespair I am literally monkey, though from a Jewish POV I haven’t really seen a compelling argument in favor of Natural Law as commonly understood

@kan_immanuel @BMcGrewvy Not really.

@tkdylan @BMcGrewvy It’s just uninformative.

@kan_immanuel Huh?

@tkdylan A shame Moses was too modest to push back at some of the commandments.

@kan_immanuel @BMcGrewvy Well yes, but that’s not a tautology.

@tkdylan @BMcGrewvy I’ll grant it’s not a two way street but liberal jews are almost by definition progressive. The reverse not necessarily.

@FreeManDespair @ByzCat Okay, but the works of Maimonides were put into cherem for a time!

@tkdylan @ByzCat No, it's not- I quoted Maimonides since he often puts things in a concise way

@asbestosman8 @yo101 True! But it’s a matter that requires some delicacy.

@tkdylan @yo101 The fact you’re worried about crapping on them suggests your critiques would be well written and not hateful/disrespectful.

@BMcGrewvy I think Jewish progressivism is born of an alienation from the Western tradition.

@tkdylan What's the connection to Jewish progressivism?