The paradox of Jewish survival for Orthodox Jews
In a comment to my previous post on spirituality Tobie said:
But when the modern era invents concepts like self-identity and meaning and humanism, Judaism must either be changed to fill the need or risk getting thrown out entirely.It's a good segue into something which I've been thinking about lately. It seems to me that Jews in general are always paranoid about the survival of the Jewish people. But for Orthodox Jews this seems like a denial of faith. If we believe that G-d's promise to us is irrevocable and we are bound by this covenant, then doesn't it stand to reason that the Jews will always survive and eventually reap the rewards of the Messianic Age?
posted by e-kvetcher at 9:21 AM
3 Comments:
It's not so much that I worry about the survival of the Jewish nation as that I am interested in the means that the survival takes. I do believe that Judaism is never going to die, but I think that's because it is alive and brilliant and vibrant and beautiful enough to be able to evolve and adapt. Judaism survived Churban Bayit Sheni not by passively sitting around and waiting for G-d to fulfill His promise that the nation would always overcome, but by reinventing and redefining itself. So just because we know the end of the story doesn't mean you can't be interested and involved in figuring out what we're supposed to do to get there.
Tobie, my post wasn't addressing you personally. Your remark just triggered the thought. No offense was mean't.
None was taken. Just trying to explain my thought process. Sorry if it came out all offended.
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