Yuyutsu

34% in U.S., 18% (Pew poll), in Israel Believe it’s possible to believe Christ is the messiah and remain Jewish. Which category are you, to ask such a question?

Dear David F.,

«My cousin emailed me today on a matter of family history. I tried to help.»

I never suggested shutting down international mail, phones, internet or travel.

«they could get into conflict with one another as Israel and Judah did»

So what was that conflict about? Just who should be the king as the Bible claims, or rather what the science of archaeology tells us?

The whole region was subordinate to the Assyrian empire to which all local kings raised taxes.
Israel wanted to rebel against Assyria and asked Judea to join. Judea, which was smaller, was aware of its limitations, refused to cooperate and continued to pay their tax.

As we all know, the Assyrians came, easily quashed that rebellion and exiled Israel, yet left Judea intact. Wasn't its resistance worthwhile?

[archaeology also tells us that the tribes of Israel and Judea were not even related... but that would come outside the scope of this discussion]

Same for the United States: wasn't abolishing slavery a worthwhile cause for its great civil war?

There is this beach-game where the legs of pairs of competitors are tied and they need to run like that on the sand, whoever reaches the flag first wins... it's meant to be fun, but I don't think that running with one's legs tied throughout real life is much fun.

You may not like to impose your values on others, but some practical decisions in life are unavoidable despite all good intentions, for example which days are going to make your weekend - Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday.

I like the following passage from the Bible:

`And quarreling arose between Abram’s herders and Lot’s. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time.
So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives.
Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.”` [Genesis 13:7-9]

Dear Yuyutsu,

I like that passage, too. Goodbye.

Yuyutsu,
Other concerns may have become less important to Netanyahu but that doesn't make his primary concern his sole concern. He's always cared about territory and regarded peace as a low priority. He first got in on a platform of slowing down the peace process, which led to its gradual destruction.

Dear Dan,

«34% in U.S., 18% (Pew poll), in Israel Believe it’s possible to believe Christ is the messiah and remain Jewish. Which category are you, to ask such a question?»

Being "Jewish" is not well defined, there is no agreed definition, but according to the most common attempts to define Jewishness, my answer would be 'yes', a Jew may also believe in elves and unicorns and still remain a Jew.

Many Jews, historically, believed that such-and-such was the Messiah, Jesus Christ and Sabbatai Zevi, to name the two most famous among them.
Mainstream Judaism believes in the concept of Messiah, but considers any Jew who believes that a specific person is the Messiah to be a heretic.

As a Hindu, I believe that there are not one but many Messiahs. In the holy words of Shri Krishna:

"Whenever there is a decline in righteousness and an increase in unrighteousness, O Arjuna, at that time I manifest Myself on earth.
To protect the righteous, to annihilate the wicked, and to reestablish the principles of dharma I appear on this earth, age after age." [Bhagavad-Gita, 4:7-8]

I think that Jesus Christ was one of them.
Thus I believe that should Christ be placed in contemporary Israel or contemporary America, then he would obviously side with the righteous.

So to rephrase my earlier question to you: which of the sides in Israeli and American politics respectively, is more righteous in your view?

Yuyutsu

#So to rephrase my earlier question to you: which of the sides in Israeli and American politics respectively, is more righteous in your view?#

Self righteous would be a more fitting term for politics and politicians.

For example, I wouldn’t accuse Christ as being a self righteous person in his earthly form.
Certainly righteous though: But it’s entirely unfitting to include politicians and their political positions under a heading of righteous.

Not sure where you’re heading with this question.

I think though, the whole political scene in the West is one of “scumbagery” and totally unrighteous on all levels of its self serving motivations.

Can we blame the UN?