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כִּי לֹא מַחְשְׁבוֹתַי מַחְשְׁבוֹתֵיכֶם, וְלֹא דַרְכֵיכֶם דְּרָכָי

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Oxymoron of the Day: A Meaningful Fast

My wife's niece, a young and idealist OM, wished me an 'easy and meaningful fast' (tzom kal vemashmauti) on this day of 17  Tammuz.

But how meaningful can a fast day be if we commemorate:
  • the beginning of the destruction of a city that now, after so many years of exile, has become a city that is more vibrant than in biblical times (ever)?
  • that Apostomus burned a Torah scrol, when we have had so many other book and Torah burnings at other times: why is this Torah different from all the other ones? 
  • that Moses broke the first set of tablets but we received a new set of Ten Commandments afterwards?
  • that we were not able to sacrifice anymore in the Temple because there were no animals anymore: who needs animal sacrifices anyway?
  • that an idol was placed in the Temple, but what does that matter if the Temple itself got destroyed anyway?
Needless to say that the Turkish showarma today was dedicated to all those fools who think the fast day is meaningful, just because they were told to bellieve so.

3 comments:

  1. I don't read into it; it's like when someone says "bless you," after you sneeze. And it's better than someone saying, "Have a starving and crying until your shirt's soaking wet fast." That would be harsh. I don't believe in fasting, but when I've got a ton of work in front of me, sometimes I forget to eat. If it does something for someone (on a personal level) for them to fast, good for them. I'm not one to dictate what others should or shouldn't do, as I don't like when others tell me what to do.

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  2. "Needless to say that the Turkish showarma today was dedicated to all those fools who think the fast day is meaningful, just because they were told to bellieve so."

    We're supposed to repent so that similar tragedies don't reoccur. Just think how the Holocaust could have been avoided it people would have taken heed of the rabbis and repented!

    http://jewishphilosopher.blogspot.com/2009/06/holocaust-clear-evidence-of-gods-hand.html

    Unfortunately, history repeats itself. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is no different than Hitler.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad#.22Wiped_Off_the_Map.22

    Let's hope we don't make the same mistakes Jews in Europe did. Although it sounds like some idiots are doing exactly that.

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  3. It was meaningful, once. Unfortunately, once something starts, it can never be stopped.

    Sorry about feeding the troll, but I have to point out that the rabbonim in Europe before the war were partly responsible for the scope of the tragedy. (Just so I’m clear, obviously they cannot be blamed in any way for the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis.) They forbade their followers from fleeing to America, and are on record as saying it was better for people to risk their bodies in Europe than their souls in America. Had they instead encouraged people to flee, many more would have escaped. If only more people hadn’t “taken heed of the rabbis.”

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