[Avodah] Impact of Judgmental Statements Was Religion and Falsifiability

[Richard Wolpoe]

On 10/22/07, kennethgmiller at juno.com <kennethgmiller at juno.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> What I have written in this thread has been addressed to the Avodah
> membership, who have shown themselves to be serious, thinking people. They
> don't jump to conclusions, but carefully weigh the evidence. They are an
> exceptional bunch, and I'm proud to be among them. But the masses,
> regrettably, are not so thoughtful.
>
> The masses *are* easily influenced. And so the above definition of Kiddush
> Hashem is indeed valid. A typical person in the street (let's call him ABC)
> meets someone (let's call him XYZ), and forms an opinion about him.
> Regardless of whether ABC admires XYZ or is disgusted by him, the odds -
> unfortunately - are pretty high that ABC will not only feel this way about
> XYZ personally, but he'll probably presume that other people from XYZ's
> community are similar. (This will apply regardless of how ABC chooses to
> define XYZ's "community" - by ethnicity, race, salary, age, or whatever.)
>
> The ironic result is that I must try to be on my best behavior whenever
> someone might tend to extrapolate from my behavior to that of other Jews --
> even though I think that his doing so is an unwarranted generalization.
>
> Akiva Miller
>

I am a bit disturbed by a mild but nevertheless serious "rant". A Sephardic
friend of mine was quoting the Ibn Ezra's critique of  Kallir.   As a
faithful Ashkenazi -  I get very up-tight about these things, but beyond
that - I found the attack gratuitous.  Nevertheless, the man WAS after all
quoting Ibn Ezra! So how does one DEAL with these realities!   If "gedolim"
themselfes have made attacks on their peers, how can I stop others from
quoting those attacks?

I guess I could have retorted with quotes by OTHER Gedolim who in turn
attack ibn Ezra, but that would have been hypocriitcal of me - d'alach sni -
lechacvrach lo ta'avid!  IOW  If I resented HIS attacks on Kallir, why would
TWO wrongs make a right?

How can we respond in these situations - besides stoic silence?

-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
Please Visit:
http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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