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<DIV>In a message dated 12/5/2007 8:58:26 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
ilanasober@gmail.com writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>I imagine people would have no problem understanding a that a
reference to George Washington, the American Revolution, etc as "myth" does
not imply that the speaker doubts whether GW really existed or considers
himself superior to Americans......We can have a true myth while other nations
have false myths, just like we can have a true G-d while other nations have
false gods.<<<BR><BR>Chanukah
Sameach,<BR>Ilana<BR></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>>>>></DIV>
<DIV>The word myth simply is never used to describe straightforward
history. Whenever a writer speaks of the "Foundational Myth of America" he
means that our myth is that we were heroic against the Brits and the
Indians, and that we founded a wonderful free country BUT the reality is
something far darker, we really committed genocide against the Indians and our
Constitution was a farce because we had slavery. When they speak of "myth"
in connection with George Washington, they mean that the story of him chopping
down the cherry tree -- "It was I, Father, who chopped down the tree, I cannot
tell a lie" -- is not true. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There was a time when the story was taught as true; a later time when
teachers knew it was false, but told it to children as true, in order to
inculcate the wonderful character trait of honesty; and today we have reached a
point where teachers tell schoolkids that in the dark past, people THOUGHT the
Founding Fathers of America were heroes, but here, kids, is the real
scoop: they were horrible people and founded a Nation of Injustice</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In normal, common English, there is no such thing as a "true myth."
You can instead use some such locution as "our founding narrative."
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"Ma'aseh avos siman labanim" -- which someone mentioned on avodah as our
founding "myth" -- is a myth only if the avos are taken as archetypal
personalities who never actually lived. In a work of fiction you can point
to elements of the narrative which foreshadow later action. But the Torah,
although it is magnificent as literature, is not a work of fiction.
It says something different: not that the Author foreshadowed the
later course of Jewish history in a literary form, but that He actually
created and placed into the world actual people, whose actual lives foreshadowed
the later course of Jewish history.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><STRONG></STRONG><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============</B></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Check out AOL Money & Finance's list of the <A title="http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001" href="http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001" target="_blank">hottest products</A> and <A title="http://money.aol.com/top5/general/ways-you-are-wasting-money?NCID=aoltop00030000000002" href="http://money.aol.com/top5/general/ways-you-are-wasting-money?NCID=aoltop00030000000002" target="_blank">top money wasters</A> of 2007.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>