I’m stealing this line for everything I ever say 😂
There’s like a whole essay in this. There are those who’d say “well that’s just because the government and monarchy of the religion are on hiatus” but in reality that government was the exception, not the rule, in Jewish history.
Surrounded by monarchies over 3000 years ago, Israelites emerged as a loose confederation of tribes that managed to resist Canaanite and Egyptian influence and carve out a way of life. Both the Bible and the archaeological record support this. The Bible’s attitude is that the king was something the people wanted because the confederation was proving unwieldy in foreign policy, which makes sense, and there was a long tradition of private citizens literally walking up to the monarch and giving him their opinion–whether flattering or not–without consequences, at least early on.
The Monarchy lasted for only about 500 years, plus another 100 later on. The rabbinate, which was itself more of a Senate than a monarchy, lasted for only about 3-400 years. Jews have been around for 3500 years at least, and we’ve been contrarian and decentralized most of that time. So like, yeah. This is us. We make our own peace with God and other people. That’s one of the major innovations Jews brought to the world.
Everything I’ve seen about Judaism makes it out to be a bunch of practical and sensible people arguing with each other a lot and periodically trying not to get murdered by the rest of the world
That’s it, that’s Judaism.
mostly practical, usually sensible, and more or less always trying not to get murdered by the rest of the world
… she argued
I object, I am not practical.
I distinctly said mostly
(which can mean either that each of us is mostly practical or that most of us are practical, or some combination)
most jewish folks are mostly practical. chumra georg, who forbids himself to hear female voices and does not drink wine on passover as he decrees it chametz, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.
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theclumsiestninja 