Subj : Re: The universe
To   : Joshua Lee
From : Bob Eyer
Date : Wed Jan 10 2001 08:52 pm

 >it's substance, has been challenged.  Judaism focuses more on
 >behavior, it doesn't have a "statement of faith".

-What about the proposition 'God exists'.  Doesn't Judaism have
-faith that God exists?

>I, as an Orthodox Jew, say yes.  Ask someone of the
>Reconstructionist or Humanist movements though and you'd get a
>different answer; both of them are atheistic (well, I guess you
>could be an agnostic Recon.) alleged forms of Judaism.  In fact,
>at one time, the Conservative movement housed the
>Reconstructionist one; Mordechai M.  Kaplan, it's founder, taught,
>as a teacher of Reconstructionist theology, at their "rabbinical
>seminary" for many decades; and my own beloved father was
>converted by a Reform affiliated Reconstructionist.
>
>You won't, however, see an Orthodox Reconstructionist; Mordechai
>M.  Kaplan started out as a Rabbi at an Orthodox synagogue which
>fairly promptly kicked him out.  Legend has it, however, that
>Mordechai Kaplan continued to lay tefillin daily in spite of his
>claim that Judaism was merely arbitrary "folkways" of a "Jewish
>civilization" rather than a religion.
>
>Of course, some thinkers long before MM Kaplan who were personally
>observant, such as Moses Mendelsohn, did claim that Judaism was a
>religion without belief requirements.  It is noteworthy, however,
>that none of Mendelsohn's disciples were observant and that all of
>Mendelsohn's grandchildren (such as Felix)

Isn't the name spelled "Mendelssohn"?  Whenever anyone mentions
that name I immediately think of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
in E minor (which violinists commonly term "The Mendelssohn")--one
of the most beautiful violin concertos ever written (and the ONLY
violin concerto which Mendelssohn ever wrote).  I struggled with
this work as a young man when I was active as an amateur
violinist.  Today I've lost most of my technique; but I can still
rattle off the cadenza of the first movement while whistling the
famous tune which Mendelssohn wrote for the opening of the
concerto.

>were baptized and
>married non-Jews.

My Biographical dictionary says the other name was Bartholdy.

The curious thing, though, is that I had to look this up.
Everyone today remembers Mendelssohn as Mendelssohn, not as
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.  In other words, it is the Jewish name
that is remembered.  And in the background of that name stands
Moses Mendelssohn, one of the greatest of German philosophes of
the Enlightenment period.  One of Kant's correspondents, advocate
of religious toleration, critic of Catholic metaphysics, on and
on.

>The ultimate consequence of Judaism without
>Jewish thought is Judaism without a soul; and a body cannot live
>without a soul.

Well, I would not go that far.  You're trying to separate
Mendelssohn from Judaism.  Jews, whether religious or not, have
had percapita an enormously favourable impact on western
civilisation in very many different areas.

I think Jews should be proud of every bit of it and count it as
part of their souls.

I doubt that any person who understands music can listen to the
Mendelssohn and not perceive the soul of everything that is best
in it.  Even the Chinese, whose original culture was averse to the
western model, train their children to play the Mendelssohn.  I
watched a TV program a while ago, showing a class full of Chinese
young violinists--and they were all playing the Mendelssohn in
perfect synchrony with one another.  It was an amazing sight and
sound.

Bob

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