Roundup of news on Israel, academia, and Passover
(1) Caroline Glick on Israel’s Iran strike, the Biden administration’s reported consideration of sanctioning an entire IDF unit composed of Orthodox Jews, and the meaning of Passover:
(2) If you want to know more about the Passover Seder, please read this.
(3) Anti-Semitic demonstrations at Yale: a Jewish student is stabbed in the eye by a Palestinian flag.
(4) And at Columbia it’s even worse. The Orthodox rabbi on campus wrote a letter to Jewish students advising them to go home because their safety is so compromised on the campus. You can find much more about the vile goings-on at Columbia in this post.
(5) Recall that the Passover Seder contains this reminder:
In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues us from their hands.
It takes on special significance this year.
(6) What follows is a repeat of a previous post of mine on Passover.
Tonight is the beginning of the Jewish holiday Passover.
I’ve been impressed by the fact that Passover is a religious holiday dedicated to an idea that’s not solely religious: freedom. Yes, it’s about a particular historical (or perhaps legendary) event: the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. But the Seder ceremony makes clear that, important though that specific event may be, freedom itself is also being celebrated.
A Seder is an amazing experience, a sort of dramatic acting out complete with symbols and lots of audience participation. Part of its power is that events aren’t placed totally in the past tense and regarded as ancient and distant occurrences; rather, the participants are specifically instructed to act as though it is they themselves who were slaves in Egypt, and they themselves who were given the gift of freedom, saying:
“This year we are slaves; next year we will be free people…”
Passover acknowledges that freedom (and liberty, not exactly the same thing but related) is an exceedingly important human desire and need. That same idea is present in the Declaration of Independence (which, interestingly enough, also cites the Creator):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
It is ironic, of course, that when that Declaration was written, slavery was allowed in the United States. That was rectified, but only after great struggle, which goes to show how wide the gap often is between rhetoric and reality, and how difficult freedom is to achieve. And it comes as no surprise, either, that the Passover story appealed to slaves in America when they heard about it; witness the lyrics of “Let My People Go.”
Yes, the path to freedom is far from easy, and there are always those who would like to take it away. Sometimes an election merely means “one person, one vote, one time,” if human and civil rights are not protected by a constitution that guarantees them, and by a populace dedicated to defending them at almost all costs. Wars of liberation only give an opportunity for liberty, they do not guarantee it, and what we’ve observed in recent decades has been the difficult and sometimes failed task of attempting to foster it in places with no such tradition, and with neighbors dedicated to its obliteration.
We’ve also seen threats to liberty in our own country – more potent in the last couple of years. This is happening despite our long tradition of liberty and the importance Americans used to place on it.
Sometimes those who are against liberty are religious, like the mullahs. Sometimes they are secular, like the Communists or their present-day Russian successors. Some of them are cynical and power-mad; some are idealists who don’t realize that human beings were not made to conform to their rigid notions of the perfect world, and that attempts to force them to do so seem to inevitably end in horrific tyranny, and that this is no coincidence.
As one of my favorite authors Kundera wrote, in his Book of Laughter and Forgetting:
…human beings have always aspired to an idyll, a garden where nightingales sing, a realm of harmony where the world does not rise up as a stranger against man nor man against other men, where the world and all its people are molded from a single stock and the fire lighting up the heavens is the fire burning in the hearts of men, where every man is a note in a magnificent Bach fugue and anyone who refuses his note is a mere black dot, useless and meaningless, easily caught and squashed between the fingers like an insect.”
Note the seamless progression from lyricism to violence: no matter if it begins in idealistic dreams of an idyll, the relinquishment of freedom to further that dream will end with humans being crushed like insects.
Dostoevsky did a great deal of thinking about freedom as well. In his cryptic and mysterious Grand Inquisitor, a lengthy chapter from The Brothers Karamazov, he imagined a Second Coming. But this is a Second Coming in which the Grand Inquisitor rejects what Dostoevsky sees as Jesus’s message of freedom (those of you who’ve been around this blog for a long time will recognize this passage I often quote):
Oh, never, never can [people] feed themselves without us [the Inquisitors and controllers]! No science will give them bread so long as they remain free. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, “Make us your slaves, but feed us.” They will understand themselves, at last, that freedom and bread enough for all are inconceivable together, for never, never will they be able to share between them! They will be convinced, too, that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, worthless, and rebellious. Thou didst promise them the bread of Heaven, but, I repeat again, can it compare with earthly bread in the eyes of the weak, ever sinful and ignoble race of man?
Freedom vs. bread is a false dichotomy. Dostoevsky was writing before the Soviets came to power, but now we have learned that lack of freedom, and a “planned” economy, is certainly no guarantee even of bread.
I think there’s another very basic need, one that perhaps can only really be appreciated when it is lost: liberty.
Happy Passover!
A happy and safe Passover to all those celebrating.
May we all become free, by God’s grace.
God bless Israel.
Happy Passover from
A Huge chunk of Gen Z: Israel has no right to exist as nation in Mideast
…a new poll shows 33% of Gen Zers, those ages 18 to 24, say that Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East.
This might be a philosophical stance involving the pros and cons of existence, but I doubt it. Zombies don’t strike me as philosophical types.
Seems like a time of madness, with evil people in every rung of media academia and govt
}}} It is ironic, of course, that when that Declaration was written, slavery was allowed in the United States. That was rectified, but only after great struggle, which goes to show how wide the gap often is between rhetoric and reality, and how difficult freedom is to achieve.
True, but the FFs wanted to end it then and there. But it represented too much of the “wealth” of the colonies, and to end it would have destroyed the already teetering economy (remember, they’d just suffered the Continental inflation, which was not quite as bad as Zimbabwe or Weimar Germany, it was pretty bad…)
Their solution was to end it slowly, by making the importation of slaves illegal (did not stop it, but it did become much less common in the USA)… figuring that this would slowly end slavery as the slaves died off.
They lacked the foresight, unfortunately, to not see the notion that the children of slaves would be slaves… and so slavery became institutionalized in the South.
}}} …a new poll shows 33% of Gen Zers, those ages 18 to 24, say that Israel does not have a right to exist as a nation in the Middle East.
Not at all surprising, as 99.9% of said idiots only know the Palestinian line about who was there, first. And have no grasp that “Palestine” was never a nation at all.
“some are idealists who don’t realize that human beings were not made to conform to their rigid notions of the perfect world”
Such ‘idealists’ are typically willing to force human beings to conform to their “rigid notions”. That’s the case for Hamas apologists. These people have no loyalty whatsoever to America, in fact just the opposite; they deeply desire America’s extermination. At the least, their subversion demands loss of citizenship and mandatory deportation to Gaza, an appropriate and proportionate consequence.
The brits stamped out the slave trade but didnt mind collecting the cotton from slave states
Then of course there the legerdemain that the 1619 committee pulls re lord bulmore painting him as some kind of abolitionist
General halevi finally resigned will he pull a richard clarke use it as a platform to attack netanyahu
Not Gen. H. Halevi (though he too should go now but isn’t) but Intel Chief Gen. A. Haliva.
More, today Central Command Gen. Yehuda Fox announced he’s out this summer, though he also ought to go now.
It’s a start, albeit a small one in the overall scheme of things.
My mistake well its a start
Boy, I tried to understand how Jewish Passover and Christian Easter can get so out of whack.
TLDR: It’s complicated. Probably, you don’t need to know.
Dostoyevsky’s Inquisitor said that most people will eagerly trade away Freedom for Bread…today, though, just about everyone (in Western countries at least) has enough ‘bread’…yet will trade away freedom for many other things, such as social acceptance…and the pleasure of bullying an out-group.
huxley, it’s all about calendar systems. Thus year, Western Easter was about as early as it can ever be, now it’s Passover, and Orthodox Easter is two weeks from yesterday.
There is an irony about slavery and the First Fathers. In 1776, it was not uncommon to see an eventual end to slavery- even in the South. But a damned Yankee- Eli Whitney(both CT and Mass can claim him) – invented the cotton gin.
That made cotton a much less expensive crop to produce, leading to exponential increases in cotton production. According to Statista.com, US cotton production increased from from 5.2 thousand metric tons in 1797 to 1,022 thousand metric tons in 1859. US cotton production in 1859 was 197 times larger than production in 1797.
Blame King Cotton, and thus the Civil War, on Eli Whitney and Yankee ingenuity. 🙂
Disclaimer: I had both Union and Confederate family members in the Civil War. I also had slaveowning ancestors and a family member (first cousin of a great-great grandmother) who was killed at Harper’s Ferry, fighting on the side of John Brown.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkxyc6m110#autoplay
Now its ok (is that white supremmacist now)
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/04/22/biden-sees-very-fine-people-on-both-sides-of-campus-antisemitism/
Team Joe:
Very Fine People on Both Sides of Campus Antisemitism
“I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians and their — how they’re doing.”
Relatively coherent. I’m flattered.
*My answer.*
Ditto on the Happy Passover!
Blessed Passover to all who celebrate.
Awesome piece…
https://chrisbray.substack.com/p/he-eats-the-souls-of-human-babies
” Easter ” and Passover are “out of whack ” because western churches worry about Spring Equinox being part of their calculations.
I truly believe we ought to rety “Resurrection Day ” – not the possible pagan named ” Easter – to whatever week Passover falls on the Gregorian Calendar each year. Perhaps the first Sunday following Passover, since the so called ” The Last Supper ” of Jesus and his Apostles was the Passover. Where he instituted “Communion” aka ” The Lord’s Supper”.
“………….no matter if it begins in idealistic dreams of an idyll, the relinquishment of freedom to further that dream will end with humans being crushed like insects.”
The idyllic egalitarian society is a dream of such power over the minds of many humans that no matter the evidence against it, it continues, like a zombie, to live on.
Mention to them the examples of Mao’s China, versus Taiwan, North Korea versus South Korea, East versus West Germany, and the ruins of the USSR, Zimbabwe, Cuba, and Venezuela. All examples plain to see. The answer is that it wasn’t “done right.” Or the “right people” weren’t in charge.
The truth is that getting people to conform to a central plan or grand vision, can only be done with overwhelming force. That kills, ambition, initiative, creativity, and free will – all the things that allowed Western Civilization to rise from a low standard of living to the abundance of today.
A reasonably honest democratic government, with a sound banking system, and property rights backed by courts does not promise an idyllic, egalitarian society. But it does provide the highest standard of living and the most opportunity of any system yet devised by humans.
There are, of course, many among those claiming a centrally planned economy is good, who plan to be in charge of that economy. As we have seen in the examples above, the Nomenklatura, Politburo, elites, etc. all live much better than the struggling masses. It has been a pattern through history that there are those who want to be the masters and impose their will from on high. In that they are no different than the conquerors of old.
So, we need to work at keeping our freedom and liberty because they are never more than a generation from being taken from us.
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=video+of+Willima+Wallace+yelling+Freedom&mid=A319494929F30EA3B020A319494929F30EA3B020&FORM=VIRE
Happy Passover to all who celebrate it.
“how Jewish Passover and Christian Easter can get so out of whack.”
The Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar. The calendar adds an extra month for leap year which makes the two holidays out of whack. Wiki can explain it better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar#:~:text=Normally%20the%2012th%20month%20is,is%20the%20added%20leap%20month.
For our purposes its two weeks between easter and pesach
JJ…good comment. re Economic Planning, the idea of centralized planning is very seductive, and it seems the flaws with it can be seen only by people who are extraordinarily thoughtful, intelligent, and open to evidence…or who have experienced its devastation first-hand.
There’s a very interesting book, Red Plenty, on Soviet economic planning as seen by those on the front lines of that system…factory managers, economic planners, mathematicians, computer scientists, and “fixers.” I reviewed it here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/60918.html
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/HH0Lr2nM2qY
https://www.dailyprincetonian.com/article/2024/04/princeton-opinion-opguest-faculty-staff-solidarity-palestine-protestors-columbia-barnard-encampment
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ultra-orthodox-anti-zionist/
There’s mystery and then there’s other stuff, but this ain’t any of ’em in the hands of a Turkish news organ.
Thats a bunch of bumkum
On the phrase ‘Happy Passover’
Years ago, my boss was a youngish Jewish married guy who had recently adopted a child, and was intent on building a family life.
I was five or six years younger than him, and we had a relaxed semi-peer type office relationship. And although he told ” Jewish jokes” none of which I can repeat, and although his female office manager, a gentile, did too, I never did.
It seemed awkward to me – akin to trying to be “down with the Bro’s”. And I knew none anyway, despite having taken a class in Jewish intellectual history from a well known rabbi, in college.
Anyway, after returning on a Monday from some Jewish holiday, Hannukah, or Passover probably, I was sitting at my desk. And while he was in the process of walking by and greeting me, I asked, “So, did you have a holy, holy day?”
Though I did not grasp the significance until later, he kind of stopped short – almost as is he had been slapped, and asked, “What do you mean?”
Still oblivious to his alarm, I casually answered and said, “I mean, did you do what you are supposed to do; or did you just relax on the couch watching the games and eating snacks? You had mentioned you were going to start keeping the traditions.”
He let out a short (probably relieved) laugh and said that yes, yes they did. Then, like a know-it-all meddling in someone else’s business, I said ” Good, you said that you were going to”.
Now, that term ‘Happy Passover’, kind of reminds me of that. And I am wondering if “Happy” is the right term. Of course it certainly can be if used in the older more solemn sense, in the same way Christians might say, “Happy Easter” and not mean ‘Here’s to nonchalant enjoyment of the day!”. Or if used in the sense employed in the famous spiritual tune, “Oh Happy Day”.
My guess is that when the term is used with reference to Passover, it is used in just that way.
Sadly, the Grand Inquisitor’s claim is fully supported by what happened shortly after the events that the Passover commemorates. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they quickly realized that food was going to be a problem while they traveled. And so, despite the very amazing things that had happened to allow them to leave, the Israelites immediately started complaining that they had been led out into the desert to starve to death, and it would have been better for them to still be slaves in Egypt.
And they rejected the Lords command in favor of the golden idol no parallels here
Of course the netflix series yech makes zipporah the prime motivator
Yes the Jewish calendar has to add an occasional leap month since their months are more strictly tied to the lunar cycle than the Gregorian calendar. Twelve lunar months does not equal 365 days. Always falls short. So to keep the thing aligned with the seasons, an occasional leap month, Adar 2, is added.
That being said, the reason ” Easter ” does not stick with Passover is because the Churches have decided not to keep it tied to Passover but to the ridiculous spring equinox. All churches would have to do is say we will observe , ahhhem, “”Resurrection Day” the first Sunday after whenever Passover falls that year. The calender systems are not the source of the problem. The disengagement with Passover is the problem.
Speaking of calendars…In 1751, Lord Chesterfield decided that the time had come for England to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. In a letter to his son, he explained how he got this done:
“I consulted the best lawyers and the most skillful astronomers, and we cooked up a bill for that purpose. But then my difficulty began: I was to bring in this bill, which was necessarily composed of law jargon and astronomical calculations, to both which I am an utter stranger. However, it was absolutely necessary to make the House of Lords think that I knew something of the matter; and also to make them believe that they knew something of it themselves, which they do not. For my own part, I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them as astronomy, and they would have understood me full as well: so I resolved to do better than speak to the purpose, and to please instead of informing them. I gave them, therefore, only an historical account of calendars, from the Egyptian down to the Gregorian, amusing them now and then with little episodes; but I was particularly attentive to the choice of my words, to the harmony and roundness of my periods, to my elocution, to my action. This succeeded, and ever will succeed; they thought I informed, because I pleased them; and many of them said that I had made the whole very clear to them; when, God knows, I had not even attempted it. Lord Macclesfield, who had the greatest share in forming the bill, and who is one of the greatest mathematicians and astronomers in Europe, spoke afterward with infinite knowledge, and all the clearness that so intricate a matter would admit of: but as his words, his periods, and his utterance, were not near so good as mine, the preference was most unanimously, though most unjustly, given to me.”
I remember your book review of “Red Plenty,” David. It’s one of many pieces of evidence showing why centrally planned economies don’t work. An inside view that proves the point than an army of planners and experts cannot match the superior knowledge generated by free markets.
Unfortunately, the “True Believers” ignore such powerful information.
t is ironic, of course, that when that Declaration was written, slavery was allowed in the United States. That was rectified, but only after great struggle, which goes to show how wide the gap often is between rhetoric and reality, and how difficult freedom is to achieve.
Parts of English America were very invested in slavery, making it a hard thing to extract ourselves from.
Also note that the United States was set up such that your government was your state, the federal government was mostly for the national defense, and outside of its limited powers did not control the states.
Ending slavery involved expanding federal powers. So getting rid of that evil meant introducing new evils. It would have been nice if the individual states had ended slavery on their own.
1948;was a miracle too fending off five armies at once
Liberation NOW!
“Black Wars Of Liberation Come To America”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/04/23/black-wars-of-liberation-come-to-america/
“Liberation”, for “Biden”, apparently means f**king up everyone else….
(Kinda like a correlative of “Diversity”…)
If only we had tales of ounces of prevention.
Rewriting ‘Hatikvah’ as Anthem for All
Harry Truman’s Seder Message
A jewish student from Yale University compared pro-Palestinian protesters on the campus to Nazis.
While appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom on Monday morning, Sahar Tartak, a Jewish student from Yale University, spoke about ongoing protests at the school as some pro-Palestinian protesters have set up an encampment to express opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza.
“These students have chanted ‘there is only one solution, intifada, revolution,’ which is a direct reference to uprisings that included suicide bombs in Israel that have killed civilians. After October 7, they absolutely celebrated,” Tartak said on America’s Newsroom. “It’s really painful to realize that your peers have joined the Nazi Party.”??
U.N. Calls for Inquiry Into Mass Graves at 2 Gaza Hospitals
I believe the UN also investigated the Jenin “massacre”.
Regarding Passover — “And It takes on special significance this year.” Damn straight, The Lady Neo. And movingly, too.