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Everything a Jew Ever Wanted to Know about Hinduism but Was Afraid to Ask

March 9 2018

Having recently returned from a year spent at a Hindu university in India teaching Judaism and comparative religion, Alan Brill shares some reflections on the relationship between the two faiths. He notes that some medieval rabbis, dating back to at least the 9th century, were aware of Hindu beliefs and practices, and even read sacred Hindu texts that had been translated into Arabic or even Hebrew. He also compares the two religions’ preoccupation with rules and regulations, purity and contamination, and forbidden and permitted food and considers the question of whether Hinduism should be considered idolatry by talmudic standards. (Audio, 77 minutes.)

Read more at Valley Beit Midrash

More about: Hinduism, Judaism, Religion & Holidays

The Summary: 10/7/20

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.

Read more at Mosaic