I talk to an Orthodox friend who grew up in a traditional Orthodox section of New York.
Luke: “Have there been any gadolim (great rabbis) who wrote or taught about how non-Jews should organize themselves?”
Friend: “No. Why would a great rabbi waste his time writing about goyim? When the goyim get organized, it’s always bad for Jews.”
Luke: “So no gadolim wrote about Gentile politics?”
Friend: “No. Why waste the time?”
Luke: “Any gadolim write about Gentile nationalisms?”
Friend: “No. Gentile nationalism is always bad for Jews.”
Luke: “The majority of Jews have lived in the diaspora for 2500 years. No major rabbi has written about ways that Gentiles organize themselves that are better or worse for Jews?”
Friend: “No.”
Luke: “Have any gadolim written with empathy about non-Jews?”
Friend: “No. They save their empathy for Jews. Jewish suffering preoccupies rabbis, not Gentile suffering.”
Luke: “Have any gadolim wrestled with what goyim should do religiously? Keeping the seven commandments of the sons of Noah is just minimal ethics. It does not satisfy the human need for religious organization.”
Friend: “No. In traditional Orthodox Judaism, the view is that the purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews.”
Luke: “Jews are capable of doing great things and horrible things. Have any gadolim written about the depths of depravity that some Jews get up to, things such as communism, genocide for Stalin, feminism, pornography, drugs?”
Friend: “No. Why would they write something that could then be used by anti-Semites to hurt Jews?”
Charles Edward Lincoln posts to FB: You are the strangest Jew I ever met.
G. Allen Bowman: Luke always did have an air of diplomacy about him.
* “I’d like to like your posts,” says an Orthodox friend, “but I can’t until I’ve married off all of my children.”
* “You’ve become so normal,” says my Persian friend of six years. “You’ve lost your flavor.”
Darren Melamed: Yeah, you and Heshy Fried, have mellowed tremendously over the years. It’s as if you guys lost your mojo. Who is going to lead the Apikorsim?
