The question that bothered me in High School was what constitutes a Jew? So manifestly I accepted the ideology that it was about following the rituals (e.g. keeping Kosher), and because I didnt follow the rituals I didnt think I was really a practicing Jew. Dont follow Kosher rules, not Jewish! was my reasoning. Im convinced once you think of being Jewish as an ethnicity, it promotes a sort of ethnic parochialist attitude that creates the conditions for ethnocentrist, chauvinist nationalism etc. (e.g. the rules against intermarriage I thought were proto-racist in nature, just as the South had miscengenation laws that forbade whites from marry blacks, Judaism supposedly forbids Jews from marrying non-Jews etc.). So I think being Jewish is really about a psychological structure that is probably more common statistically amongst Jews than other ethnic/religious groups. So there are two common psychological structures that are healthy (at least in the proto-messianic era) (and remember the first one is prioritized in the psychological hierarchy): ego—id—superego (e.g. Rodney Dangerfield (Back to School) challenged authority based on a combination of intuitive sensibility of the nature of the world and reflexive thought. So he challenges authority based upon an accurate gut sensibility about the nature of the world. This is also Wilhelm Reich) https://youtube/watch?v=YlVDGmjz7eM ego—Superego—id (e.g. Woody Allen, we know the rules of how we should behave and were constantly worried that were violating those rules. So for these figures, the question that bothers them constantly is How do I know Im a moral person?—Im violating some rule of Judaism, so does that mean God is going to punish me for my transgression? (this is also Sigmund Freud—hence, the falling out between Reich and Freud, Reich wanted to rebel and Freud was more concerned about the rules of society (if people rebel, then well have nihlism.) . This is the neurotic character structure. This means that people who dont have either character structure (if they prioritize the Superego or the Id at the top of the hierarchy....), they arent Jewish (even if they explicitly claim to be Jewish). (So this means the rules on intermarriage are more about ensuring that people with healthy psychological structures (ego at the top) dont have relationships with people with unhealthy psychological structures, since it will cause them enormous pain and suffering (e.g. my dad needs medication for his social anxiety/depression, which is probably caused by marrying someone with pretty much the opposite character structure (Superego—Id—Ego. As opposed to his Ego—Superego—Id structure. Hence, they have very little in common because of the radically incompatible (really non-Jewish psychological structure).
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 17:15:22 +0000
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