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Politics And Religion
Are Always Intriguing
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
EDITOR EMERITUS
W
e are a most for-
tunate generation.
Politics always in-
trigue us. Religion inspires
us. Deities have always been
in evidence. The remarkable
aspect of life like ours is that
most of us have the freedom
of choice in accepting or re-
jecting.
Fascinating vocabularies
on the subject and their
related philosophies are ac-
quirable in our lexicons.
With the acquisition, in the
present political campaign,
of the "deity,"— capitalize it
as you wish, but for our im-
mediate purpose it will be
lower case — keep adding
excitement by the political
party in power resorting to it
as a tool for influencing the
voter. That's why there is
immensity in testing such a
tool and so much entertain-
ment in hearing it repeated.
Therefore, the lessons
learned are so numerous in
our dictionaries. They reveal
the endless means of acquir-
ing knowledge about life and
its elemental lessons. Sear-
ching for the heights of the
"god-like idea," the Random
House Dictionary provides
this definition in connection
with the theater:
a. the upper balcony in a
theater. b. the spectators
in this part of the balcony.
There is the uniquely
furious resort in some areas
to "self-deification," and the
current resort to political-
religious presidential voting
appeal could easily use this
hyphenated term and refuse
to submit to it.
While there is only this
one direct application to pol-
iticized self-deification, the
most recent comment in the
New York Times (Sept. 19)
by Ari L. Goldman in his
"Religion Notes," adds to
the new studies on the sub-
ject under the title "The
Doomsday Letters:"
Like many people in the
religious community,
Rabbi A. James Rudin
often gets letters signed
by God and/or Jesus. The
letters, which sometimes
arrive with the words
"personal" and
"confidential" scrawled
on the envelope, usually
call on the rabbi to repent
and prepare for the end of
the world, which the
writer has calculated
.
down to the day, hour and
minute ...
The rabbi writes that he
often wonders who these
people are and why they
insist on covering every
millimeter of the page
with their tiny hand-
writing or with footnotes
with appropriate biblical
proof texts. But ultimate-
ly, Rabbi Rudin ponders
their disappointment. " I
really wonder how the au-
thors of the letters handle
the deep frustrations that
must surely come when
the world, with all its
flaws and faults, con-
tinues to exist, and when
the world's people do not
fall on their knees to wor-
ship the newly arrived
divine figure."
This is how we keep learn-
ing about those resorting to
"self-deification." Politi-
cians and the parties they
campaign for may dislike
such an identification ap-
plied to them. The politi-
cians clinging to religion in
vote seeking may dislike it if
they wish, but I have just
revealed their image to be
recognized by the voters.
Having taken the privilege
of utilizing the exposure of
the attempt to capitalize po-
litically on the "God" idea,
there is the duty here to
show the true Jewish way to
respect "godliness." Monop-
olizing it for political or any
other purpose is to insult
human intelligence by ig-
noring the universalism of
the Jewish idea and,
thereby, daring to make
godliness a political instru-
ment. The Jewish inter-
pretation as defined in Jew-
ish Concepts by Philip Birn-
baum needs to be constantly
restated and adhered to.
Here is a portion of his
idealized set of principles:
The attributes of God
include omnipresence,
omniscience, om-
nipotence, eternity, truth,
justice, goodness, purity,
and holiness. He is
thought of being every-
where in numerous
worlds, and knowing all
the present, past, and
future free actions of
human beings. His un-
paralleled power bears no
comparison to our con-
ception of power. Unlike
the pagans of the ancient
world, who threatened
and punished their gods
in times of disaster and
misfortune, traditional
Judaism has maintained
its faith in the omnipotent
God who is able to hear all
prayers uttered at diff-
erent places at the same
time, fulfilling even con-
tradictory requests of
various sincere wor-
shipers.
The traditional Jewish
conception of God has
been described as ethical
monotheism. The God-
idea demonstrates moral
values to be adopted by
men : "Even as he is
gracious, so be you
gracious; even as he is
merciful, so be you mer-
ciful; even as he is holy, so
be you holy" (Shabbath
133b). This is known as
the imitation of God. The
standard of man's morali-
ty is to be reflected in the
divine attributes.
The truly idealized Jewish
conception of the God-idea
will be worth renewed com-
mitment to the subject in
weeks to come. ❑
Brigade Leader
Is Removed
Tel Aviv (JTA) — The
commander of an elite
reconnaissance unit of the
Israel Defense Force's
G-olani Brigade was removed
from his post last month for
pushing his troops too hard
during training exercises,
the IDF spokesman disclos-
ed.
The unusual step was
taken by the army chief of
staff, Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak,
after the commander, a cap-
tain, was found to have
violated standing orders
during a training drill for
his recruits last August.
He was found to have
violated orders governing
permissible training load,
the number of sleeping
hours and extended activity.
The spokesman said this
was the first time that the
commanding officer of such
an elite unit has been
removed from his post for
overburdening his soldiers
during training.
The officer in question had
previously been regarded as
"a generally very good offi-
cer.