Let every Jew, religious or not, ask himself one simple question: If 150 years ago, all Jews in the world were at my level of religiosity and Torah erudition, would there be Jews in the world today? ~ Rabbi Nachman Kahana
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Emunah Daily
I love you, but I must disagree with this quote in the most strongest terms. First of all, we cannot make anyone else’s chesbon. Secondly, everyone has their own yard stick with Hashem. Let us promote ahavas yisroeal, not finger pointing.
I was debating whether to leave the second line out as I knew this might be controversial, but decided to leave it. I love all Jews and it is not my style to point fingers, but In the end, you and I know he is probably right. It’s hard to deny it.
Huh? Jeremy I love this blog but this quote is very strange
Too much? Alright, I’m going to remove the second line. Thanks!
finally came back to this, now his quote is just strange:
“If 150 years ago, all Jews in the world were at my level of religiosity and Torah erudition, would there be Jews in the world today?”
Ok – so the answer is yes, but 150 years ago, Jews were not all as religious as him (his definition of “religious” doesn’t mean all that much to me when you consider his original quote) , and yes, B’H we are here.
My take away from this, is this common mis-conception that until we started coming to America, everyone was this perfect Jew living in the shetl. Daveing three times a day, eating to the strictest kashrus, deeply knowledgeable of all Halachos etc. This is something that mainstream Orthdoxy likes to speak of…I don’t buy it.
Were Jews more religiously, custom, and culturally aware – YES – how religiously observant they were I could not tell you. I don’t believe the line of thought there everyone was “Orthodox” as its defined today. “You know until those reform and conservative types came around, we were ALL orthodox” . – said by many
anyhoo…my 2 cents. GOOD SHABBOS TO EVERYONE!