Comments on: The Postmodern Conservatism of the Chief Rabbi of France

By: Steve Brizel

Steve Brizel — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:22:57 +0000

R Bernheim’s powerful article should be read by all , but especially by the MO rabbis who signed onto the “Statement of Principles.”

By: Robert Cheeks

Robert Cheeks — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:12:43 +0000

” But I too long for a world “in which modernity would have its full place” and in “the technological deployment of virtual realities” is possible without denying the truth of the “elementary principles” and “the simplest words” that correspond to who we really are. ”

This is really good stuff.
There is, however, a great deal to comment on and I look forward to any expansion of these comments. My first question is: Can man exist as man within modernity and its inclination to distort and deform reality, truth, and order (see Pres. Obama’s SOTU speech)?

I’m with Dr. V on this, that political ideologies that “hypostatize society or history as an absolute, eclipsing personal existence and its meaning..” are false, dystopian, and downright dangerous. So the question is, how does one live in communion with the Divine while participating in a social order that has chosen to obliterate the Divine and its symbols, destroy children in the womb (the image of the Divine), and perhaps, in the not to distant future, practice state sponsored euthanasia?

By: djf

djf — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:01:12 +0000

Based on my familiarility with the famously “tolerant” non-Orthodox branches of American Judaism, I expect them soon to reinstitute the procedure of “cherem” (ex-communication) and apply to the good Rabbi Bernheim. I guess they would say that excommunicating him constitutes tolerance “rightly understood.”

By: paul seaton

paul seaton — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:46:10 +0000

“I can sing both high and low.” Shakespeare (talking about PoMo capaciousness)

By: Peter Lawler

Peter Lawler — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:07:01 +0000

To show why we’re about fun and not the high pay grade of wit here: Every time I read the name Peguy, I want to say I actually prefer the work of his wife/daughter or whatever Miss Peguy. (Pop cultural reference)

By: paul seaton

paul seaton — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 13:49:17 +0000

Speaking of Jewish-Catholic relations, Charles Peguy, who loved and admired Bernard Lazare, would love this Rabbi and this statement (although he’d probably be more suspicious of technology than the good Rabbi). Good job, Ralph!