Stan, I appreciate your efforts to educate me, but I've been very familiar
with the timeline of Jewish History for many years now. I too have written
with a sense of humor about Jewish History. Was it silliness? Depends on
your perspective perhaps. Is it History that God made a covenant with
Abraham and proclaimed his progeny the "His chosen people"? History, I
hardly think so. A belief, yes, but hardly History. Is it History that God
told Abraham to kill Isaac? I certainly hope not. Is it true about
Joseph's coat of many colors? Who knows? It's a colorful story, but
History? Is it History or myth about Joseph's uncanny dream interpretation
abilities? Is Moses history or myth, is Noah history or myth? If you can
untangle these things to glean history from myth, I applaud you. I can't.
I see a lot of humor in it. So did Mel Brooks. Jewish History is just
another history of peoples of the earth. Unless you're a Jew there's
nothing special about it. I find it interesting that you were apparently
offended by my making light of it. It was not my intent to offend you.
Sorry, but I still find such things funny.
Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."
Bob DylanMike Geary
Ever read about Joseph and his brothers?
Is that the guy with the pimp coat? He was cool. I really liked his musical.
You know, Mike, I sent you a timeline of Jewish History. You seem intent on making fun of Jewish history, showing invincible ignorance of it. Our exodus from Egypt really happened. Abraham was Jewish. Bruce Feiler wrote a compelling story about him in 'Abraham.'
I may have written with a sense of humor about our history, but I wasn't kidding. You're confusing humor with silliness.
Did you even look at the timeline I sent? We go back a long way. If not 5000 years, then 4000 years.
Stan Spiegel Portland, ME
----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2006 5:44 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Link to "Mohammed" cartoons
In reality Jews have lived in the middle east for a good 5000 years. I remember when we had to cross the red sea to escape pharaoh and his Egyptian guys who were chasing us.
Whoa! You've got some years on me. And I thought I was getting old.
Don't you remember reading about us in the Golden Book of the Bible when you were 5 or 6?
Nope. I was raised Catholic. We didn't do any Bible reading. They were chained down, in fact.
That was us -- the Jews.
Don't feel bad. Jesus was a Jew, too.
I wasn't sure the red sea was going to open up and let us cross. But -- o yeah! -- it did! I'm here to tell about it.
Yeah, I know. Cecil B. DeMille was there too! In fact he took some motion pictures of it. Old Super 8 stuff, I guess. I saw them. That was neat! But how come you guys didn't sink into what had to have been 10 feet of mud? Miracles were a dime a dozen that day, I guess.
It took us 40 years of wandering around in the wilderness, but we finally settled down.
It was that mana -- peyote, it was, or amanita muscaria. You guys kept walking in circles. One of God's little tricks, but the Cannanites still had 40 years on the lease, what could Yadaweh do?
Ever read about Joseph and his brothers?
Is that the guy with the pimp coat? He was cool. I really liked his musical.
And hey! Remember Abraham?
Not that the guy out of Highway 61!? Oh, man, am I ever glad he wasn't my dad.
And while Israel is a Jewish state, it's also a democratic one. It has a knesset, their Congress, and Arabs are members too.
Big deal. What I like about Isreal are the Kibbutzim. Honest to god Communism -- used to be anyway. Are they still communal communities? I want to start a Kibbutzim on my acre in Widener. You can come there as long as you promise not to proselytize. Even Baptists can come if they promise to keep their mouths shut. Even Muslims can come if they leave their bombs home --- ach! sorry, my Muslims brothers, I just can't pass up a joke, -- as long as they don't pull me down on to their prayer mats, they're welcome too. Everyone can come, just don't try to convert anyone to anything.
Mike Geary Lord of Widerner
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