Lets lay into the Maccabean again for printing another grossly offensive article to followers of Judaism.  It gives us no pleasure to continue to badger this disgraceful display of destructive vective, but the Maccabean must be held to account for its persistance in being an anti-Jewish publication. 

We can put on record that the readership of this blog exceeds the readership of the Maccabean, but we much prefer to be a blog, not a competitive form of media, nor a Maccabean watchdog.  Nothing would be better for us than opening a Perth Jewish newspaper each week and reading interesting news about our community, but sadly it all gets spoilt by the insulting and innacurate nonsense written by Ken Arkwright.  There are so many good things about this community, but the Maccabean refers to draw on the negative misrepresentation of Judaism instead.

This week the article contains a subheading “Torah spelling errors”.  The reference to the Tettragrammaton, when pronounced Yud K Vav K, is described in the article as a nonsensical word.  In fact the word is so holy to Jews that it is only pronounced in the Beit Hamikdash.  The word is also related to the word Havayah, which means existance.  The word says “Hashem is”.  The Maccabean takes the word and removes everything G-dly from its meaning.

Lets look a little deeper into this.  The Rambam writes: 

“This Sacred Name, which, as you know, was not pronounced except in the Sanctuary by the appointed priests, when they gave the sacerdotal blessing [Bircas Kohanim], and by the highpriest on the Day of Atonement” Rambam - Morei Nivuchim 61

The Rambam writes extensively about the different names used for G-d and what the divine attributes are that are associated with each name.  It is difficult to write about the names of G-d in a Jewish context without drawing on the commentary of the Rambam.  However this article prefers Spinoza and Einstein.  Spinoza, under the heading Friend or Enemy? is given credence by the article.  That he was placed in charem and expelled from the Jewish people hardly seems to factor since he loved “contradictions in the scriptures” so much.

The article compares the theology of Spinoza with that of Einstein, which is a common theme of those who love to be Jewish, but cannot handle factoring the existance of G-d into that equation.  Of course Einstein like Spinoza did not beleive in G-d. but he did beleive in supernatural revelation in the world (which, by the way, is the ultimate irony, as this is very much a demonstration of Jewish belief in G-d).  Einstein was not a relgious scholar, but his secularism did not conflict with his retention of Jewish identity.  Einstien was worthy of being President of Israel, hardly a comparable figure to Spinoza, and hardly consistent with the position in the Maccabean that he regarded Jewish nationalism as an infantile disease. 

Drawing on a famous position of Spinoza, apparently Einstein respected the lack of separation between body and soul.  Yet the whole construct of Judasim is defined by this distinction.  THe body, a physical vessel, is used to host the nefesh.  The former is material and temporal, the latter is the very image of G-d and is eternal.  They combine in a compatible way to perform a purpose in this world, so while they may work together they are by definition not one.  The concept of oneness in Judaism is that of G-d.  We require as Jews the humilty to know that we are the creation of G-d, but not a manifest G-d in our own right. 

The concepts addressed by this article are core to Judaism, very sacred, and require great insight, depth and study of Jewish philosophy.  Sadly, the Maccabean takes the secular philosophy of those who rejected the call of Judaism, in order to then present an interpretation of these concepts disguised as Jewish belief.  In reality the definition of G-d that is provided in the names of Spinoza and Einstein couldn’t be more antithetical to Jewish religious belief.  There is so much beautiful Jewish philosophy to draw from, but instead we get the destructive and misrepresentative Jews of history defining their form of G-dless Judaism. 

Shame on the publishers of the Maccabean for yet again delivering anti-Jewish literature into the mailboxes of Jewish homes in our city.