Actually, I have to stick up for S.M.M. Much as I disagree with him/her, it’s a fairly common thought among orthodox Jews – that they quietly wish others “saw the light” as it were and became what I guess in Christian terms you might call “reborn.”
But unlike many vocal Christians at least in the US, these people really do just wish in their heart for other Jews to “come round.” It’s like Christians who quietly deplore the wide-spread prevalence of women getting abortions, but do not picket abortion clinics nor actively try to repeal or otherwise contest Wade vs Roe – they just wish fewer women wanted abortions, and that if it were so, the clinics would close for lack of clientele. It’s a subtle difference, but it’s there.
Not that there aren’t asshole “activist” religious kooks here too – but S.M.M does not strike me as one of them.
What’s so arrogant? I said I was hoping. I didn’t say I was for forcing anyone to change. I’m not advocating a theocracy. I’m not into coercion. I’m not petitioning the government to close all the non-kosher restaurants. I don’t throw rocks at cars that travel on Shabbat. I don’t burn bus shelters with pictures of scantily clad women. I don’t advocate for separate seating of men and women on public buses. People are free to do what they want. I just hope.
I don’t know where Fiveyearlurker went to school, but I would be very interested to know. That was very strange behavior, and beyond any halacha (Jewish religious law) that I know.
“Quietly wishing” includes posting on a global message board? Whining about the interview venue when all it would take is a simple redirect? And what is the OP to do is the prospective employer says no, it has to be X place? IMO, the OP’s post and subsequent ones have the tone of a tired prophet, weary of the world’s lack of proper appreciation for The Truth. It grates on me. YMMV.
I hope future boss does not insist on a nonkosher place (and I’d like the OP to get the job) but I find the attitude expressed here by the OP distasteful. It sounds petty and rigid to me. I’m left wondering if the OP is very young and therefore not experienced in coping with the world in all its vagaries.
And I agree with Sophistry and Illusion on this one, but that’s another topic.
It seems to me that you cannot value a society in which people are empowered to make their own choices and at the same time idealize a world in which everyone makes the same choice you would. If you value individual choice, then in a “good” society, you will be surrounded by infinite diversity. When I look around and see a world in which different people have made all different kinds of choices about the foods they choose to eat or not, I see a healthy, happy society. I don’t sit here and wish that everyone around me made the same choices as I do. In fact, I believe that I benefit from the failure of people to agree on these kinds of things. In fact, I wish we had even more diversity. In particular, in terms of clothing. People here dress way too much alike. I wish every person in my office or on the street or in businesses or anywhere were drawing from different traditions and different personal decisions when they come to the way they dress.
So which is it? It seems to me you have to make a choice. Do you value freedom of choice or do you value your own choices above all?
There are some here for financial reasons, there are some here for political reasons. And it is true, that there are no halal restaurants here. But let’s be fair - I can’t stop in any of the Arab villages and get a kosher schwarma, either.
As far as being an “obstacle to peace,” well, obviously I don’t think so. Take a look at my email box, and see the emails I get on a weekly basis. “Avoid the XX Junction, rocks are being thrown at cars.” “Gasoline bottles are being thrown at cars on the highway.” That sort of thing. Look, my daughter’s math teacher’s husband was shot and killed on the road one night by 3 Palestinian “policemen.” The borders of where I live have not expanded in 30 years. People here go to work or school and come home every day. We’re not going out and destroying Arab olive trees.
There is an obstacle to peace here, but obviously we don’t agree on who it is.
Because of course it has to be one side OR the other; it can’t be mutual. Whatever, sweet cheeks. I’ll not continue this hijack. But I damned sure don’t have any sympathy for your pissant little complaint, knowing now what I know about you.
IMHO, it means more and makes you stronger in your faith if you are able to avoid temptation while surrounded by it than it does to have had temptation removed from your environment and made unavailable.
Except that according to the UN you are living in an illegal occupation, on someone else’s land…and proclaiming how “peaceful” you are and the poor put upon and oppressed. Yeah - fantastic exercise in double think that.