He started a thread announcing he would be undertaking a six month long Kabbalah ritual.
I had questions
I objected to the fact that Smapti chose a ritual with rules he didn’t intend to follow. It also called for fasting. He is medically unable to fast. So, I asked again- why choose this particular ritual?
There is indeed a reason. The basic tenets of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition that Smapti says he is folllowing insist on strict adherence to the rules and established procedures.
Sorry. I tried to be cool and just sit back while the cultural appropriation happened. It didn’t work.
[quot=Hajaro]
This thread is about their journey and it’s not at all about you.
[/quote]
No, it is not about me. It is about an act of cultural appropriation.
Okay then. Cultural appropriation is not wrong as long as it is entertaining. Got it,
I explain why it is cultural appropriation here
needscoffee is displeased with me
I was told to let my objections drop, or start a Pit thread about them. Since, by any sane definition this is cultural appropriation, and I personally view cultural appropriation as disrespectful and often the result of ignorance of the culture being appropriated- here we are,
Freedom of Religion. In this country you can worship whoever and whatever you want. Most of the worshippers of all religions seem very disrespectful to me on their own terms so this is hardly anything important in itself.
So that any possible personal bias is clear, I need to confirm that I’m responding as an almost completely secular Jew.
I’m more on @DocCathode’s side of things - if Smapti was saying he was doing a ritual “inspired” by various Kabbalah rituals, but was using it for inspiration while creating something unique to himself, I’d object a lot less.
Saying that he was doing it with updates and changes that were provided by yet another non-Jew to make it more accurate, or more appropriate to his own needs - well, that also rubbed me the wrong way. As was brought up in the thread, felt a lot like Jew-splaining a ritual to us.
And the last especially makes me sympathetic to our OP.
Yes, he has the right to do it. I don’t deny Smapti that. He even has the right to blog about it, though I stopped reading it (also my choice). And, giving fair criticism, DC probably should have brought it to the Pit sooner.
But yeah, I do get the point that he’s bragging about doing another religion’s ritual, but somehow doing it better. Chaps my hide.
The fasting thing seems like a cultural difference. Abstaining from food but not water is still considered a fast by wider society, just a less strict one. It’s following the spirit rather than the letter of the ritual, which for a non-Jew (and an atheist) likely appears more important.
It seems like this is a matter best left to God. If He is upset, He’ll let his displeasure be known. Smapti, watch out for any sudden and isolated thunderstorms in your very local area.
Which is understandable, although the evolution of most religious institutions involve people who believe that they are “doing it better” so it is scarcely novel. Insofar as Kabbalah even has a consistent interpretation among hassidim, it has become adopted, interpreted, and appropriated in so many ways both within and outside of Judaism that @Smapti’s peculiar interpretation is scarcely even radical although his characteristic know-all-ismabout a topic he has clearly only done cursory research about invites criticism and mockery for being superficial, flippant, and appropriative.
Personally, I have an extremely low opinion of the whole concept of “cultural appropriation”. Let anyone mix and match whatever parts of whatever culture they like.
Honestly, it’s the best available decision on their part. I also avoid Pit threads for myself, getting dogpiled is no fun especially when the oblique death threats start.
[sorry, discourse has done something weird to formatting, the following was part of Smapti’s response to a longer post of DocCathode]
Without quoting or refighting the entire thread, that should serve as a small example of what I was referring to. Granted, I am giving a less-than-charitable interpretation of what the author (note, not Smapti) is doing, and I have not said that Smapti is going into it with bad intentions. But knowingly or not, it is IMO cultural appropriation and objectionable.
BUT.
As @DocCathode has repeatedly said for himself, and now I for myself, I don’t have the right to deny him doing so. He’s got every legal and personal right to do so, but I am agreeing that I find it distasteful. Not illegal, not even against the rules, but distasteful.
Before they were married and my now sister in law was getting to me and the rest of the family, she carefully showed us a tallis (fringed prayer shawl) that had belonged to an uncle. She explained how close they had been, and why she kept it. Since we were Jewish, she wanted to be sure she hadn’t violated Jewish law, tradition or done anything disrespectful.
Our answer was that it was perfectly acceptable to keep such an item in a safe place as a reminder of righteous and loving relative who had died. If she had decided to wear it as a fashion statement, that would be a major problem.
Oh, I missed this earlier-
I was making my objections in the thread he started about the ritual. A mod told I had to stop posting them there. I could either let the matter drop, or start a Pit thread.
Because it isn’t your culture being used to create charactered mascots for sporting teams or names of weapon systems of your conquerer. “Appropriation” doesn’t just mean reference to or even use of, but adoption of the resemblance of a figure, peoples, or belief system without any respect for or understanding of the underlying traditions of the culture being appropriated. Unless it is the Irish; everybody is okay with portraying the Irish as a bunch of ignorant drunkards constantly looking for a pot of gold at the end of an atmospheric refraction phenomenon.
I really don’t know much about this particular ritual, so I can’t make a judgement as to whether he is taking this too lightly or making changes to something he doesn’t understand and whether or not it is wrong to make such changes.
But I’m not sure I’d classify this as appropriation, because he seems to be approaching it with a respectful intention. If what is doing is offense or wrong, it would still be just as offensive or wrong if a Jewish person did the same thing.
I’m going to accept that Smapti’s reason for undertaking this ritual was deeply personal and not intended to be disrespectful, but I absolutely do not understand why he posted about it, especially on this forum, because the SDMB’s reaction is completely predictable.
Usually, the people that you work with while undertaking this type of practice will advise you to hold it tightly and not to discuss it too deeply with anyone you don’t know really well.
If you get praise by discussing it, it feeds your ego which is not helpful to this type of practice. If you get criticism, it sows doubt which is not helpful to this type of practice.
I’ve never practiced Kabbalah, but I’ve done other intensive spiritual practices and I’ve never even considered posting about them on the SDMB because I could totally predict the reaction and I’m surprised Smapti couldn’t.