I am so sick and tired of reading and hearing about the post-Judaism, post-orthodoxy and all the “renewal” talk. Heed what Steve Jobs said, notice he didn’t say there that they were going to teach people how to type. He is a rational man and he understands that some habits are so ingrained that they must die out. But imagine we take this progress metaphor and try it out on the Judaism. You have a culture that sees the purpose in indoctrinating an “anti-typewriter”. The new forms of expression must be brought on as a contraband from the back door and the old forms of expression must be declared sacred.
And this brings me to the entire “renewal” caboodle. People are not ready, or hesitant for political reasons, to come clean on the lies (notice the reaction to James Kugel). So they start “reinterpreting” and spinning and it’s this spin that they shamelessly call a “renewal”. You get yourself a Reb Zalman who never comes out to say that the Chassidic revolution was a tragedy perpetrated by the selfish and delusional metamagical demagogues, that the three centuries of the Chassidic rule was the time of the spiritual, financial (and often sexual) abuse. Instead they will preach and spin (just like Buber) to the crowd that knows nothing (or deliberately doesn’t what to know). Renew this!
Prof. Robert Sapolsky grew up orthodox in Brooklyn; he rebelled against the religion when he was 14-15 and went on to become a Professor of Biology, Neurology and Neurosurgery at the Stanford University. He received the MacArthur Fellowship genius grant in 1987. This is the long lecture on religion by Robert Sapolsky delivered at Stanford. Especially interesting is the definition of the Schizotypal personality, the latent variant Schizophrenia and the analogy with Tay-Sachs. The fascinating definition of the Metamagical Thinking. ►►►read more
F. Ernest Jackson, Study of a sleeping cat
Toxoplasmosis or Toxo is a parasite often carried by cats. It’s estimated that 1/3 of humans might be infected. The Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky suggesting in an interview with the Edge that Toxo could drastically alter the human neurology, perhaps even play a part in schizophrenia. Fascinating, especially for people who hang around cats.
P.S. This pretty much solves the riddle of women with cats. Are they crazy so they live with three cats or are they crazy because they live with three cats. Might explains the global mishugas emanating from Jerusalem, the city infested with cats.
By seriously, did you notice the nonchalant comment about the “free will” at the opening of the interview? Remember those si-fi films where an alien parasite takes over and controls a human body? This is what Robert Sapolsky is actually saying, shocking.
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
