bs''d

November 17

I hope not to use Judaism, or anything else, as a cult, which means that I hope not to think/act, until scientifically shown otherwise (I believe I used the word "scientifically" correctly here) as if a person or group's world-model is all-encompassing, even if some aspects of it do manage to be [all-encompassing].

I become very scared when I see that this hope isn't shared by all, but I am especially scared of myself, because I see נפלאות ("wonders", but a deeper meaning along the lines of "a perceivable connection from the silliest externality into the deepest essence") all over the place these days.  [Or, they seem that way.]

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More thoughts for today, because the above feels incomplete, though true:
Armored Skeptic has reminded me (I forget which video...multiple of them, but particularly his discussion w/ Sargon of Akkad) that a thing is not what it evolves from.  (See their overview of what historians see of ancient Israel, and try to compare that with our stories.)  I do not think that questioning the historic "factuality" of these stories questions their אמת. (Better said:  I know better.)

I hope and pray to be able to share what I've seen in...TODAY's Rabbinic Judaism -- the literature, at least -- that I have not seen elsewhere.  As Armored Skeptic also reminded me (in one of his "Under The Helmet" videos -- I forget which) it is the current state of affairs that matters most, in deciding who to be around/who to trust.  What this literature's writers do can only be described as...magical.

(Magical:  appearing to make use of resources that the onlooker is not aware of himself -- the onlooker, that is -- potentially having, and which he would want, if he became aware of having them.)