Falwell says it is heresy to use King James Bible??

Thanks for the suggestion. I will obtain a copy. I would assume by the title it is a far cry from the posits of Kushner, right?

 

A snore-inducing schnorrer

LMAO! Tom, your Kurosawa-Wood / Kaplan-Wine comparison is absitively brillig! He ain't no Soloveitchik, either, man! (I kant imagine it, I categorically kant.)

Jimmy, yeah, ol' Sherry baby, him of rouged cheek and henna'd hair, is just another leftover 1950's Detroit liberal preacher trying in an ineffably boring way to thrill himself by thinking of himself as daring. I mean, ooooohh an atheist rabbi. Reminds me of Bishop Spong, without the gentility, or Bishop Robinson, without the inside track to National Public Radio.

I've met the man several times. I suspect that he is quite good in person-to-person counseling, but anybody who wanders about regaling audiences with how the CCAR wouldn't let him in (or booted him, I forget which) because he didn't believe in God needs to get a new gagwriter. He's much nicer in person than his pompous pulpit style would suggest, but he hasn't had an idea in 40 years and nothing ages worse than stale progressivism. I mean, come on, maybe your unusual doctrinal positions are daring and zippy in your town, Jimmy, but Sherwin Wine is essentially a nursing-home chaplain for aging apikorsim too rich to be red and too tired to read.

 

Tom,

Just found some good, used copies of the book on the net. Will order one and let you know what I think. Thanks again.

Uncle Janko,

I have to keep www.dictionary.com open when I read most of your posts, ha!

So I gather from your post that Wine no longer leads a humanist congregation in Detroit?

 

No, Jimmy, you don't. I did not say that. As far as I know, Sherwin Wine is still rabbi of the Birmingham Temple in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Just out of curiosity, what did I say that led you to that conclusion? "Essentially a nursing home chaplain"--'twas a metaphor. "Leftover"--'tain't the fifties anymore. Or what? I have come to appreciate your posts, Jimmy, but sometimes I wonder how you arrive at some of your conclusions.

Regards, Janko

 

But Kaplan was wrestling (remember what "Israel" means?) with the deepest of Jewish problems such as "who or what is a Jew?" What makes someone a Jew is his membership in h'am ysroel. And how does h'am survive? How is it distinct from the rest of humanity?

These questions are intensely practical, not least because every Jew is a potential citizen of Israel.

I like ben Gurion's definition best, though it is not halakah:

A Jew is someone who deems himself a Jew, is considered to be a Jew by other Jews, is considered to be a Jew by non-Jews, and shares the fate of the Jewish people.

No God requirement there.

 

"Essentially a nursing home chaplain" ("put out to pasture" as I understood it) was taken to mean he really doesn't do anything anymore but go around and minister wherever he can.

From my own experiences in the ministry of more than 20 years I have seen many Protestant clergy get to the point where they no longer serve congregations but try to remain active (some sadly so) by speaking in nursing homes, ministering in nursing homes, visiting hospitals, etc. Actually they are more of pests than ministers at that point.

Sorry to have drawn the wrong conclusion.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, there's no God requirement in the major halakahic definition of a Jew, either; birth to a Jewish mother.

The only group that seems to impose a religious test to born Jews is modern Reform. Birth to a Jewish parent AND being raised and taught in the Jewish manner.

Converts are a separate analysis but also a very smal group, relatively speaking.