A Global God

And what will the probability wave, "Farnaz1Mansouri1" tell his/her children about the atrocities committed by the followers of Judaism as noted so graphically in the OT??

To wit:

"Exodus 32: 3,000 Israelites killed by Moses for worshipping the golden calf.

Numbers 31: After killing all men, boys and married women among the Midianites, 32,000 virgins remain as booty for the Israelites. (If unmarried girls are a quarter of the population, then 96,000 people were killed.)

Joshua:

Joshua 8: 12,000 men and women, all the people of Ai, killed.

Joshua 10: Joshua completely destroys Gibeon ("larger than Ai"), Makeddah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir. "He left no survivors."

Joshua 11: Hazor destroyed. [Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (1987), estimates the population of Hazor at ?> 50,000]
TOTAL: if Ai is average, 12,000 x 9 = 108,000 killed.

Judges 1: 10,000 Canaanites k. at Battle of Bezek. Jerusalem and Zephath destroyed.

Judges 3: ca. 10,000 Moabites k. at Jordan River.

Judges 8: 120,000 Midianite soldiers k. by Gideon

Judges 20: Benjamin attacked by other tribes. 25,000 killed.

1 Samuel 4: 4,000 Isrealites killed at 1st Battle of Ebenezer/Aphek. 30,000 Isr. k. at 2nd battle.

David:

2 Samuel 8: 22,000 Arameans of Damascus and 18,000 Edomites killed in 2 battles.

2 Samuel 10: 40,000 Aramean footsoldiers and 7,000 charioteers killed at Helam.

2 Samuel 18: 20,000 Israelites under Absalom killed at Ephraim.

1 Kings 20: 100,000 Arameans killed by Israelites at Battle of Aphek. Another 27,000 killed by collapsing wall.

2 Chron 13: Judah beat Israel and inflicted 500,000 casualties.

2 Chron 25: Amaziah, king of Judah, k. 10,000 from Seir in battle and executed 10,000 POWs. Discharged Judean soldiers pillaged and killed 3,000.

2 Chron 28: Pekah, king of Israel, slew 120,000 Judeans

TOTAL: That comes to about 1,283,000 mass killings specifically enumerated in the Bible."

What shall I say to my children and grandchildren, who will ask after Rwanda and Darfur?

You might begin by referring them to the USHMM, which has quite a bit of information on both genocides. You might also direct them to the web sites of the numerous Jewish groups who are doing what they can in Darfur.

You might suggest that they contact some of the Sudanese who made it to Israel, having crossed through Egypt, escaping the Egyptian military, which, if it had caught them, would have killed them or sent them back to Sudan.

Now, there is the question of what you will tell your grandchildren about the Israeli war orphans, the orphans of disfunctional Russian, Ethiopan families, etc., especially, those who continue to be traumatized by the endless shelling from Lebanon. What will you tell your grandchildren, Ms. Brown?

What will you tell them about the three million Middle Eastern Jews, like me, who are living in exile from their native lands?

What will you tell them about the Jews, who were killed, tortured in those countries, some of them now Judenrein?

What will you tell them about the Vatican, which has yet to release its WW II records?

Where will you say you were in this period, Ms. Brown?

Shabbat Shalom.

I get your point Ms. Brown. However, I would not use reading the newspaper as a metaphor, since Judaism's commitment to justice, "Tikkun Olam," transcends whatever one might find in any American newspaper.

The press sold out a long time ago. Media ownership is vast, involving billions and billions of dollars; what gets reported depends on whose interests are served.

I would have thought you would know this. If we wish to heal the world, we might begin with our neighbors, then read the newspapers with the skepticism they deserve, and, finally, do the necessary work to find out who's really harming whom, and why.

We might then discover the hundreds of millions of ignored Dalit, whose plight is never reported. (India is our friend, and the Dalit have no oil-rich supporters.) "Tikkun Olam" is not an easy matter, Ms. Brown.

What the NY Times reported a few years ago regarding Conservative Judaism:

New York Times
ARTS & IDEAS/CULTURAL DESK | March 9, 2002
New Torah For Modern Minds
By MICHAEL MASSING (NYT) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482

"New Torah For Modern Minds

an excerpt:

Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.

Such startling propositions -- the product of findings by archaeologists digging in Israel and its environs over the last 25 years -- have gained wide acceptance among non-Orthodox rabbis. But there has been no attempt to disseminate these ideas or to discuss them with the laity -- until now.

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5 million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called ''Etz Hayim'' (''Tree of Life'' in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document. "

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0809/Pressing_Obama_on_Sudan.html