Sun 16th April 06
Dear friends and family,
Today the pouring rain and freezing cold after Friday's
scorching heat reminded me once again in what a constantly, rapidly changing
world we live.
With a little effort we can figure out why the weather
changes but humans are much more complicated, especially when it comes to
understanding why people change or don't change their belief.
For many years Christians and Moslems have sought to
make Jews change their belief. Mostly this has taken the form of antisemitism.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, they've succeeded,
otherwise how do we explain Judaism having less members than the other two
religions despite the fact that Judaism preceded them by thousands of years.
Jewish scholars, like Judah Halevi, Ramban and the
great Maimonides all suffered from attempts to convert them. This is why they
deal with this question but they don't give an answer.
Instead they devote themselves to elucidating Judaism,
to show its beauty and benefit for a better world without derogating the other
religions.
Attempts to convert him to Islam forced Maimonides to
flee
One would have thought that an enlightened man like
Salah e Din, in daily contact with such a great scholar as Maimonides would
have learned the beauty and sense of Judaism and would have been influenced to
change his
belief from Islam to Judaism.
On the contrary, he's famous for spreading Islam with
the sword, by conquering the Crusaders and returning the Dome of the Rock
to Moslem rule.
At the same time he also made all Christian property in
The main street of Arab Jerusalem is named after him,
in acknowledgement of these great contributions to Islam.
This has become one of the busiest streets in
I had a tour group from
where I bought some Italian chocolates.
The street is packed with an amazing mixture of people,
from ultra conservative Moslem women, sexy girls in jeans, men in kaffiyas and
lots of tourists.
Some Moslem leaders have expressed concern that the
modern Western ways will attract the young people away from Islam. But one of
the surprises is that, in spite of all the modernity and enlightenment there is
no change in
religious beliefs.
This can be seen very clearly among the students at the
It's clear that no matter how convinced these people
are about the truth and beauty of new ideas they aren't going to let it affect
their belief.
In my opinion social coercion is the only possible
explanation for this total separation between what people study and their
belief.
The Moslems fear the punishment, physical and social
that they will suffer if they change their belief, certainly if they change it
to Judaism.
Possibly less so to Christianity.
The sad truth of the matter is that people change their
belief not when they're convinced of the truth of a new belief but when
they're forced at the point of a sword or family and community excommunication.
Judaism has no objection to people of other faiths
joining its ranks, on the contrary Judaism welcomes the stranger. But Judaism
objects very strongly to using any kind of force to make someone become a Jew.
This is why Judaism isn't successful in increasing its
numbers and Islam and Christianity are.
Here's wishing you a great no news day.
Send comments to: legork@netvision.net.il
Send this article to a friend:
Leon Gork. Israeli Tour Guide.
Tel/fax 02 5810732
Mobile phone 052 3801867
http://www.jerusalemwalks.tripod.com