Wednesday, April 05, 2006

The Cardinals visit Yeshivas Chovevei Torah

I'm mixed. I don't think Jews should waste time talking to cardinals, but I do think that if Yeshivas Chovvei Torah said the sky was blue, YitzhakAlderstan would write a long-winded, self-rightuous post about how only right-wing Orthodoxy is qualified to say what is blue, and what is not.

Second thoughts: YitzhakAlderstan doesn't really agree with me either. He thinks it's fine to talk to Cardinals so long as you're "suffused with Torah excellence that your world view is a refraction of Torah itself" or some such nebulous rubbish. Really, though, he's mad that the Church thinks the lefties are legitimate, and worthy of attention. This isn't about Torah. It is about power and control. He's jealous that left wing OJ has the clout to welcome cardinals into their beys medrash and he's sore that they are doing it sans supervision from the righties.

Third Thoughts: YCT really shouldn't be welcoming cardinals into their beys medrash. Not because it's osur (thought it very well may be) but because it's demeaning. A tovel v'sheretz b'yado is one who immerses himself in purifying waters while he holds in his hand an insect that makes him impure. Until the Vatican opens its archives on the Holocaust years, or revises its grudging, theology-tainted policy toward Israel, or repudiates the anti-Semitic popes (some of whom, the Vatican, instead, wishes to cannonize) the Church is just that. Until the Church renounces its shameful past, and completes a true and painful teshuva process, there's no reason for Jews to kiss the toes of St. Peter, because there's no guarantee they won't kick us in return.

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