Bad Rabbi Media - "I Just Couldn't Accept That That Was Something That Was Being Said": Contemplating Humanity & Inhumanity from "A Weird Place," with Joshua Leifer

"I Just Couldn't Accept That That Was Something That Was Being Said": Contemplating Humanity & Inhumanity from "A Weird Place," with Joshua Leifer

11/14/23 • 66 min

"So now I'm in a weird place" is a sentiment many can relate to these days. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, following the latter's barbaric 10/7 torture-rape-massacre of 1400 Israelis, and kidnapping of 240 more, has provoked some of the most acute fissures of my generation, with implications that can't be fully predicted except to say we will be living with them for generations more. Joshua Leifer experienced what he describes as an acute awakening about the nature of left-politics in the wake of the massacre. "I reacted very personally to people I knew personally from the left-journalism milieu, reacting excitedly, triumphantly -- or just justifying the Hamas attacks."

"I was surprised by the controversy of the humane left piece...and even more surprised and kind of appalled by the published response to it."

"These were things that I thought were basically uncontroversial ideas."

"I don't think my fundamental analysis of what's happening has changed. but my sense of where i fit into the american political scene...has changed a little bit."

"That argument incensed me...I just couldn't accept that that was something that was being said. and it turned out to be the case that his sentiment was pretty widely shared among progressive Jews."

Toward a Humane Left - Dissent Magazine

Inhumane Times | Joshua Leifer | The New York Review of Books (nybooks.com)

"I was surprised by the controversy of the humane left piece...and even more surprised and kind of appalled by the published response to it."

"These were things that I thought were basically uncontroversial ideas."

"I don't think my fundamental analysis of what's happening has changed. but my sense of where i fit into the american political scene...has changed a little bit."

"That argument incensed me...I just couldn't accept that that was something that was being said. and it turned out to be the case that his sentiment was pretty widely shared among progressive Jews."

Toward a Humane Left - Dissent Magazine

Inhumane Times | Joshua Leifer | The New York Review of Books (nybooks.com)

Previous Episode

HIGH HOLIDAY MOVIE BONUS EPISODE with Daniel Zana from the Jews on Film podcast!

“We are all characters in our stories, and we have to look internally, and hopefully at the end of 90 minutes we’ll become a better person. But sometimes the characters don’t change, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, you were offered the opportunity to grow and learn from your experiences, and instead you’re still being the same turd you started out as.’ ”

Bonus episode! I've been wanting to interview the awesome Daniel Zana for a while because I'm such a huge fan of the Jews on Film podcast he cohosts with Harry Ottensoser. There are so many different kinds of Jews, and so many ways of connecting with Jewish identity and tradition, and art is such a prominent and useful channel for connection and openings to new (or long-hidden) feelings and ideas. So I asked Daniel to give some thought to a few movies people might enjoy and engage with during this Highest of Holiday months. He digs up some great recs from the Jews on Film archives (feel free to pause and check out relevant eps!) and hits all the right notes. You'll laugh, cry, think, and feel! No spoilers!

Shana tova umetuka goodness & sweetness & growth & this year!

Next Episode

POETRY BONUS EPISODE! "Do They Sing, or Repeat a Song?": Laws vs. Miracles & the "Jewish Voices Missing from the Gospels," with Poet Atar Hadari

Poetry, right?

I don't know about you but I'm feeling like I could use some poetry right about now. To that end! Right before the High Holidays started I had a conversation with one of my favorite Jewish writers, poet and translator Atar Hadari. The episode was slated for release on Monday 10/9, and of course intervening world events made it nearly impossible to think about poetry, much less listen to it read aloud, much less claim a moment of open-ended reflection to contemplate, assimilate, absorb.

But at this point, I feel like we could all use a bit of poetry in our lives.

And Atar's new book Gethsemane transports readers to a setting that is chronologically remote but cluturally ever-present: Israel during the time of Jesus, the people and events narrated in the New Testament. Atar does us the honor of reading three poems I requested from Gethsemane . From wildly illuminating and entertaining angles, the poems explore some of the fundamental differences between Judaism and Christianity as communal spiritual value systems -- and does so from a place of profound empathy, sensitivity, and understanding.

Jewish characters, some of whose names still reverberate into our modern "Judeo-Christian" culture, some 'background characters' whose names were never known, observe the events of Jesus's life with emotions we are not used to associating them, given the New Testament's flat characterization of them as either stone-hearted legalists or zealous converts. In the landscape of Gethsemane, ancient Israelites view Jesus with a wide range of attitudes: curiosity, bemusement, annoyance, pity, indignation, indifference, respect. (“There are many kings of Israel that come off a lot worse than Jesus does.")

They wonder things like, How did Jesus make a living? How is this a paying gig?

Through these homey, local voices, a value system emerges organically that pokes and prods at some of the fundamental premises of the New Testament's theological challenge to Judaism. Miracles, in this view, are both freely acknowledged and deprioritized. And taking responsibility for a commmnity's 'mundane' spiritual needs -- via the Temple rituals so mocked in New Testament, via adherence to the legal minutae of Jewish Law -- is the highest stature a person can attain.

"They *needed* the money lenders...it’s just a whole system of commerce they doesn’t work without money lenders...it’s like, Jesus went and threw all the clerks out of city hall. 'Well that’s great Jesus, but how am I going to pay my taxes!'"