Not that I am aware of!!

The foundation of Judiaism is that God spoke to Abraham and told him that that his family, i.e. his decendants, were the "Chosen" people.

Adolph Hilter told the Germans that they were superior to all other people.

My drunk uncle told me that I shouldn't care about anyone but myself and my family - no one else mattered.

The Jews and Germans believed what they were told.

Unlike the Jews or the Germans, I chose to ignore the drunk old goat.

The Jews have been persecuted for millenia, the Germans nearly annihilated.

Do you see a pattern here?

Is there a such thing as a superiority complex?

Apples and oranges.

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Be thou faithful unto Death
And I will give thee a crown of Life

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it.

Allow me, as your resident Jew, to sit down, and explain to you my story true.

Anyway, God doesn't refer to the Hebrews as "The Chosen People" because we are better than anybody else (inherently) or because we are His favorites. We were chosen for a reason. We were the ones chosen to enter into His covenant. We were chosen because he had (and still has) a job for us to do. We are under His contract. We are chosen, yes, but we are burdened.

God might have spoke to Abraham but from the little I know of Judaism Abraham and his descendants weren't backward in giving God a bit of lip

I remember the Bill Cosby "Noah" sketch and at one point Cosby as Noah is getting really cranky with God and telling Him off (then it rains and Cosby/Noah goes all sooky - which is the humorous bit). But I've been told that sort of questioning of God - not directly of course but probably through discussion with a Rabbi of the Talmud - is part and parcel of Judaism. I like that. I like it a lot more than the other schools of religion which emphasise submission and obedience. That simply allows those running the religion to con their followers into doing what they want them to do.

But as for "chosen" people? I can just see God rolling his eyes (there's a thought, if we look to the Heavens then where does God look to?) and muttering under his breath "Oy vey, these are difficult children, very difficult indeed."

Not so much a superiority complex as a cranky complex

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I've seen the wild horses, I've heard the bull roarers

Exactly. Judaism teaches that you shouldn't do stupid and immoral things just because someone (including and expecially God) tells you to. You should THINK before you ACT.

Many of our traditions stem from arguments with God. For example, in order to conduct a proper service, it is necessary to have a congregation of at least 10 people (called a "minyan"). This tradition stems from the story of Abraham arguing with God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. God was ready to smite S&G, but Abraham argued that if there were 100 righteous men in S&G, to not smite them. However, Abraham could not find 100 righteous men in S&G. God was more ready to smite S&G. Abraham lowered the number to 90, but was still unable to find that number of righteous men. Abraham kept staying God's wrath to be humored for finding a decreasing number of righteous men in S&G. Every time he sought these righteous men, however, he came back empty-handed. Finally, he got down to 10. He argued that if ten men were righteous in S&G, it would be unconscionable for God to smite them. When he was unable to find those ten, he stopped arguing and allowed God to smite S&G.

In fact, "Israel" means "He who fights with God."

Yes, there is.

And I feel terribly sorry for you poor sods not blessed with one.

i thought it meant, "he, who struggles with God'', though the meaning somewhat the same as fights with God...

also, i realize that it was a covenent with the Jews, but weren't they chosen to be the keeper of the Word of God, or keepers of the Torah?

Care

Having once owned a carpet cleaning company in Boston, one which serviced Boston's largest slumlords -- those three guys who owned the largest and most notorious collections of student slums in Boston -- I sort of came to the conclusion that the covenent meant that the Jews must be the keepers of the the real estate located at Mediteranian and Baltic Avenues.

Nice guys, they were, but seriously bad landlords.

One of my favorite stories that my rabbi tells is about a bunch of rabbi's discussing the torah and arguing about it when G-d interjects and they tell him to stay out of it. heh...

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"Trust none of what you hear And less of what you see" Springsteen
When the Founding Fathers protected our right to free speech, I think that meant we were supposed to use it.
69 days left http://www.backwardsbush.com/

Oh that Abraham---always wheeling and dealing.

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

I tell you, next time I go into a negotiation process I want Abraham.

Anyone that can get God to shift His primary negotiating position has GOT to be on my side!

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I've seen the wild horses, I've heard the bull roarers

Impressive huh----I'm surprised he got away with arguing with God without being called anti-something.

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"Some men eventually stumble over the truth but they usually pick themselves up and walk on as if nothing ever happened."
-Winston Churchill

"But though there is no difference in this respect between the best demagogue and the worst, both of them having to present their cases equally in terms of melodrama, there is all the difference in the world between the statesman who is humbugging the people into allowing him to do the will of God, in whatever disguise it may come to him, and one who is humbugging them into furthering his personal ambition and the commercial interests of the plutocrats who own the newspapers and support him on reciprocal terms."
-George Bernard Shaw

I wonder if the Canaanites we busy wondering about that jewish "burden" while being massacred for their land...


ps, I didn't see Richard make a single gesture of claiming superiority, EDITEC. Say, still reeling from a particular QUOTE from yesterday?



apples and oranges.. the typical mantra of someone avoiding equal application.

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He's like a maniac with a shotgun that doesn't run out of ammo.

Yeah, right, Jill... like God would be able to get a word in edge-wise.

And even if he appeared as a firey finger writing on stone tablets, or a burning bush, he'd probably lose the argument based on his misintretation of some word or phrase, anway.