Politics 2.0

A POST MODERN ORTHODOX JEW

Apikoros or Apikorsim is a word loosely thrown around today to call someone we dont like or has different, less religious views, than ours. Like so many words in the Judeo street colloquialisms today, Apikoros is another word that many use but few actually know its origins.

I was reading the other day that the word Apikoros derives from the Epicurean school of thought in the Hellenstic period. The Epicureans believed in the pleasures of the flesh and consequently those Hellenistic Jews who were associated with such Greek culture adopted such a name, I doubt by choice.

This word reminds me of the rigid social regiments in the small Jewish population of Joburg. With a community so relatively small, there seems to be underlying divisions between such a monogenous community. A Jew from Crawford is immediately catergorised as that type of Jew while a Yeshiva Jew is immediately categorised as this type of Jew. It is a society where one is defined by what side of the M1 one lives on.

It seems as though playground rules at school have been extended to Jewish life in Joburg. In a school where everyone is uniformed and equal, there are still social hierarchies where there is a popular group to which everyone should subsrcibe and all others must revolve around this group, in terms of what to wear, who to speak to and the like. The same can be said for our community.

While I openly support a more religious society, I view a society that becomes religious as a fashionable trend with skepticism. It seems as though there is a trend now to keep kosher and Shabbat, which is totally respectable, but these are noble acts that everyone else sees. I wonder if there is a strong drive in our community to work on the dimension people won't bump into at Frangelicos, and that is the internal person. Is there a drive to be a better person to others in our community, not to Losh, isolate and judge others?

I question a community where the school children know all the mitzvot of pesach but at the same time koch about their friends or disrespect their elders. I question a community that actively pursues BEE but dissociated themselves from the Jewish anti-apartheid activists merely 20 years ago. I question a community where some can recite all the defences of Israel's right to exist but don't know capital of Jordan.

There is a trend today that if you don't live Glenhazel, don't go on a tour to Israel at the end of the year then you are not part of the in-crowd. To me, Judaism is never about being for the elite kids, nor is it a fashion for others to copy. It is rather for all the kids on the playfield, regardless of their yichus. My view can be summed up by a story of a famous Rabbi of the Roman period who when asked to teach the entire Torah to an inquisitor, he replied "V'ahavta Leracha Kamocha- Love your neighbour as yourself". And for those with black and white vision, who take the view you are either mainstream or an Apikoros, obviously need to go back to school.

This blog entry is dedicated to Grobotski