it has helped to show those in the community who did not want to listen to us who were warning of the danger of getting involved with chabbad. to now be more careful of bearded black hated man coming round with a soft sell

when this is over maybe you can call a conference of the rabbis the have had to leave their positions before rosh hashanah and work out how to get Teshuvah

ben

that’s all folk’s

the time has come to excise the chabbad influence from communities councils .until they come clean and removed the barnacles from their leadership

ben

…really, ben and how do you see the Commission “coming to terms” with the “nepotism” within Chabad. What’s the Commission about to do about it !!! Enlighten us……

Dear Liat

passionate “defence” of fiction is perfectly normal and I would not indulge in any kind of philistine comments. All I said was and I repeat ,is that non-fiction has been my main source of information has been since entering tertiary studies at the age of 18. This does not men that I have not read any fiction.
As about the effects of well written books on the emotive, I am fully aware of what, for instance, a single book, Goethe’s “Werther”, has had upon thousands cases of suicide etc. This also means that it would be wrong to assume that fiction literature is not a valuable esthetic, sociological, even generally political expression of the human condition, quite the opposite deserves the highest acclaim. Not everybody needs to be a researcher, a “qualified” sociologist, historian etc.

it is most informative watching online the commission coming to terms .with the nepotism ,cult of chabbad

a lesson for us all

ben

Dear Liat

don’t get me wrong, I am very interested in learning your opinion on the above…

otto

Literature and fiction are by no means conventional. They provide more by way of suggestion, for reflection, inspiration, different perspective and sustenance than any amount of nutting things out after involvement in the ongoing realities and dramas of life. It might interest you to know that current studies show that those who read this kind of literature/fiction have more developed capacity for empathy. Some universities, such as Melbourne, have added it as an inter-disciplinary component to a Medical degree.

Perhaps it might interest you to read Inga Clendinnen’s ‘Reading the Holocaust’, Text Publ. Melbourne, 1998. Clendinnen is a historian, however she writes her findings and thoughts with the same acuity, the same power invested in good poetry and fiction. The result is astounding, as it is with all literature that excels. As David Malouf says she enters the silences and makes them speak. That is something the kind of exploration you speak of cannot do, therefore other dimensions are missing. Clendinnen is not Jewish, however neither is Paul Johnson, whose ‘A History of the Jews’ has been applauded and used in Jewish education.

Ciao

Dear Liat

there shouldn’t be any conflict between arresting raw reality most perspicatiously and allow creative juices of the fanciest brand to distill it. “Further studies” carry no formal degree or limits, they require just understanding of the permanence of the mission. The only obstacle is idiference. Sounds sententious, even Platonic in wording.
I never had a strong desire to give myself to conventional literature, fiction, too caught up in the dramas of the immediate, the tangible and the need to understand the dynamics of its intricacies – emotions too – and explain all in the same real-istic way. Redundant politeness is the main obstacle I am always at the ready to dispose of. Otherwise, I am known as the universal human panacea for chronical lack of comfort ; so they say, but what do I know…..

THE END

I studied over a long period of time for my University degree, after the Whitlam government’s great gift to the nation, the Mature Age Entrance scheme, came to be, from the time my youngest child started school in the 1980s. A male friend at the time called it ‘a hobby’. It was in fact a dream I had had for a large part of my earlier life, to take up higher education, so you can see where this is a good simile for the mistake you refrained from making. (At the same time, don’t think I’m unappreciative of your effort to make the choice of phrase you did.)

I did one subject per year until family life allowed more, and I chose subjects, lecture and tutorial times to fit in with being home for my children when school was finished for the day. I studied and wrote essays usually between 8.30 p.m. and 1-2 a.m. while my children slept, and weekends were given to family time. Some hobby.