Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: Notesfiles $Revision: 1.6.2.17 $; site uiucdcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!nachum From: nachum@uiucdcs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Re: Re: Christmas {report} card ( Israel Message-ID: <44500004@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Sat, 29-Dec-84 19:36:00 EST Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.44500004 Posted: Sat Dec 29 19:36:00 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 3-Jan-85 00:57:08 EST References: <272@moscom.UUCP> Lines: 26 Nf-ID: #R:moscom:-27200:uiucdcs:44500004:000:1264 Nf-From: uiucdcs!nachum Dec 29 18:36:00 1984 This debate reminds me of a "story" and a "moral" I heard from a professor of philosophy at Hebrew University (whose name I forget): First the story: One day, a couple came to their rebbe with a serious problem. They had just had a baby boy and were having a bitter argument what to name him. So the rebbe turned to the wife and asked, "What do you want to name him?" "Yossel," she said. Then he turned to the husband with the same question. "Yossel," he said. The rebbe was puzzled: "Then why not just name him 'Yossel'," he asked. The woman explained: "I want to name the baby after my uncle, Yossel the tailor; my husband here wants to name him after his uncle, Yossel the carpenter." The rabbi sat immersed in thought for a long time. Finally, he ruled: "Call him Yossel. If, when he grows up he'll be a tailor, then it will be clear that he was named after his mother's uncle. If, on the other hand, he turns to carpentry, then we will know that he was named after his father's uncle." Now for the moral: So it is with Israel. They established it as a "Jewish State". But "Jewish" meant (and means) different things to different people. Only now do we see that calling it "Jewish" merely swept the real issue under the carpet.