At one farbrengen the Rebbe explained:
The only way to guarantee that people should follow the straight and just path is to instill in them a faith in the Creator of the world.
[...]
And for absurd reasons, mentioning the Creator and Conductor of the world is not allowed in school! As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children and millions of non-Jewish children who are enrolled in public schools do not hear or know anything about the Creator! The only solution to this is to institute a moment of silence at the beginning of the school day, which is designated to thinking about the Creator. This, the Rebbe assured the critics, would influence the rest of the day.
21 comments
Another point from the "Never worked before but,,," files.
Soon to be defended by "The more Atheistic nations better peaceful track records are from borrowing our morality" and "Nothing bad happened in the 50s"
The only way to guarantee that people should follow the straight and just path is to instill in them a faith in the Creator of the world.
And yet, even Amish kids know where to find the best drugs & wildest parties.
Because, I suppose, children spend time in school 24/7, and have no parents to give them religious indoctrination?
It's a mystery; if it weren't for school, how would a child in Tennessee or Utah ever get to hear about a Creator?
@ Ivurm
How do you get that from what the OP said? Jews don't believe you have to be Jewish to be moral; that's one reason Jews don't proselytize.
Yep, like most fundies, you appreciate the value to strike when they're young when their minds are more malleable.
"As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children and millions of non-Jewish children who are enrolled in public schools do not hear or know anything about the Creator! "
Attendees to schools centred around other faiths would say that they are bringing up the children in an environment dedicated to the true creator, which is precisely why many irreligious have qualms with one religion specifying that their deity is the correct one when there is no more evidence for it than all the other deities. Also, you are forgetting that Christians and Muslims worship the same god, so they too would claim to know the creator that you believe in.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children and millions of non-Jewish children who are enrolled in public schools do not hear or know anything about the Creator!
Why not? Can't they learn about it at home or in church if their parents want that?
@ Yossarian Lives
I don't think he is forgetting they worship the same God. He's saying children at public school should think about the Creator, whether they are Christian, Muslim or Jewish. Orthodox Jews believe that non-Jews are not bound by the 613 commandments of the Torah, but by the seven laws given in Genesis to Noah, which include belief in God. By that token, you'd be very hard pressed to find any rabbi for the last millennium who did not agree that Christians and Muslims observe the Noahide Laws and so have a place in the World-To-Come without having to believe in Judaism. The reason the OP mentions Jewish children in particular is because he is writing for a Jewish audience.
It is hard for people brought up with Christianity to grasp one of the main differences between Judaism and the other two main Abrahamic religions: Christianity and Islam are universal faiths whereas Judaism is particular. That is, Christianity and Islam each believe that theirs is the true and only message of God and that the best thing would be for everyone to convert to their religion. Judaism, by contrast, holds that, while there are many general moral messages to be found in the Torah, its overall message applies to Jews alone and other peoples have their own way of reaching God.
@Hasan:
Okay, fair enough. I was guilty of extrapolating meaning from that sentence which wasn't held by the author, admittedly with a culturally Christian lens.However, the sentence does prove to be problematic, in wording at the very least, with regards to polytheistic religions.
Ugh, not this Chabad cult crap (Yes, Chabad is a cult! I said it). They are already bastardizing Judaism enough with their idol worship, now this superiority-complex crap? Live and let live. Not everyone believes in god, and it is none of your business to preach to them.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Jewish children and millions of non-Jewish children who are enrolled in public schools do not hear or know anything about the Creator!
...and as a result of public school education, Adam Richman went from waiter to restaurant manager to going against your Creator's laws in Leviticus: eating Pork & Shellfish in "Man vs. Food".
His mother still loves him, though.
@Hasan Prishtina
You're trying to make your point, and I see what your point is. Unfortunately, Reb Gutman Locks makes that point fall flat on its face, simply by his having specified Jewish children, then lumped all others in one other group entirely. If Judaism is not particularly important to his argument . . . why does he need to specify it? Why can he not just mention millions of children? After all that covers his argument just fine without introducing an irrelevant point that will just become a matter of contention.
That Creator and Conductor of the world was mentioned every single day during my first three years in school. We sang a hymn each and every morning AND a short thank-you-God-song at the end of the school day. We had lessons in Christianity a couple of times each week. When I was born (1969), all children to members of the Swedish Church (95,2 percent of the population in 1972) were automatically enrolled.
Ya know which is NOW one of the least religious countries in the world, Rebby?
How can you mention the Creator during a moment of silence ?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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