"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
An antagonist asked: Doesn't our Torah have enough commandments concerning helping the poor and the poor's welfare?
I answered: You sound as though there are so many that they are a burden to you. You should cherish those mitzvot above all others and those are the mitzvot that you should perform most assiduously.
Why do I say this? Because they are the mitzvot that are the conditions upon which all of the other mitzvot can be carried out.
"If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
I'll quote that again: "If there is no flour there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no flour." - Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah
That statement does not mean that there is no Torah only for those who have no flour. It means that there is no Torah for the ones hardening their hearts, or making of themselves luftmenschen, and not seeing to it that everyone has flour (and water, clothes, shoes, housing, inoculation, education and the conditions under which every individual can grow to her or his maximum Spiritual-Moral, mental, emotional and physical potential).
It is because I see the poor in this country becoming increasing beggared and more and more people falling into poverty, that I feel absolutely confident in saying there is no Torah in Israel. If there was one-third of the children in Israel would not be under the poverty line and they would not be going to school hiding the roll the have from others so that no one will see it has nothing on it, the elderly and infirmed would not be eating out of garbage cans and widows would not have their electricity turned off in the winter.
You stated: It seems to me, there are scores of commandments requiring compassion to the poor; forbidding oppressing the poor.
I responded: And are they being fulfilled? Are people as careful to do those mitzvot as they are when choosing their "glatt" chickens? No! They (maybe) give their 10% tzeddakah and a few hours of their time to help others, which only perpetuates the misery. They do not fulfill the commanment: Unloose the shackles of injustice. They do not go up against the system that creates and perpetuates poverty.
He went on to inquire: Why do we need a philosphy that is not rooted in Torah?
I responded: Do you not see that what I am saying is pure Torah? Shame on your teachers!
From the day that Avraham smashed his father's idols Judaism has been nothing but radical social transformation. Anyone who isn't smashing the idols that keep us in thrall, poor and subject to corrupt regimes is not of the covenant of Avraham, has not begun to understand what that covenant is.
Anarchy is not a philosophy from outside Torah. Anarchy is the mitzvot "concerning helping the poor and the poor's welfare" with the utmost punctiliousness and assiduousness.
Why do you think the old Jew blessed Rudolph Rocker?
I once took a course with a rabbi on tzadakah. At one point he stated that there must always be poor people so that we can do the mitzvah of giving tzaddakah. I left his course and have not read a word that he has to say since. He went down to credibility zero with me when he said that. The cruelty that passes itself off as Torah in this generation is absolutely astounding.
We may be sure that even in a society of Anarcho-Communalism, in which all of our physical needs are provided for; there will be endless opportunities for us to give emotional tzaddakah; to help those who need us in numerable ways and to be helped by others in innumerable ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
A Jew Who Knew
Rudolph Rocker was a German non-Jew who devoted his life to ameliorating the conditions of the working poor Jews in London at the start of the 20th C.
He learned Yiddish so well that he became the editor of the Yiddish Anarchist papers Dos Fraye Vort (The Free Word), Der Arbeiter Freint (The Workers Friend) and Germinal.
For his efforts he was detained by the British for years as an "alien enemy of the state".
Shortly after leading Jewish sweatshop workers to victory in a 1912 strike he recalled:
"As I was walking along a narrow Whitechapel street, an old Jew with a long white beard stopped me outside his house, and said: “May God bless you! You helped my children in their need. You are not a Jew, but you are a man!” This old man lived in a world completely different from mine. But the memory of the gratitude that shone in those eyes has remained with me all these years."
THE LONDON YEARS, the last page of Chapter 23 – Workers' Circle. The Great Strike.
In 1912, you may be sure, that an old Jew with a long white beard knew the halakhah.
How many Jews today can honestly say they would do for the Jews what the gentile German Rocker did?
Today, far too many Jews who fancy themselves Orthodox and knowledgeable in Torah would dismiss Rocker as a "sheigitz" or perhaps try to shame him publicly for being an "abominable" Anarchist, or proffer a description of his "touched" personality based on an astrological chart, or throw in his face that his father celebrated Christmas or speculate on his mental state or call him a "freak". (See the Yahoo! group "Tzfat" in order to understand to what I am referring.)
But we all know deep in our heart of hearts that the Jew with the long white beard who was already old in 1912 was the real thing. May God bless him as he blessed those who helped the (secular, Anarchistic) Jews, who he called his children, in their need.
And thank God for a gentile who bothered to learn Yiddish so he could help the Jews, who recorded the words of that old Jew, immortalizing him, so that the voice of true Judaism can still be heard today by Jews like me who yearn to hear it but so very rarely do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Rudolph Rocker was a German non-Jew who devoted his life to ameliorating the conditions of the working poor Jews in London at the start of the 20th C.
He learned Yiddish so well that he became the editor of the Yiddish Anarchist papers Dos Fraye Vort (The Free Word), Der Arbeiter Freint (The Workers Friend) and Germinal.
For his efforts he was detained by the British for years as an "alien enemy of the state".
Shortly after leading Jewish sweatshop workers to victory in a 1912 strike he recalled:
"As I was walking along a narrow Whitechapel street, an old Jew with a long white beard stopped me outside his house, and said: “May God bless you! You helped my children in their need. You are not a Jew, but you are a man!” This old man lived in a world completely different from mine. But the memory of the gratitude that shone in those eyes has remained with me all these years."
THE LONDON YEARS, the last page of Chapter 23 – Workers' Circle. The Great Strike.
In 1912, you may be sure, that an old Jew with a long white beard knew the halakhah.
How many Jews today can honestly say they would do for the Jews what the gentile German Rocker did?
Today, far too many Jews who fancy themselves Orthodox and knowledgeable in Torah would dismiss Rocker as a "sheigitz" or perhaps try to shame him publicly for being an "abominable" Anarchist, or proffer a description of his "touched" personality based on an astrological chart, or throw in his face that his father celebrated Christmas or speculate on his mental state or call him a "freak". (See the Yahoo! group "Tzfat" in order to understand to what I am referring.)
But we all know deep in our heart of hearts that the Jew with the long white beard who was already old in 1912 was the real thing. May God bless him as he blessed those who helped the (secular, Anarchistic) Jews, who he called his children, in their need.
And thank God for a gentile who bothered to learn Yiddish so he could help the Jews, who recorded the words of that old Jew, immortalizing him, so that the voice of true Judaism can still be heard today by Jews like me who yearn to hear it but so very rarely do.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
DESIGN YOUR OWN UTOPIA
Chaz Bufe, one of the hottest Anarchists out there, and Libby Hubbard (with whose work I am not acquainted other than this one) have created the "Design Your Own Utopia" workbook.
They don't call it a workbook, I do. They call it a questionnaire. But it really reminds me of the workbooks we had in school - but it's for adults and far more fun, revealing and probably educational too. The questions posed will show you who you are by allowing you to answer what your idea of perfection is.
Go for it - design your own utopia: http://www.seesharppress.com/utopia.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Chaz Bufe, one of the hottest Anarchists out there, and Libby Hubbard (with whose work I am not acquainted other than this one) have created the "Design Your Own Utopia" workbook.
They don't call it a workbook, I do. They call it a questionnaire. But it really reminds me of the workbooks we had in school - but it's for adults and far more fun, revealing and probably educational too. The questions posed will show you who you are by allowing you to answer what your idea of perfection is.
Go for it - design your own utopia: http://www.seesharppress.com/utopia.html
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
THE LEAVING FOR THE SAKE OF THE RETURN
One can keep kashrut out of a need to belong, keep Shabbat out of fear of what their family and neighbors will say and keep Taharat HaMisphachah out of desire for a place in the world to come... - all without loving HaShem with one's entire being.
But no one devotes their entire life to humanity, consistently over the period of a lifetime, unless they love HaShem completely and are devoted to HaShem in a way that the Orthodox can only feign being. That devotion need not be conscious, but it is there.
Am I conflated? Am I making a shatnez of Torah and secular ethics? In fact, there is nothing that I have written that is not pure Torah.
Ideally a Jew should keep the mitzvot and serve humanity. They do not only not contradict; they are supplementary one to the other.However, Judaism as it is currently taught and practiced, with all of the chumrot and minhagim that have been added to Torah (in contravention of the injunction not to add to Torah!) does not allow for the performance of both those mitzvot that bring down holiness into the physical plane and the social service aspects of Torah - both of which are essential and should be performed in such a way that they enable and advance one the other.
We have been taught in Chassidut about the principle of the descent for the purpose of the ascent.
In our times, time of darkness and blindness we are in need of a more radical cure for our moral-spiritual ills. We are in need of the leaving for the sake of the return.The only solution to the problem is to leave this farce that we are told is Torah and build a just society that is not based on greed and violence and power-hungriness. In such a society there will be no incentives for Rabbis who serve the power structure to distort Torah and make it into shackles and manacles that bind the mind, the heart and Soul. In such a society Torah can be rediscovered in its pristine purity because there won't be a power structure that will have interests in making the populace spiritual slaves and moral cripples.
Torah has been so horribly misrepresented, so grossly misunderstood and so abused as an instrument of mind and behavior control that the only way to return to it is by leaving what we think is Torah, but is not.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
One can keep kashrut out of a need to belong, keep Shabbat out of fear of what their family and neighbors will say and keep Taharat HaMisphachah out of desire for a place in the world to come... - all without loving HaShem with one's entire being.
But no one devotes their entire life to humanity, consistently over the period of a lifetime, unless they love HaShem completely and are devoted to HaShem in a way that the Orthodox can only feign being. That devotion need not be conscious, but it is there.
Am I conflated? Am I making a shatnez of Torah and secular ethics? In fact, there is nothing that I have written that is not pure Torah.
Ideally a Jew should keep the mitzvot and serve humanity. They do not only not contradict; they are supplementary one to the other.However, Judaism as it is currently taught and practiced, with all of the chumrot and minhagim that have been added to Torah (in contravention of the injunction not to add to Torah!) does not allow for the performance of both those mitzvot that bring down holiness into the physical plane and the social service aspects of Torah - both of which are essential and should be performed in such a way that they enable and advance one the other.
We have been taught in Chassidut about the principle of the descent for the purpose of the ascent.
In our times, time of darkness and blindness we are in need of a more radical cure for our moral-spiritual ills. We are in need of the leaving for the sake of the return.The only solution to the problem is to leave this farce that we are told is Torah and build a just society that is not based on greed and violence and power-hungriness. In such a society there will be no incentives for Rabbis who serve the power structure to distort Torah and make it into shackles and manacles that bind the mind, the heart and Soul. In such a society Torah can be rediscovered in its pristine purity because there won't be a power structure that will have interests in making the populace spiritual slaves and moral cripples.
Torah has been so horribly misrepresented, so grossly misunderstood and so abused as an instrument of mind and behavior control that the only way to return to it is by leaving what we think is Torah, but is not.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Genuine Religious Jews
Jews inspired by genuine Divine afflatus do not engage overmuch in ceremonies, nor do they speak in clichés, quoting others verbatim by rote.
They are not overly punctilious and scrupulous about ritual purity and they do not carry out formulaic actions obsessively-compulsively.
They do not care a whit about their own salvation and nothing they do is for the sake of ensuring an eternal place of rest and joy for themselves.
They act in, rather than speak of, love.
They do not wax pontifical or esoteric. They concern themselves with the needs of human beings qua human beings.
They do not sacrifice the material levels of our beings for the sake of the "spiritual" levels.
They do not profit from the encouraging and teaching of others to observe ritual.
They do not claim immaculate morality on the part of their teachers; neither do they claim that they their tradition or their teachers are infallible.
They do not set themselves up and judge and jury over humankind.
The only abomination they recognize is injustice and the misuse of power.
They need no social acceptance or group to be part to know what they should do or give them a sense of identity. They are strong enough to stand alone, all alone, if need be.
Their every action, the very purpose of their lives and their entire being is given over to the alleviation of the suffering of humankind.
Injustice is intolerable to them and they fight for justice for all no matter what the personal price they must pay for it.
Gustav Landauer, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Saul Alinsky, Martin Buber and Murray Bookchin were religious Jews. They carried within them the whole of Torah. The received and passed on the torch of the Prophets of Israel. This was true despite the protestations of some of them that they were atheists. It is recorded of Emma Goldman, the self-professed atheist Anarchist, that: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of al Miss Goldman has said against religion", he announced, "she is the most religious person I know." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, An Emma Goldman Reader, Compiled and Edited by Alex Kates Shulman, Preface to Part Two; Published 1998 by Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books)
It is certainly be true that some Jews who adhere to the minutiae of Jewish Law may be true Orthodox Jews, but this is true if and only if they do so in addition to devoting their entire lives to the amelioration of the human condition and the alleviation of human suffering. Their performance of the minutiae of Jewish Law is not that which defines them at genuine Orthodox Jews. That is a mere appurtenance. Their devotion to justice is that which defines them as genuine Orthodox Jews.
Those who teach Jewish Law in such a way that it comes in lieu of acting in the world for the betterment of human kind; if it obviates doing so; if it becomes so all-demanding, time-consuming and burdensome that there is no strength or time for fighting injustice; if the observance of Jewish Law imparts the illusion of being absolutely right and just; if it attenuates the desire to right wrongs or puts off the doing so for the Mashiach to take care of; if it brings one to believe that each of us has only to tend to our own imperfections – then we may be entirely sure that what we have is not Judaism at all, but an ersatz, painstakingly deliberately fabricated and purposefully promulgated in order to confound us, to keep our energies invested in that which will avail nothing and deflect us from our duties by nefarious interests.
A great deal of money, ink and blood is being poured in order to keep Jews distracted from our true purpose and our true values. This is as true of the religious segments of our society as it is of the secular segments. The only difference is the methods being employed in order to dissipate our energies.
History has proven that Jews who are devoted to justice en masse are invincible. It is then that HaShem performs miracles for us.
Every effort is being made, in the religious and secular worlds alike, to prevent us from knowing who we truly are, what our purpose in creation is, from mobilizing in unison, reaching a critical mass of power and changing the course of the world. We can do it. We have done so before. If we were not capable of changing the world, so much investment would not be being invested in atomizing us and reducing our strength.
Do not be fooled. Do not be misled. Do not be bought. Do not be enthralled. Do not be enticed. Do not be led astray.
We Jews were put here for the sake of participating in the creation of a just world with every other and for every other sentient being.
Let nothing, but nothing, be it pseudo-religious principles or iPods and other things that go beep in the night steer you away from what you are and what your designated tasks are.
The Hebrew version of this essay is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yfnud6
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Jews inspired by genuine Divine afflatus do not engage overmuch in ceremonies, nor do they speak in clichés, quoting others verbatim by rote.
They are not overly punctilious and scrupulous about ritual purity and they do not carry out formulaic actions obsessively-compulsively.
They do not care a whit about their own salvation and nothing they do is for the sake of ensuring an eternal place of rest and joy for themselves.
They act in, rather than speak of, love.
They do not wax pontifical or esoteric. They concern themselves with the needs of human beings qua human beings.
They do not sacrifice the material levels of our beings for the sake of the "spiritual" levels.
They do not profit from the encouraging and teaching of others to observe ritual.
They do not claim immaculate morality on the part of their teachers; neither do they claim that they their tradition or their teachers are infallible.
They do not set themselves up and judge and jury over humankind.
The only abomination they recognize is injustice and the misuse of power.
They need no social acceptance or group to be part to know what they should do or give them a sense of identity. They are strong enough to stand alone, all alone, if need be.
Their every action, the very purpose of their lives and their entire being is given over to the alleviation of the suffering of humankind.
Injustice is intolerable to them and they fight for justice for all no matter what the personal price they must pay for it.
Gustav Landauer, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Saul Alinsky, Martin Buber and Murray Bookchin were religious Jews. They carried within them the whole of Torah. The received and passed on the torch of the Prophets of Israel. This was true despite the protestations of some of them that they were atheists. It is recorded of Emma Goldman, the self-professed atheist Anarchist, that: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of al Miss Goldman has said against religion", he announced, "she is the most religious person I know." (RED EMMA SPEAKS, An Emma Goldman Reader, Compiled and Edited by Alex Kates Shulman, Preface to Part Two; Published 1998 by Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books)
It is certainly be true that some Jews who adhere to the minutiae of Jewish Law may be true Orthodox Jews, but this is true if and only if they do so in addition to devoting their entire lives to the amelioration of the human condition and the alleviation of human suffering. Their performance of the minutiae of Jewish Law is not that which defines them at genuine Orthodox Jews. That is a mere appurtenance. Their devotion to justice is that which defines them as genuine Orthodox Jews.
Those who teach Jewish Law in such a way that it comes in lieu of acting in the world for the betterment of human kind; if it obviates doing so; if it becomes so all-demanding, time-consuming and burdensome that there is no strength or time for fighting injustice; if the observance of Jewish Law imparts the illusion of being absolutely right and just; if it attenuates the desire to right wrongs or puts off the doing so for the Mashiach to take care of; if it brings one to believe that each of us has only to tend to our own imperfections – then we may be entirely sure that what we have is not Judaism at all, but an ersatz, painstakingly deliberately fabricated and purposefully promulgated in order to confound us, to keep our energies invested in that which will avail nothing and deflect us from our duties by nefarious interests.
A great deal of money, ink and blood is being poured in order to keep Jews distracted from our true purpose and our true values. This is as true of the religious segments of our society as it is of the secular segments. The only difference is the methods being employed in order to dissipate our energies.
History has proven that Jews who are devoted to justice en masse are invincible. It is then that HaShem performs miracles for us.
Every effort is being made, in the religious and secular worlds alike, to prevent us from knowing who we truly are, what our purpose in creation is, from mobilizing in unison, reaching a critical mass of power and changing the course of the world. We can do it. We have done so before. If we were not capable of changing the world, so much investment would not be being invested in atomizing us and reducing our strength.
Do not be fooled. Do not be misled. Do not be bought. Do not be enthralled. Do not be enticed. Do not be led astray.
We Jews were put here for the sake of participating in the creation of a just world with every other and for every other sentient being.
Let nothing, but nothing, be it pseudo-religious principles or iPods and other things that go beep in the night steer you away from what you are and what your designated tasks are.
The Hebrew version of this essay is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/yfnud6
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, November 24, 2006
I've begun another web site. Yes, yes, yet another.
I had no choice. This topic must be aired.
The site is called Critique of Judaism and is to be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/yed5pe
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
I had no choice. This topic must be aired.
The site is called Critique of Judaism and is to be found on the following URL:
http://tinyurl.com/yed5pe
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Friday, September 29, 2006
What is Anarchistic Judaism?
This question was recently posed to me.
The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.
http://tinyurl.com/syelf
The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
This question was recently posed to me.
The article on the link below is my level best tentative response, in so far as I am currently able to answer this very difficult question.
http://tinyurl.com/syelf
The Hebrew version of this essay entitled, not surprisingly,
?מהי יהדות אנרכיסטית is to be found on the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ulcan
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
ANARCHY IS…
In response to someone who said that Anarchy is nothing other than a license to murder and plunder with impunity:
We Anarchists are fully aware of the fact that only a few people are ready for this responsibility and freedom and most are not.
How do we separate the one from the other?
Simple - from their reactions to the idea of Anarchy.
Those who are ready see the beauty and potential for human development and achievement inherent in it. They are drawn to the idea at once. They see emancipation as the opportunity to do great things that are not possible now. They react with love for Humankind.
Those who are not ready for Anarchy see only destruction and chaos. They cannot see the opportunity to create beautiful forms that Anarchy permits. To them freedom means license to do harm. They react with fear of Humankind.
Let's consider the example of sexual attraction in order to understand the concept of preparedness.
Prepubescent boys, at the age of 10 or 11 who are neither emotionally nor physically ready for sexual and intimate emotional relations, find girls the most icky thing around. Ugh. Yuck.
Two or three years later they are in a state of confusion about girls. At this stage they are physically capable of having sex, but are not emotionally able to engage in intimacy.
Two, three or four years later they think that young women are just about the most desirable creatures ever to grace the universe. At this stage, not only can they have sex physically, they begin to be able to fall in love or at least be infatuated by the opposite sex.
We are not attracted to that which is the source of life, be it sex or a model of society that allows us optimal expression of our potential, until we are ready.
So it is with Anarchism.
I address my posts to those who are ready. They know who they are and we will know who they are.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
In response to someone who said that Anarchy is nothing other than a license to murder and plunder with impunity:
We Anarchists are fully aware of the fact that only a few people are ready for this responsibility and freedom and most are not.
How do we separate the one from the other?
Simple - from their reactions to the idea of Anarchy.
Those who are ready see the beauty and potential for human development and achievement inherent in it. They are drawn to the idea at once. They see emancipation as the opportunity to do great things that are not possible now. They react with love for Humankind.
Those who are not ready for Anarchy see only destruction and chaos. They cannot see the opportunity to create beautiful forms that Anarchy permits. To them freedom means license to do harm. They react with fear of Humankind.
Let's consider the example of sexual attraction in order to understand the concept of preparedness.
Prepubescent boys, at the age of 10 or 11 who are neither emotionally nor physically ready for sexual and intimate emotional relations, find girls the most icky thing around. Ugh. Yuck.
Two or three years later they are in a state of confusion about girls. At this stage they are physically capable of having sex, but are not emotionally able to engage in intimacy.
Two, three or four years later they think that young women are just about the most desirable creatures ever to grace the universe. At this stage, not only can they have sex physically, they begin to be able to fall in love or at least be infatuated by the opposite sex.
We are not attracted to that which is the source of life, be it sex or a model of society that allows us optimal expression of our potential, until we are ready.
So it is with Anarchism.
I address my posts to those who are ready. They know who they are and we will know who they are.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, September 18, 2006
Ontological Anarchy, Quantum Physics and Judaism
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
א - The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
As background to Ontological Anarchy please see:
http://tinyurl.com/mxyrl
Having considered the concepts of Ontological Anarchy and Quantum Physics, at least briefly; we can now tie them to Judaism.
It might seem that if we accept that Anarchy is ontological then we have to reject the set Laws in Torah. Or, if we accept that the universe is ruled by the Laws in Torah, then we cannot posit ontological Anarchy.
One or the other needs to go. Right? I think not.
Remember that all of the letters in Hebrew are numerical values. Since numerical values all have an infinite number of substitution values; it is true that there is always an infinite number of alternative, equivalent readings of the Torah effective.
See: The Imperative of Moral Mathematics
http://tinyurl.com/6o3no
-and-
א - The Unending One
http://tinyurl.com/zghyg
In other words, we have to start to think of that which is written in Torah in a "quantum" manner, to describe the thinking in modern jargon. We are used to thinking of Torah "collapsed" into one possibility of reading/computation, but in reality it is in infinite states of reading/computation and availing itself of infinite interpretation always. It is we who solidify it into one state when we observe it in a state of mochin katnut (restricted consciousness in Aramaic), even as we do the very same to the physical world when we train our consciousness on it.
As background to the following discussion please see:
Anarchy and the Spiritual Quest
http://tinyurl.com/mr9pk
Our consciousness is, in large part, predicated upon our interactions with others in society. As we relate to one another, so we conceptualize and take cognizance of the phenomena presented to our consciousness, or more correctly, take cognizance of the fact that our consciousness is producing that which is presented to it. It is generally accepted that how we use language determines our consciousness, that consciousness is a function of linguistics. Looking deeper into the matter; it will become apparent that our language is nothing other than memeplexes - that is our conceptual inheritance, the ways in which we were taught from infancy to relate to other human beings, as those who came before us did. Among the media of exchange of this information are language; observable behavior among people: caring or indifference, deference to some, lack of respect for others, addressing some by their titles, addressing others by their proper names, not addressing some at all and so on; the way in which we relate to others' material substance.
If we wish to perceive תורה in its "quantum" majesty, if we wish to the following passage from Henry David Thoreau's WALDEN to apply to us, as תורה-living Jews: "He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings" ; it is imperative that we build a society that allows us to relate to one another in far more cooperative, expansive, creative ways.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
dandor@013.net - עברית
Friday, September 15, 2006
Ontological Anarchy
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos Theory Anarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilson entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Peter Lamborn Wilson (aka Hakim Bey) is a genius, in my humble and correct opinion. Like most people who get to the frontiers of consciousness, he sometimes drifts off into deep space and gets ridiculous. That goes with the (lack of) territory. I don't agree with a lot of the things that he writes and I certainly don't follow him around on his various trips into inner and outer space. He's a member of NAMbLA. I do not know if he practices paedophilia or non-violent paederasty. I have no problem with the latter. To my mind, the age of consent should be when both puberty and a reasonable awareness of what the ramifications of a pubescent person engaging in sexual and emotional intercourse with another pubescent person commences. This is obviously very individual and no law can possibly regulate it.
At any rate, Wilson/Bey wrote an essay entitled: "Quantum Mechanics & Chaos Theory Anarchist Meditations on N. Herbert'sQuantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics"
that impressed me, which is to be found on this URL:
http://www.hermetic.com/bey/quantum.html
While I do not agree with his timeline of human development, I think there has been a lot of overlap and at any given time all forms were present to one extent or another; I must certainly do agree with his thesis that our societal relationships impact on how and what we are able to perceive and vice versa.
I agree with Wilson entirely that Anarchy is Ontological. The political and social aspects of Anarchy are expressions of Ontological Anarchy on the human level.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
"People are Nothing But Sheep! They are Nothing But Lemmings!"
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way.
We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly. Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like.
Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
So the brainwashed, who are the unpaid, inadvertent agents of brainwashing, in turn say - a countless number of times every day just about everywhere.
I say:
We see in small children two tendencies:
1) to be original, individual and individualistic
2) to be like those they admire
They can, depending upon how they are educated, go either way.
We are educated, forcibly, such that the sheep-like tendency is fostered. We are broken in the public schools by means that would be considered mental, emotional and physical torture if they were appraised honestly. Like Pat Benetar sang: "Hell is for Children".
After being stunted, stultified, crippled and truncated we are told that we can't be set free because people are lemmings and sheep-like.
Those who claim that "people are nothing but sheep and lemmings" are merely, and mindlessly, repeating what they have been told about themselves and what they have heard everyone else being told about themselves and telling one another all their lives. They are reinforcing the brainwashing.
Fight like hell to break out of the vicious cycle of repeating to yourself that you and everyone around you are incapable of independent thought and action!
The reader might be interested in looking into the educational system of one Francisco Ferrer. His theories of education served as the basis of what was called "Modern Schools" in a number of countries, including the US. There are accounts of ex-students of his school in New Jersey on the net. They remember being free, creative and, above all, happy children.
As one might expect, he was put to death for being a radical in his native Spain. Setting people free is a dangerous avocation.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Sunday, August 20, 2006
אל לישראל לשוב למצב לפני המלחמה
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelMustNotReturnToTheStatusQuoHEB.htm
דורין אלן בל-דותן, צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelMustNotReturnToTheStatusQuoHEB.htm
דורין אלן בל-דותן, צפת
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, August 18, 2006
Israel Must Not Return to the Status Quo Ante Bellum
Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?" We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask: "How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.
But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government must be addressed.
The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line, remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce armaments continue at a brisker pace.
In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that is, the way of Anarchy.
The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a state of violent chaos. It is anything but.
Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It is our purpose to build society – real society that is inhabitable for fully realized, fully human beings.
Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in which there is no state – the people rule themselves and society is a dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.
Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share the deepest levels of our being.
In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.
Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition, violence and more – all intended to break the child's spirit and make him or her malleable.
In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them. They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.
Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.
Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea Sect lived likewise communally.
The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster – even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over themselves are reprehensible.
When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.
To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and, more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)
It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact, exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom. When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated, crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.
Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.
True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom and are not capable of living as free human beings.
It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual agents.
To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society. No self-sacrifice is greater than this.
Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted "interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly moral direct action to rebuild society.
How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion? How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.
On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in English. Only the essay entitled אנרכיה מובהקת is in Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my request. The original English version of אנרכיה מובהקת, under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as well.
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html
Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read other languages will be able to access this school of thought and programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.
Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism – emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.
It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an atheist, but a convinced Jew.
It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will. It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry, cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.
Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to emancipate those who are enslaved – and they take great personal risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.
Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be and will?
I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough, who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned during our two thousand years long Diaspora?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006
Now, with the cessation of fire in Lebanon when we are no longer under constant threat of death, we look around us and allow ourselves to estimate the full extent of the devastation. We bury our dead. We mourn. We clear away the rubble of what once were homes and other structures. We assess the ecological loss of forestry that was set back fifty years. We ask: "Why? We ask: "Did this have to be?" We ask: "Why weren't the lives of our soldiers protected to the absolute maximum?" We ask: "Did our government betray and attempt to befuddle us?" We ask: "How could Hezbollah have been left to arm itself and train without disturbance for six long years?" We ask: "Why didn't our leaders obviate this war?" We know that something, many things really, were blundered horrifically. Young men paid with their lives and the integrity of their bodies and psyches. Families are devastated.
But the execrable prosecution of this war was not just a matter of blundering. It is not just a matter of faulty intelligence. Our government always disappoints us. They always fail us. They always abuse use. We always pay for their luxurious lifestyles with the quality of our lives, if not our lives themselves. During wartime the faults of governments are highlighted because they are exaggerated. The truth is, governments are always bodies characterized by the crudest methods of intimidation and grossest excesses of mendacity. They are always peopled by those who, were they wiser and better, would refuse to be government officials for the shame of the debauchery, improbity and moral squalor being part in a government necessarily entails. We simply see this in greater relief clearly after a war, but we see nothing that is not always apparent, just somewhat less so. It is only after a war that we all become agreed that the failings of government must be addressed.
The government of Israel will now be faced with questions, but they will still not be faced with the questions that most urgently need to be asked in the forms in which those questions really must be formulated. They will be faced with questions that they are eminently capable of fielding and they will answer on their terms. They will answer the questions posed to them such that they retain their political positions; such that the economic status quo in Israel, which keeps a full one third of Israel's children below the poverty line, remains intact; such that Israeli workers continue to be worked to exhaustion and live in constant trepidation of losing their jobs, not being able to pay their mortgages or the many payments they are responsible for; such that Israel's children remain the victims of violence in public schools, to which they are sent in order to be systematically broken into docile, subservient citizens who run to their death when the government calls them to wars that need not have been fought, wars they do not know how to prosecute, wars that are fought so that the filthy businesses of the super-wealthy who produce armaments continue at a brisker pace.
In the wake of this war we are at a crossroads. We can change society substantially. Israel must not return to the status quo. The Israeli people, if we are not to continue to be used, abused and sent to our deaths, if we are not to fool ourselves that any victory in war is anything but a Pyrrhic victory, must mature and take steps closer to the way in which mature, fully Human beings organize society - that is, the way of Anarchy.
The term anarchy has been much maligned. Anarchy does not mean a lack of order. Governments would have the public think that Anarchy is a state of violent chaos. It is anything but.
Governments and big businesses would paint pictures of Anarchists as those dedicated to the destruction of society. We are anything but. It is our purpose to build society – real society that is inhabitable for fully realized, fully human beings.
Anarchy means simply the absence of government. It is a condition in which there is no state – the people rule themselves and society is a dynamic kaleidoscope of purely voluntary social and economic interactions based on the common advantage of all who choose to take part in those interactions. So too in an Anarchistic society, one may choose freely not to take part in any human interactions that are not personally palatable, productive or otherwise satisfying or desirable.
Anarchy is a condition in which there is no private property. Everyone owns all, but of course, it is recognized that each individual needs certain private effects that may differ from the needs of others and those are provided for in such a way that the genuine needs of the person are fulfilled, while capital cannot be made of the effects nor can power accrue from them. Unlike Marxist Communism, as it is has been expressed so dreadfully, there is no central state that controls the modes of production. That which differentiates Anarchy from Marxism must be made clear. We are non-authoritarian and therefore do not accept the existence of any kind of state. The expression "dictatorship of the proletariat" is half honest. It is indeed a dictatorship, but in no wise represents the interests of or is concerned with the welfare of the proletariat. Moreover, we understand that people are more than just workers. Work is absolutely essential, of course, but we must associate in the fullness of our humanness in order to access, express and share the deepest levels of our being.
In an Anarchic society there is no state that retains an army and a police force that are illegally utilized to put people out of their homes and force them to live in tents. There is no value of commodities or labor. Anarchists understand that it is impossible to determine how much any item is "worth" based on the hours or difficulty of work that went into it per se. Therefore, our motto is: From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her need.
Anarchy is a condition in which children are not sent to prison-like schools, which are nothing but indoctrination facilities and holding pens in which they are subjected to monotony, humiliation, competition, violence and more – all intended to break the child's spirit and make him or her malleable.
In a state of Anarchy children learn for the sake of the joy of learning, as was the case in the system of education developed by Francisco Ferrer. The best in children is creatively drawn from them. They are not force-fed unsupported and unsupportable assumptions like ducks and geese being force-fed with pneumatic pumps for pate gras.
Anarchy is not only simply in keeping with Judaism, it is a particularly Jewish mode of living and interaction.
Before Israel took upon itself the government of a king we lived in a state of Anarchy. There was no centralized government during the periods of early prophets and the judges. Prophets lived communally with their students who attributed honor and authority to their revered and beloved Teachers solely on the basis of their loving-kindness and wisdom. Wise and trusted elders, who were known personally by the people who sought out their counsel, settled disputes. The Dead Sea Sect lived likewise communally.
The accepting upon ourselves of kings in order to be "a people like every other people" was a decision that proved to be a disaster – even the best of Israel's kings stumbled under the weight of a responsibility that no human being can bear. From this we learn that more than their appointed leaders, those who appoint leaders over themselves are reprehensible.
When we accepted kings upon ourselves we abrogated the right to self-determination. We became subjects, that is, we became slaves.
To this day the Jewish people remain slaves. We are slaves to government. We are slaves to public opinion, which is shaped by professional propagandizers, who are in the employ governments and, more particularly, international corporations, which retain governments as their private body guards. We are slaves to our jobs, which rob us of the lion's share of our production and force us to work brutally long hours under extreme physical and psychic pressure in workplaces that are always understaffed in order to "cut the cost of labor". (It was calculated by Anarchist economist over one hundred years ago that to attain a middle class standard of living for all, all that was required was four or five hours of labor a day. All labor above and beyond that was, and is, pocketed by employers.)
It is a precept that slaves are forbidden to perform some of the precepts of Jewish law. We cannot so much as understand the foregoing precept profoundly or correctly. We imagine that it applies to others. We imagine that we have understood the circumstances being described. We do not realize that it is we to whom it applies. We do not realize that it relates to our circumstances. I have explained how we, in fact, are slaves in so very many ways. We are, then, in fact, exempt from the practice of many precepts. When we insist upon practicing those precepts we do so without deep understanding and in the way of slaves, that is, hurriedly, under pressure and without real joy. We are, in fact, forbidden to practice many of the precepts that we, in our present state of slavery, try to do and in so doing we make a mockery and a travesty of Judaism, which is none other than Freedom. When we learn Torah we cannot possibly understand what we have read and carry out the commandments properly. Chained, shackled, mutilated, crippled and truncated as we are; we cannot move our bodies to do the precepts properly. Poisoned as we are by state propaganda as well as toxic air, water and food; we cannot possibly see or cognate clearly.
Do you know anyone personally who has attained true and complete emancipation of the Soul, body, mind and emotions as a result of carrying out the precepts as they are performed today? No! And neither will you find such a one. Of course we are told tales about perfectly righteous people who possess this freedom. Do you know them? Do they deign to come to your home and live amongst you? No! Why? Because they are yet more phantasmagoria concocted to enslave you still further.
True Judaism is nothing but Freedom and slaves know nothing of freedom and are not capable of living as free human beings.
It follows, if we are to practice Torah as we should, that our first order of business is to ransom one another, to emancipate ourselves and one another mutually. The only real precept that we can carry out in our present reduced state of bondage is to set ourselves free, to throw off the yoke of government, to unloose the chains and shackles that keep us captive to promises of that will never come to realization, to illusions and addictions, to become free moral and moral-spiritual agents.
To build an Anarchistic society is holy work. In fact, it is the only holy work that we are fitted to perform at this juncture. It is the sine qua non of being able to be fully realized Jews. We cannot pray more perfectly than to toil for the purpose of building such a society. No self-sacrifice is greater than this.
Only when we live in a non-authoritarian society characterized by propertylessness, when there will be no more rich and poor, when there will be no more institutionalized injustice that we must submit ourselves and our children to for fear of being prosecuted by state law, when we will have more free time to learn, interact with one another freely and reflect deeply - then and only then will we be able to know what it is to be Jews and know what Judaism is. Until such time the vast majority of our religious expression is frustrated impotency at best, a cruel and pathetic parody in the middling case, at worst manipulation and suppression of the very best in us by agents of the government who reduce masses of people to spiritual servility by heaping upon them meaningless acts to perform and distorted "interpretations" which are devised to prevent us from taking truly moral direct action to rebuild society.
How many are straddled with poverty because of this pseudo-religion? How many children subsist on white bread devoid of nutrition and unhealthy, artery-clogging margarine while their parents give the expected "presents" to their Rabbis and take part in pilgrimages and other "obligatory" religious practices, which seem to multiply exponentially? Those who turn to religion lonely, confounded and disillusioned by the cruelty of society find not a programme for reconstruction of the society that has failed them, but rather, have laws and customs heaped upon them until they are crippled and break.
On the following link you will find essays on Anarchy. Most are in English. Only the essay entitled אנרכיה מובהקת is in Hebrew, having been translated by my husband, Daniel Dotan, at my request. The original English version of אנרכיה מובהקת, under the rubric "Authentic Anarchy", is to be found on the site as well.
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/Mystical_Anarchy.html
Unfortunately, very little about true Anarchy is familiar to Israelis and, thus, there are practically no treatments of the subject in Hebrew. For the time being; we will have to suffice with the writings in other languages, principally English, and only those who can read other languages will be able to access this school of thought and programme of action we call Anarcho-Syndicalism. It is the hope of the writer that others will be inspired to take it upon themselves to translate Anarchistic essays, lectures and books into Hebrew.
Many of the greatest Anarchists were Jewish. It is not difficult to understand why. Anarchy is an integral part of true Judaism. No true Judaism is possible without it. Those Jews who have loved and love freedom best are those Jews who not only were attracted to Anarchy, it was they who best expressed the heart, soul and intent of true Judaism – emancipation of the human being for the sake of allowing each to actualize his or her absolute optimum and interact fully with others.
It has been said that Anarchists are non-believers, that they are atheists. This writer, it should be stated categorically, is not an atheist, but a convinced Jew.
It is true that most Anarchists do not believe in an authoritarian God who compels people to actions that are not in keeping with their will. It is true that Anarchists do not accept the authority of self-proclaimed religious leaders. It is true that Anarchists do not accept religious institutions bleeding the masses of their money and impoverishing them. It is true that Anarchists do not accept compulsory education of precepts without rational analysis. It is true that Anarchists reject any and all superstitions and the inculcating people with fear. It is true that Anarchists abhor telling the poor, hungry, cold, sick, lonely and miserable that a better life awaits them in the World to Come when a better world could be made for them here.
Are they, then, anti-religionists? No! It is by virtue of the foregoing rejections that they are the very truest of those who express Judaism. Emma Goldman (1869-1940), one of the most prominent Anarchist activists and lecturers of her time and who continues to be an inspiration to all of us, once addressed a large conference of clergymen. She explained her antireligious position. Upon finishing, a Rabbi who had heard her lecture said: "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, she is the most religious person I know." Anarchists walk the walk that the pseudo-religions only talk the talk about. Anarchists live to emancipate those who are enslaved – and they take great personal risks in so doing for governments and corporations do not easily surrender their power. Anarchists are the prophets and students of prophets of modern times and they pay all the prices for freedom that prophets and students of prophets of yore paid.
Is the realization of a society based on justice, equality and oneness not the discovery and expression of the God of Israel in creation? Is it not God which propels us toward this ultimate freedom which needs be and will?
I invite those of you who truly love freedom and are intrepid enough, who love humankind enough, to bear the responsibility of building a better world, here in this world, to enter the world of the Anarchists and to join hands with us. Is this not the Israel that we envisioned during our two thousand years long Diaspora?
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
August 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
Muslim Anarchists
There is some experimentation with Anarchy occurring among Muslims.
I think it is important to be aware of these intrepid individuals and to offer them every support, encouragement and expression of solidarity.
For an introduction, please see:
Muslim Anarchist Charter
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/manarchist260706.htm
The Progressive Muslim Declaration
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/pmd.htm
Human Rights
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/hrights01.htm
Map of Various Areas of Interest
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/map.htm
Anarcho Akbar
http://anarchomuslim.blogspot.com/
Anarkismo.net
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=977
Anarchist People of Color
http://www.illegalvoices.org/knowledge/general_articles/natural_islam.html
Mumin al-Bayda
http://muminalbayda.blogspot.com/2005/11/muslim-anarchism.html
Islamic Anarchism
http://raforum.apinc.org/article.php3?id_article=20
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
There is some experimentation with Anarchy occurring among Muslims.
I think it is important to be aware of these intrepid individuals and to offer them every support, encouragement and expression of solidarity.
For an introduction, please see:
Muslim Anarchist Charter
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/manarchist260706.htm
The Progressive Muslim Declaration
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/pmd.htm
Human Rights
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/hrights01.htm
Map of Various Areas of Interest
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/map.htm
Anarcho Akbar
http://anarchomuslim.blogspot.com/
Anarkismo.net
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=977
Anarchist People of Color
http://www.illegalvoices.org/knowledge/general_articles/natural_islam.html
Mumin al-Bayda
http://muminalbayda.blogspot.com/2005/11/muslim-anarchism.html
Islamic Anarchism
http://raforum.apinc.org/article.php3?id_article=20
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Monday, August 07, 2006
ANARCHY AND THE SPIRITUAL QUEST
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AnarchyandSpiritualQuestHEB.htm
Unlike the majority of Anarchists, I am not an atheist. In my youth I undertook a spiritual quest that went over a period of some twenty-five years. I know there is a God. I experienced God.
Magnificently sublime and rapturous as the experiences were; they were removed from the pain I saw all around me in this world and they were very isolating. I could not share that which I experienced with others. Worst of all, I could not alleviate people's suffering simply by virtue of the fact that I knew there is a God, that there are higher worlds than the one in which we live and that the Soul is immortal. While I communed with God widows and orphans languished. I could not stay in those rarified heights knowing there was so much suffering. I took leave to return to this reality.
Spiritual quests should not be undertaken for the sake of fleeing the unbearable in this world, as was mine. They should not be a desperate resort for a wounded Soul trying to find solace and meaning in a world that seems too cruel and absurd to live in and bear.
The spiritual quest should be undertaken only when we have achieved a very high level of material security, moral human interaction and personal fulfillment.
When we live in a world described by free and fair trade, equality among all Human beings, mutual aid respect for all sentient beings, maximum actualization of the Self and aid to others to actualize themselves in the material world we will discover that there is still something missing, something that we cannot attain from material welfare, well-being and prosperity alone.
We are spiritual beings and the need to fulfill that aspect of ourselves will come to the fore. It will arise spontaneously and naturally within us as individuals and among us as societies and it will be an expression of organic unity that we, atomized as we currently are, are simply not capable of.
The time for that has not yet come. There is much groundwork to lay.
We are in a sickly, mutilated, truncated and stunted state. We are slaves. Our perceptions are distorted. We are filled with negativity and mistrust. We are filled with every manner of fear and trepidation, as our economic masters have conditioned us to be. We are filled with shame. Our bodies are poisoned and we have been trained to run to the comfort of substances and diversions in the small bit of free time that we have. We regard one another as competitors. Our eye is trained on the negative in others.
In such a state of insalubrity and in societies as unwholesome as ours we cannot possibly interpret and understand holy Texts properly. We do not possess the clarity and the refinement to perceive the Holy. Most certainly, we do not see it in one another as we vie with one another for our sustenance.
We see the very same negativity in holy Texts that we see in those around us and in ourselves.
There are, under the present social conditions, two possible reactions when encountering holy Texts. In both cases we read them on a most perfunctory level and wholly misunderstand them, but believe that what we see is what they are saying. We then do one of two things. We either reject that which we think we see out-of-hand. Or, we accept that which we see and live a religion that is little more than our own hallucinations.
A goodly number of religious figures gathered large followings within a relatively short amount of time. It has been my experience that that which truly elevates the estate of human beings does not become popular quickly. People do not let go of their shackles nor surrender their crutches readily. Those who are shackled have been taught that it is their shackles that sustain and support them and they are, therefore, desperate to hold on to them. They attack those who would divest them of their fetters viciously, perceiving those who would emancipate them as enemies who mean to harm them. Therefore, the fact that religions have caught on quickly makes them suspect in my eyes.
There is another matter that is of yet more concern to me. Although I would say that most people who set out on spiritual quests were sensitive Souls and well-intentioned; we see that not one spiritual path has ever alleviated human misery and poverty. I think the reason for this is eminently clear. Religions do not change the physical conditions that cause people to want to flee from this world. They do not call for the elimination of classes, power structures and economic disparities. Quite the opposite. They encourage them, even making them obligatory. The adherents of religions are taught that it is sacrilege to defy or even question authority. The punishment for doing so is, in addition to the misery of this world that is taken as a given, unending indescribable misery in the next world or forfeiting one's place in the World to Come altogether. It is, then, in the interests of those in religious power to keep this world rather unbearable so that they may constantly dangle the carrot of hope in the next world before their adherents if and only if they "behave" themselves. Thus far, all religions, no matter how sublime they may or may not have been in their inception, deteriorated into mass mind and behavior control by creating conditions of misery for the vast majority.
Not one religion thus far, not a single one, has called for the elimination of power structures as a religious tenet. They cultivated a "this world-other world" illusory dichotomy. Rather than organized religions eliminating poverty and the dependence of classes upon others, they encourage it as one of their most central methods of concentrating power in the hands of some.
Today religion teaches us that we, as individuals, and we alone, are responsible for all of our unhappiness and ills. No blame whatsoever is put on our economic slave masters. If we are sad, sick or evil befalls us (all too often in the form of economic hardships) it is because we have been negligent in the performance of some ceremony, recitation of formulas or other magical rite. Of course, we are expected to tithe our incomes and to give some percentage to both our religions' priests and to the poor. We are not taught to eliminate poverty in society, or even that that is desirable. Neglecting to tithe (a system devised to perpetuate poverty by keeping the poor on the brink while stuffing the pockets of the clergy) most certainly rains the wrath of heaven down on us, so we are taught.
For the present, then, the holiest work one can engage in and the only real spiritual practice available to us is the abolition of classes and poverty, with all their attendant ills so that we may be freed to become fully Human beings. This idea is expressed in a quote from the Preface to Part Two of RED EMMA SPEAKS by Alix Kates Shulman 1998. Shulman writes: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, he announced, "she is the most religious person I know."". Amen!
Religion cannot, must never, be otherworldly. It must be an expression of both our physical and our spiritual natures. We are both physical and spiritual beings always and inextricably. In a healthy society, one that is habitable for those people who have attained their humanity in the fullest sense, the one aspect is never sacrificed in favor of the other. Our profoundest spiritual yearnings are always expressed through physicality. It is only in physicality that we can carry out the precepts of justice and express our love. It is in full acceptance of our own physical nature, that of other living beings and the world we live in that we become capable of expressing or spiritual nature as expressed in free and voluntary interaction and exchange.
Religion must never be a refuge for the economically, intellectually, emotionally and socially indigent. It cannot be a palliative for living in economic, intellectual, emotional and social squalor and deformation. We must never ask of religion that which we need from people and is not being fulfilled. If we do, that neediness makes us easy and certain prey to those who would demand all manners of unnecessary and even perverse behaviors in order to get that which we seek piteously when we turn to religion in our need. It is in our turning to religion for that which society must provide, that which we must demand and see to it that society provides, that we create organized religion and beg others to fulfill our needs by becoming "religious leaders" over us.
Just as emotionally healthy human beings do not wish to enter into emotional relationships on the basis of desperation or personal lack; so our spiritual-morality must proceed from us as full and materially and socially fulfilled human beings.
Religion must be the crowning achievement of having creating a just, providing and fulfilling society. It can never be a replacement therefore.
When we will have created just societies and attained Human stature; when we will have created a world that is habitable so that we may be grounded in this reality, in this world; we will, in wisdom, security and repose, turn to God for ultimate fulfillment, able to engage in a relationship with the Divine that is real and fitting for free Men, Women and Children. No more will we come to God as beggars bartering our Souls for our daily bread.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AnarchyandSpiritualQuestHEB.htm
Unlike the majority of Anarchists, I am not an atheist. In my youth I undertook a spiritual quest that went over a period of some twenty-five years. I know there is a God. I experienced God.
Magnificently sublime and rapturous as the experiences were; they were removed from the pain I saw all around me in this world and they were very isolating. I could not share that which I experienced with others. Worst of all, I could not alleviate people's suffering simply by virtue of the fact that I knew there is a God, that there are higher worlds than the one in which we live and that the Soul is immortal. While I communed with God widows and orphans languished. I could not stay in those rarified heights knowing there was so much suffering. I took leave to return to this reality.
Spiritual quests should not be undertaken for the sake of fleeing the unbearable in this world, as was mine. They should not be a desperate resort for a wounded Soul trying to find solace and meaning in a world that seems too cruel and absurd to live in and bear.
The spiritual quest should be undertaken only when we have achieved a very high level of material security, moral human interaction and personal fulfillment.
When we live in a world described by free and fair trade, equality among all Human beings, mutual aid respect for all sentient beings, maximum actualization of the Self and aid to others to actualize themselves in the material world we will discover that there is still something missing, something that we cannot attain from material welfare, well-being and prosperity alone.
We are spiritual beings and the need to fulfill that aspect of ourselves will come to the fore. It will arise spontaneously and naturally within us as individuals and among us as societies and it will be an expression of organic unity that we, atomized as we currently are, are simply not capable of.
The time for that has not yet come. There is much groundwork to lay.
We are in a sickly, mutilated, truncated and stunted state. We are slaves. Our perceptions are distorted. We are filled with negativity and mistrust. We are filled with every manner of fear and trepidation, as our economic masters have conditioned us to be. We are filled with shame. Our bodies are poisoned and we have been trained to run to the comfort of substances and diversions in the small bit of free time that we have. We regard one another as competitors. Our eye is trained on the negative in others.
In such a state of insalubrity and in societies as unwholesome as ours we cannot possibly interpret and understand holy Texts properly. We do not possess the clarity and the refinement to perceive the Holy. Most certainly, we do not see it in one another as we vie with one another for our sustenance.
We see the very same negativity in holy Texts that we see in those around us and in ourselves.
There are, under the present social conditions, two possible reactions when encountering holy Texts. In both cases we read them on a most perfunctory level and wholly misunderstand them, but believe that what we see is what they are saying. We then do one of two things. We either reject that which we think we see out-of-hand. Or, we accept that which we see and live a religion that is little more than our own hallucinations.
A goodly number of religious figures gathered large followings within a relatively short amount of time. It has been my experience that that which truly elevates the estate of human beings does not become popular quickly. People do not let go of their shackles nor surrender their crutches readily. Those who are shackled have been taught that it is their shackles that sustain and support them and they are, therefore, desperate to hold on to them. They attack those who would divest them of their fetters viciously, perceiving those who would emancipate them as enemies who mean to harm them. Therefore, the fact that religions have caught on quickly makes them suspect in my eyes.
There is another matter that is of yet more concern to me. Although I would say that most people who set out on spiritual quests were sensitive Souls and well-intentioned; we see that not one spiritual path has ever alleviated human misery and poverty. I think the reason for this is eminently clear. Religions do not change the physical conditions that cause people to want to flee from this world. They do not call for the elimination of classes, power structures and economic disparities. Quite the opposite. They encourage them, even making them obligatory. The adherents of religions are taught that it is sacrilege to defy or even question authority. The punishment for doing so is, in addition to the misery of this world that is taken as a given, unending indescribable misery in the next world or forfeiting one's place in the World to Come altogether. It is, then, in the interests of those in religious power to keep this world rather unbearable so that they may constantly dangle the carrot of hope in the next world before their adherents if and only if they "behave" themselves. Thus far, all religions, no matter how sublime they may or may not have been in their inception, deteriorated into mass mind and behavior control by creating conditions of misery for the vast majority.
Not one religion thus far, not a single one, has called for the elimination of power structures as a religious tenet. They cultivated a "this world-other world" illusory dichotomy. Rather than organized religions eliminating poverty and the dependence of classes upon others, they encourage it as one of their most central methods of concentrating power in the hands of some.
Today religion teaches us that we, as individuals, and we alone, are responsible for all of our unhappiness and ills. No blame whatsoever is put on our economic slave masters. If we are sad, sick or evil befalls us (all too often in the form of economic hardships) it is because we have been negligent in the performance of some ceremony, recitation of formulas or other magical rite. Of course, we are expected to tithe our incomes and to give some percentage to both our religions' priests and to the poor. We are not taught to eliminate poverty in society, or even that that is desirable. Neglecting to tithe (a system devised to perpetuate poverty by keeping the poor on the brink while stuffing the pockets of the clergy) most certainly rains the wrath of heaven down on us, so we are taught.
For the present, then, the holiest work one can engage in and the only real spiritual practice available to us is the abolition of classes and poverty, with all their attendant ills so that we may be freed to become fully Human beings. This idea is expressed in a quote from the Preface to Part Two of RED EMMA SPEAKS by Alix Kates Shulman 1998. Shulman writes: "A rabbi who heard her lecture a large conference of clergymen on atheism probably came closer than the public to understanding her antireligious stand. "In spite of all Miss Goldman has said against religion, he announced, "she is the most religious person I know."". Amen!
Religion cannot, must never, be otherworldly. It must be an expression of both our physical and our spiritual natures. We are both physical and spiritual beings always and inextricably. In a healthy society, one that is habitable for those people who have attained their humanity in the fullest sense, the one aspect is never sacrificed in favor of the other. Our profoundest spiritual yearnings are always expressed through physicality. It is only in physicality that we can carry out the precepts of justice and express our love. It is in full acceptance of our own physical nature, that of other living beings and the world we live in that we become capable of expressing or spiritual nature as expressed in free and voluntary interaction and exchange.
Religion must never be a refuge for the economically, intellectually, emotionally and socially indigent. It cannot be a palliative for living in economic, intellectual, emotional and social squalor and deformation. We must never ask of religion that which we need from people and is not being fulfilled. If we do, that neediness makes us easy and certain prey to those who would demand all manners of unnecessary and even perverse behaviors in order to get that which we seek piteously when we turn to religion in our need. It is in our turning to religion for that which society must provide, that which we must demand and see to it that society provides, that we create organized religion and beg others to fulfill our needs by becoming "religious leaders" over us.
Just as emotionally healthy human beings do not wish to enter into emotional relationships on the basis of desperation or personal lack; so our spiritual-morality must proceed from us as full and materially and socially fulfilled human beings.
Religion must be the crowning achievement of having creating a just, providing and fulfilling society. It can never be a replacement therefore.
When we will have created just societies and attained Human stature; when we will have created a world that is habitable so that we may be grounded in this reality, in this world; we will, in wisdom, security and repose, turn to God for ultimate fulfillment, able to engage in a relationship with the Divine that is real and fitting for free Men, Women and Children. No more will we come to God as beggars bartering our Souls for our daily bread.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Saul Alinsky vis-à-vis Noam Chomsky – The Difference Between a Dedicated Radical and a Hypocritical Opportunist
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AlinskyVisAVisChomsky.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AlinskyVisAVisChomsky.htm
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
thinker and prolific writer who authored several AK Press titles,
Bookchin produced work spanning two historic eras: that of traditional
proletarian socialism and anarchism, with its working-class
insurrections and struggles against classical fascism, and the postwar
period of growing corporate capitalism, environmental decay, statist
politics, and the technocratic mentality. In his work he tried to make
something coherent of these changes, looking forward to a liberated
future. He will be sorely missed.
Please visit http://www.akpress.org/bookchinobit for a full obituary by
Brian Tokar at the Institute for Social Ecology in
Murray Bookchin, the visionary social theorist and activist, died during the early morning of Sunday, July 30th in his home in
During the 1950s and '60s, Bookchin built upon the legacies of utopian social philosophy and critical theory, challenging the primacy of Marxism on the left and linking contemporary ecological and urban crises to problems of capital and social hierarchy in general. Beginning in the mid-sixties, he pioneered a new political and philosophical synthesis-termed social ecology-that sought to reclaim local political power, by means of direct popular democracy, against the consolidation and increasing centralization of the nation state.
From the 1960s to the present, the utopian dimension of Bookchin's social ecology inspired several generations of social and ecological activists, from the pioneering urban ecology movements of the sixties, to the 1970s' back-to-the-land, antinuclear, and sustainable technology movements, the beginnings of Green politics and organic agriculture in the early 1980s, and the anti-authoritarian global justice movement that came of age in 1999 in the streets of Seattle. His influence was often cited by prominent political and social activists throughout the
Even as numerous social movements drew on his ideas, however, Bookchin remained a relentless critic of the currents in those movements that he found deeply disturbing, including the New Left's drift toward Marxism-Leninism in the late 1960s, tendencies toward mysticism and misanthropy in the radical environmental movement, and the growing focus on individualism and personal lifestyles among 1990s anarchists. In the late 1990s, Bookchin broke with anarchism, the political tradition he had been most identified with for over 30 years and articulated a new political vision that he called communalism.
Bookchin was raised in a leftist family in the
During the 1960s–80s, Bookchin emphasized his fundamental theoretical break with Marxism, arguing that Marx's central focus on economics and class obscured the more profound role of social hierarchy in the shaping of human history. His anthropological studies affirmed the role of domination by age, gender and other manifestations of social power as the antecedents of modern-day economic exploitation. In The Ecology of Freedom(1982), he examined the parallel legacies of domination and freedom in human societies, from prehistoric times to the present, and he later published a four-volume work, The Third Revolution, exploring anti-authoritarian currents throughout the Western revolutionary tradition.
At the same time, he criticized the lack of philosophical rigor that has often plagued the anarchist tradition, and drew theoretical sustenance from dialectical philosophy-particularly the works of Aristotle and Hegel; the Frankfurt School-of which he became increasingly critical in later years-and even the works of Marx and Lenin. During the past year, even while terminally ill in
Murray Bookchin was diagnosed several months ago with a fatal heart condition. He will be remembered by his devoted family members—including his long-time companion Janet Biehl, his former wife Bea Bookchin, his son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter—as well as his friends, colleagues and frequent correspondents throughout the world. There will be a public memorial service in
—Brian Tokar,
Friday, July 28, 2006
The Cowardice and Hypocrisy of the "British"
Of all peoples who criticize
These are the same people whose descendants launched the Crusades.
These are the same people whose descendants founded
These are the same people whose criminal descendants founded
These are the same people who descendants founded English
In fact, was
These are the same people who founded Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, which, while peaceful within their own borders, were Nazi-sympathetic to a horrific extent and which evince a good deal of xenophobia to this day.
These are the same people whose descendants perpetrated the Holocaust.
Did the British not collude with the Nazis against the Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution
Their humanitarianism track record is the world's worst.
To their credit, people in
Holland, to its credit, has become a very accepting society. Of course, in addition to being accepting of foreigners; it is accepting of dope addiction and prostitution. They seem incapable of knowing what to and not to accept.
Yet some of them, including the modern day British, rather than doing that inventory, are blaming others for barbarism. What could be more ridiculous?
Would the State of
Is there a nation, other than the daughter of
As in every state in which there are conquered peoples, the vanquished who are too weak and spineless to revolt find some illusory sense of dignity identifying with their conquerors who see them as little more than cannon fire.
The article on the link below demonstrates that the Anglo-Saxons (who really have no right to call themselves British at all. They vanquished the Britons) have a very long and ugly history of apartheid.
Before they presume to point a finger at us,
Though recently the Church has admitted some of its cultural atrocities and the Germans have undertaken true soul-searching and monetary recompense of those they plundered; most Germanics go unrepentant for that which they have perpetrated – taking the morally squalid stand of pointing their fingers dripping with blood at their former and current victims in accusation.
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060719_apartheid.htm
__________________________________________________________
The following is an excerpt from my essay "An Anarchist Explains Why Israel Is Not An Imperialist State". The entire essay can be found on the following URL:
http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelIsNotAnImperialistState.htm
The following excerpt demonstrates that the British played a determining role, and very deliberately so, in creating the conflict that exists in Israel.
The readers' attention is requested to be turned to the period of "Illegal" Immigration from 1933 to 1948. This is the period called Aliyah Beit. During that time, when Jews were in the greatest peril since the time of the Inquisition, the British authorities in Israel limited Jewish immigration to Palestine (See: The White Paper 1939 – 1947 http://tinyurl.com/hm7e4). This, and more damning still, it was British policy that, in large measure, created the Palistinian problem. Not only did the British set Jewish immigration quotas starting in 1920, they attempted to create an artificial Arab majority in Israel by requesting France to stop curbing illegal Arab immigration to Israel and by bringing Arabs in illegally themselves during the years 1920 – 1948 (See: http://tinyurl.com/dkpsu). It was not for naught that Ben Gurion, who would become the first Prime Minister of Israel, said: "The Zionists should fight the war as if there were no White Paper and fight the White Paper as if there were no war."
Incidentally, the Mossad, much-maligned by Israel's detractors, was organized during the period of Aliyah Beit as an organization to smuggle Jews into the Land of Israel from Europe [See: 1938 January 12, POSEIDON (Eretz Israel) http://tinyurl.com/zp5pb].
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan,
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Democracy is a Euphemism
for Enforcement of Uniformity by the Mob
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Friday, July 21, 2006
My friend Mac has been sending me jokes every day to keep my morale boosted during the war. I love this one especially (0:
Little Johnny goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?" Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way. I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me Capitalism. Mommy is the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you The People. The nanny, well, consider her The Working Class. Your baby brother, we'll call him The Future. Now go think about this and see if it makes sense."
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying and runs to his room only to find that his diapers are very soiled. So the little boy goes to his parents' room. Mom is sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he looks through the peephole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand what politics is now."
"Good son, tell me in your own words then what politics are."
The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Little Johnny goes to his dad and asks, "What is politics?" Dad says, "Well son, let me try to explain it this way. I'm the breadwinner of the family, so let's call me Capitalism. Mommy is the administrator of the money, so we'll call her the Government. We're here to take care of your needs, so we'll call you The People. The nanny, well, consider her The Working Class. Your baby brother, we'll call him The Future. Now go think about this and see if it makes sense."
So the little boy goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said. Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying and runs to his room only to find that his diapers are very soiled. So the little boy goes to his parents' room. Mom is sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny's room. Finding the door locked, he looks through the peephole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.
The next morning, the little boy says to his father, "Dad, I think I understand what politics is now."
"Good son, tell me in your own words then what politics are."
The little boy replies, "Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in deep shit."
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat (Safed), Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
Thursday, July 20, 2006
MY TAKE ON RELIGION
In our present state, slaves as we are to myriad misconceptions, suppositions, prejudices, formulaic modes of thinking, rote and routine behaviors, etc., when we encounter holy Texts we react in one of two ways:
We:
1) Reject out-of-hand that which we have read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read.
2) Accept what we read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read, and go about the business of living according to our misconceptions.
Both of these, seemingly diametrically opposed, reactions have one thing in common: In both cases we do not realize that filled as we are with memes, misconceptions, propaganda and all sorts of physical poisons that reduce our ability to perceive and cognate we haven't begun to plumb the depths of what those Texts are really saying.
It is for this reason that I call for the development of a way of life that will release us from our bondage upon bondage.
Unlike most Anarchists, I am not an atheist.
On the contrary; I believe that only in an Anarchist condition will we be able to commune not only with one another, but with the Holy that resides within us but which we have been rendered incapable of accessing, except for fleeting moments and even that only to minimal intensity.
Only when we have become capable of communing with one another will we be able to really and truly commune with our Souls and develop healthy religions.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
In our present state, slaves as we are to myriad misconceptions, suppositions, prejudices, formulaic modes of thinking, rote and routine behaviors, etc., when we encounter holy Texts we react in one of two ways:
We:
1) Reject out-of-hand that which we have read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read.
2) Accept what we read, believing that we have comprehended that which we have read, and go about the business of living according to our misconceptions.
Both of these, seemingly diametrically opposed, reactions have one thing in common: In both cases we do not realize that filled as we are with memes, misconceptions, propaganda and all sorts of physical poisons that reduce our ability to perceive and cognate we haven't begun to plumb the depths of what those Texts are really saying.
It is for this reason that I call for the development of a way of life that will release us from our bondage upon bondage.
Unlike most Anarchists, I am not an atheist.
On the contrary; I believe that only in an Anarchist condition will we be able to commune not only with one another, but with the Holy that resides within us but which we have been rendered incapable of accessing, except for fleeting moments and even that only to minimal intensity.
Only when we have become capable of communing with one another will we be able to really and truly commune with our Souls and develop healthy religions.
Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com
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