the jewish question

Re-reading Putnam's nice little book, Jewish Philosophy as a Guide to Life.

What struck me-and what probably drew me to this book in the first place-was the central question which could be stated simply as: "a life without questions". The tree of life, the tree...

To go back to the first place; the dark fruit of our origins gratefully accepted. "6.522: The problem of life..."

We're too quick looking for the answers, not paying enough attention to the questions; the questions we ask are often the wrong ones anyway. Academics specialize in this. To what extent are our questions related to life, an ordinary good life?

Rosenzweig, despite his anti-Islamic stance, is fascinating. At least what little I could make out from the Understanding the Sick and Healthy book (also something to be re-read).

Come on, come on, I hear you say. Spill the beans, cut to the chase. Give us the quotes you've culled and killed, taken out of the context,to bring back to the stream of life.

I dunno, seriously.Close the books, none of that matters today. Have a cinnamon roll, some black coffee...put on Grizzly Bear and be thankful for the care and attention of loved ones. To speak to, of, for...does this not mean to think for, of, with?

*I should add that this has nothing to do with politics. It really is something that is, if anything, pre-political (if not opposed to the law or the political, then at least prior to it).

But since we're here, there is no escaping the terrible reality that it was perhaps the very questioning, the reluctance to "conform" (in St. Paul's sense of the word) that, in part, led to the barbaric 'final solution' (a point made by George Steiner, I think).

Also, it meant to allude to the fact that there is no question, that the setting up of questions-political and otherwise-is often already a kind of betrayal. 'What is a black man? And what colour is he?'Who is a 'real' Muslim? Once one has posed that question, the door is open to all sorts of categorizations of fake or not pure Muslims: Ahmadis, Shias, Sufis, etc.