tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241889800645271761.post8181224838829764965..comments2024-03-06T10:53:14.782+11:00Comments on Social Issues & Torah (TFH): Humans Gone Ape? Affirming our Essential Humanity and a Beauty Named Naama BeresheetRabbi Zalman Kastel AMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15689513680760912342noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1241889800645271761.post-820480120178536122013-10-04T17:45:51.132+10:002013-10-04T17:45:51.132+10:00An interesting discussion: Firstly the story of t...An interesting discussion: Firstly the story of the Jewish tribe being tuned into apes is from the Qur’an which frequently references earlier sources and stories and uses the as parables to emphasise a point. The actual verse from Surah 2 verse 65 is variously translated as “Be ye apes despised” or “Be ye as apes despised”. It would be interesting to compare this to the Midrash and Torah stories.<br />I prefer the second version because it is more consistent with the story it relates to. The story is about a Jewish tribe who broke the Sabbath. If we understand that apes do not have the spiritual relationship with God that humans have, it makes sense that God would describe them as being like apes rather than turning them into apes. <br />This brings me to the horrors that humans inflict upon each other. We are not the only primate that does this. Apes also wage war against and kill their own kind and they demonstrate quite sophisticated planning when they do. By the same token apes can be altruistic and show co-operation and kindness. If we act like apes anyway the key difference has to be the relationship we have with God. We know that committing atrocities against our fellow human beings is wrong whereas apes do not. <br />Those committing the atrocities in Syria and Kenya are so far removed from any relationship with God that they have lost their essential humanity. They are like apes carrying out the most despicable of crimes and they are doing so in the name of no religion.<br />Lemech’s argument that killing by the sword is perhaps not as bad as killing by “repeatedly inflicting a barrage of wounds and bruises” has a modern version. The biologist JBS Haldane defended the use of chemical weapons in the following words: “If it is right for me to fight my enemy with a sword, it is right for me to fight him with mustard gas; if the one is wrong, so is the other.” In fact Haldane regarded chemical weapons as more humane than bullets shrapnel and the bayonet. A German pioneer of chemical weapons, Fritz-Haber also considered them “a higher form of killing”. It still doesn’t justify their use or any other form of killing for that matter.<br />Garyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16976993335975487293noreply@blogger.com