1/ My brother asked why many in the frum community resist medical knowledge - despite the mitzvah to follow doctors & paramount need to preserve health - as seen in their response to COVID.
Even if shuls were closed, many had backyard minyans & even now reject masks/distancing.
2/ Rejection of science is nominally part of the Daas-Toirah type of avoda-zara applied to their health & well-being
Again, it's 100% assur to endanger one's life except to prevent murder, arayot, or avoda zara
That the desire to risk lives is itself avoda zara is [chef's kiss]
3/ Daas-Toirah minim deny science b/c outside facts pierce the bubble of the patriarchal authoritarianism that they need to keep power. For this reason, I'm deeply cynical of religious leadership that suppresses science & freedom
God commands modern Orthodoxy as lichatchila IMO
4/ This worst form of science rejection are the frum anti-vax, & in my rabbinic opinion that's purely assur w/no Jewish patina at all. Just outright passive manslaughter.
However, in COVID's case there were are other understandable factors, like Jewish practice & tradition
5/ Authoritarian Orthodox find firmer ground to deny medicine and science when it contradicts Jewish practice (shul, beis medrish) & tradition (e.g. metzitzah b'peh).
5/ The overlooked factor, and one that I think dominates the frum support for the GOP is that the community leaders are 'conservative' which means supporting authoritarianism but also prioritizing *personal comfort* over self-sacrifice
6/ I'll try to expand this more, but personal comfort (like rejecting masks) is a pillar of modern conservatism. These people hate being told 'no' and that extends to how they understand religion & practice.
They want to tell the Other 'no' but they hate being told no themselves
7/ This is an key object of analysis b/c I believe many conservative religious communities have successfully perverted their traditions - which preach self-sacrifice for higher ideals - into a 'prosperity gospel' deal where personal indulgence is transformed into piety
8/ This should be the baseline way of discussing the authoritarian religious movements in America (see work of #exvangelical scholars like @C_Stroop & the journal @RDispatches) & I see the frum community which rejects masks as following "personal comfort as religious ethic"
9/ If I have time, I'll try to explain how I can stand in front of God and not condemn my religious community for their support for a neo-N*zi fascist like Trump (ym'sh)
Big key: Kol Nidrei is basically about accepting people who've turned to avoda-zara & yet stand next to you
10/ But I have said, since 2016, that while 70-80% of the frum community have failed the test of the #TrumpCrisis, the non-Orthodox community has done a much better job. If we survive this as an American Jewish community, it's due to the mitzvot of the non-Orthodox. Thank you
102.02/ Ambivalent Shabbas for me because while I was in rage-sorrow over the grievous injustice & harm wrought by the lawless RedHats, I also saw Shabbas as a refuge from the news.
102.03/ Parental Achievement Unlocked: just sent two of my kids on the train, travelling alone for their first time on their own, to see their grandparents.
100.03/ In honor of the goofiest holiday, here's one of my favorite @TheOnion headlines ever: theonion.com/nation-hoping-…
(This is my long-time custom)
99.02/ A good example of living in two worlds, religious and secular, is the coincidence of two sacred days: the 2nd day of #Shavuot on #DDay. Last night, after Yom Tov, only after reading the news a bit did my mind shift from "sacred to my religion" to "sacred to my citizenship"
99.03/ Pedantry Corner: it irks me to read divrei Torah about #Shavuot that enshrine incredibly recent customs as facts to derive universal truths. "This is the reason why Jews stay up all night..." or "why we eat dairy" - nope. Please don't make fads into load-bearing verities.
98.02/ Valuable thread about the gun industry and I learned from him an excellent term I will now incorporate into my social theory: Agnotology = "the cultural production of ignorance."
98.03/ Wow: "The science is abundantly clear: More guns do not stop crime. Guns kill more children each year than auto accidents. More children die by gunfire in a year than on-duty police officers and active military members." (Scientific American) scientificamerican.com/article/the-sc…
97.02/ #ShavuaTov everyone. My wife texted from Israel that she got positive PCR test when she landed in Israel - one day before they rescinded that requirement! She's asymptomatic, thank God, but I just don't know how it could've been avoided b/c the 'rona is rampant y'all.
97.03/ It was in the 90s today and my downstairs A/C broke days ago and I can't get a guy here until Tuesday. I told them they can prioritize others because my upstairs A/C works, Thank God, so it's not a safety issue for us. But I wouldn't mind it getting fixed soon.