The Longest, Most Convoluted, Revised and Thickly Imagined Title Deed Possible
I agree with your reading. Regarding mysticism, Jewish in particular, I've never gotten that interested in it and always thought it was played up by literary critics. Some of it is a way of talking about psychology without a secular vocabulary for it. Some of it is esotericism--a way of speaking in coded language about things it's dangerous for the masses to hear. But it seems that understanding the little quasi-Messianic cult that developed around the late Rabbi Schneerson would require some familiarity with mysticism. Then the question would be how important it is to understand that.
But the passage you quote there is more about logic, reason and theology than mysticism. There are Jewish attempts at a theology, but I don't think any of them work. Judaism can't have an authoritative theology and it doesn't need one.
An idea I've had for a while is to make a film based on the medieval "disputations" organized by Christian kings--they're very interesting, from a range of perspectives--and I've discovered that a lot of the contemporary "accusations" against Jews have their origins in the Christian side of those disputations. I'm no filmmaker, but if you ever come into contact with any, this might be a challenging, rather risky project.
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Thanks. I know of both of these and was vaguely alluding to Jones's book even though I haven't read it (I've read a couple of summaries and reviews). I may have to check it out just to see how anyone could imagine the Jews to have been revolutionary before the 19th century. The last thing they ever wanted to do is stir things up--they always depended on the good will of the king.
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I've got an unlikely idea, which might prove to be very productive for purposes if you were able to pull it off. I have noticed, very recently, some guys on Twitter taking on the JQers--writing substacks challenging their claims, going on podcasts with them, going back and forth on twitter, etc. There's an account called "History Speaks," whose owner says he is not Jewish, and who has been refuting Holocaust denial--pretty ably, it seems to me. There's a guy named Will Vivere (Will V on Twitter)--who knows if that's a real name, of course--who has been writing sophisticated and well documented substacks addressing the various JQ talking points (Jews in the media, etc.). And someone who goes by Lucian Wolf, who does youtube videos. (Vivere and Wolf describe themselves as "Mischlings") There are a few others--they seem to have sprung up like mushrooms--but I mention these three because they have been not only willing, but eager, to engage the WNS in any media--and have been. So, how about getting these guys to collaborate with a few of the (Christian) WNs on this project--each side has their position built in (even if the Jewish side doesn't seem so interested in the religious issue itself, they might find the politics of it interesting). I'd be happy to help as a "script consultant" or something, but I couldn't take an organizing role--I've got too much to do.
By the way, a movie has already been made on this, from 1990, I think. It's good, but short, and I suspect it stays on a very general level in selecting which arguments to include:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=AB5stBipWLSoCQ7Kzn8GZXAoGhWdRUsHVQ:1689280984052&q=the+disputation+1996&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjEo-uHxoyAAxXCGFkFHUrmB-oQ0pQJegQICxAB&biw=1429&bih=697&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:3c7643ab,vid:-p3WlesJgaI
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You might this stuff interesting aside from this particular project. It's a reshaping, however slight, of the right.
It is extremely unlikely I'll be going to next year's conference--I've never been to the one's in Japan. Too expensive--my university doesn't cover that much. And they have seemed to me less interesting--the Japanese participants usually don't seem to know much about GA, and they're always framed in these vague "East/West" terms.