tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post6633248849399785493..comments2023-07-16T07:03:20.896-04:00Comments on GedankenTravelExperiment: Jacob and the wellkarlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13511491414073382506noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post-51452881441431723652008-12-09T14:23:00.000-05:002008-12-09T14:23:00.000-05:00If you look through Bereishis, you will find that ...If you look through Bereishis, you will find that Jacob regularly challenges convention and then seems pissed off when things don't go his way. One example is when he asks for Rachel over Laya, which was not in accordance with how people did things in Mesopotamia.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3564064.post-3862698809376619802008-12-07T23:22:00.000-05:002008-12-07T23:22:00.000-05:00When I first began to embrace Judaism I took a cop...When I first began to embrace Judaism I took a copy of the Tanach (a totally English - and I mean modern English, not King James English - Bible I had received in high school) and simply read it cover to cover like a novel. I realized that Jacob and his descendants were not always the nicest people around (especially King David - he was basically the kind of overly aggressive, entitled SOB that typically finds himself in a position of power like that) but the heroes of the Jewish people at that time did what was advantageous FOR THEM - and as they say, history is written by the victors. <BR/><BR/>I saw it ultimately as the kind of collective history and records of a people that nowadays is handled by the government. In this case this particular group of people wrote it down and carried it with them wherever they went. <BR/><BR/>But this does not make them or their ancestors inherently good or bad, just perhaps lucky that they prevailed and have been able to tell their story all this time.Shabbabnikithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09360631381242512806noreply@blogger.com