HONOR OF ILLUSIONS Rav Mendel Kaplan ztz”l would famously tell his talmidim that there’s a uniquely Jewish way to read the newspaper. Using his approach of looking at current events through a Jewish lens can help one find insight inspiration and cause for self-reflection in the most unexpected places.
An example: The wildly over-the-top estimation of Barack Obama that many on the left have is well known. But sometimes however these pronouncements leave the realm of mere praise or even adulation and become something else entirely. Consider this gem from one Kevin Drum writing in Mother Jones:
So what should I think about [the war in Libya]? If it had been my call I wouldn’t have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all I’d literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he’s smarter than me better informed better able to understand the consequences of his actions and more farsighted.
This writer isn’t merely expressing a high opinion of the president — he’s demonstrating what is termed in lashon hakodesh as hisbatlus the utter annulling of oneself one’s intelligence and opinions to another. And as applied to Barack Obama it’s frankly nuts.
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