From my vantage point, it seems that Native Americans had an easier time of it in encountering the White man than we Jews did in one respect.

The White man did not understand or respect their spiritual/moral tradition at all, so they did not try to arrogate it. While Native children were taken forcibly from their parents and placed in boarding schools wherein they were taught to be Christians, often under brutal conditions; Native Americans did not have to endure seeing barbarians make their tradition into a justification for the most extreme kinds of violence and orgiastic rituals.

They certainly did see the erection of churches on land they held sacred, but they did not have to endure the indescribable misery of seeing their ceremonies stolen by the White man and distorted.

They did not have to witness their teachings tortured out of all recognition and forced down the throats of a good deal of Humanity.

The expropriation of Judaism by Christians goes on unabated. I spent a good deal of the last five years trying to undo the damage that Christian pseudo-researchers did when they went to press with claims that HaYachad (commonly known as "the Essenes") were a proto-Christian group. There is no mention of Yeshu in all of the extant fragments and no basis upon which to make such a claim. They made those claims wholly irresponsibly all the some. Luckily for us, they had to bring Jews into the research loop (they kept us out for three decades) because they could not read Hebrew well enough to continue the research and one of the worst offenders made a particularly ugly anti-Semitic slur while inebriated, so he was dismissed of his duty.

I'll be spending this week defending the Torah again - this time against someone who is misrepresenting the Torah to "prove" that the redemption will come (cum?) as a result of the rebirth of Jesus, this time with the libido of Kings David and Shlomo combined. The charlatan called himself "Christo" and has performed "reflowering" ceremonies in Israel, one of which was on the Mt. of Olives on the night of the second millennium. He's no longer young. I wonder if he realized a second cumming. He sent me a picture of himself and his "reflowering" partner when they were here in Tzfat. "Christo" was insulted in the extreme when I informed him that the Land of Israel has not been deflowered and, at any rate, it is not his place in creation to redeem us. Why does every pseudo-spiritual character looking to make a name for himself descend on Tzfat?

I envy the Natives for not having to endure the heartbreak and utter disgust that defies all description at having to witness such things.

Their spiritual teachings were so abstract that the Christians could not find an end to the thread and so left them alone. They were also transmitted orally, and so could not be seized.

What is the provenance of the spiritual/moral parasitism that drove the White man to invade others' traditions, particularly that of the Jews, take them over and mutate them into monstrosities?

To compound the matter, in our times it is not considered "politically correct" to defend one's tradition if it excludes others. That is considered being "clannish". It is interesting that exclusion from entrée is taken as a matter of fact in corporate culture and in very many other facets of society. Rules for inclusion and exclusion are understood to be necessary in life. Yet, the Jews are excoriated for our exclusion of any and all. Those who concoct interpretations of Torah that seems to integrate Judaism with the traditions of others, no matter how outrageously, inappropriately, baselessly and repugnantly to Jews who cherish our tradition, are celebrated for urging the last of the Jewish holdouts toward full assimilation (and hopefully disappearance).

Neither is one permitted to defend classical Judaism as that is being parochial, even primitive. While the non-Jew who pontificates a distorted interpretation of Torah (generally based upon a translation and always scoured for that which seems to support what the person wants the Text to say) is taken to be someone who is integrating Judaism with a number of other traditions and thus coming to a more comprehensive view of Torah than any Jew who sticks to pure Judaism ever could.

Moreover, nowadays everyone is "entitled to their own opinion" and it is not cool to call someone down for expressing an off-the-wall, totally baseless opinion about one's own culture. The person who irresponsibly likens a passage in Torah to whatever suits him or her is being universalistic. Whereas, a Jew who defends what the Torah says, as interpreted by Jews over a period of millennia, is being a hater of unity among all Humankind.

So, we Jews are now in a triple bind. The appropriating of our teachings goes on and we are considered parochial, clannish bigots if we defend our tradition against those who would distort it for their own purposes.

God of Israel! When will they leave us alone and go about the business of finding a real spiritual/moral tradition of their own?

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Israel
DoreenDotan@gmail.com