[Buddha-l] It's spring--time for poems

[horowitz at chass.utoronto.ca]

I stand corrected.  I just meant to say that I am not an antisemite and my
lovely poem is therefore not antisemitic.  I should have just ended it
with the "gevalt"--which is a Yiddish expletive meaning something
like--help,help! or--"i'm overwhelmed". So lets get back to the poem:
THE OLD POND
A JEW FALLS IN
"GEVALT"!


>
>>            by a Jew, so it's not anti anything
>
> Non sequitur, unless what you're suggesting is that a Jew cannot be
> opposed to anything.
>
> Or did you mean that a Jew cannot be anti-Jewish? Even that does not
> follow, I'm afraid. It is not a general principle that the member of a
> genus cannot be critical of the genus of which he is a member. For
> example, I am an American and I constantly write what is perceived by
> some as anti-American invective (which my biographer, Steven Lane
> obligingly collects for posterity). So it's logical possible that a
> Jewish person could write something anti-Jewish, nicht wahr?
>
> Or perhaps you meant to say that Jews are exceptions to the general rule
> that the member of a genus can be opposed to the genus of which he is a
> member. Is the claim that Jews are somehow unique in their immunity from
> being self-opposing? Even that is not true. If you need convincing on
> this point, read some of the anti-Jewish ravings of the man whom the
> Christians call Saint Paul. It made their version of the Bible yet!
>
> By the way, your poem needs a commentary for those of us who don't
> understand Yiddish. (I am assuming "Gevalt" is not quite the same in
> meaning as the German word "Gewalt.")
>
> --
> Richard Hayes
> Department of Philosophy
> University of New Mexico
>
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