[Buddha-l] Greatest Religion Award

[Dan Lusthaus]

It was obviously a hoax (couldn't find ANY Buddhist wars, right after Sri
Lanka?); no Buddhist would accept the reward (and they ask Burmese
monks?)???

But the debunking is more flawed than the hoax. It tries, falsely, to frame
it as a "Jewish" hoax by mischaracterizing things as Jewish. E.g.

>"In fact, some of my best friends are Buddhist."

This is not a "Jewish", but racist remarks, which those old enough to
remember will recall from the 60s, the way a racist denies his racism: "Some
of my best friends are black." Taken as a racist statement, "Jewish,"
"Puerto Rican" or any other ethnic or religious group could be substituted.

>And the Rabbi's name
> Shmuel! (A reference to Yiddish shlemiel)

Actually Shmuel is a legitimate, common Hebrew name (you may recognize its
Anglicized version: Samuel). It has nothing to do with Shlemiel.

>& says,
> "I've been practicing Vipassana meditation every day before minyan (daily
> Jewish prayer) since 1993. This an insider Vipassana joke. Take a look at
> the number of Jews in prominence at IMS and Spirit Rock.

Minyan is not "daily Jewish prayer" but the "Quorum" of 10 required to
include certain prayers while praying. Observant Jews gather to pray
publicly three times a day (Muslims five times), once early in the morning
(shacharit), late afternoon (mincha) and evening (ma'ariv). Typically
ma'ariv follows soon after mincha with a brief intermission between.

>  I could go on and
> on, line by line. But maybe you have to be a JuBu to appreciate the Jewish
> humor and not get taken in.

Rather, one has to be a JuBu to recognize that the debunking doesn't know
what it's talking about. Jewish humor is actually funny... this stuff
wasn't.

Dan