#gentile

[ragazzoarcano]

“Siate gentili con le paure degli altri, certe volte le ferite hanno bisogno di tempo, non di consigli.”

— A. Di Domizio

[wisdomfish]

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

[waterfallsofsensations]

“Quando non puoi dire una cosa gentile, è molto meglio starsene zitti.”

-Bambi

@waterfallsofsensations

[licaonia]

♠️_È diversa dalla massa.

Non le piacciono le cose che piacciono a tutti.

I suoi gusti sono diversi, e lo è anche lei.

È silenziosa, ma la sua presenza non lo è.

Cerca di nascondersi, ma la sua aura la mette in risalto.

Vive nel suo mondo.

Capisce profondamente le persone.

Cerca di guarire, amare e prendersi cura di se stessa.

Ama ogni versione di sé.

È una persona bella e gentile.

Lavora sodo e aspetta il suo momento per sbocciare splendidamente.🖤🌹

©️Licaonia Lupe

[ardes30]

☀️🚶🏽‍♀️‍➡️🌳🪾

“Le mie camminate nella natura …un reset gentile per corpo e mente”

[mostro-rotto]

Ho notato che quando sei troppo gentile, le persone iniziano a mancarti di rispetto. Prendono la tua gentilezza come debolezza, pensando di poterti calpestare. Ti sottovalutano, credendo che tu sia 'molle' solo perché sei una brava persona, ma quando ti spingono troppo oltre, vedranno una parte di te che non sono pronti ad affrontare. Se sei sempre gentile, sempre pronto a fare qualcosa per gli altri, loro si abitueranno a riceverlo e penseranno di poter approfittarsene. È in quel momento che devi alzarti e mostrare loro una parte di te che non hanno mai visto. Essere gentili non significa tollerare le loro puttanate. "Tratta gli altri come vorresti essere trattato" è una stronzata. Se non ricevo rispetto in cambio, non sono obbligato a continuare ad essere gentile. Alcune persone non meritano la tua gentilezza, meritano di essere messe al loro posto. Quindi ricorda, avere un cuore buono non significa dover sopportare le idiozie di chiunque.

[ahumourlessworld]

“In a sense, of course, political conservatism is inherent in all idealist precepts, at least in their vulgarized form. In the broad sense in which it was derived from the philosophy of Plato, idealism stood for the view that the material world is merely the imperfect reflection of an underlying spiritual reality. Idealism implied a certain contempt for material existence, an attitude that perpetuated in more secular form the Christian renunciation of worldliness. German idealist ethics reaffirmed the Christian view that the pursuit of material happiness is unworthy of the human spirit. The proper goal of human endeavor is the moral perfection of the soul.

The conservative political implications of such attitudes emerged in the intellectual reaction in Germany to the French Revolution. Perhaps it was the hopelessness of revolutionary politics in eighteenth-century Germany that led so many reform-minded Germans to pin their hopes on moral improvement instead. The Terror and the revolutionary wars reinforced the tendency of German idealists to view the French Revolution as inspired by basely materialistic motives. Moral freedom, the freedom from desire and temptation, came to be viewed as superior to the political freedoms espoused by the French.

There is an irony here, for idealism, too, reflected discontent with the political status quo. Hegel, for instance, sought to overcome the inadequacy of real conditions by subsuming them in a grandly rational historical process, the full meaning of which was not clear to mankind at any intermediate stage. This confidence in the ultimate beneficence of the world spirit enabled Hegel later in life to glorify the Prussian state. Nonetheless, völkisch ideologues tended to be suspicious of the progressive implications of the Hegelian dialectic. They appealed instead to the more safely apolitical idealism of Goethe or Schiller. This, too, is not without irony, for classical self-cultivation (and the Romantic flight into dream and fantasy) also reflected frustration in the face of stultifying social reality. Yet the effect of idealist attitudes was not to mobilize energies for social or institutional reform but instead to channel them into quiescent self-improvement. Idealism represented a mode of adjustment to a stratified social order in which the aristocracy still enjoyed legally sanctioned privileges. This elitism was reflected in the idealist assumption that only the philosopher or poet could hope to cultivate the spirit in a manner leading to true self-fulfillment.

In the course of the nineteenth century, idealism permeated the educated stratum of German society in a vulgarized form. Self-styled idealists professed opposition to the pursuit of wealth and material goods, as well as to the indulgence of bodily appetites and sensual pleasures. Most educated Germans embraced idealism as a superior German alternative to Western utilitarianism and liberalism, both of which stood condemned as egoistic, success-oriented doctrines. "Idealism is present," wrote Paul de Lagarde, one of the earliest exponents of völkisch thought, "wherever man acts out of inner needs against his own advantage, against his own comfort, against the world surrounding him." Idealism was personified in the saintly, but martial hero who resists worldly temptation and overcomes evil. Idealists considered themselves the true heirs of the Lutheran tradition, whereas in Western Europe rational and materialistic values had triumphed. Idealists valued the underlying creative accomplishments of "culture" more highly than the ephemeral scientific and technological progress of "civilization."

In practice, to be sure, vulgarized idealism often served merely as a way of disguising or embellishing the very self-interest that self-styled idealists decried. Idealist attitudes reflected fear at the loss of the deference that protected traditional privileges. Idealism masked the interests of Germany's upper classes in maintaining social stratification and ethical norms in an Empire increasingly unsettled by rapid industrialization and the rise of organized labor. Idealism could be readily invoked to evade or deny such unpleasant realities as the inequitable distribution of wealth and power. Equalitarian reform could be discredited as the neglect of spiritual values in favor of materialistic aims.” - Roderick Stackelberg, ‘Idealism Debased: From Völkisch Ideology to National Socialism’ (1981) [p. 2, 3]

[unsolicited-opinions]

I'd like to try to clear up chronic (sometimes willful) misunderstandings about the words "goy" and "goyim."

I think the confusion is mostly from the assumptions of cultural Christians and cultural Muslims that Jewish culture shares Christian/Muslim views of other religions - so most of this is about how each of those religious traditions regards peoples of other faiths.

(Jews, Christians, Muslims - I'd welcome comments if I have misrepresented facts about Christian or Muslim belief/history and would welcome elaborating comments)

(TLDR version: Christians and Muslims sometimes assume "goy" is derisive because "infidel" and "kafir", their terms for those who don't share their faith, are derisive.)

Where does "goy" or "goyim" come from?

In the Torah (the first four books of what Christians call The Old Testament), in the book of Bereshit (בְּרֵאשִׁית‎), which Christians call Genesis, appears the first known written use of the Hebrew word for "nations," and that word is "goyim."

The first recorded usage of goyim occurs in Genesis 10:5 and applies to non-Israelite nations. The first mention of goy in relation to the Israelites comes in Genesis 12:2, when God promises Abraham that his descendants will form a goy gadol ("great nation")

If you like, you can see many translations of what Christians call Genesis 10:5 here.

You'll see that translators to English sometimes translate "goy" as "gentile," a word which comes from Latin and describes someone outside of one's own tribe/clan/nation. To me, that's often not a particularly bothersome translation. (I'm trying to be mindful of my own biases as a GenX USAmerican who has lived in the diaspora his entire life. I think most of my generation of US Jews was taught that "gentile" was an inoffensive word to describe non-Jews in most contexts.)

Other Christian translations, however, sometimes translate goy/goyim as "heathen"/"heathens," which does not generally align with Jewish thinking about other faiths. So for this to make sense we need to touch briefly on how Jewish thought views Jews and how it other religions.

Okay, how do Jews regard themselves in relation to other peoples and religions?

You've probably heard that Jews call themselves "The Chosen People," and you've almost certainly heard misinformation/disinformation about what that means. You've probably seen it suggested that Judaism regards Jews as superior to non-Jews. This 100% false assertion is profoundly dangerous. There is no Jewish supremacy in Judaism.

What being Chosen means to religious Jews is that Jewish people have a covenant with God which requires of them special responsibilities which other peoples are not obliged to observe. Religious Jews believe God chose the Jews to obey the commandments of the Torah, and that the Jews, in turn, chose the Torah. These resulting special responsibilities do not make the Jews more loved by God than other peoples and they do not privilege Jews over other peoples.

Jewish thought explicitly regards peoples/faiths which share the values of the Noahide laws as "rightious." Roughly, these are the Noahide laws:

Don't  worship idols (worship God only)

Don't curse God (don't desecrate the holy)

Don't commit murder

Don't commit adultery or incest

Don't steal

Don't eat flesh torn from a living animal (animal cruelty is bad)

Establish courts of justice

These values are nearly universal among the world's major religions. Christianity and Islam share these values.

Sidebar: One could certainly argue that religious Jews might prefer the Muslim prohibition of visual idols to what looks in Hinduism (to religious and uninformed Jewish eyes) like rampant idolotry, but any serious study of incredibly complex and varied Hindu practices reveals that Hinduism is certainly not idolotry when seen from inside its own belief system.

So the broadly held view of the overwhelming majority of the world's Jews is that God loves non-Jews and regards them as rightious if they are ethical and moral in how they interact with other human beings. They are Chassiddei Umot ha-Olam, pious people of the world. The Jewish word for non-Jews simply means "other peoples of earth" or "non-Jews." Theres no judgment or condemnation in it. There's no Jewish drive to make the world Jewish, to convert non-Jews to Judaism, or to condemn people of other faiths for being something other than Jewish. Such behaviors are forbidden. (I'd like to note here that I have seen video of ultra-orthodox haredi in Israel insulting and spitting on Christians. This is wrong, upsetting, and disgusting. Most Israelis and most Jews condemn such behavior. All fundamentalist movements, in my view, suck, including such haredi. They represent Jews as much as the Westboro Baptist Church represents Christians.)

Okay, but aren't Christians also okay with other religions?

Many forms of Christianity require Christians to proselytize, to "spread the good news" and to convert non-Christians to Christianity whenever possible. Many kinds of Christianity regard this as the greatest of good deeds, because non-Christians are doomed to the eternal torment of Hell, so if they offend a non-Christian with their efforts to convert, it's for the non-Christian's own good. In some places and times, conversion to Christianity was forced. (A huge topic for another time.) Generally, Christianity regards other religions as false and wrong, even if they are pro social, share similar values, and are not a threat to Christianity. Non-Christians (including the Jews from whom Christians drew their monotheism, Muslims who share their monotheism, and competing Christian movements) have been referred to by Christians as unbelievers and infidels.

Where "goy" simply means "non-Jew," "Infidel" does not simply mean "non-Christian." It is unquestionably a judgement and a condemnation.

How do Muslims regard other faiths?

In the same way that most Christians believe that faith in their Christ is the only way to attain the kingdom of heaven, polls show that a majority of Muslims worldwide believe that Islam is the only path to heaven.

Muslims say that Islam is the only religion that leads to eternal life in heaven in most countries surveyed in the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt (96%), Jordan (96%), Iraq (95%), Morocco (94%) and the Palestinian territories (89%). Somewhat smaller majorities take this view in Lebanon (66%) and Tunisia (72%).

Muslim culture has its own specialized word for non-Muslims, "kafir." The Quran uses the word to describe early polytheistic antagonists of the Islamic movement and some verses stress the difference between kafir which are hostile to Islam and kafir who are not. Later, the word was used for any non-Muslim and became derisive.

In 2019, Nahdlatul Ulama, a large organization of Indonesian Sunni Muslims, called for their co-religionists worldwide to cease using the word.

“When someone calls you a kafir, that means you’re considered someone who is godless,” said Alex Arifianto, an Indonesian political scientist with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“Or you’re someone whose religion is considered inferior to the Islamic belief,” he said. “That’s why this is so significant. The largest Muslim organization in the world is saying, ‘Look, we have to treat non-Muslims as equals.’”

So if "goy" simply means "non-Jew" without condemnation or judgment, why are so many Christians and Muslims ready to believe that the word is derisive?

Bluntly, it's because the Christian and Muslim words for those who do not share their faith (Infidel and kafir) are derisive, are judgemental, and are condemning. Cultural Christians and Cultural Muslims assume that these elements of their faith and culture have clear analogs in Jewish thought. Here's the thing: They don't.

You're saying that Jews have never used "goy," "goyim," or "goyishe" derisively?

Absolutely not! I can't and won't pretend that theres no tribalistic bigotry in Jewish history. Jews learned over the last 2000 years to expect better and fairer treatment from other Jews than they'd expect from gentiles, and that shows up in language. "Goy" has unquestionably been used derisively. One of my Yiddish-speaking grandparents said that a "goyishe kop" (gentile head) was someone who didn't think ahead, or who lacked compassion, and that's undoubtedly a derisive use. It's beyond question that "goy" can be used derisively, I'm only arguing that this is the exception, not the rule.

(In the only Jewish nation on earth, the political, social, legal, and religious freedoms of the 20% of Israeli citizens are not Jewish...are identical to the rights of Jewish citizens- because that's a Jewish value.)

As for me, I don't use "goy" in mixed Jewish/gentile company because I live in a very pluralistic society and do not wish to inadvertently give offense, even if that offense is rooted in someone else's misunderstanding of my heritage. That's my choice.

At the same time, I have not with my own ears ever heard a Jew I know use the word derisively.

Your mileage may vary, your practices may vary, your experiences may vary. I have lived my entire life as a 2% minority in a majority Christian country where diasporan Jewish culture evolved to take pains to avoid insulting the majority and that is not a universal Jewish experience.

The hill I'll die on here is that unlike in Christian and Islamic thought, Jews do not regard the people of other faiths as inferior, wrong, broken, or in need of rescue.

Jews do not attempt to convince goyim to become Jews, Jews do not preach to gentiles from Jewish scripture or attempt to force them to pray as Jews pray. Jews do not believe that goyim are cursed, doomed, or unloved by God.

Those are Christian and Muslim takes on Infidels and Kuffaar, not Jewish takes on goyim.

Lastly, please know this: Christianity and Islam both took their basis from Judaism, but discarded many fundamental Jewish values.

The disrespect, condemnation, disparagement and disenfranchisement which Muslim and Christian nations and cultures have inflicted on those they called(/call) Infidels and Kuffaar were not derived from their Jewish origins.