Have we not learned?

Robert Pollack Ph.D., in the newest issue of the Edah Journal, presents an article entitled, The Price of Science Without Moral Constraints: German and American Medicine Before DNA and Today. He presents three different topics together. The first is a historical summary of eugenics leading to the Holocaust. He then presents a discussion of the residual effects of the eugenics thinking on modern America through the current discussions of the human genome project. He ends with a discussion of the effects of thinking of people as the composite of DNA instead of unique beings.

While it seems at times to lack true cohesion, Pollack's article does present important questions that we all need to consider in the next bunch of years. Do we want to allow the study of genetics, which can be positive, to corrupt our sense of morals and ethics again? What is the difference between thinking in terms of eugenics and thinking in terms of genetics and DNA when it comes to our morality?

Harry Potter and Judaism

The following links were sent via the Lookjed listserv.

Back in October '04, a rabbi at the OU, involved in NCSY, the OU's teenage kiruv organization, claims that the themes in Harry Potter are Jewish.

I want to quote a few of the more interesting passages:

Harry is Jewish. His parents died so that he might survive and carry on their legacy. Voldemort isn’t an evil wizard, but he does represent the forces of evil. He is Egyptian slavery. He is the Syrian-Greeks. He is Haman. He is the Roman persecution. He is the Spanish Inquisition. He is pogroms and Crusades and the Holocaust and the Intifada. He thought he had destroyed the Potter family, but you know what? They survived in Harry, much the same way the Jewish people lives on in you.

At Hogwarts, Harry studies magic. His course of studies includes such varied courses as the History of Magic, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. This is like our study of Torah. (This gets a huge lehavdil, which is what we say when we compare two things that really aren’t alike.) The Torah is not just a book of laws. It’s the history of our people. It’s self-improvement. It’s how to treat other people. Harry’s course of study is diverse and so is ours.

After drawing various parallels between the book and Judaism, the author concludes with this:

I could go on, but I won’t. You can draw your own parallels. A metaphor is just a metaphor. (Or, as I like to put it, “A metaphor is like a simile.”) Harry Potter is just a book. It may be well-written and critically-acclaimed, but at the end of the day it’s the product of human hands and imagination. Like all humans, J.K. Rowling is just dust and ashes. She may have her five Harry Potter books, but we have the five Books that G-d gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. (And we saw special effects far greater than anything ever shown on the silver screen!) Those are the books that count. As much as we can learn from Harry, Ron and Hermione, there is so much more we can learn from the examples of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov (our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). May we merit to spend as much effort analyzing the Torah, the true source of our real Jewish “magic.”

The only comment I can make is that, as with most other methods of attempted religious inspiration, the use of what people know is good but not even close to foolproof. I guess if it inspired even one person, then it was a good thing.

However, as a different angle on the use of Harry Potter, see Under the Spell of Harry Potter, by Yaffa Ganz, from the Winter 2001 issue of the Jewish Action. She argues that Harry Potter, as a book about wizardry, might be sending the wrong message to people, especially children, regarding the uniqueness of G-d and how the world functions.

What was Rav Schneerson doing while in France?

A couple of Jewish bloggers have been discussing the findings in the mid-1990s of Professor Menachem Friedman of Bar Ilan University regarding the going-ons of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson זצ"ל during the time he was reported to have been in Berlin and Paris.

For those interested in reading this three part series which was published in Haaretz in 1998, check out the following link.

Steroidgate

Update: It turns out that Palmeiro might have been tested as early as April or May according to the reports on ESPN this evening. If so, I am very disturbed by how baseball could allow this to go unchecked for so long. It would appear as if they felt compelled to wait until after he got 3000 hits before admitting that some part of this quest was enhanced by outside substances. The report also said that unlike the other steroid offenders, Palmeiro was given the opportunity to argue his case before the accusation was made public. What kind of message does this send? The steroids policy is not supposed to include protecting the "elite" while letting the little ones flounder.

Wow!!

Baseball's steroid policy is serious. Rafael Palmeiro, who recently broke 3000 hits and became the fourth player with 3000 hits and 500 homers, has been suspended for steroids. Not even the high-profile players are immune. Hmm, wonder what Bonds must be thinking now? Is it possible that he might be better off never coming back than to come back and be found with steroids in his system?

One point which I keep hearing over and over again is this idea that taking steroids and being lazy would theoretically go hand in hand. According to everyone involved in the Palmeiro situation, they all say he is a hard worker. The issue isn't whether taking steroids indicates hard work or laziness. The issue is what kind of edge did it give him.

I read Canseco's book, Juiced : Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big and, assuming one can believe an autobiography as being even somewhat factual, the idea of taking steroids and being lazy wouldn't have worked. Fact is, steroids is an enhancer, meaning that you can work very hard and be great or you can take a drug and being better than great. Palmeiro lasting 20 years is partially a testament to his hard work as a ballplayer but the problem is, how much of his career is a result of it being enhanced by outside substances, whether legal or not.