What Happened Since Steinsaltz Spoke in 1990

עוד ארבעים יום ונינוה נהפכת

Druya, Belarus of the border with Latvia, c. maybe actually 1930s? My village.

These are a few changes in the changed world since Steinsaltz spoke in 1990.

1. The Internet. Change comparable to the printing press but much larger. The Jewish religion was an oral tradition, but it profited from the printing press and before that from writing. It is highly doubtful that it will have the same success with the internet.

2. iPhone and mobile telephony. You don’t need a Yom Kippur to realize that this thing became, unfortunately, the extension of our physical body.

3. The disintegration of the institutions of the Conservative (and Reform) Judaism. The majority of Jews in the USA, bereft of any organized or disorganized religion.

4. Political polarization in the word with the rise of the alternative Woke religion. With the collapse of Conservative and Reform, the Woke religion steps into the void for the majority of the Jews. Corresponding attack by the Woke on national and tribal and even sexual identity, the foundations of the Jewish tradition.

5. A fringe, post-Christian messianic movement rises with the death of Ramash. The other half of Chabad turns commercial with the goal of moping up the remaining Jewish assets. Chabad abandons Mi Hu Yehudi (that last one was in 1989, a year before Steinsaltz spoke, but Steinsaltz was usually closing an eye on many Ramash’s “missteps”. It needs to be said here. It’s a stain on his memory and legacy.)

6. AI makes the autistic rabbinic genius, that run the Jews for 2,000 years, superfluous.

7. Since everyone uses a car, I would include the move from Internals Combustion Engine to EVs and, in the very near future, Full Self-Driving. Since electric devices permeate our lives, so thoroughly, it brings again into focus the question, is electricity a fire?

8. I would conclude with the Pandemic. We had Pandemics before, sometimes with dire consequence for the Jews (Black Death). But we never had a pandemic with forced mass medication and economic closure. With doubtful results. Israel being at the forefront of this massive failure, for Bibi specifically. Did Steinsaltz witness the pandemic?

What did I miss? Israel? Israel is on the path of reenacting American polarization. And by the way, it surely will reach Satmar, etc., just on the delay.

And this is the world we live in: No Jewish organization takes a stand against this, quite the opposite, ADL, the majority of liberal Jews are actively assisting in the crime. Chabad remains silent, showing once again that they care only about money and serving the political power (not just in Russia).