Reply #74: Those who assimilated

[PATRICK]

in Babylon are among the ancestors of the Iraqi population perhaps. They never came back and I think the religion died out among them. It was probably the majority, a more sensible, socializing majority. In Christendom they were never allowed to assimilate as Jews and those they restricted and tagged became a way to eventually reach out to "assimilators" at will. those that sided with Spain, the Communist, etc. all got the persecution backhand BECAUSE they maintained a religious/people identity different than the cultural unity and ideology. That lunacy too left a back-door wide open for all the other darker hatreds and evils. One dirty hand soils another and their allies and friends and comrades become the mob, the Inquisitor, the KGB.

The narrow path seems harrowing, with no illusions, the perils plainly visible and menacing on all sides.
Most people never get on it for that simple reason, although it could be like riding a bicycle or a horse. Talk about miraculous privilege, thinking a Gandhi or anything could work without guns and clubs.
Yet some Jews talk about having faith in such a Providence even if God did not exist. Even without a religion I would have faith that people could do this. And if they don't, and we all fall, well, whose point does THAT prove? We may not merit survival but we would have more personal integrity and peace if we tried the only way that can work. By first living peace and dying with it intact in the heart- as long as we can in a world of choices and dangers. Why kill a child hoping we can achieve this? That peace means nothing and is a lie. Lies you believe kill you before you physically die.