From The Muqata:
Close to 50 million people live in South Korea, and everyone learns Gemara (Talmud) in school. “We tried to understand why the Jews are geniuses, and we came to the conclusion that it is because they study Talmud,” said the Korean ambassador to Israel. And this is how “Rav Papa” became a more well known scholar in Korea than in Israel.
It is doubtful if the Amoraic scholars, Abbaye and Rava imagined their discussions of Jewish law in the Beit Midrash in Babylon would be taught hundreds of years later in East Asia. Yet it turns out that the laws of an “egg born on a holiday” (“ביצה שנולדה ביום טוב”) is actually very interesting to the South Koreans who have required that Talmud study be part of their compulsory school curriculum.
Reminds me of my prior post, What Do Chinese People Think of Jews?
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Comments
I might be Jewish in spirit, but I'm not about to begin Talmud study.
What I've learned from the Jews is chicken soup, or Jewish penicillin. If they have it when they're sick, well, I'll have it every day and out-Jew the Jews.
Regarding the previous post, "What do Chinese People Think of Jews?" my wife told me that in Japan's most popular weekly magazine there is a Japanese Frank Rich (a movie critic who lives in Berkeley and says his greatest inspiration is Michael Moore) who regularly bashes American conservatives to his large Japanese audience. I've heard of anti-semitic rants in popular Japanese publications, also. My wife said many popular commentators are anti-American (and, I would assume, anti-Israel).
I've told her to be on the lookout for examples of this.
If the Koreans want insights into the "genius" of the Jews, I would suggest they contemplate how the Torah enabled the Jews to be a "portable nation".
I'm not Jewish and have never read the Talmud but how many nations/cultures have survived persecution for as long as the Jews have and are not only still around but thriving? The Romans burnt down Carthage, slaughtered the citizens who couldn't escape and that was the end of Carthage for eternity. No land, no culture, no nation. No so with Jews. The Jewish nation is unique in that it is not dependent on land for its existence.
Maybe Jews are those visitors from another planet who secretly govern earth with their UFOs that so many cable channels keep telling us about.
It's a bizarre world when the Koreans appear to be more sympathetic to the Jews than America's current administration.
Remember, it's called "smart diplomacy" for all you dummies out there. Why oh why doesn't President Obama just go whole hog and send Reverends Wright, Farrakhan, Jackson, and President Carter over as impartial arbiters?
Shouldn't we be applying more pressure on our ally? Hey, what are friends for?
I'm off to South Korea to start a chain of shops tentatively called,
"Goy's Authentic Old World Genius Bagels."
If the Koreans are anything like the Japanese when it comes to the new and trendy … I'll be a billionaire.
LukeHandCool said…
Shouldn't be
"Goy's Authentic Old World Gefilte Fish"?
Fish is brain food. Fish in a bottle! M-m-m-m-m-m!
@Pasadena Phil
Yep, when I branch out. New tentative slogan:
"Why spend countless hours studying when you can eat your way to genius?"