Sometimes I find the good Samaritan story to seem to have affected people.
When I have been in trouble, for some odd reason I find people with a basic Christian point of view willing to help me. That seems often to me to be in stark contrast to the general apathy or even downright malevolence of people of other faiths (or people of no faith).
For example today I was cold. I had been in a cold river and my clothing was wet. I was on my way home, but at some point I realized my body temperature was going dangerously low. I was beginning to wonder if i could make it back. Out of the blue a car [husband and wife] stopped by to pick me up and take me home even though they had thought I was homeless and they might have to put me up in their own home.
I have found this attitude to be fairly common in the Christian world. A willingness to help. The contrast to people of other faiths could hardly be more pronounced -- they often do as much damage to me as they can while trying to be careful not to get in trouble with the law.
[Other events like this were in Uman on Rosh Hashanah when I was sick--maybe from the strain of travelling. The room mate I had for those few days simply ignored me though I was burning up with fever and could not move , while the owners of the apartment saw I was sick and brought to me food and medicine.
Other events were with a fellow in Kiev that dropped his affairs for a month to help me get my papers together to I could go to the USA. Recently also I was in the hospital in Uman where they treated me for free, and only to help get better materials for the operation did they ask for a a small amount.
What I am trying to say is that this does not seem to me to be normal human reaction that generally consists of malice. There is something about the Good Samaritan story and the Golden Rule that seems to have sunk deeply into Christian consciousness.
[This type of thing was noticed by the Ran of Breslov in the last lesson he gave on Rosh Hashanah [Vol II:8.] There he mentions this fact that מעט הרחמנות הנשארת אצלינו היא בחינת אכזריות. I forget the context but the idea is that because of some reason: "the little bit of compassion that is left by us is in essence cruelty." So you really have a hard time finding compassion when you need it. I do not have his book to look this up.]
[There are some essays from Bryan Caplan and Steven Dutch which deal with similar issues.]
Bryan Caplan has his essays contra-Christianity on his site along with a rebuttal that I could not down load.
In any case if it would just be my own personal experience that would not say much but I do have at least the Ari and Rav Abulafia. [To see this in the Ari you have to see what he says about the very end of the Book of Genesis.] Rav Abulafia's opinion means a lot to me but on the same hand he does consider Christianity itself highly negative. It is well known he went to debate the pope.
But to get a clear idea of Rav Abulafia it is helpful to read the Gra's Voice of the Dove קול התור and also the book of Rav Luzatto "The New Corrections" תיקונים חדשים.--That is if this at all interests you. As for myself I have grown weary of these kinds of topics. The book of the Rav Luzatto is not well known. He is more famous for his book the מסילת ישרים but his other more mystical writings shed some light on this subject.
Some sent to me the actual quote from the Ran of Breslov:
When I have been in trouble, for some odd reason I find people with a basic Christian point of view willing to help me. That seems often to me to be in stark contrast to the general apathy or even downright malevolence of people of other faiths (or people of no faith).
For example today I was cold. I had been in a cold river and my clothing was wet. I was on my way home, but at some point I realized my body temperature was going dangerously low. I was beginning to wonder if i could make it back. Out of the blue a car [husband and wife] stopped by to pick me up and take me home even though they had thought I was homeless and they might have to put me up in their own home.
I have found this attitude to be fairly common in the Christian world. A willingness to help. The contrast to people of other faiths could hardly be more pronounced -- they often do as much damage to me as they can while trying to be careful not to get in trouble with the law.
[Other events like this were in Uman on Rosh Hashanah when I was sick--maybe from the strain of travelling. The room mate I had for those few days simply ignored me though I was burning up with fever and could not move , while the owners of the apartment saw I was sick and brought to me food and medicine.
Other events were with a fellow in Kiev that dropped his affairs for a month to help me get my papers together to I could go to the USA. Recently also I was in the hospital in Uman where they treated me for free, and only to help get better materials for the operation did they ask for a a small amount.
What I am trying to say is that this does not seem to me to be normal human reaction that generally consists of malice. There is something about the Good Samaritan story and the Golden Rule that seems to have sunk deeply into Christian consciousness.
[This type of thing was noticed by the Ran of Breslov in the last lesson he gave on Rosh Hashanah [Vol II:8.] There he mentions this fact that מעט הרחמנות הנשארת אצלינו היא בחינת אכזריות. I forget the context but the idea is that because of some reason: "the little bit of compassion that is left by us is in essence cruelty." So you really have a hard time finding compassion when you need it. I do not have his book to look this up.]
[There are some essays from Bryan Caplan and Steven Dutch which deal with similar issues.]
Bryan Caplan has his essays contra-Christianity on his site along with a rebuttal that I could not down load.
In any case if it would just be my own personal experience that would not say much but I do have at least the Ari and Rav Abulafia. [To see this in the Ari you have to see what he says about the very end of the Book of Genesis.] Rav Abulafia's opinion means a lot to me but on the same hand he does consider Christianity itself highly negative. It is well known he went to debate the pope.
But to get a clear idea of Rav Abulafia it is helpful to read the Gra's Voice of the Dove קול התור and also the book of Rav Luzatto "The New Corrections" תיקונים חדשים.--That is if this at all interests you. As for myself I have grown weary of these kinds of topics. The book of the Rav Luzatto is not well known. He is more famous for his book the מסילת ישרים but his other more mystical writings shed some light on this subject.
Some sent to me the actual quote from the Ran of Breslov:
