Listening: Karlheinz Koinegg, Moses und die Wüste der Wunder, 1.39-2.45 (end).
J had an interesting reaction to something in the book on world religions.
When I read the section where the Jewish girl Ruth is explaining how Jews believe that Jesus is a Jewish man, not the son of God or the messiah, his brow wrinkled and he said that he "didn't like that." When I asked him what exactly he didn't like, he said that he didn't like the way she said what she said, not what she said.
At least I think this is what he was getting at; I deliberately refrain from ever pressing him about his thoughts on religious questions or giving him the impression that there is a right way a priori to think about these things. By way of follow-up, I told him that we always have to keep in mind that the Jesus stories we have been reading from the bible were written by Christians, not Jews; that Christians generally think Jews were wrong about Jesus, and so the stories often make a lot of the Jews look bad, sometimes even without trying to make them look bad; but that the Jews, too, think the Christians are wrong. People of different religions disagree about a lot of stuff, and that's ok, they just have to learn to get along.
***
After this, I also broached the subject of the shoah for the first time. A couple of weeks ago (in connection with the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks), I had begun telling J about the Germans' role in the second world war. Today I told him that during that war, Germans persecuted the Jews; that many fled, but very many were killed; that after that, not many Jews have wanted to live in Germany; that many came to America and many went to Israel, which is where most of the bible stories take place and which many Jews still think of as their homeland.
J didn't evince much of a reaction, either to this or to the WW2 discussion. In connection to the latter he did say, "But the Germans are good now, right, daddy?" Which I confirmed.
On a related note. Who knows if J will continue to progress in the German language at the current rate as he grows up. But if he does, he will essentially be a native speaker, but without any of the usual identity-conditioning factors like family and heritage (very important for traditional notions of German identity). I'm very curious to see—if it happens—what this German-American "third space" identity-hybrid will end up looking like. Obviously I will have a huge role in the process, which is quite a responsibility but very exciting as well.
***
The conclusion to the Moses story moves into theologically pretty interesting territory. After the Israelites make and worship the golden calf, Joshua wants to execute the perpetrators. God himself tells Moses that he feels similarly, that he has decided to wipe his entire people out, except Moses, and give the latter "a brand new people that will be good and wise and hardworking and obedient, not rebellious and lazy like the Hebrews."
Obviously the Noah-flood story is the subtext here. But the really interesting part is that in talking God out of this plan, Moses tells God that the latter doesn't really know human nature; doesn't have the power to create beings that are without flaw; that the problem with the ten commandments is that they are "lacking in love"; that God's view that he is always right is wrong; and that God has "been evil" and "done evil things" (there is a deliberate play on and conflation of the two main senses of the word böse here, "evil" and "angry"):
"Wie viele Menschen hast Du umgebracht, weil Du böse [ = angry] auf sie warst? Du hast uns nach Deinem Bild erschaffen. Aber wenn Du selber böse [ = evil] bist, können wir nicht besser sein!"
After Moses's reprimand, God admits that he himself has sinned ("Ich sehe ein, dass auch ich gesündigt habe") and asks for forgiveness. Moses grants it, asking for forgiveness as well. God says that he has now changed and doesn't want to be a fearsome God anymore. Moses, he says, has shown him that God, too, is a pupil (Schüler).
At this point J chimed in from the back of the car and said he didn't understand what was going on. He said he understood Moses's words, but didn't really know what they mean. I laughed and agreed, telling him that this version is very different from most bible stories, where God is always right and he's the one teaching the people and telling them what to do. Here, in contrast, Moses is able to teach God things and tell God he's wrong, and he can tell God what to do and he does it!
Pretty strong tobacco, as they say in German.
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