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Mythology and national consciousness as a tool for uniting society

שו”תCategory: faithMythology and national consciousness as a tool for uniting society
asked 7 years ago

A Sabbath of peace
About a year ago, I heard a researcher (I don’t remember his name) make an interesting claim about Jewish tradition and any religious tradition. I would love to hear the rabbi’s opinion on the matter.
It is a well-known fact that every people needs two basic things.

  1. It needs common characteristics that will bind it together for its unity.
  2. Likewise, every nation needs a common goal. Otherwise, the nation will quickly fall apart.

Therefore, myths are often created among different peoples, usually expanding from general collective events, in order to get people in a nation to connect and cooperate for these goals.
And so, after the myth has become deeply ingrained in the people over the years, it turns the story into reality.

The same thing happened in a big way with the Exodus and the presence of Mount Sinai. It is very likely that the Israelites were indeed slaves in Egypt and left there. And over time they had already become a collective and a nation.
But the nation alone without a purpose cannot live well, so slowly metaphysical myths such as miracles developed, culminating in the giving of the Torah, to provide the overall purpose for the nation, just as every nation at that time had a theological system of commandments and idols.


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מיכי Staff answered 7 years ago
This speculation raised a beard, and it didn’t turn out to be a speculation at all. And for your reference, I offer my own armchair “study”: The need for people to offer speculative hypotheses about the need for peoples to invent religions and mythologies and to present this speculative hypothesis as if it were “study” stems from their need to anchor their baseless path and their abandonment of religious tradition. Please, if you could send this for publication in the same journal that published the study you mentioned, I would be grateful. If a decision is made regarding a Nobel Prize for this study, please let me know. Good Saturday.  

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י replied 7 years ago

Why is it wrong? What basic assumptions do you disagree with?

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

I don't have to disagree with anything. Whoever claims something should prove it. I also made a similar speculation about him. It is just as valid as his. The fact that someone has the title of “researcher” (especially in the sciences of repentance) does not mean that his words are worth considering. Let's explain and then we'll talk.

י replied 7 years ago

You disagree with the idea “2.. Every nation needs a common goal. Otherwise the nation will quickly fall apart.”

The fact is that most nations have their own myths and mythologies. Also, some nations have religions, etc.’

מיכי Staff replied 7 years ago

Do you disagree that most people have motives to advance their agenda?

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