Religion & Beliefs

Kol Nidre Service Online

By punktorah / September 17, 2009

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  • Hersh Penn
    By notaguru 10/25/09 at 7:01 p.m. UTC

    In the initiating post, the author seemed surprised that when two Israelis meet it takes little time before they’re talking like old friends.

    Such a phenomenon isn’t unique to Israelis, or to Jews, or even to semites in general. Rather, it seems that our species is hard-wired to seek interaction based on commonality. Two dentists, felons, Scotsmen, short people, pregnant women, etc. will often zero in on the link and begin building on it. The more quickly the commonality is discovered, the likelier there will be at least a dialog and perhaps even a relationship. There are often many groups to which two strangers might share membership; ethnicity, language, geographic location, work, children — these and an infinity more are valid starts for interaction, which all of us aggressively seek.

    As Jews we often attribute such behavior to Jewishness. It’s amusing that some think it’s unique to our segment of humanity.

    It’s not.

     

    Hersh
    Always a skeptic!

    "We are pattern-seeking, story-telling animals"
    Michael Shermer

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