Mysterium Judaicum

The distinction between problems and solutions has always meant a lot to me. After all, there is such a thing as a problem to which there is no solution, but mysteries are things ones lives in the presence of. . . . And one must remember when one talks of problems and solutions that some people once talked of the "final solution" of a particular problem . . . It's been very much the American way to, as we say, "face" problems, which means settle them and get on running things. But there are some questions which I would call mysteries, and one of the great purposes of life to spend one's life trying to enter more and more deeply into them.
- George Grant, Canadian philosopher

"Jewish problem" and "Jewish mystery" are two ways of speaking representing two different outlooks on the world. The first: modern, hubristic, worldly thinking. The second: ancient, reverential, mystical thinking. Nazism is exemplary of modern godlessness, the Babylonian fervour to stamp all mysteries (the mystery of difference) under the jackboot of total control. Categorize, concentrate and liquidate every ambiguity, eccentricity, koan and atavistic divine spark: so goes the lullaby of progress.

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