http://www.wiredbrain.net/  pflaump@cfl.rr.com

RE: A letter to Apple Computers, How to learn from History.
Learning from the Babylonian Captivity: In Babylon but not of it;

How to manage in a time of change and crisis is not a new
problem. The key to wisdom and judgement comes from the
application of general principles, well understood, to specific
circumstances. The general principles of human behavior and
social interaction can be derived from history and tradition. If
I am not for myself, who will be for me; and being for myself
what am I / if I am not for others what am I ? If not now, when ?
if not me, who ? A judicial balance of independence, innovation,
with social responsibility and solemn mutual obligations.

Every company, school, community, church need  "Assemblies" to
seek the truth by holding inspiration to the "light" of discourse
and open discussion, as do the Quakers. Our constitutional and
legal tradition and our modern society is built upon open
discussion and holding ideas, beliefs, faith and doctrines to the
tests of facts and reason. The work of Roger Bacon, Newton,
Franklin and Jefferson, other freemason's related to Hiram the
builder of the temple and preserved "the way" in Western Liberal
industrial culture. Our way is built on the Babylonian captivity
and the crisis of meaning in the heritage of exile.

Our customs of being, started four millennium ago with Abraham,
b. 1996 B.C.,  of Ur with the tribes and ancient kingdoms. "In
586 B.C. the Kingdom of Judea, which then represented all that
was left of the people of Israel in the land of Canaan, underwent
a devastating experience. The temple was in ruins, the ritual
brought to an end, the best part of the nation was led as
captives to Babylon..( the stock crashed...) a century and a half
earlier, the Northern Kingdom comprising 10 tribes, had been
overrun by Assyria, and their inhabitants absorbed .( Jobs was
removed by a coup ) If the disaster to Judea met with a like
ending, the entire nation ( Apple Corp. ) would be obliterated
and the name of Israel would be obliterated and the people
blotted out of existence". So begins the "Everyman's Talmud" by
Abraham Cohen 1931, 1945. 

The issue of the survival forced the leaders to consider deeply
their tribal traditions. The prophet Ezekiel formed "The
Assembly", the solution that evolved was summarized in a single
word "The Torah", or "corporate philosophy", the "goals and
mission statement" of the oral and written doctrine, the "law",
the teaching, where a sense of direction can be made into a
method or path - the way of the "word" can became a process and
structure. Torah must be "forced on their attention and impressed
in their hearts; then they could remember, ( like Joseph's exile
in Egypt ) that though in Babylon they were not of Babylon, and
the sacred obligation rested upon them to remain a people apart." 

"The House of Assembly" Beth Hakeneseth was structured by Ezra
and written up as the Talmud as a guide to living, preserving
their traditions, against the historic tide, where minorities are
melted into majorities, where tribes, companies, communities,
people and nations rise and fall, where a unique people not
protected by their own "space" can create a "wall of fire" to
preserve the faith and race unlike any other in history. 

What made this possible ? A "law" fixed by time and place can not
serve people in different times and places. The doctrine and
practice must be flexible BUT not so flexible as to become
anything to any one, without teeth and meaning. The answer is the
way, the process of seeking a living truth, darash, a technique
of inquiry, to deduce, interpret, past tradition and present
circumstance by profound study. This process of deduction or
interpretation is called Midrash, or commentary, practiced by the
Hegedolah or Assembly of Teachers "Tannaim" ( Rabbis ),
associated with the Hillel school. 

The "Christian" church was a revival of the "path" and its basic
laws, after the Rabbis had made a process into a bureaucracy and
power base. The early Church was just such an assembly of
believers who sought the truth, as God let them to see the truth.
The protestant reformation was again a revival of the body of
Christ as an assembly of believers after Rome had made a process
into a dogmatic doctrine in support of temporal power. 

Every company, school, community, church need  "Assemblies" to
seek the truth by holding inspiration to the "light" of discourse
and open discussion as do the Quakers. Our constitutional and
legal tradition and our modern society is built upon open
discussion and holding ideas, beliefs, faith and doctrines to the
tests of facts and reason. As LBJ said from Isaiah " Let us reason together".  The work of Roger Bacon, Newton, Franklin and Jefferson, other freemason's related to Hiram the builder of the temple and preserved "the way" in Western Liberal tradition. Our way is built on the Babylonian captivity and the crisis of meaning in the tradition of exile.

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