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    “Yes men” – Ask the Rabbi

    Q. What does Judaism think of “yes men”?

    A. Leo Baeck used to say that Jews were eternal protestants – not with a capital P, in the Christian sense of a non-Catholic, but with a small “p”, indicating that we were never prepared to go along with intolerable situations without voicing our objections.

    It has been said that the Jewish calling “is to destroy idols. In world intellectual history, insofar as Jewish thought is distinctive, it is distinguished by its non-conformity.”

    This was never a recipe for popularity. The fact that we were different often brought us problems, but at least we could live with our conscience and our God.

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