User talk:Marcelllus wallace

Much of the discussion of Fackenheim's claim about the "614th Commandment" is based on complete misunderstanding. He never claimed that the 614th commandment was the direct divine commandment or was an addition to Halachic law as interpreted in the Talmud. Similarly, he said on several occasions that when he wrote of the "Voice of Auschwitz" he didn't mean a direct divine voice or the voice of God. For that reason he insisted the it was a moral imperative binding on secular Jews as well as religious. I was a student of Fackenheim's and I remember him discussing these misunderstandings on several occasions.

For this reason I am editing out this sentences:

"He asserted that this should be an addition to Jewish Talmudic Law, a claim that meets strong opposition in some quarters." He never made this assertion, where is the supporting evidence? However, I grant that the term "614th commandment" can be misleading or is liable to be muisunderstood. .

The summary of the 614th commandment is inadequate: "The often paraphrased idea behind that name represents an imperative that people must not act in ways that validate Hitler or his beliefs."

If e.g. Hitler believed that 2+2=4 and I affirm that, am I validating Hitler's belief-system? The "614th Commandment" makes specific reference to the Nazi belief that the Jewish people must be annihilated, not to just any belief of Hitler or the Nazis. It is not a universal imperative because it is the Jews themselves that must make the decision to survive. It is an imperative against despair or fear, against using the facts of the Holocaust to give up on God, Judaism or the will for Jewish survival.

So I'm editing it.