It is (forgive the expression) an "Article of Faith" among contemporary Kiruv Clowns that the tenets of Judaism are 100% rational and require no element of faith much less great leaps of faith. This is, of course, preposterous.
Not only do we often lack airtight philosophical arguments and/or incontrovertible empirical evidence for that which Jews believe about, G-d. revelation, prophecy and unseen worlds but OTC, the evidence at times runs counter to these beliefs. Most skeptics out there would probably term my last sentence the understatement of the millennium. In any event faith in and reliance upon G-d is a challenge and the לפום צערא אגרא= "The reward commensurate with the pain suffered" has never been greater than it is today.
I was recently tagged by BeeZee over at Izgad to present a list of my Ani Maamins. He was probably expecting a rehashing of the Maimonedean 13 principals. Those principles have been discussed and deliberated upon in many great scholarly works both in Lashon Qodesh and in the vernacular. So anything I could cogitate, say, or write about them would be superfluous כיהודה ועוד לקרא
But as a Jew with a Havdala-Qedusha obsession I am intrigued by a great number of post-Maimonidean Emunos that deal with things that I believe about humanity in general and Jews in particular. Some of these are sourced מפי ספרים ומפי סופרים in classic Jewish sources while others I sort of intuit to be what a Jew ought to believe. As is the case with the Maimonidean variety many lack airtight philosophical arguments and/or incontrovertible empirical evidence and OTC, the evidence at times runs counter to these beliefs. As we will be reading פרשת בראשית tomorrow and as this Parsha celebrates the creation of both the macrocosm and the Microcosm known as אדם הראשון I hereby present my imperfect articles of imperfect faith in Humanity and Jewry. They are not listed in any logical or chronological sequence and are numbered only for the convenience of the hundreds of commenters (*EYE ROLL*) who will no doubt be commenting on them. Where I remember a source (or even mild hint of an allusion that I can hang my hat on) I will indicate it at the end of the article of faith:
1. I believe with imperfect faith that…..HaShem created the first humans endowed with free-will but that evil was completely external to them
2. I believe with imperfect faith that…..pre-sin humans enjoyed gender equality and that all gender inequities, including prohibitions against female polygamy, are among the punishments for/ fallout from the original sin (Meshekh Khokhma)
3. I believe with imperfect faith that…..pre-sin humans were immortal and as such structurally different even on a physical level from current and all post-sin human (Ramkhal)
4. I believe with imperfect faith that…..the qualitative gulf separating even post-sin humans from animals far exceeds the one separating animals from plants or plants from minerals.
5. I believe with imperfect faith that…..humanity as a whole blew several opportunities to regain the pre-sin state and that ultimately this privilege fell exclusively to the nation built by the three Patriarchs and four matriarchs (Ramkhal)
6. I believe with imperfect faith that…..there are innate differences separating Jews from gentiles
7. I believe with imperfect faith that…..among these differences are the fact that Jewish souls derive from a higher spiritual hierarchical rank
8. I believe with imperfect faith that…..among these differences are the fact that the thoughts words and deeds of Jews have tremendous constructive or destructive impact on worlds seen and unseen and that even the most unsuccessful, marginal Jewish Schlepper or lo yutzlakh is impacting things "behind the scenes" in ways that major gentile world-political leaders do not (Nefesh HaKhayim) . Also that even among Jews success influence and/or impactfulness in this world are NOT indicia of rank and impactfulness in unseen worlds or the world to come and that, in fact, in terms of true metaphysical influence and impactfullness, things are often 180 degrees different than they appear here
9. I believe with imperfect faith that…..when Jews are altruistic they REALLY mean to be altruistic whereas when gentiles are altruistic they are being self-serving or have other ulterior motives (Talmud)
10. I believe with imperfect faith that…..A Jew is intrinsically good and that sin never expresses his/her true inner desire, that vis a vis a Jew we view the Yetzer HaRa even in our post-sin world, as an external force imposing HIS will upon Jews and coercing them to sin under duress (Rambam Hilkhos Gittin, Rav Tzadok nearly everywhere)
11. I believe with imperfect faith that….. Because Jews have a greater capacity for good that they also have a greater capacity for evil, that the higher they come the lower and harder they fall.
12. I believe with imperfect faith that..... humans are first and foremost communicators and that being unable to speak so that others listen or to listen so that others speak is dehumanizing. So is any impoverishment of language that robs it of subtlety, nuance, abstraction and shir/poetry. As Rav Schwab z"l pointed out the human capacity for speech preceded the arrival of the second human being, hence the primary capacity for speech communication is with one's Creator. (late addendum)
That is all for now. I tag Evanston Jew,JS, Conservative Apikores, BOTH and Tikun Olam
Havdala -Qedusha...Have tou had YOURS today??? Hmmm???
Friday, October 16, 2009
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41 comments:
yup. The hits just keep on coming!
11 hours 30 minutes...nothing but tumbleweed..
Posted a comment below on the Maharal.
Sorry I did not get here earlier to comment. I certainly believe in commenting like I vote, early and often.
I believe that this issue of principles of faith is useful because it forces people to consider where and for what they are willing to draw the line in the sand. I recently hosted a game with kids from the high school where I teach where I, as the ruler of a country, handed them a list of fourteen Jewish values ranging from God, Torah to Holocaust studies. As an act of good faith the students had to agree to give up on three of these values. Then they had to give up on another three before finally being told that they could only keep three. It was interesting to see what students would defend. Almost all of the kids had God and Torah as part of their final three. There was a fair amount of debate about what should be the third. Israel, Shabbat and Kosher were all popular.
My list of principles focused on defending a certain philosophical image of God and the authority of human reason and science within a religious framework. This certainly says something about my values. Your list focuses on Jewish difference. With a few fig leaves thrown in, it is a defense of Jewish supremacy. Again this says something about you. What does your Judaism consist of? Being able to thumb your nose at gentiles and feel good about yourself. That is certainly not something that would make Judaism worthwhile to me, worth passing on to my children.
No. You misread/misunderstand. My Judaism is about becoming a mentsch but it is eschataological. The mentsch I yearn to become lived in Eden.
The entire regimen of Torah and Mitzvos is about getting us, and the balance of humanity on our coattails, back to the garden and the conquest of death and disunity.
My inability to convey that meaning to you makes me feel dehumanized.
JS-
answered you there. Now how about todays post? and my tag of you.
Izgad raises an interesting point - I believe Jews are "chosen" ("am nivchar") and thus "separated" ("mavdil"), but I don't think this translates to as much as you do - I'm perfectly happy accepting we simply have a different role/purpose, not that we are qualitatively or quantitatively better.
To run through your list:
1) Doesn't really matter to me as I feel it's a matter of semantics. I don't see how it matters if evil is external or internal if the end result is the same.
2) Seems plausible given the purpose of creation of chava.
3) Doesn't seem right to me as the concept of death was built into the commandments and thus seems to predate the sin.
4) Perhaps, but there have been many scientific discoveries finding that animals have culture that is passed down, language, even different dialects (eg whales from one area speak differently than whales from other areas, can use tools, pass down usages of tools, etc. I think the focus on language as that which sets humans apart is likely untrue - or at least not an absolute.
5) I'd be interested in hearing what these opportunities were.
6) Vague, but OK given my caveats above.
7) Seems ridiculous. How do you explain coverts, for one thing? Are their shoes "re-souled"?
8) Maybe in worlds unseen, but seen? Shlepper has more influence in the visible world than the President?
9) Oh please.
10) Nice thought, but does it matter?
11) Agree with general principle of potentiality, but don't think Jews are special in this respect, it's true of everyone.
12) Agree.
1. Not mere semantics. When you look in the mirror, when you do Teshuva, are you essentially good who has acted out of charachter or essetially conflicted?
4. I would've argued passionately on this one until I discovered the Mahral I blogged about yesterday. Now it seems that erect posture is more the point than speech. As I prefaced in all my dogma...my faith in these is imperfect.
5. See Ramkhal Derekh HaShem available in english from Feldheim. IIRC three great genearations (Enosh, flood and Babel) were the ones with the best opportunities.
10. Does it matter? Ask the Agunot that it saved.
Explain #10. Also, commented again below on Maharal.
Never really thought about my own ikarei emunah.
The principle I try to live my life by is the golden mean - I don't think extremism in either direction is beneficial or what God intended.
I also believe very firmly in trying to be nice to everyone. I think this also is at the root of what the Torah is all about (or at least should be about).
I think above all else, God is compassionate and not vengeful and when we screw up is understanding not harsh.
As a corollary, I think it's better to screw up in the short term if it will lead to more positive results in the future - brief example is a friend who entered a relationship and found she couldn't keep negiah. Her rabbi encouraged her to break up as it was surely a sign the relationship would never lead anywhere positive. My attitude was that the short-term wrong is more than made up for by how compatible they are and good for each other they are.
I don't believe a rav is the arbiter of every personal issue or problem I have and that common sense is often paramount. Quick story: friend dated a girl whose previous date called his rav at 2am since he had to urinate and the only available place was a McDonald's and he wasn't sure if he could enter or if he could whether he should take off his kippa.
I don't think anyone should dictate a course of action based on "This is what God wants."
I think, in terms of our own course of action, we need to act as if there is no God (ie it's all on us), but pray for assistance nonetheless.
More if I think of any.
number 10:
The Rambam uses this rationale to allow the beating of a recalcitrant husband who had obstinately refused to give his wife a get and opining that this is NOT a "get meuseh" = a coerced get as the real baseline desire of the husband is to do the will of
G-d.
I also believe very firmly in trying to be nice to everyone
EVERYONE? Really? What about Reshoim, Rodfim, Pedophiles,Jihadists, Nazis and Amalekites?
Izgad-BeeZee-
Kilkaltem "early" tee-zaharu
b' "often"!
You know what I mean.
I meant it in terms of Jew/non-Jew, but more fundamentally I meant it as someone who had to be pretty god-awful for me to be mean to them. I also don't believe someone should only be nice to people who are nice to him/her or that being nice only extends to friends and family.
agreed. You know the Ri'M on the khasida bird?
http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2006/09/what-went-fowl-in-monsey.html
What is tagged...does that mean I must come up with my ani maamins? I have to think about that.
I do believe, off the top of my head, that except for a few 'Jewish' genes which I wish we didn't have like BRCA1 and BRCA2,may Hashem spare our wives and daughters, and the gene for Tay Sachs disease etc., our bodies are like those of non Jews. And if c'v it ever came to it I would welcome any organ of a goy if it would help me stay alive.I also think we share some high percentage of genes with large and maybe not so large mammals because either evolution is true, or because of some other reason which I am sure the rabbis will explain in due time.
I believe being a Jew today requires a commitment, since these days there are alternatives. And we Jews have a purpose, or maybe less pejoratively, a role to play on the world stage, of which we are only aware through a glass darkly. Over time this tachlis is becomeing ever so slowly more apparent. This hisgalus ratzon hashem of why we are here has increased dramatically in the last century, and I conjecture Jews will be central in the epic battles yet to come.
So for starters I believe we have bodies that can be understood in naturalistic ways; and I believe the Jewish people are at the epicenter of world history, which is both a blessing and a curse as we learnt during the Holocaust.
yes...that's waht tagging means. feel free to write a whole post and if you email it to me I will post it here unedited and uncensored bl"n.
You'll notice that I did NOT list a belief in a difference between a Jewsih and Goyish body...just a pre-sin and post-sin one.
Organ donation is a throny Halakhic-Bio-Medical-Ethical issue in best'n fahl.
This hisgalus ratzon hashem of why we are here has increased dramatically in the last century
How do you mean? IMO the opposite is true. The wrong Holocaust lessons chief of which is tha tthe key to our survival and salvation is the fleeing from the belief in any and all innate differences ahs eroded Havdal-Qedusha consciousness and robbed the vast majority of th e worlds Jews of their sense of mission or belief in HaShem, much less deciphering hisgalus retzono.
Sorry for not getting back onto this sooner. I do have a job that I work on in between being a blogger. Today I had to lecture on Joseph II and the Edict of Tolerance.
If cannot prove something to be true than the next best thing is to show how believing in something improves our situation in someway. For example believing in God gives me a source for moral authority. This means that I am not left saying that I personally don’t like the color of your tie and your taste in rape. I need to be able to claim that rape violates some sort of universal law, which has somehow been made known to all of us. Accepting the existence of a Judeo-Christian deity means that I am now at least saying something meaningful.
So what is it that is so important to you that you need to believe that Jews are in some sense better? I am even willing to rephrase that and ask you what is so important to about Jewish distinctiveness that you are willing to sell the farm over it. The eschatological element in your thought seems to be a side issue.
On the issue of organ donations, I have heard Haredim make the claim that Jews are physically a distinct species of being. This goes to such an extent that you cannot rely on scientific studies of gentile bodies to make assumptions about Jews. If we follow this logic than one would not be able to receive an organ from a gentile. This would have us going way beyond the made up Hollywood question of pig valves.
it is the core issue. I think that before relating to the abstract of G-d we need to deal with the abstract-connected to the concrete within ourselves.
IMO a Jew who lacks a sense of otherness, call it Qedusha, call it chosen-ness call it a calling or sense of mission to help usher in a Messianic era of Tikun Olam will never rise to the task. It's hard enough to rise to the task with this awareness.
Lose this sense of mission and one becomes a toishav in this world instead of the ger we are meant to be. As the black experience in the USA has been described we're meant to be in it but not of it.
I think you pre-judge me as a goy-hating snob. Have you read my recent posts on Dr. Antoine and the Shabbos Shuva drasha I heard?
re: organ donation:
Unless it says so in Igros Moshe or Tzitz Eliezer I wouldn't worry. This is the stuff of piskei halakha not urban legends.
Bray
I did read your post on Dr. Antoine. Forgive me but, in the sum of everything, you end up sounding as if you are trying to play a game of “some of my best friends are gentiles.” One can acknowledge the individual goodness of one non-Jew while still condemning non-Jews as a whole.
I do not believe that Jews are intrinsically different from non-Jews. The only thing we have going for us is that we have a Torah, which we have not done anything particular to deserve in the first place.
we didn't but our patriarchs and matriarchs did.
None of my friends are gentile. That's nit what l'rayakha means.
The Torah is quite specific about not thinking we are so great because God chose us, we are not. We have the patriarchs going for us that is it. So we should hear nothing about how wonderful Jew are. Instead we should hear how Jews fail to live up to their ancestors. I suggest you read Yermiyahu chapter 2, particularly beyond the part that most people sing. The prophets were not into saying how wonderful Israel was, why should I assume that things are really better that I should speak better of them. And to play the apologetic game of saying that the Israelites were really wonderful, but the prophets liked to focus on Israel’s minor flaws is to do an injustice to the words of the prophets.
I am willing to leave it as an open interpretive question how to understand “love thy neighbor,” but where do you get the idea that the verse is telling you not to have gentile friends. Personally I find having gentile friends to be a useful intellectual check. If am saying something that I would get me clunked over the head for saying it in front of them then I probably should not be saying it.
In response to BoF many see the events of the gathering of exiles and return to EY, the Holocaust, the creation of the State of Israel and the phenomenal growth of Orthodoxy as signs that mashiach is near; some use the language that these events are aschalta deguala.
However phrased much depends on how things go in the coming century. If the Diaspora is destroyed by intermarriage, if Israel's very existence is threatened in a serious way to a point where Jews begin to flee, then the reading will be different.
My minimalist point was that the recent events have an apocalyptic feel, there is a sense that a great battle is in our future,the West is beginning to lose power to Islam and somehow the outcome of these struggles will bring a deeper understanding of how we as a people can undergo our greatest destruction and rebirth in a period of a few years.
I believe when Jews had this sense of awe about Israel's miraculous creation, when they viscerally felt the tragedy of the Holocaust they stayed together and didn't yield to assimilation. You see this clearly in Canada where Jews are generally behind the US by one to two generations. Assimilation rates are far lower.
So here is my third belief: Just as we now see WW1 was just the beginning of a larger war that culminated in WW2, despite an interlude of 20 years, the Holocaust remains an unfinished event in Jewish life, and the final act will be forthcoming in the century ahead.
EJ
A quote from the Malbim in Yichezkal chilling like your prediction.
והפעם הגי התבאר בזכריה(סי' י״ד), וגוג וק א ק המגונ לא ידענו עתה מי הם רק
כפי המבואר שהוא נשיא משך ותובל הם מבני יסת ואינם נמוליס , והס יתעוררו באחרית הימימ
אחר שיתיישבו ישראל באק ישראל וישבו בשלוה , לכא עליהם , וזה יהיה ע״י התעוררות מעם
ה׳ , וז״ש
It pasted so badly let me give the URL
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=39980&st=&pgnum=212
BTW the reference to to a set of 7 7000 that we discussed on NB is actually a Rikanti on Behar - a long discussion there- and a passing reference in Rabeinu Bchai
There is some previous discusion as well last paragraph
http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=21617&st=&pgnum=223
Midwest
So we should hear nothing about how wonderful Jew are. Instead we should hear how Jews fail to live up to their ancestors.
If we ourselves are not wonderful why be criticized for not living up to our ancestors? Do we critcize Ted Williams children for not excelling @ baseball? Of course not, because they did not inherit his talent. Jews OTOH inherited Qedushas Yisrael from the Avos.
The prophets were not into saying how wonderful Israel was, why should I assume that things are really better that I should speak better of them.
The prophets were messengers of
G-d to chastise Israel. You OTOH have a mandate from the G-d of Israel of b'tzedek tishpot ameesekha which goes even more for a Tzibur or the nation as a whole. Excuse me but this whole line of argumentation points to a presupposition of your occupation of the moral highground where YOU occupy the role of the Biblical prophets thundering for social justice and contemporary Jews play the role of the coevals of Jeremiah and Isaiah. IMO A very prusumptuous stance on your part .
And to play the apologetic game of saying that the Israelites were really wonderful, but the prophets liked to focus on Israel’s minor flaws is to do an injustice to the words of the prophets.
I don't believe they are necessarrily wonderful. I beleive that they are incredibly powerful and often "don't know their own strength." For Jews there are NO "minor" flaws. Everything they play at is for the highest stakes imaginable.
Personally I find having gentile friends to be a useful intellectual check.
BeeZee three questions:
1. Presuming that you still make or answer amen to the brakha, what are you thinking when you say שלא עשני גוי?
2.Presuming that you still make Havdala on Saturday nights or answer amen to the brakha of Havdala, what are you thinking when you say המבדיל...בין ישראל לעמים?
3. Would you interdate or intermarry? And if you answer "no" please explain why not?
EJ
thanks for elaborating however WADR your answer adresses the "what" of Ratzon HaShem is and what scenario the end of days will actually be. But, to my reading , doesn't begin to touch the "why" of K'lal Yisrael.
remember you first wrote:
This hisgalus ratzon hashem of why we are here has increased dramatically in the last century,
Actually there are 2 why questions...why are there Jews at all? Why haven't they disappeared, and what is the value, moral or othrwise, in their determination to hold on, sometimes with their bare fingernails, until the end.And why have so many sudenly lost their will to live their life as a Jew.
My point was that the answer changes as the heroic story of the Jews develops. At the end of history we will be looking backward and it will be a lot clearer. The Zionists seem to feel the next chapter is that of a player in the epic battle between jihad with a Muslim face and oil as the principle weapon and the West with a Christian face backed by the forces of capital and technology. Why Hashem might want the Jewish people to get involved in a game of nuclear chiken with a bunch of cave dweller nomads or Shite meshgoyim is beyond me.
The second queastion is why be an Orthoodox Jew? Difficult as this may be for you to accept, this is a seperate issue with many good and not so good answers. In fact, unlike the first question, it is discussed directly and indirectly on the Jewish blogs almost daily.
I think the issue of havdalah is best framed as part of a discussion what is it to be a Jew uberhaupt, and not as a consequence of ideas about kedusha, perishus, havdalah and the metaphysics of neshamas. But that's me.
I hold the answer to what is the point of being a Jew at this stage of our history is intimately connected to galus, the Diaspora and our living as a minority, frequently despised within the Christian and Muslim worlds. The progroms and tzurus and especially the Holocaust was not an opening act for the creation of the State of Israel.
I don't get it. Isn't "born/chosen to suffer" and krekhtzing "Oy 'siz shver tzi zain ah yid" what has chased the multitudes away?
Bray
I do not play the role of the biblical prophet. I lack that ability to criticize. But if I cannot play the role of critic I am certainly not going to turn around a play cheerleader. I do believe in judging Jews favorably. Again that does not mean saying that Jews are wonderful.
I see gentiles as living in a halachic state of nature, which has various advantages and disadvantages. While one gains by being Jewish one has to accept that there is a spiritual price to pay. There are things of spiritual value that now one cannot pursue or at least not pursue as efficiently as one otherwise could. One is supposed to bless God for the good, the bad and, one assumes, the indifferent. Just as we acknowledge God’s will in making men and woman so to do we acknowledge making Jews and gentiles, both of which play a role in God’s unfolding plan.
I would not date someone who is not Jewish, because I wish to specifically build a Jewish home and raise Jewish children. This is the way in which I choose to serve God. I freely acknowledge that there are gentile woman who are holier and more righteous than I am and that on the contrary it would be step down for them to marry me.
I would also not marry a woman who believed in your brand of Jewish supremacy. That is not the home I wish to build.
You CHOSE Judaism? What a joke! Your no ger Tzedek. You are playing mind games with yourself. You too recognize that you "choose" to pay homage to the privelege /accident of your birth.
Hey...you are not stuck being a Jew. just go shmad zikh up and serve G-d in one of those holier non-Jewish ways . Millions of other born Jews have.
Your assumption of blessing g-d for the "indifferent" is without Halakhic or Hashqafic basis. For a Jew with a sense of chosen-ness there is NO indifference in either the way we relate to G-d or in the way that G-d relates to us.
Your understanding of the brakha of shelo ahsahni goy as being a blessing over the indifferent is torturing the text especially when taken in context. Is the blessing for not having made me a slave similarly a blessing for a "really-makes-no-difference-difference"? Do your left-leaning non-Jewish-Supremacists friends of the female persuasion have so sanguine an attitude towrds the harmless, inoffensive blessing that you presunably make for "not having been created a woman"?
Why not be true to your hashqafa and stop making these brakhos. Ask your LOR if making them with the kavanah you enunciated in your last comment is not a brakha l'vatalah.
Bray
Yes I have chosen to be Jewish and every day I make the choice to be Jewish. Blessing God for not making me a gentile is one way of articulating that choice. I may believe that there are gentiles who are better and more righteous than me. This does not mean that I would be a better or more righteous person if I were to leave Judaism for some other option. I choose to take the accident of my birth and turn it into something godly. That is the essence of God’s interaction with the world. He allows us to take the mundane accidents of our lives and turn them into vessels for the divine.
Most Orthodox feminists, who maintain the traditional bracha, follow a similar track to what I have laid out.
Being born Jewsih is a mundane accident? (*EYE ROLL*) If so why not wait until a born Jewish male is 25 or so and only then, with advice and consent, allow him to make a free choice decision as to whether h'ed like to sanctify the mundane accident of his birth by entering the covenant of Abraham?
As for Ortho Feminists they are generally among the most Havdala-Oblivious Jewesses on G-d' green earth.
This does not mean that I would be a better or more righteous person if I were to leave Judaism for some other option.
Hey... don't knock it till you've tried it. How much comparitive religion have you studied? Why or why not?
meilah me...the Jewish Supremacist, I'm convinced that my religion/ethnicity is not only different but the best, nay the truth. But for egalitarian you????
Let 100 flowers bloom...let a thousnad schools of thought contend...
I think there is something to be born into the system and be raised into it. With Judaism it sometimes helps if you are just thrown into things.
Considering how you knock Orthodox feminists, how many do you actually know?
Yes I do study comparative religions. A major part of what I do in studying medieval and early modern Judaism is to study Christianity and to some extent Islam. You should listen to what the Jewish history class I teach sounds like. You pick up a fair amount of Christian theology on the side.
RE Ortho Feminists: mea culpa...I know them like I know you or, for that matter as you know me or, l'havdil, like you know Maimonides,Aquinas Calvin, Luther or Erasmus...by their/our writings.
Question: per your iqrei hadat does it matter at all to HaShem that you were born to your parents or whether or not you saty Jewsih or decide to convert to another religion?
I have a fairly strong Kantian streak in me so I am more concerned with intention than results. I assume that God is far more interested in us making our decisions for the right reasons than the actual decisions themselves. Better that I be a monotheist rationalist ethical Christian than a Jew, who is simply trying to please his parents and playing Pascal’s wager in the hope of getting into heaven.
The principles of my faith have to do with being Jewish and running a Jewish religion. They do not deal with the larger question of what is the right way to serve God.
Still need to type it out....
please do
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