How much should we tolerate from people? Where do you draw the line?
Joshua ben Joseph is often considered the epitome of tolerance yet he did and said some things that would be considered politically incorrect and possibly illegal. He walked into a public place of worship and knocked over all the tables and then took a whip and drove all the animals out.
In our society that would amount to trespassing, disturbing the peace and damaging private property. The SPCA would charge him with cruelty to animals. What gave him the right to do that? Wasn’t he being intolerant and inconsiderate of others’ rights and property?
During his last sermon at the synagogue in Jerusalem, he slammed the religious leaders with highly inflammatory language. He called them “white washed tombs” “hypocrites” and they were full of “dead men’s bones.” Sounds kind of arrogant doesn’t it? Who did he think he was talking to the rabbis like that?
There’s a lot of recent discussion in the media about people from other countries wanting to immigrate to the west. Should we tolerate their cultural behavior or expect them to assimilate to our culture? Should we even let them into our nations because they might bring all their problems with them?
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