Western Civilisation and Amidah ...

A professor DiLorenzo is on youtube giving a long lecture with the heading: Why Socialists Want to Destroy Western Civilization and Christianity.*

As he is giving it on Mises, I think there is one connection he's not analysing. The weekday Amidah or Shemoneh Esrei.

Restore our judges as in former times, and our counsellors as of yore; remove from us sorrow and sighing, and reign over us, You alone, O L-rd, with kindness and compassion, with righteousness and justice. Blessed are You L-rd, King who loves righteousness and justice. (During the Ten Days of Penitence substitute with: the King of judgment.)

Let there be no hope for informers, and may all the heretics and all the wicked instantly perish; may all the enemies of Your people be speedily extirpated; and may You swiftly uproot, break, crush and subdue the reign of wickedness speedily in our days. Blessed are You L-rd, who crushes enemies and subdues the wicked.

Translation by Chabad.**

Now, there may be Jews who do not identify the "reign of wickedness" with Western Civilisation as it has traditionally been. I don't see Ben Shapiro lashing out against Catholics for being this "reign of wickedness" ... but this does not resume all of the historic relations. I think lots of Jews through the ages have indeed identified for instance the Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella or the France of St. Lewis IX with this reign of wickedness.

A time c. ten years ago, or earlier maybe, a Jew who sometimes supported me by buying me coffees (much needed) was more and more in conversations with other people making himself suspect of being a psychologist. In one of the conversations, those he had with others within my hearing, a thing which started to make me avoid him, or even angrily suspect he could be viewing me as in need of that kind of service, he asked the other if the Catholic Church could dis-canonise ("décanoniser") King Lewis IX. You know, that horrible Antisemite who had expelled all of the Jews of France.

Well, it turns out this was perhaps not the story. He expelled two groups of non-French, not ethnically French, usurers. The Jews and the Lombards. As to the French usurers, he had more control over them and made them comply with French laws, some of them newly edicted by himself to severely curb the practise. So, he didn't expel all of the Jews, he expelled the Jews who were usurers. I was thinking less respectfully of a man who had been certainly kind to me, but who obviously didn't like my religion. I'm Catholic, you see.

But there is also another side to this connection. "Restore our judges as in former times" ...

Who is the Sanhedrin today?

The Sanhedrin no longer exists, so no, there are no members today. All the people who were members died many centuries ago, so there are no “former Sanhedrin members” alive today. Your question is like asking if there are any members of the ancient Roman Senate alive today. No, they're all long since dead. 25 sep. 2019

I did not find that exact question on quora, but the answer still showed. A related one is Are there any living members of the Sanhedrin today? If yes, how many?

The point is, this quote might be a call to God to restore the Sanhedrin. Which as Christians we would want to avoid.

But beware of men. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues
[Matthew 10:17]

"Councils" here being, I pretty much suspect, "sanhedrins" ... look at Luke 22:66, English and Lithuanian:

And as soon as it was day, the ancients of the people, and the chief priests and scribes, came together; and they brought him into their council, saying: If thou be the Christ, tell us.
Rytui išaušus, susirinko tautos vyresnieji, aukštieji kunigai ir Rašto žinovai. Jie atvedė Jėzų į savo sinedrioną ir sakė:

Well, there seem, according to my memory of what Professor Sigutė Radzievičienė said in class, to exist translations where instead of sinedrioną, this is called "valstybė" ... my bad memory, that means "state", I meant taryba. Yes, my Lithuanian is very rusty. I haven't been exposed to Lithuanian on a daily basis since 2003, and I hadn't acquired even much of conversational level. My memories of facts I learned is obviously more vivid.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics***
confer Sovietų Sąjunga arba Tarybų Sąjunga, formaliai Sovietų Socialistinių Respublikų Sąjunga (SSRS) – valstybė Rytų Europoje ir Azijoje, gyvavusi nuo 1922 m. gruodžio 30 d. iki 1991 m. gruodžio 25 d. (šią dieną atsistatydino Sovietų Sąjungos Prezidentas Michailas Gorbačiovas).***

There is actually a better way of testing whether the Soviets were meant to supplement this want in Judaism.

I'll take the Serbian article° about the Sanhedrin:

Sanhedrin ili Sinedrion (hebr. סַנְהֶדְרִין; grč. συνέδριον, synedrion — „sjediti zajedno“ odnosno „skupština“ ili „savjet“) bila je skupština sastavljena od dvadeset tri sudije imenovane za svaki grad u biblijskoj Zemlji Izrael.

Did you note "ili savjet"? Exactly.

Now, I'm not saying all Orthodox Jews support Marxism. That's not true. But I am saying Marxism has roots in Jewish anti-occidentalism and Jewish Messianism. No doubt heterodox roots, but nevertheless roots.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Elisabeth of Marburg°°
19.XI.2024

In oppido Marpurgi, in Germania, depositio sanctae Elisabeth Viduae, Regis Hungarorum Andreae filiae, ex tertio Ordine sancti Francisci, quae, pietatis operibus assidue intenta, miraculis clara migravit ad Dominum.

* Why Socialists Want to Destroy Western Civilization and Christianity | Prof. DiLorenzo
PhilosophyInsights | 2 April. 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5fq2j6Z9ro

**Translation of the Weekday Amidah
Published by Kehot Publication Society
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/867674/jewish/Translation.htm

*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
confer
https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovietų_Sąjunga

° https://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin

°° I always forget which St. Elisabeth is "St. Elisabeth of Hungary" — this princess of Hungary or a Queen of Hungary.