phil > “Trauma” is the code word
I agree that words could have been used better. Still, several last centuries – haskala, WW1, communism, nazis, transplant to US and Israel – would probably break any other community other than us, tough Ashkenazim, already prepared by crusades, ghettos, hmelnitsky, cantons, pogroms … But any survival is accompanied by PTSD, where T stands for Trauma and we would be better off understanding this experience.
> I would not take “toichacha” from Sephardic
“the prisoner cannot free himself” re:R Yohanan pulling a colleague out of sickness but not himself.
People from outside can sometimes help us see what we are not seeing.
> , in particular Ashkenazim, are so varied, it is stupid to lump everyone into one group
yes, but we all are amazingly similar genetically (coming from ~ 100 men in middle ages), and are united by our love of fighting words, as we are amply demonstrating here.