Haredi Orthodoxy & Pharassies or we don't have the Magestrium in Judaism

Hi All, 

This is something I posted on my favourite Jewish blog, Dovbear,  but I've added to it. This is in reaction to this ludicrous post, on a site called  'Cross Currents', what is in effect a Haredi (that is strict Ultra Orthodox)  propaganda site. It constantly pisses me off, for a variety of reasons.So I'm having a rant about it. I can't do this all the time as I'd be spending every day on a rant. So I have to be selective here .

OK, well here is my view, won't be popular, but I don't care, 'cause you're gonna bloody well hear it anyways -

I'm not going to accept that a sect of Judaism- because that is exactly what Haredi Judaism is - which was created less that 200 years ago and then claims itself to be the one true Orthodox path, has any right to dictate to the rest of us, what we should and shouldn't believe or follow. I'm a Jew. I love Orthodoxy, but I also love the rest of Judaism in all its rich tapestry.

I try to follow the Mitzvot as best as I can. But I like our faith because it gives a wide breathing space for varying views and schools of thought. There is no way I would follow someone just because they said so. Who do these guys think they are, Jesus -y? Oy, no, no no!The Haredi gedolim & certainly not Rabbis are not a Jewish Magestrium a la the Catholic Church. Judaism does not work like this, we don't have Popes and Cardinals or Apostolic succession; yes we used to have a Sanhedrin, but the Haredi  under their Gadols Rabbis are not a new Sanhedrin, whatever they may think. Judaism requires us to debate, to think, to reason, to do. Otherwise we simply wouldn't study the Torah at all, but leave it to the Priestly caste...No, they are wise men with gandolf like beards, we can listen to them, but what fool - and you are a fool- if U slavishly following a religion whose holy men think that their adherents should just go along to get along , even though they, as is argued in the cross currents  article  " may even be wrong by all reason and logic".

Hello? Who is using the family brain cell here? 

Since when did being an mindless automaton become authentic Judaism?

U know the big, big problem with the likes of Cross Currents is that it is 'exhibit A' of those who argue against Judaism. It reeks of the Christian critique (a view once held by my non Jewish housemates) that Jews follow a bunch of impossible to fulfil rules, that Torah is a burden, not something cool, that we are all heartless 'pharassies', who place the letter of the Torah, above the spirit of the Torah. That we are all like Shammai, not like Hillel or in a Christian context Saul and not Paul . 

I see that the latest post on Cross Currents bemoans how the current Israeli government has 'forced' people to stop studying Torah to get a job(!??). Welcome to the real world guys. Most of us have to go to work to pay a mortgage (in my case me and 4 others), the bills, the taxes and if we are lucky we get a bit left over. So sorry, but you should bloody well work to put bread on the table & to support those who genuinely are unable to work.

That is authentic Judaism. So sorry, but I'll not bend the knee to a 200 year old sect, as if it were the only, real and true traditional or Orthodox Judaism .

Rant over... I feel better (:

Discussing Jewish Orthodoxy

Hi All,

I'm currently writing a book about Jewish Orthodoxy, the theme of which is that Orthodoxy in particular  and Judaism in general should be broad and deep, not narrow and shallow ( a phrase I've pinched from someone else- Hi David!).

Here are some of my potted thoughts, which I'll probably make into chapters, that I want to include (along with other stuff) in the book: 

Sephardi Orthodoxy?

We never went through a 'reformation' in the same sense as our Aszkenazi brothers and sisters, which makes us by default 'Orthodox', but in a broader sense. What does this mean?

The Torah and Hebrew Bible as divine truth

You see for me, my truth is the Hebrew Bible, especially the first 5 books, the Torah as well as the Oral Torah and documented in the Mishna & later the Talmud. So I would have no problem in echoing our Rabbis in saying "This, The Torah of Moses, shall not be abrogated, nor shall there be any other Torah from G-d save it". In other words I believe that the Torah was divine and given by G-d (although this does not mean one is turned into a fundamentalist fanatic, nor does it mean that one has to take everything in the Torah as literal).

I am aware of the Biblical criticism called the 'documentary hypothesis', but I cannot accept this, because it would be a denial of the divine origins of my Bible. I also know that I cannot possibly prove that my religion and her deity is objective fact, despite what I believe in my own head about it. But this does not bother me, because I make that leap of faith. It is not necessarily to show faith as a fact, because that is what faith is all about & more importantly IMHO is about how to live well, by attempting to follow the Mitzvot. 

The Spirit, not the letter of the law 

I guess where I differ from the more Ultra Orthodox or Haredi position is that I don't see Judaism as a set of overtly legalistic or dogmatic set of rules which have to be followed to the letter. I believe that whilst the Oral and Written Torah is divine, along with the rest of the Hebrew Bible, it does not stop us from being able to interpret Halakha via lenient rulings and interpretations. To me the spirit, not the letter of the law, is most important .I see in my [Sephardi] tradition, this is about being tolerant of various levels of observance, which places an emphasis on community spirit and family ties, over fanatical dogmatism.

Besides which, I'd be a big hypocrite if I said I kept all of the Mitzvot, as tradition interprets, because there is one (being gay) that I am unable to fulfill (“oness rahmana patrei”), so I don't believe that people should turn the Torah into a hammer to beat people down about their lack of observance, but rather to see we are all Jews, who stumble and fall, so we should be encouraging each other to follow the Torah & therefore live a good and ethical life, a Jewish life, whatever tradition we come from, as best we are able .

Competing truths and spreading 'the word' (Christian Evangelism) 

I don't have a problem with Evangelism. We now live in a free society of competing opinions, beliefs, religions and ideologies. I understand the Christian impulse to Evangelise - Matthew 28, vs 16 to 20, however, this also means that there will be a counterpoise to the Evangelism, be it from the old school Evangelicals, the Messianic Jews, Jews for Jesus or the Mormons (these being the groups who seem to do the most Evangelism). The funny thing is that, whenever these groups undertake such activities, it seems to backfire, e.g. my niece at university has had fierce debates with the Christian Union, after one of their missionary weeks and it only strengthened her belief.

Being an 'Ortho-Dyke'

Evangelical /or Haredi (take ur pick) : You're gay, how can you be Orthodox without twisting the word of God's truth? 

Me :Yeah, I'm gay. So what? 

Evangelical/or Haredi (take ur pick) : What about Leviticus and all that ?

Me : OK, well you see...

Israel & Zionism

I am a staunch support of Israel and a Zionist. I also want to see peace with Israel's  neighbours and a just settlement for the Palestinian people. How to achieve this and what does Torah & Halakha tell us about how to achieve this?

 [more thoughts to follow]

What to do with Iraq?

I've been asked to provide a post or commentary on what is happening in Iraq [one snarky arsehole complained that I cared more about 3 Jews, than I do about half a million Christians & the rest of the Iraqi population -utter bollocks!- because I have been praying & fasting  earnestly for both situations, since Saturday, going through the Psalms ]. Whilst I want to steer this blog toward matters more spiritual, than political, I agree it an important event which needs an airing.

So here goes....

OK, so after thinking this through overnight,as I see things -

1. The Sunni and Shia hate each others guts and are going through a bloody civil war across the middle east, worse possibly than anything Europe ever saw during the height of the Reformation wars.

2. One camp is being led by Iran, the other Saudi Arabia.

3. The Christians of the region are caught between these two fires and are suffering terribly as a result.

4.Both sides are united in loathing for Israel and wanting to wipe her off the map.

5. No-one knows what to do about any of this.

So what does the west do? Is doing what Obama/Kerry & some GOP Senators are now saying- Carl can correct here, but I believe Lindsay Graham has said this as well- that there is a need to cooperate with Iran over the situation in Iraq. Isn't the danger there that the country will either fall under Iranian control or that the country will be divided along ethnic lines... which would upset NATO partner Turkey (re Kurds)...

What a bloody shambolic mess. What to do?

Having thought some more, we have several options -

1. Retake Iraq by force, occupy it and govern it as in the old mandate days, because we are responsible for this mess, after overthrowing Saddam.

2. Do nothing and possibly let Iran control Iraq as a puppet state.

3. Do nothing, watch the region go up in flames and quote Kissinger 'It is a pity they can't both loose' & deal with whoever comes up on top.

3. Co-operate with Iran and formally split Iraq into various states along ethnic and tribal lines

4. Do the same with Syria.

5. As part of 3 and 4, create a new Christian state for the regions Christians

6. Send in a gunboat   Nimitz Class Super Carrier battle group, with the Brits in toe and bomb and few tents to make it look like we are doing something.


None of these are good options or satisfactory, depending on where you are sitting. I haven't come to a conclusion about any of these options. It is clear some of them simply won't be considered by western policy makers, but that doesn't in itself make them invalid. Are there any others? What do readers think?

Also- we must NOT forget to submit this situation to G-d in our prayers.

A place of prayer for all nations

Further to my post below....

For the future, we should not, of course, allow these terrorist actions to go unpunished. In the same sense that the police wouldn't rest if criminals who did a bank job and held people hostage & escaped justice; then when they are caught then the law deals with them as it allows. Furthermore the police would also want to find the criminal mastermind behind this bank job and put them behind bars. Or to think of another analogy, in the same sense that the allies didn't just shoot the Fascist leadership at the end of WWII, but instead put them on trial. This is what I mean by not letting this go unpunished.

I'm not here to defend every single policy of Israel for the past 70 years, although it is worth noting that at present the Hamas (the criminal masterminds) leadership has been arrested. I can't see a problem with this myself. I'd also note that it has been Hamas and Hezbollah who have been targeted in recent campaigns. In terms of broader and long term policy, I think it is quite clear that Israel needs to take further steps to defend her own citizenary, perhaps by allowing those who've served in the IDF access to light arms and deputising these people to work alongside the regular IDF and security forces, that's just off the top of my head, but other suggestions are welcome.

I'd also opine that it is practically impossible for Israel to continue negociations whilst Hamas is part of this 'unity government'. This is a terror group whose stated aim, let us not forget, is to drive every last Jew to the Med sea and watch them drown and who would like nothing more than to establish a strict Islamic state in the whole of 'Palestine'.

Furthermore, this needs to be taken in the wider regional context. Look at the events of the past week in Iraq, with another terrorist group, who already control parts of Syria and Lebanon, who want to see the establishment of global caliphate, which claims it will do terrible things to the relatively moderate King of Jordan and his ( beautiful wife), which is even beyond the pale of Al Queada & the Mullahs of Iran, who when they are not waging war on fellow muslims are busy crucifying, stoning to death and slaughtering other minorities such as Christians and heaven help you in you are gay [NB- whilst I'm off on one, another thing I never get about the left is why they are apparently so supportive of such an illiberal ideology & do nothing but see Israel - a fellow liberal democratic state- as the wicked villain of the middle east- a sea of authoritarian, right wing, nationalist or Islamisict fundamentalist states & the whole 'support Palestine' meme].

In these circumstances Israel would be signing a death warrant or a suicide note, if it were to do what was being demanded of her in popular opinion. Funnily enough Israel has always, in principal, been prepared to sign up to a land for peace deal (obviously Jerusalem should remain in Israeli hands). The other side has not and has rebuked peace at every opportunity. There was a golden moment in the dying days of the Clinton Presidency. Who blew it?Not the Israelis.

I also wanted to put this post up in response to the (admittedly few) e-mails we've received and the many thoughts and prayers which our non-Jewish friends have communicated to us over the past 48 hours following the terrible kidnapping of three innocent children from the Jewish community in Israel. In the diaspora Jewish community and in the land of Israel, we have been praying that the 3 children who have been kidnapped by terrorists will be released unharmed, but I am grateful to those who stand by us, whenever events such as this occur and unfortunately they occur too many times in the Holy Land.

Teens kidnapped by terrorist organization -Thoughts and Prayers

Via the Jerusalem Post, 3 teenage students  have been kidnapped by a 'terror organisation' in Israel. May the  G-d of the children of Israel,  be with them, their families and may the community hold strong. May the security services find them unharmed & the perpetrators punished for this barbaric act.



UPDATE - 

Prayers lead  by Chief Rabbi David Lau at the Yeshiva of the Kidnapped boys -

&  a  Prayer rally at the Kotel earlier -

Worlds best gay city host to 16th pride event

Hi All

Tel Aviv celebrated its 16th Gay pride event in Tel Aviv  Friday 13th  June 2014; attended by over 100,000 people. As The Jerusalem Post said :

"It is no surprise that this event was so heavily attended; the only state in the Middle East that does not outlaw homosexuality, Israel, and specifically Tel Aviv, is host to a large and vibrant LGBTQ activist community."

So yet another reason why Israel is in total contrast to her neighbours as a beacon of liberty and liberal democracy.

From the pictures shown in the post, it looked really fab, with people having such a wonderful time (:

With people, in song, in food, with Him

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven" 

Ecclesiastes 3, 1 

Hi All,

I was thinking about this the other day ; why do I love Judaism so much? It isn't just a rejection of other religions or adherence to doctrines, dogmas, commandments, mitzovt, or even the community spirit which our faith has. To me it is also about how we celebrate our Judaism, the rhythm , the heartbeat of the year . Or to put it another way; with people, in song, in food, with Him.

First. We have our weekly Christmas (well without the pressies!) of our Shabbat celebrations, the centre of which are the 3 meals we have, which fuse together friends, family and worship of G-d as well as fine foods, wine and plenty of singing ! In fact it is a commandment that we enjoy the food and wine and the company of friends and family. This is the G-d I know and worship, not the stereotype deity of the 'Old Testament' that some Christians enjoy portraying her as being (e.g. distant, vengeful, wrathful and generally unpleasant). 

Second. We have numerous festivals throughout the year, which the centre of (aside from fast days such as Yom Kippur) is again family, friends and a festive meal, which also combines prayer,  liturgy & some form of Bible reading or study. What is even more unique I think is that, except for the times of fasting, we have special food for each festival; such as Cheesecake& Kahee for Shavout, Matzah for Passover, Latke&Sufganiyah for Hanukah, Hammantashen & Fazuelos for Purim etc .

So my question is, if you are Jewish, what makes your Judaism? If you are not Jewish, but have another faith, what makes this faith for you? If you don't believe anything, how do you celebrate the rhythm of the year and life? One final thought; please add your own Shabbat experiences, thoughts or issues below. Feel free also to leave a song, a food recipe or a word of Torah .