Comments on: Conservative Judaism

By: FEli

FEli — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:37:05 +0000

Hi ! Pessover sameaj ! jag Pesaj sameaj to old of us !
I want to say something in spanish for the people tooking in this langue and beacause my inglish is bad !

Feliz Pesaj casher ve sameaj ! y a todos los judios estan invitados a ver y participar de Arca juive franco-espagniole ! que funcionara en Pesaj con cuenta gotas ! sitio msn grupos
Shalom
groups.msn.com...

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 15:05:16 +0000

Being raised in Mississippi as a Jew, you had basically 2 choices – Reform, or Non-Practicing. After moving away from there to a larger Jewish community, I realized that the “Reform” of the larger community was too radical for me (I always insisted that my son cover his head while in the synagogue, the “Rabbi” didn’t even do that, several parents brought HAM to the end of year picnic, etc). Since I didn’t know anyone at the Orthodox Shul – all of my older relatives had passed – I went to the Conservative one. Now, I keep Kosher and am Shabbos observant. Although I’m not “Orthodox” ( a really horrible term if you think about it – I would prefer Traditional), in the “Orthodox” sense of the word, I have come a long way. Do I find myself growing in my Judaism? Yes. Do I typically find the “Orthodox” community unwelcoming? Unfortunately, yes. When you try to use the Cookie Cutter all or nothing comments, it really reinforces, at least in my mind, that it really doesn’t matter how much I’ve grown if I’m still considered “Conservative. I think, in my heart, that less time should be spent figuring out what our differences are. I think a lot more time should be spent, especially by the “Orthodox” community, as they are the most traditional, to helping us who know and understand less, but want to, to learn, instead of trying to outcast us more. I took my children to Disney this summer, and ran into an “Orthodox” family. I greeted them with a hearty “Shalom Ya’ll” and even directed them to where I knew they could get a kosher meal, and they STILL looked at me like a leper. Aren’t we all supposed to be a part of a huge mishpacha? A Shame that it seems as if we are not.

By: invisible_hand

invisible_hand — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 08:07:17 +0000

zionist occupier –
you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.

By: Jewlicious » Blog Archive » The Conservative Movement Punts on Gay Rabbis

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 12:32:08 +0000

[...] In other words, Conservatives believe in preserving tradition and its essence or reasoning, but within the context of this tradition, are willing, when necessary, to effect changes. (More info about Conservative philosophy can be found on this, our old post). [...]

By: Zionist Occupier

Zionist Occupier — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 06:13:34 +0000

(continuation of above, since the post cut off my paragraphs), Qur’an, Vedas, Kitabi-Aqdas, and even Moby Dick are equally sacred as the Torah. Then what is the problem with a Jew following any of those books or converting out of Judaism, if all are equal?
“The term skirts the divisive and futile question of origins, the fetid swamp of heresy. The sense of individual obligation, of being commanded, does not derive from divine authorship, but communal consent. The Written Torah, no less than the Oral Torah, reverberates with the divine-human encounter, with “a minimum of revelation and a maximum of interpretation.”
How long are you going to insult the Jewish intelligence with your non-sensical comments? Being commanded comes from communal consent, not from G-D telling you, “Do this, don’t do that”? Why would I listen to a community, why should I take the opinion of men? Why should I submit my life, and all of my faculties to something written by some putz (according to “Biblical scholarship”) 2100 yrs. ago, and even die for it, if it is not G-D’s Work? What if the communal consent all of a sudden vanishes, then what? We abandon Torah? Then why observe Torah in the first place if it’s something that can be voted in or out? It’s a useless man-made document. And what if, the Christian right all of a sudden decides to pose us with the age-old decision, Christ or the sword.If your line of thinking is to be accepted, I say we all go “prayse jaysus”, instead of dying for something which is, afterall, equal to the NT, and not holier. I wouldn’t want to die, or live by, something written by men, and as soon as they change their mind can be thrown out of the window.

By: Zionist Occupier

Zionist Occupier — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:59:39 +0000

“The Torah is the foundation text of Judaism, the apex of an inverted pyramid of infinite commentary, not because it is divine, but because it is sacred, that is, adopted by the Jewish people as its spiritual font.”
Now that drivel is truly insulting to one’s intelligence. How can you insult the Jewish intellect so much? How can something be scared if it is not of Divine origin? According to that line of thinking, if I love a piece of literature so much, then it is sacred, and that leads to the conclusion that tne NT

By: Zionist Occupier

Zionist Occupier — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:42:49 +0000

Mr. The Middle, I am a Religious Zionist Jew, and I have also returned from a very beautiful synagogue service with many families. The difference? Our services actually have meaning because we believe there is truth behind them, and they are mandated by the Almighty HASHEM. Our services give our children reason to stay Jewish, while yours strike the Jewish youth as hypocrisy. Why fast if G-D didn’t command it? Why come to synagogue if it wasn’t mandated by a Supreme Being? What reason is there for me to follow a document full of errors,anachronisms, and historical/archeological discrepancies? That is what you teach them, is it not? And trust me, Jewish kids aren’t that easily stupid to be duped.They smell hypocrisy a million miles away, and sadly enough it’s not the hypocrisy they abandon most of the time, it’s Judaism, religion, G-D. Why? Because they were raised to believe that G-D changes His Will according to what you and I want, not the other way around. That what He mandated wasn’t really revealed, but compiled,changed,edited, etc. And we wonder why we have a Jewish spiritual crisis? That is why most youth, disheartened with the emptiness and hollow shell of the Hebrew day school are often turning to Orthodoxy. Either that or they are completely breaking off and becoming Goyim.

By: Zionist Occupier

Zionist Occupier — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:34:29 +0000

I would like for once one of the non-Orthodox authroity to be frigging honest and say what he or she means. What you’re talking about is not adaptation of Halacha, but changin it or discarding many parts of it completely so you can be comfortable, or so you can bend Torah and religion to conform with the bias of an individual who might be an athiest out to disprove the Bible. Much arechology is subjective at best. The very fact that the “masorti” movement discards the idea of the Revelation at Sinai shows that they hold nothing to be sacred enough not to discard. How far is G-D going to adapt to man? to the extent where one day killing is ok, so we bend halacha to allow that? And btw, Torah from Sinai is by no means a modern idea, it is the foundation of Judaism. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch and JD Salavechek proved that Ortodoxy is completey compatible with modern life. But breaking shabbat, allowing the consumption of non-kosher foods,marrying non-Jews, all of this is anti-halacha and is not adaptation of halacha to the modern world, but changing it completely. And one more thing, Conservatives do not know a damned thing about the Talmud, and many do not even recognize it’s authority. You people are out to bend Torah or discard it based on findings that might be subjective, biased, incomplete or inaccurate, like “Rabbi” David Wolpe who said that the Exodus never happened. How is this adapting Halacha or Torah?! This is flat out discarding it! Just be honest and stop beating around the bush!

By: themiddle

themiddle — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 05:06:28 +0000

CactusJack911, you’ve proven to us over the last few weeks that you’re a horse with blinders on. No need to keep hammering it home. Really.

TheMiddle,
Who has just returned from a beautiful Ne’ilah service at a Conservative synagogue filled with lots of families and their children.

By: CactusJack911

CactusJack911 — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 03:48:35 +0000

What is all the babble on this discussion anyway?

Conservative Judaism isn’t Authentic Judaism. Anyone that says it is obviously has never had any intelligent Torah teachers or any serious study. Have fun boasting your high intermarriage rate and scarfing down your trife!

Stop reading your comic books and start trying to realize why it isn’t.

To the guy who said this is all about “politics”. You apparently have no clue what you’re ranting on about–how’s your girlfriend Bridgette doing?