On My Mind

Please even here we take sides. One on side it’s not all about Torah torah torah and on the other does negate Torah by bringing up “what about the Jew who learns all day but doesnt do basic mensh stuff on and on”.

What it is about is respecting and participating on both ends. Learn Torah, tradition, kashrut, and grow religiously,  don’t get turned off by the minority who are intolerant and at the same time love one another, spew love, understanding, look at what’s good inside each Jew and don’t lay “Torah guilt and belittling” because they haven’t found the path like you to understand and love Shabbat or learning Torah. Love and respect is the only way they can one day see the beauty and reason. Enough is enough on both sides.

Let God fix the world, all you need do is what the Torah says to do. Anyone attending a reform “temple” is not observant at all. Especially if they drive there on Shabbos. The other stuff just makes you a nice person, not an observant Jew. At least this and at least that doesn’t count for squat.

It’s not our job to make the world a better place. Tikun olam is some madeup excuse for not putton tefillin and keeping Shabbos.

Excellent post and a much needed reminder ... thanks, Phil.

I can think of few things that are greater “turn offs” to today’s Jewish teens and young adults—many of whom were raised in “observant” homes—than the constant infighting in our community and the attempts on the part of some to delegitimize those whose sincerely-held Jewish paths are divergent from their own.

What about the flip side?  If you are nice to your fellow and support The Associated and “make the world a better place” but don’t spend any time studying Torah, is that OK?  There needs to be a balance.  Torah is part of Judaism.  Derech Eretz Kadma LaTorah but the Torah still has to be there.

Great post, Phil!  If a person is a Torah scholar and studies 3 hours a day and is not nice to his fellow, that all that studying and knowledge is a waste.  Your level of commitment to religion is a personal matter, but “do you make the world a better place?”