Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxj.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!ihnp4!ihuxj!gek From: gek@ihuxj.UUCP (Glenn Kapetansky) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Fence around the Torah Message-ID: <414@ihuxj.UUCP> Date: Tue, 28-Feb-84 14:47:07 EST Article-I.D.: ihuxj.414 Posted: Tue Feb 28 14:47:07 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 29-Feb-84 14:13:33 EST Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 44 I've been following this group, and like the discussions I see. But lest the group be dominated by a relatively few names, I thought I'd stick in my oar. Specifically, I want to add to what Andy Tannenbaum has been saying about honesty in religious observance (is that a fair summation of >4 pages of prose, Andy?). It seems to me that Andy is trying to carefully state a valid point, and doing it well. If a Jew is so observant he climbs trees after birdnests (that's a mitzvah on the books with no known rational), that does not make him a good Jew per se. And if another Jew only goes to services on Yom Kippur, that does not make him a bad Jew. But a Jew who proudly ignores kashrut and shabbat (for instance) yet loudly declaims that he REPRESENTS Judaism, THAT is very bad press! Y'know, I suspect that some of the more picayune laws on the books were for Jews whose observance are already on a very high plane; since normal observance would be force of habit for them, such Jews need ever stricter rules just to remind them of the Torah. So I, a low-life, don't follow all the mitzvot in the Shulchan Aruch (compendium of European Jewish custom and law). But at least I don't loudly proclaim I observe all the laws which are somehow "applicable" to me. Here, I'll even admit it: I DON'T FOLLOW ALL THE RULES, AND MAYBE I SHOULD. I have no respect for those who change the rules of a game just to suit themselves. You want to play the game, you play it by the rules (or at least admit that you're no longer playing the same game). Now I have a question for all of youse (I'm still trying to learn the Chicago accent) who by now feel irritated by my "high-horse attitude". Have you TRIED living by all those "stupid", "picayune", "outmoded" laws?? Do you even KNOW more than a few?? If not, how can you, a rational member of intelligensia, reject what you don't know or haven't tried and still face yourself in the mirror?! (I know, that's more than A question...). This is not a smug attitude; I asked myself those questions several years ago, and in all honesty I couldn't answer the last. So I set out to learn AND TO TRY LIVING Judaism according to the rules, and y'know what? I still am, and I like it and myself (I dare any of you to call me a holy roller! I'm still the same wild scumbag I always was, I'm just more honest now). Glenn Kapetansky BTL (...ihnp4!)ihuxj!gek