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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