Quote by Salukifan:
IMHO, Judaism did not survive for thousands of years by being a my way or the highway religion.
As far as not believing that a womans smicha is legitimate, well what can I say: Apparently, G-d thought enough of Miriam to make her a prophet and enough of Dvorah to make her a judge so Im not sure why having women as rabbis is such a stretch.
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Salukifan,
It's a terrible stretch -- a fatal one. And the survival of Judaism is exactly what is at issue.
Some time ago I posted regarding a study I read about in Moment magazine, which is hardly an Orthodox forum.
The study involved going back 100 years, finding 200 members in each of 5 groups of Jews: secular, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Chassidic.
They traced the descendents to see how many in each group were still Jewish. The results were to me, shocking, and confirmed my growing devotion and love for Orthodox and Chassidic (Chabad) Judaism.
These were the results of the study (from memory): of the secular Jews only 2-3 remained Jewish after 100 years; of the Reform 4-5; of the Conservative 7-8; of the Orthodox Jews the 200 had become 800 and of the Chassidim 200 had become 5000! All the rest in the first three groups -- fell away!
So Reform Judaism, or any other watered-down form, is hardly the way to Jewish survival.
And I have no problem at all with female Prophets or Judges. It's only fake rabbis that trouble me. But don't feel bad; I don't consider male Reform Rabbis legitimate, either.
The point is that conforming Judaism (or any other religion including Christianity) to modern times -- that is tearing out the core beliefs to render it convenient, is a sure way to destroy it.
It's one thing for Judaism to change to incorporate modern technology. Few religious groups have adopted technology as has Chabad, for instance. Try typing in
www.chabadincyberspace.com (or is it .org?) and see what you get. A Chabad Rabbi will light a Menorah in, say, Sidney or Toronto, and the event is instantaneously beamed to hundreds of locations, worldwide.
But as my Rabbi told me when I first fell in with these "religious fanatics", Judaism is a closed canon. In other words they REALLY believe that Torah is the word of G-d. And if it is, who are we to improve it?
On the other hand, I've had Reform Jews tell me that the Torah is only a story, a myth. Fine. But then why do they call themselves Jews? Why not just very up-to-date people whose ancestors were Jewish?
That I am not myself observant is a long story that would belong in a different venue. Sometimes I think that venue might be psychiatric (grin). But then the word, Israel, does mean "struggle with G-d", doesn't it?
Personally, I may struggle, but miracles do happen: I managed to convince my ex-wife NOT to convert when my precious daughter was less than 3 years old. My desperation about this was a large part of my motivation to fall in with Chabad.
It took me nearly 5 years, but I got her to return to our city with our child, with whom I never lost contact, to remarry me and they both became Chabadniks. She has since divorced me again (I guess I'm hard to live with -- you picked it up -- "it's my way or the highway"). But we are close, we shared the home-schooling of our daughter, and they are both Chassidim. My daughter now attends Yeshivah in Connecticut. Next year she will study in Israel. But she takes walks on the Yale campus. And she say that after earning her Bachelors, she wants to study law at Yale.
Where other 17 year olds wheedle trash CDs and DVDs from their fathers, my kid worked on me for a full set of Mitnik Chumashim (5 books of Torah). They're expensive. But if I may be permitted the expression, I thanked G-d for her (she was his 50th birthday present to me). Look at WHAT she is wheedling out of me!
The Chassidim say that G-d cries when one of his children is lost.
As a one-time militant atheist, I'd have to say he sure cut me a terrific break, didn't he?
Contrary to what the feminists believe, Judaism teaches reverence for women. They are the main-stay of Jewish life. And it doesn't matter who your father was. It is ONLY if your MOTHER was Jewish that you are a Jew.
Chag Sameach,
matis
