I see several flaws with Rabbi Becher's case, which reeks of duplicity.
1) (orthodox) Judaism is the oldest monotheistic religion.
True, but many of the stringency practiced in present day orthodox judaism weren't commanded in the giving of the Pentateuch, in other words they are later additions.
For example, it is dubious that an earlier document than the mishna (70-200 AD) interprets into the religion the laws of Shabbat. That's over a thousand years between the giving of the pentateuch and the mishna where anything could have happened.
2) Is orthodox Judaism accessible?
In the sense of being clear about what orthodox judaism demands of its followers, then perhaps, but not in the sense of being a pleasant easy religion to follow. There's a reason why the majority of american jews are not orthodox, and it has a lot to do with its lack of accessibility.
3) Does orthodox judaism demand that you give up your mind?
In orthodox judaism only rabbis are allowed to make decisions on what followers are supposed to believe. Disagree at your own risk.
4) Does orthodox judiasm promote the spread of information?
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2000/01/33583
http://orthomom.blogspot.com/2005/11/nyt-on-lakewood-internet-ban.html
http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2006/11/thursday_night_.html5) The soul.
The problem of bringing "the soul" into this as a case for investigating (orthodox) judaism first, is that it uses something that is neither provable or falsifiable (the soul) to try to establish something that is neither provable or falsifiable (religion).
6) Claim to truth.
I have never heard of an established religion not claiming to be true.
13 comments:
1) Not into "limiting information" -- "accessible" -- not completely true. Judaism is written in a coded fashion. See Talmud.
2) "Jewish" soul -- circular reasoning to some extent.
1) The Talmud was written purposely to be difficult to keep people busy. Apart of the Talmud's difficulty is run on sentences, and the lack of punctuation.
2) The kaballah is even more cryptic and does not pretend to be otherwise.
Do you have any idea how foolish you are? First off, Rabbi Becher is a genius with encyclopedic knowledge. An ignorant pest like you is not in the same league to argue. If you knew anything about the Mishna, you would realize how ridiculous you sound.
As far as your "No to Shomer Negiah" cartoon, I believe that picture is of a certain class of YULA girls, some of whom were molested by the Tendlers. Are you in favor of breaking negiah to molest?
i just used the pic as a generic pic to be against shomer negiah, not to be in favor of perversion and hurting people.
I did not know that that's a YULA pic, if that is indeed the case.
take your attempt at character assasination archie bunkhead and shove it. of course shithead, you'd rather try to character assassinate instead of responding to the post at hand.
Secondly to respond to the first part of your post that is less offensive than the second part of your post archie, welcome to the United States, land of the free, where criticizing religious leaders is actually allowed.
I will continue to exercise my first amendment rights, and archie shithead, religious leaders are not above criticism from regular people.
Your "rebuttal" is as "articulate" as your original post.
Pathetic.
And do you always congratulate yourself that you write "great" posts like you did today on Failed Messiah?
listen archie, you are responding to my post with name calling instead of with facts and reason.
also archie, you are acting like a shithead. i don't got the kind of patience that shmarya has for this shit so if u come here and act like a shithead, you are gonna get called what you are acting like.
Keep it up, boy.
Every one of your outbursts reflect sophistication and pearls of wisdom - NOT
ok anonymous here's your homework.
look up the words fact, and reason.
then come back and answer my post.
Hi,
Dont know if my post on this inspired you, but I fully agree.
www.nomodo.blogspot.com
Rabbi Becher is a great person, is very knowledgable about halacha, but I guess not so great on theology etc.
This video is so full of unsubstantiated claims , which I thank you for addressing a few of them.
I was shocked to see that it is still on the home page of Aish. I wrote a very mild critical comment on the aish website, more becuase it diminished my respect for Rabbi Blecher, who is a great person, and expert on halacha, and this video looks bad. Of course my comment was blocked by the editor, and not shown on AISH website. So much for open debate or logic.
Nimrod, thank you for commenting.
Its amazing the lies Jews brainwash themselves into believing. The most common being so-called national revelation being exclusive to judaism, ignoring all the various pagan religions that claim it. Hindus believe Krishna for instance revealed himself to the people through national revelation.
But the one in this article that I wish to address is the claim of them being the first monotheistic religion. This is a lie repeated countless times by Jews. In fact there is no proof that the original religion of the Israelites was ever monotheistic. Exodus says you shall not worship other gods, not that other gods don't exist. In fact in the Bible you see Yahweh even address the other gods, calling them false. In the older parts of the Torah we see a very anthropomorphic god who literally came down and slayed the leviathan with a "sword". Or how he created the world in 6 days, and "rested" on the 7th.
That said the idea of absolute monotheism evolved much earlier hence we see examples of monotheisms amongst native americans, africans and hindus. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle came up with the idea centuries before Sinai. Many even claim the anthropromorphic Yahweh because a universal god after encounter with these greek philosophers
Ummm, I think Socrates, et al lived about 1,000 years after Sinai is supposed to have happened.
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