Sunday, December 19, 2010

IF YOU ARE A LYING KIRUVNIC, I WILL CATCH YOU.

It seems I have been away for too long. Without bloggers such as Shmarya (who is still around), Unorthodox Jew (who is still around), and me to a lesser extent, then the religious establishment lies like motherfuckers to the general public.

See, when people walk into Orthodox Judaism, people deserve to have a realistic perception of Orthodox Judaism, instead of a sugarcoated perception of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw everyone gets happily married by matchmakers (shidduch crisis), marriages are nice and happy in the orthodox world (agunot crisis), orthodox jews are perfectly INNOCENT and could do no wrong (chareidi parasites in Israel).



People are imperfect. Since people are imperfect, human institutions are imperfect. We understand this in politics. Winston Churchill understood this and said "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for everything else." Democracy is certainly preferable, but even democracy at least in its purest form is not what America's founders gave us.





Just like human nature dictates that imperfect qualities exists in political institutions, imperfections lurk in religious institutions. It is an unavoidable fact of life. Anytime there is an individual there is going to be imperfections, and it leads to the fact that anytime there is aaaaaaany kind of group, there are imperfections.





It certainly don't mean that groups are bad. Groups are a good thing. No human being is an island.



I'm merely calling for honesty in a religious group that I personally didn't have the best experience in the world with. XD



The problem is the Kiruv industry liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies like bitches in order to reel people into religious fairyland wonderland la la land neverland etc. and people deserve to be educated not indoctrinated.



If I see a Kiruvnic article on a website such as Aish, Ohr Somayach, or any other religious website, and it lies or twists the truth somehow, I will expose it. If you are a kiruvnic writer, BE HONEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Or I will catch you, not personally of course, I indeed merely stick to the issues of what the lie is and what the truth is.



On the You Me Religion blog, I was having a discussion with Miss Chaviva on whether or not Jewish doctrine accepts the existence of Heaven and Hell. Miss Chaviva wrote



@SJ For someone who claims to be tolerant (at least, I assume from your blog where you call out the intolerant that you consider yourself a tolerant person), you essentially have violated the commands on how to treat the convert by calling me out as being less knowledgeable than you. Converts in Judaism, in fact, tend to be far more zealous and knowledgeable than their counterparts (FFB) because of the rigor with which we have to prepare ourselves for conversion. (Note: I won't be giving your blog any more time, because it comes off as the rantings of a self-loathing Jew.)And, for what it's worth, the Talmudic semantics came from a very good rabbi friend of mine.







Unfortunately, Miss Chaviva is mistakin on most counts.



Firstly I'll address the meat of the discussion we were having.



The Talmud in Berakoth 57b says that Hell is 60 times hotter than earthly fire. Cleaaaaaarly, standard Jewish doctrine from the Torah and the Talmud affirms the existence of Hell. Rashi affirms the existence of Hell.



"Hell is a place of fire where sinners are punished after they die. Certain classes of people who deny religion receive eternal punishment there (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Teshuvah 3:5-6), but most sinners are punished there for only (up to) a year (Mishnah Eduyos 2:9; Talmud Shabbos 33a)."


There is no way around the fact that the Old Testament, the Talmud, and Rashi, refers to Hell by name.

Now, to the part where Miss Chaviva accuses me of disrespecting her as a convert. If she were a Frum From Birth, I'd straight up call her a liar but since she is something other than a FFB I will give her the benefit of the doubt. Miss Chaviva suggested that I diminish her knowledge as a convert when in reality I point out that she has her own view on this particular issue.

I will assume that Miss Chaviva is not a scheming kiruvnic, and all of orthodox judaism is not bad. I love Jewish cuisine actually. The food is like one of the only reasons I'm not saying f### Judaism altogether I'm going to go to Christianity. If the rabbis (some of them ;D ) and the women (some of them ;D ) aren't reasons for keeping Jewish culture alive then the food is. XD

In all seriousness I can see how people can go to Orthodox Judaism because of the structure it provides. However, people are different. Some people need lots of structure. I feel the need for a minimal amount of structure. People gotta do what they gotta do to be happy, and I opine that it's best for people to go into Orthodox Judaism as an educated decision and not out of promises of Heaven on Earth.

7 comments:

Garnel Ironheart said...

I think I liked you better when you were a sanctimonious Chrisian.

And you shouldn't compare yourself with Failed Messiah and UOJ. There's no way you're in their class. Maybe Ahavah Gayle. No one reads her stuff either.

Please restart your meds. The old you is just as annoying as the old you used to be.

SJ said...

>> The old you is just as annoying as the old you used to be.


Comeon Garnel it's gonna be fun. XD


By the way I still believe the Bible though.

Anonymous said...

why you messing with some poor little convert chick? that's not who your real beef is with. go to big aish.

SJ said...

Aish gives the same nonsense while kinda forgetting to mention what Berakoth 57b says.

Anonymous said...

Ok, I'm not frum, but I have a little bit of background, certainly never learned Talmud myself.

But, are the quotes you brought traditionally understood literally, or not? Are they the opinions that were accepted, or one opinion in a sea of others?

And, I agree with you about Aish and kiruv institutions, sort of.

SJ said...

The part where fire is 1/60 of Hell is intended to be literal.

SJ said...

If a rabbi says there's another opinion on the fire bein a 60th of hell matter make him SHOW it to you from a religious text or don't believe him!