In Response

to my post Can Someone Please Tell Me Why I Need It, someone, I won't say who because it's embarrassing, left me a link to a recent post on Failed Messiah, http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2010/12/the-appeal-of-haredi-orthodoxy-to-young-secular-born-jews-678.html.

The reason why this is a bad move is at the end of the article that Failed Messiah cites, it says

Of course, not everyone finds that liberation in restriction. Mr. Shahar's 2005 survey found the number of people leaving Orthodoxy far outnumbers those coming in.

Ouch. If the individual who gave me the link wants to out himself he can, but I'm sorry, this is sad.

IIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFF, I was orthodox, this is how I would argue in favor of all the rituals- I would say that setting aside a percentage of everything you do for religion is in fact psychologically healthy because it makes you feel closer to the Creator.

The reality is though, that the all-or-nothing attitude of the orthodox simply isn't selling to a large percentage of the consumer base- From Frum Births, potential Baalei Tshuvas, and even to Baalei Tshuvas to some extent. However, for the orthodox to go about fixing this problem would require a heavy duty cultural change, not even in the way they do their rituals, but in how they approach people taking a break from cetain things going back to certain things etc.

The million dollar question is, can orthodoxy sell itself to people who dislike the amount of structure that orthodoxy requests from followers? Answer this and your kiruv skills will indeed skyrocket.

Can orthodoxy sell itself on what Shabbat really is- a period of religious observance, study, and meditation/prayer, and not something of fun/rest? The thing is I realize how Shabbat can be beneficial to someone with a jam packed week, but my weekly routine simply isn't as hectic. I only work part time. How can one go about selling Shabbat observance to someone like me?