The Evolving Jew

Some thoughts on the ever-present abortion debate, and the partisanship that accompanies it, prompted by a friend's Facebook post and the ensuing discussion. This was a comment I wrote on that post: I've often thought that abortion was a poor issue for people to be reflexively political about. We ARE talking about life, and the issue of when life begins is a very tricky one, one that is more subject to religious beliefs or emotion than it is to science. Frankly, unlike right-wing accusations, most people I know on the left are not blithely "pro-abortion". "Pro-choice" acknowledges that however one might feel about abortion, the ultimate right to make that uncomfortable choice belongs to the mother. However, there certainly are lines. Despite being strongly pro-choice, my line is drawn earlier in the pregnancy than what is commonly termed "late-term" abortion. Unless it is to save the life of the mother, killing a fetus who could survive outside

Funny thing about labels. "Orthodox" is a label. I'm a Jew who doesn't believe in a literal Torah MiSinai and who often participates in egalitarian minyanim. But because I keep Shabbat & kashrut and go to an Orthodox shul most of the time, people label me "Orthodox". That, and because I grew up Orthodox, and have never declared that I'm not. So because people perceive me as "Orthodox", I'm included in the "us & them" conversation. Even some other Orthodox Jews who know my hashkafic bent still think of me as playing for "team Orthodox", and that I stand separate from heterodox movements, which are the "other". Let's try a thought experiment. What if I made a tiny shift, and made the Conservative shul in my neighborhood my primary place of tefilla, and only occasionally went to the Orthodox shul, (the reverse of what I do now)? My halachic practices and my hashkafic beliefs would remain ex

Crown Market in West Hartford has announced that they are closing, after three quarters of a century. I've been working in Hartford for a year or so, so I occasionally do kosher shopping in West Hartford. But I never went into Crown until a few weeks ago.  It didn't look too good on the outside, and most of the meat is under kashrut certification that doesn't meet my community's standards. I finally stopped in a few weeks ago. And was pleasantly surprised. It's clean & has a great selection of kosher groceries. I was looking forward to going back there often, and am very disappointed by the news. If they had switched to a hechsher that was acceptable to the Orthodox community for their meat, and offered only glatt, they might have been able to survive. But why should they have kowtowed to pressure? Non-glatt meat was perfectly fine when I was a kid, and I grew up Orthodox in Brooklyn. Of course, I've kowtowed myself. I want people from my communi

A friend mentioned on Facebook that according to Yehuda Mirsky in his work on Rav Kook , "He [Rav Kook] suggests that one may accept the findings of Biblical criticism and still keep faith with tradition." It got me thinking. For believers who have confronted truths about biblical authorship, does this really matter? We dig for hints of "permission" to believe what we know to be true, i.e. the Torah is a humanly composed composite document. But what if there were no such hints? What if, instead of being 99% opposed to Biblical Criticism, traditional Judaism (which Orthodoxy claims to be the only conduit of) it was 100% opposed, with no cracks or openings for hope from relatively open-minded rishonim or achronim? What if you could't appeal to the phlisophical direction of Ibn Ezra or to vague statements by Rav Kook? What if Zev Farber wasn't out there making a splash and trying to carve out a niche? Would any of that matter? Once you've seen the man beh

Lee Smith has a new article on Tablet about how Stephen Walt (of Walt & Mearsheimer fame) is the true mastermind behind Obama's Middle East policy. All you need to know about the bias of this ridiculous article is contained in the second paragraph: "In the midst of widespread regional upheaval, the Obama Administration has seemingly abandoned longtime allies, like Israel and Saudi Arabia, while embracing traditional adversaries, like Iran. Few can make sense of the United States’ refusal to maintain what it had previously defined as core national interests in the region for nearly half a century, like peace in the eastern Mediterranean—an objective forsaken by the decision not to intervene in the Syrian civil war." Let's see: Obama repeatedly defends Israel and stands up for them. He supports crippling sanctions that force Iran to the negotiating table and works hard to hammer out an agreement. However, in the mind of Lee Smith, Obama has "

Next week is Limmud NY, which I am attending. I will be moderating a discussion group on J-blogging on Monday, February 17th. Gil Student has a thoughtful article in The Jewish Press today. In it, he expresses concern over whether Orthodox Jews should attend Limmud or not. He writes: "I see three main issues with attending Limmud. The first is the legitimacy given to the non-Orthodox teachers...  "Additionally, if Orthodox rabbis widely embrace Limmud, the Orthodox laity will follow in large numbers... "Many, currently most [of those who will be teaching at Limmud] base their teachings on beliefs that Orthodox Jews consider heresy. They will speak about the human authors of the Torah, the bias of the Sages, the immorality of halacha and choosing whether to follow even basic biblical laws..." Gil does throw a bone: "I am not saying that non-Orthodox scholars have nothing to teach us. Quite the opposite. They offer a fresh perspective that