Frictionless Judaism runs the risk of producing Jews who attend but don’t belong, who consume but don’t contribute — and who disappear when something shinier appears.
Loved your article and agree with the message. I also, completely agree with Bret Stephens and the entire premise. I think we as Jews have spent too too much time trying to convince ourselves, each other and then everyone else that we are worthy by participating in their causes (and not in Jewishness)...we saw how grateful the outside world was for our involvement before 10/7 and certainly after...(sarcasm). At my shul (conservative) they are spending more time talking about ICE, abortion, and other non jewish non essential issues that do not tie us to our covenant with Hashem...
Many maliciously yet insightfully have said that Jews assimilating continued Hitler's mission. We should be so kind to avoid this.
Agreed, Jew-hatred is a separate beast. Its wellspring is anthropological and pathological.
But we can only be responsible for our own Jews. Even the rotten apples who voted for Mamdani. Our children and grandchildren need to be raised by a village. Jewish villages. Not ghettos, God forbid, but a warm, fun enveloping culture within American culture and life . First, the family. Then school, scouts, camp, holidays publicly celebrated, projects, tournaments, challenges, trips to Israel. All the energy and resources wasted in quickly attempting to cure humanity's un-evolved urges and obsession with regressing to immoral societies, an illness manifest for thousands of years in Jew and Israel hatred, can be creatively invested in "living Jewish" .
Living in Canada, and watching American Jewry, there is a huge difference which I attribute to the Tikkun Olam sect, which has a smidgin of Judaism, and a whole lot of Progressive social activism focused on supporting all minorities except Jews who bow down to the religion of Progressivism. It showed when religious Jews were being attacked in NYC and the assumption was that the Neo-Nazis were involved. The Reformniks supported the religious Jews and were outraged. The moment when it was revealed the attacks were by Blacks, Reformniks became stone silent and turned their backs on the religious Jews. The fact that Reform only has a huge presence in the US and only a tiny percent elsewhere in the Diaspora, shows why the US is the outlier in the Diaspora, with near total assimilation amongst American non-haredim, a high percentage of Jewish youth and young adults, as well as old socialist hippies reliving their youth support the Hamas atrocities after being brainwashed for decades by Reform rabbis and leaders to hate Israel, the lack of any knowledge of the history of Israel and Jews in general is immense, the number of young getting any Jewish education is very low, and the participation in Jewish synagogues and other Jewish institutions is minimal, except for fitness centres called JCCs. Unless American Jews wake up, there will be no Jews other than Haredi in the next few decades.
Zionism represents the collective aspiration for the Jewish people's right to self-determination. This foundational movement centers on establishing and maintaining a sovereign state for the Jewish nation. It is deeply rooted in historical and cultural ties to a specific ancestral territory. The movement has significantly shaped the modern political landscape of the region. Ultimately, Zionism advocates for the security and continuity of Jewish life.
The Torah, the Jewish nation and the Land of Israel are the Jewish Table.
Ask a newly retired doctor if it's important to feel needed. It's a hard transition and feeling needed, making a contribution to not being needed that way,.....it is a difficult transition. When your children grow and leave. Being needed is so fundamental to mental well being.
I should never read these articles at night. My heart pounds, my brain begins to grind and turn and digest. I never have read such clear, logical, yet emotional writing on my heritage. The two concepts most important to me here? The idea of the tabernacle and, more importantly, the idea of being summoned. That draws on the mind to a certain extent but mainly from the heart and soul.
I have had the experience of being summoned and it is indeed a particularly Jewish concept; I’m not saying other religions don’t experience a call to action. There has been much good accomplished. However as Jews we are so tightly intertwined that when we respond upon being summoned we feel we do mitzvot for all of us.
Judaism has never been about mindless rule-following, and pretending otherwise is a historical and moral distortion. The Torah itself warns against exactly this mistake. Deuteronomy says, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked” (Deut. 10:16), explicitly shifting the covenant from flesh to conscience. Again and again, the Hebrew Bible insists that ritual without moral clarity is empty—sometimes worse than empty. Abraham smashes his father’s idols. Moses shatters the tablets when the law becomes an object of worship rather than a guide to justice. The prophets rage against sacrifice, purity, and obedience when they are detached from compassion, reason, and human dignity. This isn’t a modern liberal gloss; it’s the internal logic of Judaism itself.
What we now call “ultra-Orthodoxy” is not timeless Judaism but largely a 19th-century defensive subculture—born from fear, trauma, and modernity—not Sinai. Treating maximalist rule adherence as the highest or most authentic form of Jewish life confuses intensity with truth. Judaism emerged at the crossroads of empires—Egypt, Babylon, Rome—as a rejection of oppressive systems that subordinate individuals to abstract power. To turn Jewish law into an oppressive system that overrides bodily autonomy, medical reality, nature, and ethical reasoning is to miss the point of Jewish history entirely. When rules cause harm and are insulated from critique, they cease to be sacred and become idols themselves. Judaism doesn’t survive by freezing practices in amber; it survives by arguing, by refining, by insisting that law exists for human dignity—not the other way around.
I’m not speaking out because I hate my people. I’m speaking out because I love them. I’m Jewish, I’m proud of that, and I want us to exist—not just survive, but exist in a way that is strong, honest, and aligned with the values we say we believe in. When I question certain practices, I’m not trying to tear anything down. I’m trying to make us better. I’m trying to help us heal.
Every day, I run into pushback from other Jews, and it’s honestly exhausting. Because from my perspective, I’m trying to protect us—not from enemies outside, but from things inside that I think we should be willing to re-examine. We know there are people in the world who want us gone entirely. I don’t want that. I want the opposite. I want us to exist fully, to grow, to evolve, and to be able to stand on principles that are consistent and just. That means being able to look at ourselves honestly, even when it’s uncomfortable.
What I’m asking for isn’t the destruction of Judaism or Jewish identity. It’s the willingness to have a real conversation about how we live out our values today. We already know how to adapt—we’ve done it for thousands of years. That’s part of what has kept us alive. So asking questions isn’t betrayal. It’s part of that same tradition of wrestling, of thinking, of not blindly accepting things just because they’ve always been done.
I’m not your enemy. I’m on your side. I’m trying to help us be stronger, not weaker. And strength, to me, isn’t about refusing to question anything. It’s about having the courage to face hard questions and figure out how to move forward in a way that honors both who we’ve been and who we want to be.
and to add: "Na'aseh V'nishma" is absolutely all about what you try to refute in your first sentence, since you invoked Sinai...if that doesn't tell you something, then I don't know what will. But to pretend that there is no Jewish value in that, is disingenuous at best, and ignorant of scores of Mishanic, Midrashic, and Talmudic texts which I do think would predate your 19th century dateline. If you are so inclined to learn more, try researching "Kabbalat Ol" and its foundational belief in Judaism.
Kavod habriyot, what about my dignity? What about tza'ar ba'alei chayim, avoiding unnecessary suffering? What about pikuach nefesh, saving a life overrides almost every commandment, and we know that there are Jewish laws that say if a baby dies, then you don't have to do it again. This is all such a contradiction, and considering all the evidence we have today and the science, it must stop. I'm not trying to hurt us. I'm not trying to attack Judaism. I'm trying to get us to stop cutting a baby's dick, okay? Look at the MRI’s. This is harmful. Stop it. And stop attacking me for being a healer. I love us all this much I’m will to humiliate myself doing this so we can have a better time not a worse time.
Be fruitful and multiply. Stop cutting a part of the body responsible for this. We need to prosper and thrive. Our bodies are miracles. These are the temples of our souls. And on the 8th day of every Jewish boy’s life, his brand new temple is desecrated.
labeling Jewish law, at least the way it is practiced by a large swath of Jews, as "an oppressive system that overrides bodily autonomy, etc., ethical reasoning, etc..." is a huge part of the problem. Maybe (with some humility), learning about that same "system" that has been the Jewish birthright, heritage, and tradition would be eye-opening for you and give you some insight into why it has survived as long as it has. It is (yes, largely) absolutely born from Sinai, and if you choose to wrongly classify it for your personal reasons as a 19th century defensive subculture (and I would agree that there may be elements that resemble nothing from Sinai...and yet...), you must realize that it is your way of rationalizing and assuaging any feeling of, as the author points out, you yourself "coming to the table." Good luck.
I think the Egyptians did this to us and we are caring on DEEP collective cultural trauma. Moses told us it didn’t matter and we didn’t cut ourselves for 40 years in the desert. Were we less Jewish then when we had more of our bodies? Don’t be a literalist. Torah is literature. We wrestle for truth. We don’t just read and perform actions blindly without any interrogation. This is subjugation. Look at Maimonides. He was a dhimmi in the Muslim world. What does that tell you? Look at what he wrote. How can you justify this? Hurt men’s sexuality intentionally is unacceptable. What’s mutilation for women is not medicine for men.
I’m not the one who needs to learn humility. I respect our culture and our history. I celebrate our rituals and holidays. I am Bar Mitzvah. I have lived in Israel a few times briefly. I’m a grandson of the founding architects of Tel Aviv. Stop clinging to this so fiercely. We need to heal and let go. It will be ok. I’m here to hurt anyone. I just want us to healthy and happy. We should be able to enjoy our full bodies while we are alive. If that’s controversial for you, then I seriously need to be more honest with yourself. I am not selective. I advocate for bodily autonomy for all people. In an era where the trans medical scandal is butchering children in the name of pseudo science pharma business, it would be impressive if Jews reaffirmed dignity for the human body and the rights of the individual by upgrading our Judaism behind a physical marker that does not define us and is no longer an important marker. It’s primitive. This is 2026. There are no medical or ethical justifications. Do you agree Islamic FGM is wrong? Then you must agree Jewish MGM is wrong. I am a Jewish man. My body. My choice. Cutting me doesn’t make me Jewish. It doesn’t make me hate Judaism. It just makes me hate being cut. I would never have consented. This is not the way to make men loyal. It is a kind of enslavement. This is a psychosexual hazing ritual that exists alongside an amazing people. It is a contradiction to our values. It’s now 2026. Please advocate for the real Brit. Open hearts not open wounds on infants.
Dan, from your original comment, it was not obvious what you were referring to. Now that you've explained, it seems like the mitzvah of brit milah is something that deeply bothers you, seems to conflict with your values, and one that you struggle with. I can empathize with your feelings, and it must be a very difficult spot to be in. I just want to point out, that after all the studies, have you read the findings? This is the conclusion of the very research you pointed to: "We identified 10 studies, which described a total of 9317 circumcised and 9423 uncircumcised men who were evaluated for the association of circumcision with male sexual function. There were no significant differences in sexual desire (odds ratio (OR): 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.92-1.06), dyspareunia (OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.52-2.44), premature ejaculation (OR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.83-1.54), ejaculation latency time (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 0.69-1.97), erectile dysfunctions (OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.65-1.25) and orgasm difficulties (OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.83-1.13). These findings suggest that circumcision is unlikely to adversely affect male sexual functions." Please note this last sentence. Ultimately, brit milah is a mitzvah that has no logical underpinnings, and something that is not done for health reasons or anything else. If it is done, it is simply because that is what God commanded and what Jews for centuries have done. It supersedes all logic, and forges a connection that supersedes logic as well. It is something that so many Jews who preceded us have sacrificed for. Again, it is not logical (and that's perhaps what makes it so hard and at the same time so valuable a mitzvah). My best wishes to you.
Your illogical reasoning makes my heart and head hurt. Dogma, conformity, appeals to tradition and superstition aren’t Jewish values. Wrestling for a better world is. Period.
God doesn’t intervene to perform miracles. Everything is inherently miraculous. The responsibility is on us to take care of the miracle of life. Not cut babies. Duh. If an adult wants to pay to have themselves mutilated, that’s weird. But ok. If they are self-cutting, I would get them mental help. Jews need mental help on this. It’s not an insult. I’m Jewish. I have a long background is healthcare. Let’s stop cutting children now. Ok. Thanks. Bye.
It’s a 2 billion dollar/year industry. CircumcisionIsAFraud.com Big Tobacco had science behind it too. DoctorsOpposingCircumcision.org Iatrogenic therapy is barbarism masquerading as medicine. I know too much much orthodontic teeth extractions too. Scam. And tonsils and adenoids. Contraindicated. And appendices. I actually really care about people, you know? It’s honestly weird for me I ever have to do this at all. But someone does. This is the right thing to do. Protect our right to exist FULLY. Take care.
Nothing wrong with being inclusive, the same applies to people who are less frum than we would like,( or more frum than we are comfortable with) but we need to say yes, you are welcome but no, we can't rebuild the sanctuary around you.
And you think that pandering to the lefties and the anti-Zionists will make you significant? I happen to belong to a Reform shul in an area where we have a higher than average number of converts and they come to us precisely because we prioritise Judaism, even against the will of the movement officials who seem to think we are the Labour party at prayer.
Loved your article and agree with the message. I also, completely agree with Bret Stephens and the entire premise. I think we as Jews have spent too too much time trying to convince ourselves, each other and then everyone else that we are worthy by participating in their causes (and not in Jewishness)...we saw how grateful the outside world was for our involvement before 10/7 and certainly after...(sarcasm). At my shul (conservative) they are spending more time talking about ICE, abortion, and other non jewish non essential issues that do not tie us to our covenant with Hashem...
Many maliciously yet insightfully have said that Jews assimilating continued Hitler's mission. We should be so kind to avoid this.
Agreed, Jew-hatred is a separate beast. Its wellspring is anthropological and pathological.
But we can only be responsible for our own Jews. Even the rotten apples who voted for Mamdani. Our children and grandchildren need to be raised by a village. Jewish villages. Not ghettos, God forbid, but a warm, fun enveloping culture within American culture and life . First, the family. Then school, scouts, camp, holidays publicly celebrated, projects, tournaments, challenges, trips to Israel. All the energy and resources wasted in quickly attempting to cure humanity's un-evolved urges and obsession with regressing to immoral societies, an illness manifest for thousands of years in Jew and Israel hatred, can be creatively invested in "living Jewish" .
Living in Canada, and watching American Jewry, there is a huge difference which I attribute to the Tikkun Olam sect, which has a smidgin of Judaism, and a whole lot of Progressive social activism focused on supporting all minorities except Jews who bow down to the religion of Progressivism. It showed when religious Jews were being attacked in NYC and the assumption was that the Neo-Nazis were involved. The Reformniks supported the religious Jews and were outraged. The moment when it was revealed the attacks were by Blacks, Reformniks became stone silent and turned their backs on the religious Jews. The fact that Reform only has a huge presence in the US and only a tiny percent elsewhere in the Diaspora, shows why the US is the outlier in the Diaspora, with near total assimilation amongst American non-haredim, a high percentage of Jewish youth and young adults, as well as old socialist hippies reliving their youth support the Hamas atrocities after being brainwashed for decades by Reform rabbis and leaders to hate Israel, the lack of any knowledge of the history of Israel and Jews in general is immense, the number of young getting any Jewish education is very low, and the participation in Jewish synagogues and other Jewish institutions is minimal, except for fitness centres called JCCs. Unless American Jews wake up, there will be no Jews other than Haredi in the next few decades.
Zionism represents the collective aspiration for the Jewish people's right to self-determination. This foundational movement centers on establishing and maintaining a sovereign state for the Jewish nation. It is deeply rooted in historical and cultural ties to a specific ancestral territory. The movement has significantly shaped the modern political landscape of the region. Ultimately, Zionism advocates for the security and continuity of Jewish life.
The Torah, the Jewish nation and the Land of Israel are the Jewish Table.
Fantastic article.
Ask a newly retired doctor if it's important to feel needed. It's a hard transition and feeling needed, making a contribution to not being needed that way,.....it is a difficult transition. When your children grow and leave. Being needed is so fundamental to mental well being.
I should never read these articles at night. My heart pounds, my brain begins to grind and turn and digest. I never have read such clear, logical, yet emotional writing on my heritage. The two concepts most important to me here? The idea of the tabernacle and, more importantly, the idea of being summoned. That draws on the mind to a certain extent but mainly from the heart and soul.
I have had the experience of being summoned and it is indeed a particularly Jewish concept; I’m not saying other religions don’t experience a call to action. There has been much good accomplished. However as Jews we are so tightly intertwined that when we respond upon being summoned we feel we do mitzvot for all of us.
It’s wearisome to have to keep repeating… but not all diaspora Jews are in America
Hear hear, and not all British Jews are in London.
Waving from the east coast of Scotland 😊
:)
Magnificently poignant. I have not heard the concept expressed in this way before. Thank you.
thought-provoking and necessary for our times! Thank you for this article.
great essay!
Judaism has never been about mindless rule-following, and pretending otherwise is a historical and moral distortion. The Torah itself warns against exactly this mistake. Deuteronomy says, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stiff-necked” (Deut. 10:16), explicitly shifting the covenant from flesh to conscience. Again and again, the Hebrew Bible insists that ritual without moral clarity is empty—sometimes worse than empty. Abraham smashes his father’s idols. Moses shatters the tablets when the law becomes an object of worship rather than a guide to justice. The prophets rage against sacrifice, purity, and obedience when they are detached from compassion, reason, and human dignity. This isn’t a modern liberal gloss; it’s the internal logic of Judaism itself.
What we now call “ultra-Orthodoxy” is not timeless Judaism but largely a 19th-century defensive subculture—born from fear, trauma, and modernity—not Sinai. Treating maximalist rule adherence as the highest or most authentic form of Jewish life confuses intensity with truth. Judaism emerged at the crossroads of empires—Egypt, Babylon, Rome—as a rejection of oppressive systems that subordinate individuals to abstract power. To turn Jewish law into an oppressive system that overrides bodily autonomy, medical reality, nature, and ethical reasoning is to miss the point of Jewish history entirely. When rules cause harm and are insulated from critique, they cease to be sacred and become idols themselves. Judaism doesn’t survive by freezing practices in amber; it survives by arguing, by refining, by insisting that law exists for human dignity—not the other way around.
I’m not speaking out because I hate my people. I’m speaking out because I love them. I’m Jewish, I’m proud of that, and I want us to exist—not just survive, but exist in a way that is strong, honest, and aligned with the values we say we believe in. When I question certain practices, I’m not trying to tear anything down. I’m trying to make us better. I’m trying to help us heal.
Every day, I run into pushback from other Jews, and it’s honestly exhausting. Because from my perspective, I’m trying to protect us—not from enemies outside, but from things inside that I think we should be willing to re-examine. We know there are people in the world who want us gone entirely. I don’t want that. I want the opposite. I want us to exist fully, to grow, to evolve, and to be able to stand on principles that are consistent and just. That means being able to look at ourselves honestly, even when it’s uncomfortable.
What I’m asking for isn’t the destruction of Judaism or Jewish identity. It’s the willingness to have a real conversation about how we live out our values today. We already know how to adapt—we’ve done it for thousands of years. That’s part of what has kept us alive. So asking questions isn’t betrayal. It’s part of that same tradition of wrestling, of thinking, of not blindly accepting things just because they’ve always been done.
I’m not your enemy. I’m on your side. I’m trying to help us be stronger, not weaker. And strength, to me, isn’t about refusing to question anything. It’s about having the courage to face hard questions and figure out how to move forward in a way that honors both who we’ve been and who we want to be.
and to add: "Na'aseh V'nishma" is absolutely all about what you try to refute in your first sentence, since you invoked Sinai...if that doesn't tell you something, then I don't know what will. But to pretend that there is no Jewish value in that, is disingenuous at best, and ignorant of scores of Mishanic, Midrashic, and Talmudic texts which I do think would predate your 19th century dateline. If you are so inclined to learn more, try researching "Kabbalat Ol" and its foundational belief in Judaism.
Kavod habriyot, what about my dignity? What about tza'ar ba'alei chayim, avoiding unnecessary suffering? What about pikuach nefesh, saving a life overrides almost every commandment, and we know that there are Jewish laws that say if a baby dies, then you don't have to do it again. This is all such a contradiction, and considering all the evidence we have today and the science, it must stop. I'm not trying to hurt us. I'm not trying to attack Judaism. I'm trying to get us to stop cutting a baby's dick, okay? Look at the MRI’s. This is harmful. Stop it. And stop attacking me for being a healer. I love us all this much I’m will to humiliate myself doing this so we can have a better time not a worse time.
SexAsNatureIntended.com
Be fruitful and multiply. Stop cutting a part of the body responsible for this. We need to prosper and thrive. Our bodies are miracles. These are the temples of our souls. And on the 8th day of every Jewish boy’s life, his brand new temple is desecrated.
No more.
labeling Jewish law, at least the way it is practiced by a large swath of Jews, as "an oppressive system that overrides bodily autonomy, etc., ethical reasoning, etc..." is a huge part of the problem. Maybe (with some humility), learning about that same "system" that has been the Jewish birthright, heritage, and tradition would be eye-opening for you and give you some insight into why it has survived as long as it has. It is (yes, largely) absolutely born from Sinai, and if you choose to wrongly classify it for your personal reasons as a 19th century defensive subculture (and I would agree that there may be elements that resemble nothing from Sinai...and yet...), you must realize that it is your way of rationalizing and assuaging any feeling of, as the author points out, you yourself "coming to the table." Good luck.
I think the Egyptians did this to us and we are caring on DEEP collective cultural trauma. Moses told us it didn’t matter and we didn’t cut ourselves for 40 years in the desert. Were we less Jewish then when we had more of our bodies? Don’t be a literalist. Torah is literature. We wrestle for truth. We don’t just read and perform actions blindly without any interrogation. This is subjugation. Look at Maimonides. He was a dhimmi in the Muslim world. What does that tell you? Look at what he wrote. How can you justify this? Hurt men’s sexuality intentionally is unacceptable. What’s mutilation for women is not medicine for men.
Our enemies deny my existence. My family denies my autonomy. Where does that leave me?
I’m not the one who needs to learn humility. I respect our culture and our history. I celebrate our rituals and holidays. I am Bar Mitzvah. I have lived in Israel a few times briefly. I’m a grandson of the founding architects of Tel Aviv. Stop clinging to this so fiercely. We need to heal and let go. It will be ok. I’m here to hurt anyone. I just want us to healthy and happy. We should be able to enjoy our full bodies while we are alive. If that’s controversial for you, then I seriously need to be more honest with yourself. I am not selective. I advocate for bodily autonomy for all people. In an era where the trans medical scandal is butchering children in the name of pseudo science pharma business, it would be impressive if Jews reaffirmed dignity for the human body and the rights of the individual by upgrading our Judaism behind a physical marker that does not define us and is no longer an important marker. It’s primitive. This is 2026. There are no medical or ethical justifications. Do you agree Islamic FGM is wrong? Then you must agree Jewish MGM is wrong. I am a Jewish man. My body. My choice. Cutting me doesn’t make me Jewish. It doesn’t make me hate Judaism. It just makes me hate being cut. I would never have consented. This is not the way to make men loyal. It is a kind of enslavement. This is a psychosexual hazing ritual that exists alongside an amazing people. It is a contradiction to our values. It’s now 2026. Please advocate for the real Brit. Open hearts not open wounds on infants.
BeyondtheBris.com
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22114254/
IntactGlobal.org
Dan, from your original comment, it was not obvious what you were referring to. Now that you've explained, it seems like the mitzvah of brit milah is something that deeply bothers you, seems to conflict with your values, and one that you struggle with. I can empathize with your feelings, and it must be a very difficult spot to be in. I just want to point out, that after all the studies, have you read the findings? This is the conclusion of the very research you pointed to: "We identified 10 studies, which described a total of 9317 circumcised and 9423 uncircumcised men who were evaluated for the association of circumcision with male sexual function. There were no significant differences in sexual desire (odds ratio (OR): 0.99; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.92-1.06), dyspareunia (OR: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.52-2.44), premature ejaculation (OR: 1.13; 95% CI: 0.83-1.54), ejaculation latency time (OR: 1.33; 95% CI: 0.69-1.97), erectile dysfunctions (OR: 0.90; 95% CI: 0.65-1.25) and orgasm difficulties (OR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.83-1.13). These findings suggest that circumcision is unlikely to adversely affect male sexual functions." Please note this last sentence. Ultimately, brit milah is a mitzvah that has no logical underpinnings, and something that is not done for health reasons or anything else. If it is done, it is simply because that is what God commanded and what Jews for centuries have done. It supersedes all logic, and forges a connection that supersedes logic as well. It is something that so many Jews who preceded us have sacrificed for. Again, it is not logical (and that's perhaps what makes it so hard and at the same time so valuable a mitzvah). My best wishes to you.
Your illogical reasoning makes my heart and head hurt. Dogma, conformity, appeals to tradition and superstition aren’t Jewish values. Wrestling for a better world is. Period.
God doesn’t intervene to perform miracles. Everything is inherently miraculous. The responsibility is on us to take care of the miracle of life. Not cut babies. Duh. If an adult wants to pay to have themselves mutilated, that’s weird. But ok. If they are self-cutting, I would get them mental help. Jews need mental help on this. It’s not an insult. I’m Jewish. I have a long background is healthcare. Let’s stop cutting children now. Ok. Thanks. Bye.
It’s a 2 billion dollar/year industry. CircumcisionIsAFraud.com Big Tobacco had science behind it too. DoctorsOpposingCircumcision.org Iatrogenic therapy is barbarism masquerading as medicine. I know too much much orthodontic teeth extractions too. Scam. And tonsils and adenoids. Contraindicated. And appendices. I actually really care about people, you know? It’s honestly weird for me I ever have to do this at all. But someone does. This is the right thing to do. Protect our right to exist FULLY. Take care.
Nothing wrong with being inclusive, the same applies to people who are less frum than we would like,( or more frum than we are comfortable with) but we need to say yes, you are welcome but no, we can't rebuild the sanctuary around you.
A religion that serves current fads and politics will shrink to zero.
And you think that pandering to the lefties and the anti-Zionists will make you significant? I happen to belong to a Reform shul in an area where we have a higher than average number of converts and they come to us precisely because we prioritise Judaism, even against the will of the movement officials who seem to think we are the Labour party at prayer.