Of Love and Torah

Very nicely said, Rabbi Grossman.

Exactly.

perhaps there is a "reason" there are so few jews in shul. Religion can be rather dry, and we who are modern jews, may be uncomfortable with some of the imagery. Heck, I'm even thrown by RAMBAM, and he is considered a "Neo-Aristotelian rationalist" who declared that anyone who accepted litterally where torah says :"the finger of G-d" and the like should be executed as a heretic... Maybe we need to shape up what we look at, why we believe what we do and make it "mean" somehting to us.

Kissing the Torah is another indication of Word of God idol worship where the idol is not made of stone or wood or metal but made of little black ink marks set in rows on parchment or paper. When the Decalogue was first set in stone was the beginning of Word of God idolatry amongst the Abrahamic monotheist believers. The final overthrow of idolatry will not happen until we overthrow idolization of ancients instead of realizing the Creator is God of the living, not the dead.

From no source of fear but from the teachings of Yeishu/Jesus found in the New Testament.

Why? I have Jewish ancestry. Why do I have to keep my mouth shut about Judaism if I not of that faith? Is that how Jewish people are supposed to deal with criticism from other religionists, tell them to get lost?

Because Stephen, in the dozens of screennames you have taken on these forume - and been banned from countless times - you have expressed the most venemous hatred of Jews I have ever seen on these boards. You are not to be taken seriously because you have an agenda - to attack Jews and try to hurt us. Therefore, you are to generally be ignores, oh DonCoyote, oh Blessed Beast.

Why are you resorting to personal attacks? I am asking questions about beliefs here and there's no need for you to defend yourself by resorting to breaking Beliefnet r.o.c.

I will admit to a level of frustration, but it more stems from the fact that there ways of expressing ideas that are "grasp-able" by people, that do not require refering to obscure texts. I mean you would not see Orthodox jews on Christian boards refering to arcane judgements by rabbis to support a fact or opinion, or even as part of something. I also admit to being frustrated by the fact that many of the Christians who post here, do make anti-jewish comments(like on a prev portion of this blog where someone made a comment that they didn't understand why rabbi Grossman didn't accept Jesus). If *I* offended anyone, here I am sorry.

Tzvi, There's this one poster who seems to harrass Crunchy Con all the time. When the poster gets going, CC tells other posters to "ignore the troll". I wonder if we should do the same in this case?

Idolatry? Isn't that worshiping a physical thing or image instead of God? In that case, only when, and if, Jews worship the Torah as a material object made of paper and ink but ignore its semantic content, that would be a form of idolatry.

You've called us baby killers in the past. That point of view ain't the way to open a dialogue. And in your numerous screen names you have broken the ROC so many times on Judaism Debate and the mini-boards it is impossible to count. You bring shame upon your Jewish ancestors.

out of all the wisdom posted here by all the rabbi's , let me just say we have all learned something today !Keep up the good work , reluctant leaders who accept responsibility, not influenced by power, great idea , poor follow through, kissing the torah , showing great respect , great idea to much conflict, whose the authority, i'd say it's the rabbi, respect the rabbi respect his ideas and religion becomes more humble, of course God is the ultimate source , but by showing respect for the rabbi we show respect for God. Finding one small flaw in a rabbi is not pleasing to God. I'm a catholic , and even I can see knowledge starring me in the eye and i welcome it into my heart. Humility is the best test of knowledge ,whether we receive it or share it with others.