Rabbi Waxman, That's Not What I Meant

Yes, I didn't understand why Rabbi Waxman was making a fuss. It seemed pretty obvious to me what you were saying.

Dear Yossel, While your ideals are laudable on the surface, history has shown that they have often lead to "crimes against humanity." The Torah is not clear. No system of laws can ever be clear. If the Torah were clear, there would be no Talmud, and if the Talmud were clear, there would have been no Rashi, etc. No legal system can be clear because it involves the developing of issues from facts and then attempting to apply the rules in each situation. People should be suspicious of any group that holds itself out as morally superior. This was the modus operandi of the nazis and the communists and of most totalitarians. Many people see right wing Christians as intolerant and hence as quite immoral. They spread bigotry and hatred of people who have different beliefs. They teach parents of Gays teens that their children are lost to G-d. They divide families turning parents against children if the children do not adhere to their demands. They want the government to adopt their religious views as law, e.g. anti-abortion, prayer in school, creationism. Their teachings on sex are based upon their own myths and not on facts. In America, right wing Christians and Jews are free to believe what they wish. When any sect tries to impose it religious beliefs on other people, then they are entering an arena where they should be opposed. The right wing Orthodox want to impose their narrow-minded interpretations of Torah on all Jews. One saving "grace" has been that most Orthodox have not interferred in the lives of non-Jews in the same way many Christians try to meddle in Jewish affairs. The idea that Jews and Christians should work together to support Torah-required behavior indicates that Yossel does not understand Christianity -- it has no Torah based behavior. In fact, the idea that the entire world should follow the Orthodox interpretation of Troah is not much different from Osama Bin Laden's desire that the entire world should be Muslim. The right wing Orthodox approach can also turn murderous as Baruch Goldstein and Yigal Amir have shown. Whether a sect is Jewish, Christian or Muslim, its belief that it knows the Truth for other people has historically lead to horrible results, e.g. The Inquistion, the World Trade Towers. They are certainly free to explain their ways within the public forum, but when they act as if their way is the correct way for others, then they have over stepped.