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  1. Levite

    Henotheism

    I have always read the historical narrative portions of Nach as depicting a monolatrous culture with a polytheist minority evolving into a henotheist culture with a monolatrous minority, and eventually evolving into pure monotheism. The later strands of Torah are decidedly monotheistic, but that...
  2. Levite

    Cremation

    Good Lord, that is stunning. I am truly surprised, and also a little appalled that such an eschatological theology is still being held, despite all the flaws that have been pointed out in it over the years.
  3. Levite

    Cremation

    In a literal, physical techiat hametim?? Really? I grew up MO frum, and I never met anyone who professed a literal belief in physical resurrection-- everyone I spoke to about life, death, and life after indicated a belief in the eternality of the soul and Olam haBa, not physical techiat hametim...
  4. Levite

    Comparing commandments

    It should never be an either/or. And if it is merely a choice between some minor politeness or little nicety and keeping Shabbat, one should keep Shabbat. But if, for some utterly strange reason, one has to choose between keeping Shabbat and behaving justly and fairly to those who are vulnerable...
  5. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    Most non-Jews do not even understand what a kipah (yarmulke) and tzitzit really are, what they are for, and what they represent. They have no sense of context and meaning for these things. Which, ordinarily, is fine: non-Jews have no occasions which call for the wearing of these items, and thus...
  6. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    Because those things deserve respect, because it isn't okay to stereotype other cultures for fun, and because it's not okay to turn someone else's culture and religious identity into a stereotyped party gag. It's demeaning. It treats someone else's culture as something that you have a right to...
  7. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    It would be a refreshing change of pace, though how exactly one would make it clear one was a Reconstructionist I have no clue....
  8. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    I have seen such costumes before. They are trying to dress like Chasidim or other frum guys who wear black and white, and/or have long tzitzis hanging out, etc. I've even seen people get or make peyos wigs or hair weaves, fake beards, and so on. I once even saw such a guy carrying around a...
  9. Levite

    Cremation

    The Tanach says nothing specific, although there are a couple of commandments that have to do with respecting the body and not desecrating it. The Rabbis do prohibit cremation as disrespectful to the body, which was created by God as the house for the soul, which in turn was made in the image of...
  10. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    Which may not always descend to the level of mockery, but it is taking it lightly and turning it into a party gag. I am not a priest, or Greek, or a Scot, so I cannot answer whether they find such costumes offensive or not. I could imagine they might, though, and it still wouldn't stop people...
  11. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    A lot depends on the way the Jewish person is portrayed, and the faithfulness of the actor doing the portrayal. But a truly stereotypical media portrayal would be offensive regardless of whether the actor was Jewish; a truly faithful and nuanced portrayal would not be offensive even if the actor...
  12. Levite

    Can I be Jewish for Halloween?

    It would be acceptable in the sense that you couldn't be arrested for doing it. It wouldn't be acceptable in the sense that it would be offensive to Jews. No, that seems like it would be okay. Not offensive, as far as I can see.
  13. Levite

    Everyone who hears of Jesus but does not accept Him is going to hell.

    I believe God wishes us to find our own way to harmony with His will, and that there are many ways to be in harmony with His will, not just one. And if God had no desire for us to be able to select an erroneous path and stick with it, He would not have created us with free will. And, of...
  14. Levite

    Everyone who hears of Jesus but does not accept Him is going to hell.

    Whereas I believe this reveals that you don't know God very well. I think He wants us to think and to participate in Torah with Him, to learn and to grow as beings, not just to be passive vessels for His will.
  15. Levite

    Everyone who hears of Jesus but does not accept Him is going to hell.

    I believe Torah (in its widest sense, including Oral Torah) is a cooperative endeavor between God and human beings, and that He wishes us to interpret it ourselves, and not for us to look to Him all the time for His interpretations.
  16. Levite

    Keeping Shabbat

    And yet davening in a minyan is a shared experience. If it's a good minyan that really knows how to get their kavanah together, it can be an incredibly potent shared experience.
  17. Levite

    God is Evil - Now What?

    I am aware it is possible to speculate about what one does not believe. I suppose I simply fail to see why atheists would bother speculating about the nature of the God they don't believe in. I don't believe in wood nymphs, and cannot imagine spending any time wondering whether they might be...
  18. Levite

    God is Evil - Now What?

    I am presuming that speculation about the nature of God would be a matter for theists, rather than for atheists. Why would one speculate about the nature of a being or beings in which one does not believe?
  19. Levite

    The Law

    Not that I presume anyone cares, but if anyone were interested, most Jews find it both annoying and creepy when Christians randomly start Jewing up their conversation with Hebraisms and Judaic vernacular, as though that somehow made their Christianity more authentically Jewish. It's a little...
  20. Levite

    What!!?

    Probably helps to know that "fearing God" is a mistranslation. The word that is consistently translated as "fear" (which, to be fair, occasionally does mean to fear in other contexts) in reference to God always means "to hold in awe." God does not actually desire anyone to fear Him. He does wish...
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