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  1. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    The interpretation of those passages you cited as meaning to outlaws beliefs rather than the actions they actually specify, and the statement about the divine origin of Torah being a required belief. Both are from a purely Orthodox point of view that is not shared by all of Judaism.
  2. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    No, I don't want to start a sectarian tiff. But I do get extremely annoyed when the Orthodox position is posted as if it were an absolute truth for all of Judaism. It isn't.
  3. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    Heresy is not a lack of belief, but an "incorrect" belief, one that is opposed to the accepted belief. I find it odd that you do not differentiate between denying the Torah, which is a verbal action, and failing to believe in the divine origin of the Torah, which is a thought only. Note: this...
  4. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    All these things are predicated on a behavior, not a belief. You are suspected of being a min if you skip a prayer - but if your behavior conforms, you say the prayer, your belief is not questioned. Denying olam haba, denying Torah, studying heretical books, separating from the community are...
  5. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    Please cite me a place where the Gemara is requiring a specific belief of a Jew. Even when setting the requirements of a witness, only behavior, observance, is required, not thought. Indeed, even an heretic is fully accepted in the Jewish community as long as he is not proselytizing his heresy.
  6. Rhiamom

    Belief in God, a commandment?

    Before the Rambam formulated his 13 principles, there was no systematic theology for Judaism and no required beliefs. And both Rambam's approach to Judaism and his 13 principles were not widely accepted at the time, either, as they were based on Greek logic rather than Talmudic thought. A really...
  7. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Yes. This does not mean there is no respect for Talmud, just that it is not on the same level as the Torah - which in Conservative thought is divinely inspired but not dictated to Moses by HaShem. Bear in mind that we find the Oral Law binding anyway! We just have a bit more freedom to...
  8. Rhiamom

    This just happened, next door...

    This is insane, but hardly surprising. The US and Canada simply do not bother with enforcing the laws against hate speech until somebody is killed. Hate sites proliferate on the Internet. It allows people filled with hate to believe their feelings are acceptable. Once they think their ideas are...
  9. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    I know. The Traditional argument is that "as I have told you" refers to the Oral Law. A more obvious explanation is that it refers to the previous verse and spilling the blood on the ground. I find it telling that every Jewish sect of the time, other than the Pharisees, rejected the Oral Law...
  10. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Your reference to Devarim 12 is excellent, by the way. Add not eating blood to the list of commands explicitly given to all in the Torah, not just to the priests. But it does not address the method of slaughter.
  11. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Well said, Rosends, but I thought I made it pretty clear I was looking for a non-Talmudic reference to these practices existing in the home during Second Temple times. I know of no such reference other than a mention of strictly Pharisaic "family customs" that went beyond the Torah commandments...
  12. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    CMike, your insistence on Orthodox dogma as immutable fact here in the Conservative DIR is not within the rules. Worse, your recitation of this dogma has nothing whatsoever to do with my questions. You simply do not understand what I am talking about, so please desist from replying when you do...
  13. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Can you find anyplace where it is commanded in the Torah, and not the Talmud, to be done at home? There are a couple hundred years between the two, and that couple of hundred years is when the Pharisees came into authority and power. And the writing of the Mishnah was done by Pharisees, who...
  14. Rhiamom

    Jews need to get the hell out of Europe

    So you are going with option 2 or 3 then, depending on the conditions attached to gaining citizenship. Which one, CMike?
  15. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Have you read the full conversation? I am speaking of the ritual practices commanded in the Torah for Temple sacrifices, but now practiced at home. The obvious examples are shechita, netilat yadayim, and the entire concept of kashering. Sometime after the destruction of the Second Temple these...
  16. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Sorry, Ingledsva, I hope you did not mistake what I said to mean you were the troll. You definitely are not. You have a good point. In fact, the simple fact that women are said to be "exempt" suggests that the plain meaning of the command includes women. If it only applies to the men in the...
  17. Rhiamom

    Women and Mitzvot

    Ah, thank you, rosends. I am surprised that we know (or have deduced) the prayers of the kohanim. Very interesting! (The non-Orthodox mind does wonder how Rashi was able to determine what prayers were recited 1000 years after the fact.) I do not hold the Talmud in quite the same regard as the...
  18. Rhiamom

    Jews need to get the hell out of Europe

    I would like a clarification, CMike. You support a one-state solution, and I assume that, like me, you don't want it to be a purely Palestinian state. So which do you prefer of these options? 1. Genocide of the Palestinians, reducing the Arab population to one substantially less than the Jewish...
  19. Rhiamom

    Jews need to get the hell out of Europe

    Israel does not want peace. They want slow genocide of the Palestinians. I am the one who pointed out that the refugees have been kept in that status for 3 generations now, by the governments of Arabic nations. The Palestinian land being occupied is East Jerusalem, and is Zionist settlements...
  20. Rhiamom

    Jews need to get the hell out of Europe

    What we are witnessing is the entire world's reaction to over 40 years of Israel protesting their desire for peace while occupying ever more land reserved for the Palestinian state. At least the Palestinians have been honest and consistent in their message of wanting to eliminate Israel. I do...
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