One thing that bothers me about modern Judaism is the continuous shift to the strict and serious. When my father was a kid and when I was a kid you checked the ingredients and then ate it. People would eat a tuna sandwich in a restaurant. And they were religious Jews. Now it’s too easy to be religious, so they heap on the requirements. Used to be tough enough just to not work on Shabbat.
Today if it doesn’t have the best (out of many) hashgacha you don’t eat it, and you burn down the butcher shop if they don’t use the right hechsher. You examine an esrog with a loupe and you have to be the last and the loudest to finish kriyat shma.
What does it take to make a kosher succah?
Are they adding new rules every year?
Or did Moses really whip out a level when pitching a tent?
Actually, I’m talking 20 years ago. I don’t know what the hell goes on today. Talk about 10 foot poles…
Not to mix it up too much – but do you find that the more ‘black’ the congregation, the nastier the people are to you. When my dad passed away, my brother and I went to daven down the block in a shteeble. We both felt so uncomfortable that we switched to the only conservative shul in Flatbush. (And they had actual black people sitting there, by the way) Just to get away from the oppression – imagined or otherwise. This is the reason that I like Chabad. They actually seem to like people. It’s like important to them to be friendly. What a concept!
Oh, and I once went to a shul (not even a black one) and some old croak came over to me to complain that it’s not the proper respect to enter his shul without a tie.
What do you make of that? Like God telling Moshe to take his shoes off, no? Yo, kiss the pinky, whitebread!
I love mail like this because its clearly from people who don’t understand what I’m doing, I’m not bashing – I am merely poking fun, so here is my response to some of this letter.
“When my father was a kid and when I was a kid you checked the ingredients and then ate it. People would eat a tuna sandwich in a restaurant. And they were religious Jews.”
You sound exactly like my dad, but seriously dude, if you want to do this, do it, no one is stopping you – its merely your need to fit in with mainstream orthodoxy, I could introduce you to dozens of frum Jews who eat what I call technically kosher – but you should know that with all the preservatives put in pretty much everything you cant trust much anymore. Seems like everything has animal by-products. Also wouldn’t you care to know that your tuna sandwich was made with a knife that had just cut a ham and cheese sandwich?
“Today if it doesn’t have the best (out of many) hashgacha you don’t eat it, and you burn down the butcher shop if they don’t use the right hechsher. You examine an esrog with a loupe and you have to be the last and the loudest to finish kriyat shma.”
But you can eat it, what’s the difference if your neighbor doesn’t eat it? Do you really care that much? You can do whatever you want – once again – you should just pay attention to what you do, do you feel envy of some sort?
“but do you find that the more ‘black’ the congregation, the nastier the people are to you.”
This is complete Bullshit, its all location my friend, seriously, have you ever been to a modern orthodox shul in the NY metro area? Its just as unfriendly if not more unfriendly then black hat shuls. By rule of thumb NYkers are unfriendly that’s just how it is.
“This is the reason that I like Chabad. They actually seem to like people. It’s like important to them to be friendly. What a concept!”
Because they have an agenda, and they are drunk!
“Oh, and I once went to a shul (not even a black one) and some old croak came over to me to complain that it’s not the proper respect to enter his shul without a tie.”
Happened to me once, and I wanted to tell the guy to go F himself, but instead I never went back to the shul.
A tie! It’s such a goysha thing. No Yid should wear one.
They call it the Litvishe Gartel – separates the head from the heart!
disgusting article how can you post this
Right you are Heshy, definitely Litvish… we just moved to a Litvish eruv, and everyone wears a tie… I started feeling wierd so I wear one now too!
Parent – did you not see my response
I like your response.. That there is a difference between “The rav who lets a child molester hide is a slease and disgrace to Judaism”, and “The Rav who lets a child molester hide is why Judaism is bad”. Nice.
I feel bad for this guy, i mean he has got to understand if there is 20 million yids out there then there is 20 million and 1 diferent jewish expiriences.- as far as the tuna sandwhich scenario sounds to me like the “religious” people he knew back then were not really frum because at no point in history was it ok to eat trayf and utensils that are not toyvled are not kosher. “Black types” are here or there- nice or not, just like any type of yid. just like any type of human. many reform yids are big a holes with lots of money, many are great. this guy sounds jaded and i would say find a cool rabbi that you trust and try to find common ground . its all in stages. definatly don’t let minhag kill your expirience… Judaism is chess not checkers…
I saw your rebuttal and still think it was stupid to post this
It should definately be compulsory to where a tie in Shul!
Ties should never be compulsory. Full Stop.
If Judaism is too strict, you can always form another branch with the philosophy that you can do whatever you want. Eventually you will have moved so far from Yidishkeit that you will have “rabbis” born of non Jewish mothers who live in same gender relationships. Or you could follow that humanistic Judaism which is atheism with a Yoddish tam.
Shmeckela,
love it!
Shmeckela that sounds like the renewal movement
Maybe he meant it satirically?
Nice rebuttal.
No, really this is atrocious
To FrumGer,
there is nothing wrong with using untoveled utensils owned by a non-Jew. Frankly, the sentiment is somewhat correct. It is theoretically possible to eat a cold meal at an unkosher restaurant, as opposed to a hot meal which would probably never be okay.
Either something is kosher or not. Do coffee mugs in non-kosher diners really have cooties that “fartreif” my coffee? A vegetable salad can be unkosher if there are white onions in it?
I don’t think so.
And what really irks me is that for some Jews it is halachically OK to wait 3 hours from meat to milk and for others 5 and others 6. Human digestion DOES NOT change based on where your grandfather lived. Sheesh.
Nor does rice ferment differently on Pesach if your bubbe was from Yemen or Minsk.
Seems our rabbis are historically unable to just make rational law and stick with it. So everyone makes their own.
You should check out kashrut.org.
Rabbi Yitzchak ‘Abadi and his sons hold that one can trust the FDA (and similar organizations in civilized countries) to determine kashrut.
They bring up many examples in their forums of kashrut industry propaganda:
1-Red food coloring is made from insects. Do you really think that a candy company’s gonna send out a team of biologists into the Amazon Rain Forest or wherever to collect (and possibly cause the extinction of) a bunch of bugs, when it’s a lot more practical to hire people to make synthetic food coloring?
2-The FDA doesn’t require ingredients under 2% to be listed, which is above the requirement for Batel BeSHishim. They provide a link to the FDA website, which shows that this is not true.
BTW,
Rabbi ‘Abadi is not lenient on everything regarding Kashrut. For example he holds that soft cheese must be Gvinat Yisrael.
I trust kashrut.org more than companys that tell me that rubbing alcohol or tin foil is kosher.
In comment #20, it should read “which is above the LIMIT”
I agree with the author of the letter. None of you want to admit it but you know he’s right. No excuse me, i have to re-hem my red arm band and put a new white circle on it……
I mean – if you are obsessed with red dye #2 then does it really matter what it says? what a waste of time.