Against the slow Christianization of Orthodox Judaism
While a member of Knesset wants to improve the religious level of Israel, Israeli Jews should first examine the pureness of present Orthodox Judaism.
Traditional Judaism has always been very keen on preventing complete integration into non-Jewish cultures. The Torah already tells us that Jews are a People that will dwell in solitude, not reckoned among the Nations. (Numbers 23:9). When Jews start being identical to their Gentile neighbors, their role and reason to exist as Jews is ending. Yet, despite massive effort by the Sages and Rabbis, this fight against assimilation has not been completely successful. We need to look at where we possibly went astray and begin to return to what is our own Jewish way.
Before doing that, one more idea needs to be considered. Judaism is enormously rich with many complementing, parallel and contradicting parts. So has Judaism a Jewish part (keeping Shabbat) and a Humanistic part (loving our fellow). We even learn that being refined goes before the Jewish way. So being decent and civil is part of Judaism and cannot be labeled a result of assimilation. But, being uncivilized may come from a fear of losing our Jewish Identity. So that’s the first scar of our clash with the Peoples of the world is: being scared to be too friendly.
Further, some places where we assimilated are easy to spot, namely: there where we have indistinguishable points of view from fundamentalist Christians and Muslims in our debates with Atheists. Let’s look at a few examples:
Against vaccination of children. Judaism teaches not solely to rely on miracles; we first should do all we can and pray all we can. As last resort we may hope for a miracle. We’re obligated to seek the best medical help.
Against abortion. The rabbis have different norms than Christian Fundamentalists. That gets obscured when they speak out as one body against women deciding for themselves.
Against homosexuality. Judaism sees sexuality different from Islam and Christianity. Them giving a joined declaration hides that Jews see sex as healthy, holy, unifying the partners and a right of wives.
Against the Evolution Theory. Giants as Rabbis Hirsch and Kook have already said that if the Theory will hold scientifically, Judaism has no problem believing that G-d used it (just like gravity and sun rays) to create our world. Rabbis should not sound like Christian Creationists.
Against pornography. Judaism has a totally different philosophy about sexuality than any other worldview, which should not be hidden. A Jewish view about the graveness of sins regarding porno should not echo an un-Jewish sound of sex being dirty.
Christianity is a wonderful religion but … not for Jews.
