Prairie Fire Judaism

...or that a woman may never remarry if her estranged husband refuses her a get...

...If this idea resonates with you, let me know...

...But just as Orthodoxy won't change anything, Reform will change anything...

...So, to return to my opening, it is lonely out there if you believe in the Torah, but don't believe that riding in a vehicle to synagogue desecrates Shabbat...

...Well, then, isn't Conservative or Reform Judaism made just for Jews like me...

...that the Torah did not intend to prohibit a husband from touching his menstruating wife, let alone passing an object to her...

...But my Jewish intellect rejects some of its non- Torah tenets...

...that a woman who dies in childbirth does so because she either failed to light Shabbat candles, observe the laws of niddah, or break off a piece of the Shabbat challah...

...I see no Jewish reason to believe that kosher food is rendered non-kosher because the clean dish on which it is served to me once had nonkosher food on it...

...But that doesn't matter to him, to the great majority of Reform rabbis, and to an increasing number of Conservative rabbis...

...Conservative rabbis may observe more religious rituals than Reform rabbis, but theologically they have become largely indistinguishable: Both hold that the Torah is man-made and therefore man-changeable...

...I would like to know that there are other Jews like me...

...Reform rabbis say they can change whatever they want, while the Conservative rabbinate argues that it is halachic...

...Let's begin with Reform observancy, which I have practiced regularly for over 12 years...

...The Torah and all of Judaism are so clear about the nature of marriage and the primacy of the manwoman relationship that a J ew can only support "same-sex marriage" within Judaism by holding that he is right and the Torah and subsequent Judish practice are wrong...

...Dershowitz disagrees with the Torah, he thinks the Torah is wrong, and when I disagree with the Torah, I think I am wrong...

...Rabbi David Ellenson, the wonderful man who heads the Reform rabbinate, recently gave a speech at Harvard University on behalf of redefining marriage...

...I believe that yom tove sheni, adding an extra day to a holiday, actually contravenes the Torah's law, "Do not add and do not subtract from it [the Law...

...It can be pretty lonely in Jewish life if you aren't Orthodox but believe that core Jewish values such as man-woman marriage and God-based morality are immutable...

...They are simply more enlightened than the Torah and 3,000 years of Jewish teaching...

...Honest man that he is, the Harvard Crimson reported that Rabbi Ellenson "admitted that homosexuality is always portrayed in a negative light in Jewish texts" (italics added...

...I love the personal freedom in Reform Judaism which ensures that those who keep any mitzvot do so because they really want to, not because of social pressure or habit (two major factors in Orthodox life...

...Or that dairy and meat dishwashers are necessary...

...I was raised Orthodox, and tried to live it again with the birth of my first child...

...W h y be guided by the Torah when The New York Times editorial page is so much more up-to-date and "progressive...

...In speaking to Jewish groups around North America, I have become certain that a Torah-based Judaism which honors rabbinic law but doesn't deify it could bring vast numbers of non-religious Jews to living Judaism...

...We might even start a Jewish prairie fire...

...The list is long, and my desire for a community that believes in Godbased Torah does not trump my need to be what at least I would consider to be intellectually honest...

...I believe that the rabbinic declaration of chicken as meat, though chickens can no more produce milk than fish can (and therefore cannot be "meat" vis a vis milk), has actually damaged Jews' ability to understand the profundity of the milk-meat separation (which parallels the separation of life and death...

...Whatever liberal, secular society believes, the dominant strain of Reform believes...

...He agreed...

...We need to know each other...

...Moreover, Orthodoxy can be a warm, life-embracing, comforting system that provides community, friends and meaning...

...It all reminds me of something I said in the midst of a debate with Professor Alan Dershowitz at New York's 92nd Street Y a few years ago: "The difference between Prof...

...Imagine that—a Jewish movement whose rabbis believe that preserving an extra day of yom tov is more urgent than preserving marriage as a man-woman institution...

...I am entirely serious about this (you can easily email me through my website, dennisprager.com...

...Orthodoxy holds what I hold sacred—for example, a God-based Torah, the sanctity of male-female marriage, and the immutability of the Torah's values...

...If you are not Orthodox and you believe in the divinity of the Torah, the chosenness of the Jews and that marriage is meant to be between a man and a woman, please send me an e-mail...

...Let's begin with Orthodoxy...

...Dershowitz and me is that when Prof...

...In other words, a truly religious, God-and Torah-centered, non- Orthodox Judaism is what Jewry needs most...

...Prairie Fire Judaism Dennis Prager I am certain that a Torahbased Judaism which tenors rabbinic law bat doesn't deify it, could bring vast numbers of non-religious Jews to Judaism...

...I wish I could believe what the Orthodox believe...

...Why is it lonely...

...So while Conservative rabbis won't change the second day of yom tov, more and more Conservative rabbis will change the definition of marriage...

...That's the issue regarding "same-sex marriage...

...I believe that not showering on Shabbat or yom tov can take away from those days' kedusha, because the Torah makes it quite clear that bodily cleanliness is an aspect of holiness...

...And a J ew can maintain this only if he believes that the Torah is man-made—which is what nearly all Reform and more and more Conservative rabbis believe...

...But the Reform rabbinate may be more consistent...