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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!trb
From: trb@masscomp.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Kashrut and rel. obsolescence
Message-ID: <149@masscomp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 11:38:08 EST
Article-I.D.: masscomp.149
Posted: Fri Dec  9 11:38:08 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Dec-83 22:25:35 EST
References: <424@reed.UUCP>
Organization: MASSCOMP, Littleton, MA
Lines: 37

Gil Moskowitz asks:

	If one is Jewish, one is expected to at least be aware of the
	laws, and if one finds personal reasons to follow them which do
	not have 'official sanction,' who are we to say no?  Why does
	it matter as long as no harm is done to other people and one is
	happy with ones choice(s)?

In my opinion, certainly NO ONE has the right to control the personal
practices of another (unless those practices infringe on another's
personal rights, etc).  I never said anything of the sort.  My point
once again, short and sweet:  Judaism dictates a set of rules.  You
can follow them and be in accord with Jewish law.  You can choose to
not follow them and not be in accord with Jewish law.  You cannot not
follow them and be in accord with Jewish law, to take this tack is a
shallow masquerade.  I choose to not follow many Jewish laws, and I
don't pretend that I've got special dispensation and that it's ok by
Jewish standards.

Again, as I've said before, to tell the net readers that Jewish laws
are based on health practises or other customs is not in accord with
historical mainstream Jewish belief.  The organized relaxed
non-observance of Jewish law is not more than 100 years old, and is a
step away from religious observance.  Making up your own rules as you
go along is a charade, I can't respect a system which allows such
games.  To say that Jewish belief condones such charades is
misleading to the uninformed (re Jewish law) readers in netland.
That's where the harm is and that's why it matters (to answer Gil's
question).

Note well that I'm not saying (and have never said) that a Jew who
doesn't observe the Jewish laws is any less a Jew.  No Jew is any more
a Jew than any other, just as no person is any more a person than any
other.  I'm just talking about my aversion to making up rules as you
go along.

	Andy Tannenbaum   Masscomp Inc  Westford MA   (617) 692-6200 x274