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From: de@moscom.UUCP (Dave Esan)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Humanistic Judaism
Message-ID: <522@moscom.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Mar-85 13:31:50 EST
Article-I.D.: moscom.522
Posted: Fri Mar 29 13:31:50 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Apr-85 05:11:04 EST
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Organization: MOSCOM Corp, E Rochester, NY, USA
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Quote at the end of the article.

There are not as many mitzvot as you might think that involve either
the fear or the love of Hashem.  Of the many mitzvot, most are written
in a form that do not deal with Hashem at all.  For instance, do not
murder, do not kill, do not build an altar of cut stone, do not wear
shatnez, ... A person today is considered a good Jew is he/she observes
about twenty mitzvot (the rest are not applicable because we are not
in Israel or the temple is not standing).  Does the motivation for
observance matter?

I also dislike the connotation that the Torah talks of fearing Hashem.
It also talks of loving him (V'Ahavta et Adoshem Elokekhah - And you 
should love the L-rd your G-d).  I was taught that we first fear him for
that is natural and then as we grow we can learn to love him, for that
too is natural.
                                       David Esan (!moscom!de)

> After reading all the articles about Humanistic Jews, I have come to
> the conclusion that they are "Apikoresim" who don't believe in  G-d
> and use the Torah as a good health/good life guide book.
> This does not make sense to me as much of the Torah talks about
> fearing  G-d.
> 
> 	Meyer Steinberg