think the great Issac Bashevis Singer foretold it. Best wishes, Yanki.

and sister to be forced into the ovens, are the same rabbis who are today keeping their communities in utopian ignoranance. Just as it did not end well 70 years ago, I worry that the situation today will end up much the same. Only this time the mayhem will be from within.

To extinguish the life force of anyone, especially the young, is murder in another name... TATA

is, what God prescribed for the Jewish people,no worldly education,no work,anchored women,no national independence,i love my master i will not go free, but there are already cracks in the haredi wall,which will eventually collapse,and the haredim will become the new chinese of Israel,a great desire for education, and success in business,they will compete with their secular cousins,and will win,because of their brains and ambition,the haredim are the Army in reserve of Israel.

I hope you are right, but I think the Rabbis will fiercely defend their power over people, who have been taught complete obedience and not to think for themselves. A very dark world to live in. Not educating their children in the skills to earn a living in the modern world is a form chIld abuse.

The rest may be truth.The contrary is of course probable.

in reserve of Israel.Nicely said and very true. Kol Hakavod.

He has psychological problems. Perhaps the only accurate description is of his dysfunctional fmaily. Such a family turns secular kids to drugs, crime and prostitution. He should be thankful he isn't there (yet). Otherwise, his description of hasidic life is more like a caricature, although clearly spoken from deep hurt and an inability to come to grips with what is hurting.

In the meantime you're doing just that - poisoning the minds of your innocent sweet kids with your atheist non-jewish believes. Time for you to get out of their lives and the lives of your friends and divorce your wife. Hopefully it wouldn't take long for you to prove to yourself that there's a G-d running the world after all.

The other week ynet had an article about a young woman who was only pretty on her face. Inside she was as tainted as you. Might be a great match for the two of you. She lives in Lakewood.

Wow! I could relate to this sooo much! Although I am Litvish and single, it gives me strength to know there are others out there who are strong enough to have their own mind, yet, like me, still have to hide behind a facade. I mean, i'm not happy (at all) that you have to lead this double life but....misery loves company lol. But hang in there! I'm rooting for you and am proud of your strength! :D

My heart goes out to Yanki and all those who are suffering from like cause.

there are a lot of us out there, I myself lived the double life for about 10 years before I found the courage to leave the community completely. It caused a lot of turmoil but after several years things are settling down and relationships are on the mend. If you are looking for like minded people search for a group called "off the derech" on facebook.

He is not an atheist he just needs chizuk he should speak to his rav

I truly believe that his issue is an emotional one. People with emotional issues will buy into this article because many people in all sects of the world have had bad childhoods, and the public feeds off this stuff. Judaism is a religion of love and truth. Unfortunately there are bad families out there.

Abraham, that will smash the wooden idols,and chase away the priests who service them.

Some advice for him in case he's reading: 1) Hashem probably put you with this wife for a reason. Perhaps you will find love with her if you establish true shalom bayit. I recommend reading Gan Shalom, Garden of Peace by Rav Shalom Arush, and getting the woman's version for your wife. 2) Consider telling your wife how you feel. Perhaps after some discussions you could decide to leave the community as a family, and, as a compromise, move to a dati leumi neighborhood. You could go to college, while your family stays observant? 3) Spend an hour a day praying to Hashem to help you solve your problem, or to give you a sign that he exists. This can work wonders, even for those with difficulties with faith.

Goto Maayanot-Chabad or the New, Chabad of Rechavia, center in Jerusalem. They will help/guide you in a non-judgemental, educated way. Chabad Chassidus is novel, in that it's the beautiful balance of physical and spiritual (as opposed to the other either/or approaches). You will be amazed at what you discover! www.chabad.org Good Luck and much success!

@ Abandoned Judiasm: I AM a member of that group :)

@ J.K: No, What is needed are more people who are not afraid to worship those "idols" so that they may discover their OWN truth, not one that may or may not be true, that they just happen to be born into.

I am observant. However I have to admit that he does have a point regarding Abraham and the Binding of Isaac

Ritual is no more than a mnemonic. It's the meaning, more than the ritual, that is critical. Reliance on empty ritual, apart from that mnemonic, produces emptiness: Quakerism (Haredimism). Haredim, mired in blind enslavement to their rabbis, no longer even know these underlying meanings. www.netzarim.co.il

So...he never got a taste of a warm and loving Jewish home. He said it himself, if he'd been properly loved, it wouldn't have come to this. He didn't have it, he didn't marry it because he didn't know how to recognize what he hadn't experienced. This is a sad man. He is not internally divorcing his wife and Judaism, but the lovelessness. I wish I could show you our beautiful Hasidic loving Jewish home and give some of it to your aching heart. Poor man. I hope you find happiness and perhaps then you may find a path back.

Chabad is also a cult, and there is nothing "non-judgmental" about it.

Again attacking the Rabbanim because they don't recognise , with REASON , your self proclaimed "conversion"

Excellent question! Torah documents in several passages that in Avraham's era, the universally politically correct last-ditch desperate method believed to prevail on one's "god" was to demonstrate one's sincerity and unreserved belief in, and dedication to, one's "god" by sacrificing one's firstborn son. What "Yankl" and #24 and many others fail to notice is that the whole point of the Aqeidah is Avraham's questioning of that principle--while struggling with the question of his complete sincerity and unreserved belief in the Singularity, ha-Sheim. Avraham's question, the whole point of the Aqeidah, was: is sacrificing one's firstborn consistent with unreserved belief in the Singularity? The answer of the Aqeidah: No! And thereafter, Avraham abandoned the universally PC practice. Never in Torah, no matter how desperate, does any Judaic leader, except for the terrible error of Yiphtakh, even remotely consider it. Incidentally, this universal practice of the goyim was the cause of the deaths of all of the firstborn in Egypt leading up to the Yetziah! Placing sheep blood on the door posts instead of their sons' blood is how the Israelis deceived Pharaoh's soldiers into assuming they had obeyed Pharaoh's orders.

I was raised secular and became Haredi as an adult. I never cut off ties to my secular family and because of this my children have been exposed to both worlds and received a secular education. Some chose a more modern life, some watch TV and go to movies, while others chose to remain deeper in the Haredi world. In a way I am glad that I live in a place with a small Jewish population so that everyone gets along with each other and with the non-Jewish world.