Why would the mighty G-d, the one that created the mountains and valleys, men, animals and all the plants, the beauty of nature and all the intricate and complex life we see around us, please tell us Rabbi, why would that powerful and magical G-d, the creator, why would he be bothered with pealing a band aid on Shabbat. Please explain that "law".

The problem is charadim don't allow themselves for us to speak about them in a good way. Their actions push the wider Jewish community away from them. Furthermore, their practises are very often illegal as well as crazy to the regular person. due to these reasons, the wider community see charadim in such a negative light and are pushed to talk slander about them. if you want examples im happy to give them

Not being allowed to open a band- aid on the Shabbat is irrational. There is no rational reason for allowing oneself or child to bleed and allow for infection. In all due respect rabbi.....

i would like to suggest that maybe what you define as "rational explanation" is in fact the root of the problem. As a "religous jew" i can admit that there are many explanations which are in my opinion completely lacking academically and therefore laughable

"Let’s put the shoe on the other foot for a moment. What if the same type of story would have been told by a recent Baal Teshuva (returnee to observant Judaism) mocking non-observant Jews?" Now that would be something! Observant Jews mocking the non-observant... it is inconceivable. They are all totally tolerant and would never try to impose any of their customs on anyone else. The Rabbi never ceases to amaze. What planet dos he inhabit?

It is not acceptable to mock other people for their ethnic background or religion now a days. When Tom Marr the comedian mocked the pope recently, I thought it was wrong. In order to get along in a pluralistic society people have to respect each other for their differences. When a Jew mocks other Jews, it gives fuel to the anti-semites, as if we don't already have enough of that. If this woman takes exception to how she was raised, she should keep it private.

Tolerance has to come from both sides . How could seculars be tolerant toward people as intolerant as some charidim are ? How can seculars be tolerant towards those who throw stones on cars on Shabbat ? How can seculars be tolerant towards a Rabbi who condemns military service for girls ? and so on . To laugh about them , yes , there are some laughable customs [ the use as a chicken as kappara is one ] I have more pity of them , certainly the children , who are so one side educated , who don't see the true world .

they are intolerant of anyone not like them.

any antisemites hate jews. And not even sure if a liberal can be called a jew, sinse does not do any commandments.

The survival of the Jewish people depends on separating the essence of our civilization from the irrational. Many of the customs of the haredim are so irrational or offense that many of us are repelled by them. In Israel we see the harm that the orthodox are doing through their control over such things as marriage. Many of the orthodox refuse military service while living on state welfare as a right. I am not tolerant of those who harm others. Most of the world's Jews do not accept Tanach as the word of God. Archelogists and Kings 2, tell us that the operative part was put together by King Josiah's priests around 620 BC. If you read the "Ten Commandments" in the Book of J, they are not the same as the normative form. The Israelite people goes back to at least 1100 BC, normative Judaism was invented 500 years later.

The rabbi presents a moderate viewpoint and people do there best to look for an excuse to put him down. Well done to all the negative comments. You all have really made your point well made. We all might as well ignore any moderate viewpoints and be stubborn because it’s easier to hate than it is to like. And about the band-aid, who cares? If a religious Jew doesn’t want to remove a band-aid on Shabbat, how does that affect you? By commenting on the band-aid it shows people are just looking for an excuse to say something negative. It does sound ridiculous. But its one of the last things people should even worry about. There are things far more ridiculous than this in our world. Why should people, religious or secular, focus their energy on pointing out the negative? Why not focus energy in trying to understand something we don’t understand? If we still perceive it as negative, then maybe attempt to fix it or if we feel it’s a ridiculous practice then just don’t practice it. However If the practice is causing harm to something, then something should be done.

of the "foothills." He preaches respect when he mocks reform Jews and philosophically ponders whether he wants to support Israel because a handful of people in Tel Aviv can afford SUV's. This man spews nonsense from his tuchus and has no business getting paid for this crap on an Israeli website. Its useless garbage, rabbi, go get a job.

The intolerance of the Haredi community invites intolerance of their views. If you think that referring to people who were good enough for Hitler to exterminate with the Jews, the homosexuals of Europe, as sick and need to be institutionalized (MK Nissim Ze'ev in the Knesset) will go unanswered, then you are living in the dark ages. The intolerance of those who don't want to keep kosher or do not observe the Sabbath in the religious way will only lead to intolerance in return. To discriminate against Ethiopian JEWISH children because of the color of their skin is an abomination! Mutual acceptance for ones differences is paramount to gaining respect. Attack leads to counter attack and then to hatred. I was brought up to think that Judaism is a religion of tolerance. Today, regrettably, I know different.

It is easy to mock the more extreme observances of Haredi Jews, but these more stringent rules are voluntary for the individual.. Rav Brackman is quite right to be appalled by the lack of tolerance by the non-religious or lapsed believers. We should also remember that a lapsed or non-religous Jew is not subject to life threatning behaviour by his society, unlike the Muslim powers surrounding us who do not allow people to leave the Muslim religion without suffering physical attack .

chareidim. It will go against their (what’s that word?) reason for turning off. And that's why some Israeli judges who come from chareidi homes are more ruthless and harsher towards chareidim. Hashem Yishmor!

Although I must say that you may have been mistaken with this particular issue of opening a bandaid on shabbat since it is allowed I can answer your question in general of why G-d cares about jewish law: The Alimighty needs nothing from anyone and it is all us that need things sicne we are the ones that are imperfect as this allows us to exist. Mitzvot are all for our benefit and all of the mitzvot enable us to grow closer to G-d and effect the spiritual world. It is nearly impossible to say that the infinite one cares about humans since we see how small and insignificant we are. The real issue that we fail to see is how great our souls are and this is what G-d is concerned with. The rest of the world is just to facilitate the development of the soul. Each act that G-d gave us in the torah corresponds to a part of our soul as the soul connects to the physical body and world. In His kindness He gave us the wisdom of our soul and what it consists of. He also gave us guidlines and advice as how to develop the soul and draw close to G-d. If we dont study then these mitzvot will never make sense just as a patient will not know what the doctor is doing since he is ignorant of the science. Torah is a great science and those who are ignorant will never relate to it. Good Luck!

and not their religiosity. They claim to be the keepers of the faith, mocking all other sects as unworthy so what should I think when I read of one of their rabbis stealing from a charity to help the handicapped? Or all the reports of arrests for money-laundering for drug dealers and terrorists? What impression do they expect to make when they attend a Holocaust denial conferance in Tehran? Believe me there are plenty of other examples to go around. The fact of the matter is I know plenty of non-religious, reform and conservative Jews who are morally better people than many in the Orthodox camp.

The non-religious seem to regard the religious as some foreign illness that could infect them at any moment. In order to "innoculate" themselves against this fearsome disease, they avoid all things that have any scent of religion about them. I saw a lot more mocking of religious by non-religious than the other way when I was becoming religious myself--mostly out of this irrational fear of "catching" religion.

side 1. the "explanations" are very childish, very lacking academically and easy to rebuff. However it is expected as religion is inch deep and mile wide and based on simple stories and not "academically rigorous". side 2. mocking anybody is permitted, insulting is not. To make it even, the religious circles are super judgmental, hold very despising attitude toward non affiliated jews, call them "self-hatred" so you guys have no moral ground to complain... side 3. the religious communities offer nice human relationship in exchange to horrible poverty and blurred mind

To be fair, Rabbi, many/ most Orthodox people take the all-or-nothing, it's my way or the highway approach. I agree that it is not right to mock anyone, however.

I see no problem with people laughing at each other rituals and beliefs. I see no problem of the religious laughing at the liberals, liberals laughing at the religious, jews laughing at non-jews and non-jews laughing at jews. I see no problem with LAUGHING, period. However the ones who dictate behaviour rules to the others in Israel are the religious. That affects restrictions on the operation of public transportation, marriage, and many other aspects of the life- for everybody, for liberals who don't believe in that as well. It's not the opposite - nobody prevents the religious from praying, observing Saturday, have celebrations and rituals that they like, or do whatever they want. The religious lifestyle is facilitated and accommmodated by all the institutions and the way of life in Israel, they can shop, eat, travel, pray and live the way they want. That is great, but the same rights should be given to the liberals, if you are into balance and equality, rabbi. Yes, Israel is a jewish state, however both of the above groups are its citizens, and should have equal rights. And about who laughs at whom, who cares, that doesn't restrict anyone's life.

they don't join the military, they don't work and expect the government to support them totally while they're studying the torah and they certainly dont' respect secular jews. so who cares if someone cracks a joke once in a while

I'll remind my religious brothers that Israel didn't happen because Eliyahu Hanavi magically appeared at a Passover Seder, jumped on a white horse and cried, "Yerushalaymah!". The whole reason we have a country is because we got sick and tired of waiting for god to redeem us and we decided to redeem ourselves. Maybe if the majority of our brothers in Europe had decided to not listen to their rabbis who condemned Zionism as heresy and made their way to the British Mandate, the Shoah wouldn't have impacted us as disastrously as it did. "Rabbi" Brackman, I'm asking you honestly, can you tell me exactly why we should NOT engage in Charedi-bashing? Aside from the Sicarii during the final days of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, I can't think of a group that has done more to alienate the Jewish people from their heritage than our Ultra-Orthodox brethren.

For the same reason some other people don't like Jews, the Liberals don't like Jewish-looking people. Very simple. Don't believe? Ask oother anti-Semites.

SInce the Rabbis contention that all customs must be honored and accepted by liberals if they are in the name of religion, then logically he should tolerate without condemnation any custom ranging from Muslim honor killings, to Christian missionaries among Jews, to ordination of gays and lesbians. After all, isn't that what he's asking for? Respect and tolerance of all religious custom? Of course not- that would infringe on his religious right to be intolerant and to denigrate other religious practices. So in essence he would restrict the right to voice opinions only to the Charedi.

The completely intolerant hatred the liberal Jew has for not only Haredim but for anything to do with our religion is absolutely astonishing! No. 14 is a case in point. Hysterical hatred. Reading the comments, one gets a feeling of outrage from the respondents that many Haredim fail to live up to the expectations one would have of an eved HaShem. This needs to be addressed with kiruv and tolerance and not ignored.

Look, they're still supporting Obama after it's become clear what a hater he is, and how pro-terror he is. They refuse to support Bush even though he's 1000% behind Israel and just gave the greatest speech of his life in front of the Knesset - in short, American Jews are too stupid for words.