Christianity attempts to make sense of everything especially on the emotional level. I have some very good gentile friends, really nice people...AND they are not Jewish...nothing will help. The Torah in written text and with the depth of understanding of the Rabbis decided what it takes to be a qualified Jewish witness ...sorry reformers...being a nice person has nothing to do with it. All this whining and kvetching sounds like a two year old tantruming about an adult related issue which they have no clue about...

Better to live with your partner until you can save up enough money for a relatively inexpensive trip to , and marriage in, Cyprus.

There are many disqualifiers to serving as a witness. The notion that Sabbath Observance is the only one is nonsense. Many of the other defects mentioned )rapist, etc.) would also serve as disqualifiers. This is a sensitive subject and fact-checking is important. . We have enough hatred from our neighbors that we don't need to creste hatred from within.

Jews away from Judaism. I was raised in a Haredi school, today I cant look at them without feeling disgust. They are takers. They are schnorrers. They do nothing for true yiddishkeit. Yiddishkeit is all about being a mench to God and to man. God wants you to live a proper life and to respect each other and his creations. He demands very little for himself except for the first few commandments. The "Haredi" impostors will not be my judges when I come up to heaven. Israel must dislodge them from the halls of social power, or Israel will not exist. That is a fact.

You shack up, break up and move on..no problem at all. Maury would have a field day here. "YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER." "YOU ARE THE FATHER"

The sad fact of course is it is indeed reform judaism that has divided the jewish people - by reform of course we mean the "ultra-orthodox": who are trying to turn the religion into a business opportunity. The office of Chief Rabbi is meaningless for most Israelis who do not recognize him as being a rabbi or even want to pay for him and his ilk. Religious extremists are destroying Israel, and splitting the people irrevocably in two - and quite frankly when you ask what will happen if one of our children wants to marry one of your halachicly pure jews - the response is heaven forbid - we have experience of a people that cared so deeply about racial purity - it disgusts us.

Israel will not exist.

The Jewish religion has a rule book.called the "Shulchan Aruch" which outlines the minimum requirements of a person to be a witness. Basically, the witness must minimally observe kashrut & shabat showing that he is responsible to the rules of his religion and understands the religious implications of the the solemn and joyous event that he is witnessing. Neal The Hasmonean ,

circling out one person, who just started this bath becoming the head of the rabbanut (being a non-charedi candedate, possibly for the first time ever). Do you really expect him to introduce dramatic changes overnight? Instead of pulling dirt on him, find a way to sit together and to collaborate with him - geula won't come through sinat hinam!

Yizhar Hess knows full well there is a simple solution to this issue. Allow one or two wtinesses in addition to the two Halachic witnesses required. Here in London the main problem with Massorti weddings is they use their heretical rabbi as one of their two witnesses. The Tzohar rabbi should take two kosher witnesses with him, and allow one or two additional witnesses if to refuse will cause offense. A kosher witness, as I hope Yizhar Hess knows, has to be more than just Shomer Shabbos. He should be learned enough to read and approve the kesuvah.

Please by all means make your own religion and call it anything you want from Scientology to Mormonism or Latter day saints but DO NOT CALL IT JUDAISM. Do not invent something entirely new and try to steal the name Judaism from us. Orthodox judaism is just based on the Torah and is where Judaism started. If you don't want to keep the Torah that tells us to eat only kosher and to keep shabbat and all other mitzvot that's your choice but why lie and call it Judaism ????

Conservative Judaism used to claim to be a form of Halachic Judaism. In recent years they approved the ordination of gay and lesbian rabbis and approved same sex marriage in their temples. Massorti used to claim to be more kosher than the Conservative group. Now Yizhar Hess is suggesting abandoning the Torah laws of marriage which unite the Jewish people. Witnesses must be yirae Shomayim, G-d fearing and learned men, who understand the Halachot of Ketubot and are deemed worthy by the Rabbinate to read and sign the Ketuba.

How would you know? Did Hashem you you some special insight into this matter!

You are here because you fore fathers were believers. You shame their memory. Worse, your comments shame you. You have little knowlege of Israel and the Chief Rabbi's office. Contrary to what you say the majority of the state are Jews who are either traditional or observant and contrary to what you say Rabbi's matter. Kashrut matters and the Torah matters.

All the weddings I've been to, secular or orthodox, have orthodox, obviously observant witnesses. The Rabbis tell you that you need TWO ORTHODOX WITNESSES, amongst other things like breaking the glass, dress code for the bride etc. If you choose to have selective hearing, that's your problem.

Our forefathers were believers in returning to our land, not believers in all the minitiae that you hold dear. One can and does exist without the other. And traditional and observant Jews are not the majority in Israel. They were also not the majority in 1948.

The majority of the Knesset and Cabinet have tended to be on the less Orthodox side of the Jewish spectrum, but they have recognised that Traditional |Judaism is what has kept the Jewish community alive during two thousand years of Exile, while the Reform Movement in 19th Century Germany led to massive assimilation and intermarriage, as it has also in the USA. If there is some doubt about your Jewish identity you can undergo a formal conversion to clear up that problem. I wish you all the best.

I've read number 5 several times. He does not say 'Who is a Jew?. Halachically a Jew is the child of a Jewish mother or a genuine convert. Halachic Jews can be secular, Conservative, Haredi, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanist, Orthodox... There is, however, a question about Cardinal Archbishop Lustigman of Paris and Bishop Montefiore of Birmingham, although they both were proud of their Jewish origins.

Yoni, you are rude and ignorant. It never fails to amaze me how orthodox Jews decide that only their invention based on the Shulchan Aruch is Judaism or Orthodoxy for that matter, then they cry foul and bleat about Jewish unity when they want us to support them financially.

The Haredi rabbi you saw had probably brought two kosher witnesses to read and sign the Kesuva before the chuppa. We do not use secular witnesses. Part of their role is to make sure the Kesuva was written 100% correctly and a kosher witness should be a scholar.

One has to admit that we have been stupid for financint the praying classes for so long in their bid to destroy both Israel and Judaism.- Just like the zealots destroyed the country last time around. But that is not the point - we don'twant Zoihar Rabbis - we don't wantthe Rabinate - those that do can pay for them - and leave the rest of us to live our lives without having to suffer them every time when we get married have children or die.

Enough of being held to ransom by some religious loonies who wish to control every aspect of our lives. Time to seperate state from religion and allow civil ceremonies. Israel claims to be a democracy yet thousands of couples are forced to marry in another country because they are not considered Jewish enough.