Dear fellow jewess, with sadness I read your story of first finding, as i did, the love and family value's of the hred and then your rejection of these!.Remember the freedoms and idealistic society form a background for all the power of his country from its Nasi and prime minister and attourney-general down to savagely destroy ordinary legal rights of due process of law of some Jewish youth on the basis of obviously faked statements scribbled on the wall of a burnt house, and before any police investigation? I challenge you to put together those warm charaeidi familieswith a Shliesel, who is simply not normal, even if he understands he is on trial.Your free society has drowned under a weight of too much freedom which destroyed the basis of society, a loving family, drugs, self-seeking desire fulfillment, the jewish nation etc. There is only one pathway to finding peace, truth and love in our world, via the hard-heart work of your ancestors religeon. try it!

How many of the yeshiva background vs secular background are sitting in prison for violent crimes such as rape murder etc... How many are divorces coming from yeshiva background vs secular background. The fact is you opine on something you have no clue. Start learning Judaism seriously so you may appreciate the treasure of Tora and Mitzvot.

Secularism and religion are competing world views and it is actually a good thing that different sections of society live by different codes. A multi-cultural society lets everyone find their prefered path which in turn means a stronger more productive society. But while the great rabbis of past generations knew how to change halacha to befit the age they lived in, todays rabbis are too often scared to change or lack the wisdom of navigation in a new era. The religious public needs better leadership (as does the secular public) and needs to avoid the fundamentalism that is destroying Muslim countries now.

Only in Judaism would someone be able to write such a ridiculous article. You want an updated Judaism? it's called Reform Judaism. Go become a member and disappear in a few generations. You either believe the Torah is the word of God or you don't. If you do, then how can the word of God change? If you don't, then like I said, try reform Judaism and not be Jewish in a few generation. Simple as that.

There is no sane way to hold the Torah responsible for the aberrant murder of an innocent girl. The Torah did not do it. Nor did the Torah counsel it in any way. Nor did the Torah unleash thousands of murderous terrorists against Israel, or hand Gaza and much of Judea and Samaria to our mortal "Palestinian" foes. Leftists did. It is time to reject the mental disease of leftism. As soon as possible, leftists in Israel's judiciary, security establishment and military should be replaced by patriots.

GOD created the world and all the things in it. You can update what GOD has created. You cannot change GOD's word to please yourself because you don't agree what is written. Whatever problem a person has they must pray to GOD directly and seek HIS councel. The rabbi or haredi community does know speak for GOD. GOD gave the people of world love, freedom, compassion for our fellow human beings. GOD is not judgemental. People are judgemental and can be cruel. The experience of Love comes from GOD. No living person on earth can modernize Judaism. Whatever your feelings that is for you to fix and that is done through prayer and a relationship with the living GOD. Do not use your Lesbian or Gay issues to think you can update Judaism. Straight people have problems - but don't ask to modernize Judaism. Look unto GOD only GOD knows the heart.

The Torah condemns violence. One who raises his hand against a fellow Jew is called a "Rosha." This Shlissel fellow is clearly insane. He does not represent the Torah or religious Jews.

You had been preceded by Conservative and Reform movements, which have figured out that the Scriptures should be adapted more to our era.

being the religion given by the Creator of the world to the Jews is above all criticism.However ,Jews are human beings and as such are not perfect.

Torah, religion, Jewish law, etc, etc. Does anybody know the Century of Lights was 3 centuries ago ? Does anybody know something about Haskalah ? Does anybody know philosophy, History, litterature, science, psychology ? Can you think only through religion ? Don't you know Galileo and Einstein ? Descartes and Voltaire ? Yosef Haim Brenner and Amos Oz ? Oh oh oh, you are so much in darkness... You still are...

1: Como'n the idiea that religion can be "updated" can only come from an atheist. god gave us the bible throug moses INC. the interpretation nothing can be changed. 2: One crazy guy kills somebody and ALL chareidim and judaism get labeled as bloodthirsty and nuts. People are the same everywhere people in tel aviv london new delhi etc. there are always killers in between them and homicide's happen every day(for all odd "reasons") and nothing is going to stop them just read the papers. If you are born religious your not perfect just because...

It's time to say the following thing : religion, Jewish or not, is a booster for exclusion, intolerance and hate. Not always of course - for exemple Reform is a really peaceful trend, and we never saw a Reform Jew stabbing an other one. The danger is to believe an excluding or a woman-hater law or any barbaric law can't be canceled because it would have been given by God. Or because tradition is tradition. Religion is not that so beautiful thing with prayers, religion is often a severe view on the world. I am a Jewish atheist, I am an atheist Zionist and I am proud to be one, as many founding fathers of Israel were.

Communism enforced secularism by deporting and killing followers of all faiths. Humanism is a philosophy that aims for the good of the people. Individual rights can be trampled in the name of the common good if necessary in the case of famine, epidemy or penury;

As I understand it, humanism is a doctrine that aims for the common good of the people. What would humanism dictate in a time of penury? Would elder people , gravely ill people, unproductive people have to be killed in order to protect the main population? Should abortion be enforced? The same for secularism: public schools in France do not allow other foods (kosher, halal), public buildings do not allow religious symbols or clothing, all in the name of secularism. Secularism could go further, like the communists did, and make it a crime to practice a religion...

A Jew who does not believe in G-d is not a Jew. As far as Im concerned the update to deal with racists should happen to the anti-semetic sect of Judaism. Every rule has a reason.

I know longer practice religion.as i can not associate with.a teligion.of hatred and intollerence towards others. Stabbing a young women to death and burning babies to death in the name of religion

Judaism, to underdate into a mortal men-made religion?

is a Jew,no matter his opinions.

practicing Jewish religion with good conscience,since her motto is: "You shall love your neighbour like yourself" and is not responsible for the reprehensible acts of people who ignore the essence of the Judaism they pretend to serve

fundamentalism,is showing ignorance of the Tora ,which essence is "Veahavta at Reeha Kamoha".

The premise of the article is true - that the Torah is filled with many directives that even religious people would never do today, such as polygamy, slavery, cutting off a woman's hand for grabbing her husband's opponent's private parts during a fight, commands to kill entire populations, animal sacrifice, directives to marry your rapist, killing women for pre-marital sex, and so forth. The fact that Jewish law found a way to not obey these commandments still leaves us with the question of did God command this barbaric stuff (that we ignore) to begin with. Of course he did not. The fact that this is a question does not make those who ask it "ignorant". It just means we don't follow the party line as to what the answer is, nor how it was derived. There is a lot of great stuff in the Torah. A lot of garbage also.

Everything in nature has a reason Same In the Tora..