Dear Yael,

I hope that you do understand the practical Halacha and the acts of Jewish religious people in this world. Therefore I will discuss the issue we all understand, the view of women in practical Halacha.

Look around you. Do you see women ruling on religious law cases? Has the religious community started a kollel for women? Why do rabbis teach in Beit Yaakov schools and ulpanot, but women do not teach in any yeshiva or Beit Medrash?

On the other hand, look at the secular society.

How many women judges serve in the law courts? How many teachers and female academics teach and lecture to the general public?

I have brought a common example because it deals with half the population of the Jewish people and is not a small matter.

Now I will deal with your varied claims one by one:

You claim that we do not understand the religious concepts because their origin is divine.

Your words strengthen Daat Emet’s statements that Halacha is a human creation, based on human reasoning, for no man can understand the Divine text, and the Torah was given to man. Thus the author of Katzot HaChoshen wrote in his introduction: “The Torah was not given to the ministering angels; it was given to man who has human intelligence, and G-d in His mercy gave him the Torah to use based on the determination of human intelligence, though it be untrue.”

But what is strange and infuriating is the way religious people follow the stupidity of their faith into ridiculousness and oddity. Why do religious people brag about the laws of the Torah and their religion, yet when you confront them with reality they stand there, silent, like a person who can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, between light and dark, and say “We don’t understand the laws of the Torah.” If you don’t understand something, why brag about it?

I have the feeling that religious people are defensive and protect their god more than their god defends and protects them.

Your second claim is “there is no such concept as ‘secular ideology’.” Your words are odd and strange. Liberalism, humanism, pluralism, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and conscience, and the rights of man with no distinction between race, religion, and sex are not an ideology? According to secular ideology a rapist, who took away the rape victim’s freedom, is sentenced to 20 years in jail, while according to the laws of the Torah and Halacha, the rapists’ punishment is to marry the victim.

It seems that religious people are not capable or just don’t care to see the other ideological side because it threatens their faith. Religious people know deep down that their faith is based on a weak pretext and so as not to lose it they are prepared to distort or ignore the higher quality ideology, as long as they can remain loyal to their faith, which they created for themselves. This is one of the most fascinating puzzles about man. How can a man make up a god and attribute laws and decrees to him, and then try as hard as he can to defend and protect his words, even if it means insulting the human spirit inside himself?

N.B. You are invited to present the good in the Torah.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Gaby,



If I understand you properly, you are taking up the invitation I extended to Yael to show the good in the Torah. You found the laws of a Jewish slave who is sold by the Beit Din because of his theft. You think this custom is better than that practiced by the State of Israel, which places the thief behind bars.

Your response raises the ethical and legal questions of balancing the rights of the criminal and that of the public, of deterrents vs. the rehabilitation of the criminal. A thief who steals 50 million NIS from a bank would, according to the Torah, be sold to a family who would have to treat him as an employee, and after seven years would go free. It would seem that this punishment is biased towards the criminal and would encourage similar thefts, harming the public welfare. A jail term is a deterrent.

For more minor crimes community service is the sentence, and this is similar to selling a person as a slave, only less humiliating.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Rachel,



I was confused by your words. At first I understood that you find a lot of greatness in Chazal’s literature, and afterwards you wrote that you don’t learn Gemara or the Oral Torah. [What books is it you do learn there?] Isn’t the main point of this religion the literature of the Gemara and the Oral Torah, from which the religious (even the national religious) obtain their lifestyle?

Later on it was important to you to note that you are nurtured by the secular culture of “song, theater, movement…” Did you mean to say that the main part of your personality development is based on secular values and substance?

You also wrote, “I see religion as something very beautiful if you look at it positively.” What does it mean to look at it positively? Did you mean look at it in a way which distorts the plain meaning of the Scriptures or disfigures the plain meaning of a Halachic ruling?

For example, How would you suggest looking “positively” at the Halachic ruling “one does not assist a gentile woman in childbirth on the Sabbath” (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 330:2)?

N.N.B. Your words disgusted and repelled me, but to sharpen the lack of morality in the Torah, I will bring the complete Halachic ruling: If a woman was raped and does not agree to marry her rapist (which is what would happen in most cases), he must pay 50 pieces of silver to her father (worth about 40,000 NIS in today’s currency), according to Deuteronomy 22:29. Do you think the rapist will be better deterred by the thought of a fine or the idea of sitting in jail for 20 years?



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Gaby,



If I understand you properly, you are taking up the invitation I extended to Yael to show the good in the Torah. You found the laws of a Jewish slave who is sold by the Beit Din because of his theft. You think this custom is better than that practiced by the State of Israel, which places the thief behind bars.

Your response raises the ethical and legal questions of balancing the rights of the criminal and that of the public, of deterrents vs. the rehabilitation of the criminal. A thief who steals 50 million NIS from a bank would, according to the Torah, be sold to a family who would have to treat him as an employee, and after seven years would go free. It would seem that this punishment is biased towards the criminal and would encourage similar thefts, harming the public welfare. A jail term is a deterrent.

For more minor crimes community service is the sentence, and this is similar to selling a person as a slave, only less humiliating.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Natalie,



The observance of the Sabbath as reflected in the Talmud and Halacha is not connected to a day of rest as a social benefit for the worker. There are 39 categories of forbidden labor, and most of them lead to restrictions, suffering, and a lack of tranquility.

Take, for example, the prohibition on playing a musical instrument, the prohibition against drawing or dancing. Even the clapping of hands is forbidden by Halacha. Riding a bike or a horse, which could greatly aid the rest from work, are also forbidden on the Sabbath. Swimming in the ocean or even bathing are forbidden on the Sabbath. Even taking medicine is forbidden in some cases, and there are many similar prohibitions.

Another important thing about the observance of the Sabbath: you claim that Sabbath rest is a moral value. Why, then, is it forbidden to the gentiles to the extent that it is written in the Talmud “A gentile who rests on the Sabbath is liable to death” (Sanhedrin 58b)?

About charity, it seems that you do not pay taxes, and therefore wonder “What country has a law which requires the giving of charity?” All taxes in all countries are charity taxes. With this money allowances are paid to the elderly, the infirm, and the unemployed. This money upholds free education for all Israeli children, etc.

Religious people have the talent to turn their charity pennies into some great good deed they do, better than the workingmen who give hundreds of thousands of shekel in charity tax to the citizens of this state.

Now see the difference between secular values and religious values: the secular give charity without distinction on the basis of religion, race, or sex, while the Jewish religion is careful to give only to Jews who observe the Torah and the commandments.

Secular people return lost items without distinction on the basis of nationality or religion, while the Jewish religion forbids returning a lost item to a gentile.

The Torah, as a whole, commands you to listen to the words of the Sages, even if they say right is left and left is right. That’s the whole Torah on one foot.

And what do the Sages command? To degrade gentiles, to discriminate against women, and to reject people of criticism and reason.



The religious public has still not managed to crystallize a serious plan or organized platform showing how the State of Israel ought to be. What legal system do they think is appropriate?

If the laws of Israel were based on the laws of the Torah, would women be invalid to testify? Would they be forbidden to serve as judges?



Sincerely,



Daat Emet

Dear Rachel,



Your words sound honest and true, heart-felt.

But along with the sense of inner feeling you have for religion, it is suggested you also think and clarify the values of the religion of which you are part. It is impossible to bring the example of your midrasha, which also uses secular fields of study from the school of the enlightened world and which are given a stamp of approval by this rabbi or that. If you really want to make an informed choice, you must examine the laws which are the basis for the Jewish religious legal system. When you examine them thoroughly you will see that the Jewish religion is racist, discriminatory, and forbids true critical thought. This is the reason why I write so unambiguously and sharply. The Jewish religion has devised for itself an image of being “compassionate,” “a light to the gentiles,” etc., when the factual reality is the complete opposite.



Sincerely,



Daat Emet