Judaism Is Not an Obstacle Course!
From Rabbi Moshe Averick zatzal‘s basic intro to “Open Orthodoxy” here…
Rabbi Dr. Moshe Meiselman, a nephew of Rav Soloveitchik’s and Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Toras Moshe in Jerusalem, once remarked that many people have a warped view of the halakhic process; they view halakha as some sort of obstacle course. In other words, they decide beforehand that they are determined to arrive at Point B starting from Point A, and then run, twist, jump, and do summersaults in order to avoid injuring themselves on the razor-wire and land-mines that are the halakhic “obstacles.”Victory is achieved by capturing whatever flag it is they are after – in this case a feminist-progressive one – raising it aloft and proclaiming, “You see Rabbi, I didn’t cut myself on one halakha!”
This is a terrible distortion of what Torah is all about. The nation of Israel sealed their covenant with the Almighty not by pursuing their personal agendas while at the same time exhibiting great skill at avoiding halakhic sand traps, but by proclaiming, “Na’aseh V’Nishma!”[literally: we will do and then we will understand]– we first commit ourselves body and soul to fulfilling whatever it is you ask from us, irrespective of any and all personal, subjective feelings and judgments and only then begin the process of learning your Torah and its commandments. The committed Jew asks him/herself, “What path does God show me in his Torah?” not “What path do I want to go on and how can I best manipulate Torah and halakha to justify myself?”
Read the rest here (before the Slime of Jezreel awakens and deletes it)…
(Not to disagree, but personally, I cannot muster the same outrage against reforming movements. In my mind, anyways all Diaspora Jewry is heading for ignorant impiety\impious ignorance. It’s just a matter of time and labels.)