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I'm not religious and certainly not orthodox
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@RabbiYomTov Let's consider the implications of these words we use to describe observant "chilled out" Jews.
Categories:Torah/Yamim Tovim
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hey everyone what's up so just want to
mention
the uh not
being religious certainly not Orthodox
so you know a lot of these names A lot
of these things mean stuff and I think
it's worth taking it apart a little
bit so as far as religion is concerned
like using the word religious i' just
like to use my definition and that is
uh when you believe things that you
wished were true believing something you
wish were true meaning you you don't
know it's true you you don't really have
a clue it's true it's somehow beneficial
for you to believe it's true that would
be something
religious
um there might be people who are um very
very observant Jews who light Hanukah
candles but have no idea they've never
done any check to see if there's a God
and they've also never um you know
really done any real work to find out if
uh if the Torah is true like they
haven't really checked that out too much
and if at all and there they are
lighting hanuka candles now now that I
think would be a religious act to light
the candles of Kaneka um another Jew who
let's say is their they're reformed Jew
or uh you know let's say they don't
necessarily believe in God and they
don't believe that the Torah is divine
or anything and no they're lighting
Hanukah candles I would imagine that's a
religious act as
well um whereas someone who knows
there's a god um they've done the work
they've done all the you know they've
they've worked it out they've they've
sought out the evidence it's reached a
critical threshold for them everyone's
got their own threshold of evidence that
they need for something to be called
true like uh like you know we risk our
lives in airplanes cars and uh walking
acrossing the street and stuff with
using just basic evidence but we don't
know we we use what's called instead of
empirical knowledge we use what's called
deductive knowledge we deduce that it's
true and certainly God wasn't expecting
much more of that unless you're a
prophet that you would just deduce that
there's a God through you know serious
thinking about it serious uh
contemplation and uh and research and
then the other thing is that the that
the Torah is true is just simply take
the document called Torah and see if
it's possible that a human being could
have written such a book um because the
Judaism claims it was not written by
human um other religions you know
certainly everyone believes that the
Quran was written by a person and they
don't say differently and and uh and
Christians don't believe that anyone
other than other than the apostles wrote
the the uh Christian Bible H but Judaism
it's different you know we say God God
wrote this Bible so who was Moses well
first of all Moses only shows up halfway
through world history you know Moses
only comes to town on you know two two
and a half Millennia after Adam and the
um anyway but the the point for us is
that that if you do your homework if you
check things out and then you do
something you're not acting religiously
that's not religious you know if I look
both ways and then cross the street
that's not a religious act okay AC think
a religious act would be not to look and
run across the street the way we live
our lives and our choices we make
throughout the day those aren't
religious choices they're based on you
know on a general process of elimination
on checking things out see if
something's real something's true
something safe and the same is true
about the Torah and our lifestyle based
on the T
then there's the word orthodox we never
use the word orthodox and if you have
been using that word please stop the
word orthodox means
strict and it is a term that was not
created by those who are observant Jews
it was a term that was created by the I
imagine it was either the reform and the
conservative maybe both but what they
did was they pointed back at the Jews
who actually were still keeping the
Torah and said oh they're they're also
Jewish meaning we're the ones like who
are moderate and normal and like keeping
uh keeping Judaism in a way that like
makes sense to us you know driving the
Sho whatever whereas those weirdos
walking a Shore for Miles you know or
won't touch their electricity or
whatever they're they're strict they're
the Orthodox Jews so it's really a
mudsling if you think about it it's it's
a it's name calling to call the
observant Jews Orthodox meaning what
you're basically saying is I'm Jewish
and they're strict you know and the
strict isn't a compliment you know
that's not a compliment at all and and
certainly yeah you know I can imagine
you can I don't I mean if you know me
you know how chilled out I am but it's
not that just that I'm chilled out I'm
part of a whole community of chilled out
people and I was just in the Mountain
City in the North of Israel in spat
that's like as chill as it comes I mean
people are extra Chill on their own
little schedule over there and it
doesn't run on regular time and my
neighborhood doesn't really run much on
regular time either and everyone is like
I mean it's like uh the
1960s in the way they deal with
strictness no one's really strict about
anything here do we keep the Torah yes
are we careful with it very careful um
if we had a choice let's say this is the
law and you could there are leniencies
you could rely on if you had to and
there are stringencies which one would
we choose so we would probably more
likely choose leniency so then what are
the stringencies for the stringencies
are to help you get close to God in that
for some
people keeping that stringency is really
going to bring you close to God and if
that's the case then you have to go that
way because we're only here to get close
to God so so but in
general most people who are in a life of
stringency or being real strict I don't
get a sense they're feeling close to God
and one of the ways to know if someone's
really close to God is how holy do you
feel in
their because holy
people who are very close to God they're
they make you feel close to God they
make they you feel holy in their
presence whereas when you're around a
person whose personality like their
disposition is a strict one so usually
don't feel very holy around them you
feel quite the opposite you feel like
you're you're lacking somehow
spiritually in compared to them and so
strictness and Holiness don't don't
necessarily go together and quite often
they necessarily don't go
together anyway just want to make that
clear so in the future um the best word
for religious in for a Jew who's
actually knows what they're doing it
would be that they're
observant and instead instead of
Orthodox that they're observant they're
observant of of the Torah they keep the
Torah the Torah laws the T values that
is an observant person not an orthodox
person and not a religious person but an
observant person someone who has checked
it out says this is the real deal and
now they have aligned themselves with
that vibration and that now that person
could be called an obser vant
Jew just share with you just quick story
that's kind of sweet I I um I when we
were in the north this week we were they
had were doing a very very rare
commandment of uh of uh of consecrating
not consecrating uh Redeeming the first
born of a of a donkey it's a very rare
thing because donkeys I guess apparently
the first child is almost always a
female once in a blue moon there's a
there's a regular donkey regular a male
donkey and then they have to um redeem
it to a Cohen and um anyway without
going into detail of that I I met this
guy there and he was telling me about
his community and and I said are are
they observant there he says well that's
up to
you and he I looked at him like it's up
to me he says
yeah how you see people
you know if you see a car driving on
chabas maybe you see them as someone on
their way to the hospital to give birth
it's up to you how observant they
are
blessings all the best and please
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well