mls@wxlvax.UUCP (03/20/85)
The postings regarding religion in Israel and Humanistic Judaism have one thing
in common, they ask the question:
Do I have the right to determine what I wish to observe?
The answer in at least two cases must be NO. Those areas where every Jew
must follow the most rigid level of observance are conversion and divorce.
They effect not only the people who are directly involved, but any
children resulting from marriage. Say, for example, you think that
the observance of Halachic conversion is outmoded or is unnecessary. You have
children and they believe they are Jewish. In fact, they become more observant
than you (this is not an uncommon situation these days). It is now time
to get married and they tell the Rabbi the family history. If the Rabbi
says the original conversion was invalid and it was the person's mother, then
THEY, not YOU, have problems. In this case, it can be corrected, the
individual can convert. How you think they will feel toward you and your
child toward him or herself? If the child was a woman and she wanted to
marry a Cohen, the marriage would be off. If it were a case of divorce,
and the child was declared a mumzer, there is little that can be done.
How would the child feel?
What would you say to either your child the mumzer or the woman who wanted
to marry a Cohen? =I did not agree with Halachic Judiasm and did it my way.
I have closed paths that would have been open to you because I was only
interested in myself.= In serious cases of depression, a person may, G-d
forbid, take his life. Is it all worth it?
In the past, when there was only one standard, these problems were less
prevalent. There was a single standard toward conversion, marriage, and
divorce. Just as we have standards in many technical issues, we should
have standards in the halachic status of Jews. (I do not think that
halachic standards should apply toward the secular Law of Return, whose
intent is to provide a safe haven for people who are persecuted as Jews;
their halachic status can be resolved when they are safe.)
Even if you are strongly anti-halachac, think of the following generations.
The actions you take today may effect your children, and their children,
and their children.... The actions you may take today may ruin the lives
of your offspring and the people they intend to marry. Why should your
beliefs destroy the happyness of those who are innocent.
M.L. Schneider