Tuesday, May 30, 2023

"Orthodox"

What percentage of heterosexual men are married to other men? Zero. If they are married to other men then they are not heterosexual. 

I read a statistic [from Harav Reb Pew Shlita] that 2 percent of Orthodox Jews are intermarried. No. If they are intermarried then they have officially crossed the line out of what we call Orthodoxy. Maybe 2 percent of intermarried people keep Shabbos [but probably not bishul akum and stam yeinam....] but they are not Orthodox.  

I don't like using the term "Orthodox" when relating to Torah observant Jews. It is not a Torah sourced term and only came around quite recently [I assume in the 1800's to distinguish traditional Torah observant Jews from the Reform movement]. But I use it so that people know who I am talking about. 

The word Orthodox means "conforming to what is generally or traditionally accepted as right or true; established and approved."

There is an article by a certain popular academic about certain modern Orthodox Jews [he names them and they write and speak about it] who don't believe in Torah Mi-Sinai as our tradition describes it. Well, if a person doesn't believe in Torah Mi-Sinai then he/she is a Kofer and not "Orthodox". Wearing a shaytel, tichel or Yarmulke doesn't make one "Orthodox". There are plenty of head coverers who are not - both in belief and practice. The Amish dress like Charedim but they are goyim bnei goyim who believe in Yoshke. So yes, they are "Amish-e goyim" [as in "Heimish"] but goyim to the core. We recently encountered an organization of women who claim to be Orthodox, some cover their hair but they strongly promote the killing of JEWISH BABIES in utero. Hardly an Orthodox attitude. There is one "Orthodox" rabbi who I heard say that his FAVORITE Tfilla is not Hallel or Shmone Esrei or Shma but ... the Tfilla Li-shlom Ha-medina. That is not an Orthodox Jew but a pseudo-neo-Zionist-Orthodox-Jew [if we must give labels].   

So let us not be confused by the imposters and let us not be swayed by them.  

We must also remember that the Torah consists of בין אדם לחברו in addition to בין אדם למקום. So if a person is not honest or generous or sensitive or other important middos then he can wear tfillin all day and say Tikkun Chatzos every night but he is not completely Orthodox. I know PLENTY of VERY frum looking people who are pseudo-secular-Orthodox-Jews in some of their behaviors. I know others who externally don't look that Orthodox but inside thumps a holy heart. 

Beware of the imposters.