From: jmd@bear.com (Josh Diamond)
Newsgroups: soc.singles
Subject: Re: Any Available Jewish Men Out There??
Date: 31 Dec 92 23:11:18 GMT
	<JMD.92Dec30122013@lion.bear.com> <1992Dec31.163535.27462@udel.edu>
Organization: Bear, Stearns & Co. - FAST
In-reply-to: carroll@gloin.cis.udel.edu's message of 31 Dec 92 16:35:35 GMT


In article <1992Dec31.163535.27462@udel.edu> carroll@gloin.cis.udel.edu (Mark C. Carroll) writes:

   Conservative Judaism hasn't taken any "middle ground". Conservative
   Judaism is the branch of Judaism that believes that traditional law
   should be respected and interpreted in its traditional context, but
   that some interpretations must change because of the changes in the
   society and world that modern Jews find themselves living in. They do
   tend to be less traditionally observant than Orthodox, but I know a fair
   of counterexamples to this general observation.

My comparison was more in terms of how close practice is to the
traditional practice, which dates back to the time of the writing of
the Shulchan Aruch.  Your later comments agree with this.

   ]One of the rules which the Reformed dropped was the prohibition on 
   ]intermarriage.

   Not true! The Reform movement does *not* condone or allow
   intermarriage. Please, if you've got to post the beliefs and positions
   of the other Jewish movements, make SURE that you've got them right.

In that case, explain why Reform rabbis are willing to officiate
at mixed marriages.  I have been at several.  I know that it is not
condoned, but it _is_ allowed.

   ]Also note that there are subgroupings in these major headings.  For
   ]instance, the Hassidim are a sub-group within the orthodox, and
   ]Lubavich is a sub-group within the Hassidim.

   Both the Chasidism and the Modern Orthodox would disagree profoundly that 
   the Chasids are a subgroup of the Orthodox.

Agreed.  They used to say Chasidim and Mitnagdim.  I guess that to
call it Modern Orthodox is more politically correct these days, tho.
The politically correct term has created another artificial
separation. 

   The movements of Judaism are all seperated by philosophical
   differences. Pretending that it's just a spectrum where you can
   arrange them all in order, and pigeonhole someone into one of them by
   how "religious" you perceive them to be is ridiculous.

   [ long explanation eliminated ]

Agreed -- I was trying to be simplistic -- just to give an overview of
things as perceived by most of the world.  I did goof up on placing
the Reconstructionist movement, though.  The purpose of the chart was
to point out some rough comparisons between political classifications 
and the movements within Judaism.  Yes, this is not entirely accurate.
There is considerable overlap between the different areas -- and there
are more variables besides how close the current practice is to
ancient practice.

The fact is that to most people out there, many Jews included, things
appear either monolithic, or as a spectrum.  I am not speaking of 
Orthodoxy as in the Union of Orthodox Rabbis so much as I am talking
about orthodox in its English meaning -- essentially what politically
would considered to be conservative. 



Spidey!!!


--
You don't hunt ducks with a turnip! 

 /\ \  / /\  Josh Diamond                                          jmd@bear.com
//\\ .. //\\ AKA Spidey!!!                        ...!ctr.columbia.edu!ursa!jmd
//\((  ))/\\
/  < `' >  \                                              Do whatever it takes.