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judaism *challenged* the bronze age norms, rather than leaving them as they were; that is the point. judaism's norms weren't even bronze age norms but established to provide a point of progress. umph... but firstly, there are slaves and slaves; the laws are different for a jewish slave, a...

what fecking con-artists these people are. madonna's still a made-to-order metaphor for what kabbalah does not teach (fancy actually filling your radiators with so-called "kabbalah water"); it is a mockery of kabbalah to con people into paying that kind of money for a volume of zohar and the...

i thought the picture was appropriate! we observe sukkoth by building a sukkah in our back garden (in this case, out of wooden trellises lashed together with garden wire, with clear plastic sheeting round the walls and a bamboo matting roof, complete with fairy lights, decorations by the...

that's interesting - so you're saying that those are entirely derived from hadith and sunnah and none whatsoever from the primary text? it did seem unlike you! that is certainly not disputed by us. oh, i see. so, basically, it is fraudulent misrepresentation of our sacred text to sanction...

of course, sometimes it is the chicken that decides who gets inscribed in the Book of Life. b'shalom bananabrain

and i am a religious jew, married with kids - and one thing *i* have never understood is how american christian nutters seem to rely on things that they say we say (when we don't) to back up activities of which jesus himself would surely have disapproved. b'shalom bananabrain

good grief, it is? i think the language must have gone completely over my head in my annoyance at the misrepresentation of what is supposedly "biblical" as nothing of the sort. i suppose, yes, in a US context, that might be a big deal and, frankly, i'd be with you on that. however, i certainly...

they are the statements describing "biblical marriage" in the graphic above. all of them are tantamount to accusation, as seems obvious to other readers. i've given the context as i understand it and it's not about changes in the C13th. jewish law is generally reverse-engineered - we know what...

or, perhaps, the reverse. precisely. there *is* a thing called convergent evolution. it's why you get pyramids in mexico as well as egypt - not because the mayas admired the egyptians. b'shalom bananabrain

1. "wives subordinate to their husbands" not in halakhah. if this is based on the genesis story it refers to the beginning of sexual desire as a conscious consideration; the implication being, "with sexual desire goes gender politics - the flip side of the female orgasm is its exploitation...

oh, hurrah, yet another attempt to wilfully misunderstand what's in the Torah. virtually none of this is anything like what happens in the practical halakhah. so, who put this together and why? as for psalm 137, nick, have you even read the rest of it? that's *our own* babies; can you...

i realise that, even if JS doesn't. journalists are always more interested in the squawk factor, if you'll excuse the pun, than the actual purpose of the ritual. no, i'm pretty sure it's done, i'm pretty sure it isn't necessary and i'm dam' sure it's against halakhah. most of the people who...

if your concern is with animal rights (a laudable aim) then i suggest you might find more to object to in south-east asian temple ceremonies than in the jewish community; not that we should be exempt from such scrutiny, perish the thought, there have been too many high-profile and embarrassing...

*behaviours* are different, the *context* is different halakhic *decisions* are different, but the Torah remains the same; what you are objecting to is a specific type of act. i have just shown you that not only do modern jews not carry out such acts (in contradistinction to muslims and others)...

yes. they also fly in the face of how we understand the Torah. look, it's quite simple. if you want an answer to *how*, ask a scientist. no problem. is you want an answer to *why*, look in Torah. the genesis story in Torah is about why humans are the way they are and how they got that way...

m'kay. er, yes. animals aren't human, you see. the bits that aren't burnt get eaten. captured, you'll note. so, prisoners. if you are neither an amalekite, canaanite, jebusite, girgashite, hivite, hittite, amorite, moabite, perizite, nor a ba'al or asherah worshipper, nor are you a...

good gracious; do they make it put on tefillin while they're at it? some people really are feckin' feathered eejits. except if you're slaughtering it to eat! of course, when moshiah comes and the Temple is rebuilt (may it be speedily in our time) we're going to have to have to have a debate...

you don't *need* to use a chicken, although there are mystical reasons that some insist. you can perform the same ritual on an amount of money worth a chicken, like i just did (so thanks for reminding me). either way, the chicken or the monetary equivalent thereof is donated to feed the poor. do...

amica, firstly, there is no concept of "izzat" in judaism; this is a false equivalence from the beginning. secondly, judaism does not approve of these type of killings: you should read the story of dinah and how her brothers shim'on and levi killed the men of shechem, which is the closest...

the only pagans i have a problem with are idolatrous pagans and i've got *strict* tests for idolatry, based principally on the 7 noahide laws. i am not aware that native americans really qualify - at least not if you're talking about, say, the sioux. on the other hand, the native *central*...