I am working on some very smart things to say here. Really. Meanwhile, there's 
Noah Feldman on the contradictions of a religious community facing modernity in NY Times. If you read an essay on the contradictions of orthodoxy by anyone at any time in history, you will find the same themes discussed. Ignorance empowered by authority will always be at odds with Science, regardless of how well they've learnt to split hair and write finer points on the margins of oversized books.
Couldn't the contradictory world from which we sprang be just as rich and productive as the contradictory life we actually live? Would it really, truly, have made all that much difference? Isn't everyone's life a mass of contradictions?asks Feldman. Is it? Or is it that the ones whose life is a mass of contradictions are the ones who need religion to justify their existence?
Comments
Interview with Feldman about breaking Orthodoxy.
http://www.jewcy.com/daily_shvitz/questions_for_the_author_of_orthodox_paradox
Posted by: FinchBrains | July 23, 2007 5:50 PM
Thanks for the link. A thoughtful interview.
"a skewed and distasteful takedown that encourages non-Jews to gawk at the internal problems of a modern Orthodox Jewish community. Or maybe it’s a poignant and brave discussion of the challenges of bringing a traditional faith into modern life", thus starts the Q&A. What shouldn't non-jews 'gawk'? It's a pleasure and I don't want anyone deny me that. As for the challenges of bringing traditional faith into modern life, there's nothing new in it. Everyone who hasn't embraced rationality thoroughly is doing it in one way or other, and invariably failing in the endeavor.
Posted by: selva | July 24, 2007 3:35 AM