This entry is a fictionalization based on someone I know.
I left Judaism because I was a raging liberal and now I’m back because I realized what kind of BS liberalism really is. Let me explain. A few years ago I was struggling with being Jewish and being an all inclusive liberal. I wanted to do good and I wanted the world to be a better place and most of all I wanted peace. That’s when I started looking at myself as a Jew. I decided that in order to make the world a better place, I should give up religion, kind of like the song Imagine.
How could I be Jewish and expect equality if the concept of Judaism was against that very basic thought? How could I call myself one of the chosen people if all people were created in God’s image? I left Judaism in the name of liberalism. This is without even talking about the difference of roles for the sexes and the status of Levites and Kohanim. What was so equal about the Levites? Didn’t they do the same thing as us Yisroels? It seemed that Judaism wasn’t about equality and was about labeling everyone based on their mothers or fathers. How could I be a true liberal if I believed you were different depending on who your mother or father was?
Then I realized that Judaism wasn’t about equality and didn’t espouse the true liberal ideals that I sought. I even looked at my fellow liberal Jews in disgust — the ones who were trying to change the basic tenets of the religion in order to make it suit their liberal ideals. They weren’t even practicing real Judaism anymore in the name of liberalism, but they tried to hold on to certain things and in the end it seemed like a new religion to me. If I was going to practice Judaism I would do the real thing or nothing — no bioengineering or hybridization for me.
The Torah is not compatible with liberal ideals. Certain concepts thrown in are but in the end I wanted to be a real Jew. I can focus some of my energies on tikkun olam and social justice but in the end I had to face that I could never really be a Torah Jew and a liberal.
Have I mentioned? This entry is a fictionalization based on someone I know.