1:27 PM
Gil Student
A letter in the current issue of The Jewish Week:
Rabbi Michael Strassfeld’s philosophy of embracing "a pluralistic society that allows for many versions of God’s truth" ("Teshuvah Through Change," Sept. 3), including versions that involve the worshiping of idols, might be called many things, but Judaism is certainly not one of them.
And although Jewish religious tradition is clear about the innate holiness of all human beings, it is equally clear about the fact that the Jewish people are a people (gasp!) chosen and charged to remain in many ways apart from other nations.
Rabbi Strassfeld dismisses Jews who insist on adhering to those aspects of Jewish faith as "fundamentalists," and offers "change" as his translation of "teshuvah." What teshuvah really means, though, as any "fundamentalist" day school child could readily inform him, is "return." And as used, particularly in this season, it refers to Jews’ need to re-embrace the fullness of the Jewish tradition.
Rabbi Avi Shafran
Director of Public Affairs
Agudath Israel of America
New York, N.Y.
