I respect all the above posters for finding facets of other yidden which they respect and are worthy of respect. Mi K’amcha Yisroel – and we should daven that just as we are finding the good in other jews, so too Hashem should see the good in all of us.
I don’t want to be misunderstood or to break the flow of these wonderful positive posts but there was one post above which I feel needs to be responded to and since nobody else did, I will take it on myself to do so.
Respecting anything and everything is a wonderful thing but it has one danger – that should we respect movements that are anti-torah, perhaps we are inadvertently disrespecting the torah in the process. Of course disrespecting the torah is not the intent, and I sincerely respect ronrsr for his good intentions in trying to find something good in something as bad as the reform movement – a movement which does not believe that the Torah is from Hashem and does not represent Torah or Yiddishkeit. I hope you, ronrsr, will take no offense to this, none is intended. I realize you did not mean to say that you respect them for being anti-Torah, however, as I said, showing them any respect at all would seem to be wrong. Certain things we must fight and not respect. Had the Chasam Sofer and Rav SR Hirsch respected the reform movement, many kehillos would have been lost.
And to be clear, I am talking about reform as a movement, which is what ronrsr referred to. Individual reform jews who never received a Torah education and dont know any better are certainly deserving of our respect, if for no other reason then just for being our brothers and sisters.
I don’t want to hijack this thread and cause the amazing chain of positive posts to end. If anyone else wants to discuss the reform movement I think it would be best to start another thread for that. And again, ronrsr, I truly hope no offense was taken.
To get this thread back on track, I respect all frum teens who, in this day and age, must fight temptations and nisyonos that probably no previous generation has ever had to deal with. This respect is not just for those that pass with flying colors, it is also for those who may be labeled OTD but who try their very hardest – sometimes winning the battle and sometimes unfortunately losing – to do what’s right.