Gofish – while I think some of what you wrote is beautiful, I do have to make a couple of important corrections:
1. Everything is in the Torah – there is nothing but Torah. Jewish religious zeal always makes one a kinder, sensitive person. If it doesn’t, it not true religious zeal.
2. Writing “whose zeal and religious sensitivities don’t override their humanity” implies that there are two truths – the truth of Torah and the truth of humanity and we can’t let the first override the second. As I wrote above, everything is in the Torah- we don’t need humanistic values – if they are part of the Torah, they don’t need to be mentioned separately, and if they are not, then they are not a good thing.
3.”I respect those who can peel away the chitzonios and find the pnimiyus within Yiddishkeit.”
We should NOT be peeling away the chitzonius. We need both the Chitzonius and the pnimius. They are supposed to go together! I think that you meant to say that we have to be careful not to get so caught up in the chitzonius that we forget about the pnimius, or forget that the main point of the chitzonius is to bring us to the pnimius.
However, we also have to make sure that we don’t get so caught up in the pnimius that we forget about the chitzonius. That was the philosophy of the early Reform movement as well as of the Yidden who came to the US and wanted to just be Jews-at-heart. This is NOT our philosophy!!! We believe you need both. They must go together and can NOT be separated!!!
“I respect every person in the world who uses their struggles and challenges to make the world a better place.”
I wholeheartedly agree, but it must be done according to Torah!!