Reply To: The OTD Crisis: Observations

yeh now that i think about it it was pretty stupid…sorry i just hate it that the religious world ostricizes someone bec they think they r not religious especially when they r not rly off

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BS”D

What do you mean by not really off? Off does not mean doing drugs – it means not keeping Torah and mitzvos. Not everyone who is off is in trouble.

If you don’t keep Shabbos and kashrus then I don’t understand how you can expect any sort of acceptance by the religious world except as someone who indeed is a Jew and therefore should be encouraged to come back. You are telling us you want to be accepted, but you don’t accept what we do and what we believe in – in short you do not accept us. We are many; you are one. Our way is truth; you are heading into falsehood and emptiness. We’d like to make sure you don’t end up there, but either we can’t OR – see below – you need to change paths a bit while staying within Torah. Of course every neshomo is precious, but at the end of the day we are in golus and we can’t possibly reach every neshomo.

Reminds me of a not very honest or smart formerly semi-frum Jew I did business with who wanted to be treated as if he were a frum Yid as far as things like ribis were concerned – but he ate pork sausage in my office, was in an ossur relationship, made nasty comments about Yiddishkeit, etc etc.

The only message we can give you is; you are always a Jew, best of luck to you and the door is always open. Come back and visit whenever you want but remember that we set the rules.

If on the other hand, you don’t fit into your school or community that is another story; 70 ponim latorah and everyone can find a place somewhere along the spectrum.