[doctorzlo]

Here are a few answers, but first, what the hell are you smoking? I'd really like to know.

Why do some Jews who are not observant disown reform Jews who are more observant than they are?

Never heard of this one, but for me, and for most of Eastern European and Israeli Jews being a Jew is matter of ethnic belonging, not religious observance.
Why does everyone think that the blonde or black Jew is of neccessity a "visitor" and not a Jew? See above.
Why do some people still insist the Khazars are not Jews? Many Hazars did not convert to Judaism, and most of today's Jews are not in any way related to Hazars.
Why does everyone flip out that the Bene Menashe are Jews and are actually going through the Orthodox conversion process to prove their are sincere, and are moving to Israel? We can check where they are ethnic (real) Jews by using genetic tests. I don't know if such have been done. As for their religion, first not many care what they believe, and second as far as I know group conversions isn't really a thing of Judaism. Unless you are a Hasidic Rabbi, running a sinagogue in Russia, since these people just sell conversion certificates to anyone who has the money to pay for one so that they can move to Israel.
Why do the Torah observant Jews insist everyone tow their line, but even they don't stone anyone to death, so they are picking and choosing too arent they? Because they are crazy.
Why do I have to wear a wig? Why do you have to wear a wig?
What is wrong with men that a woman's hair bothers them so much...get over it!! It doesn't bother us... get over it!!
Why do some Jews say that the Chassidim are not Jewish because they choose to dance and free-style sing to G-d rather than say the required prayers? Because they are crazy. Jews are an ethnic group, with a few goys in the mix. How they dance doesn't change who they are.

[Big A]

Okay, now I'm really laughing, and I'm sure that will upset someone, but that says I can sell roadkill to a "stranger". That's just too much...just too much. I really love my religion, but my goodness, selling or giving someone a "carcass" that's just terrible.

On the bright side, there is the implicit assumption that there will be strangers among us right? Well, that's sure proven true, but I think there is also a Rabbinical ruling on tzedakah that defines who is, and who is not, a member of the community, and what they must give to the community, and the community must give to them. It also says that the Jew must provide the stranger with a real meal and it doesn't say anything about that meal being a "carcass" or "roadkill", it says something like a full loaf of bread, no cheating

As for the hair being part of the body, well...that may be true, but what about eyebrows and eyelashes? I guess that's what the religious policemen in Saudi are doing...running around inspecting for the stray eyelash or brow showing. It's all just insanity I must be a heretic or something.

[PhillipHer]

[QUOTE=Emunah] My father started asking me that when I was 12, in 1975, but I wasn't smoking anything then either. I can understand why HE asked, but since a lot of people STILL ask and I don't smoke anything, it does bear some examination. I can assure you that I am perfectly normal, but I have a way of looking at the world that causes me to question just about everything. It's like being an anthropologist but applying those "observational skills" to what I see from day to day as opposed to on a trip to Swaziland or something. Arrrhhh.... and I hoped it grew in Cali and I could just give a call to my man Rasheed...

[radikal]

Alright, I guess this is the right place for this topic. I have these questions and I don't know where to ask them, so here I am...

I'm not sure I understand your question. Why are the faiths with rigid practices different from one another? Why do they make distinctions internally as well? Why do some practices appear strange or silly on the outside?

The fact is, in Judaism, there are a million commonly accepted reasons why such and such is so. There is little point in debating that. Once can argue that the underlying reasons are false or nonsense but that has zero validity or point. They are what they are; one can accept them or throw them all out or say the very question itself is ineffable. Or one can argue on socio-historical grounds and wind up where you started.

I'm sure all the other formal liturgical religions are similar. After all priests could marry until about 1140 or so. Someone needed a good enough reason to change that one, St. Jerome's abject fear and hatred of women notwithstanding. And can you imagine someone with the worldly philosophical bent of St. Augustine today; "Oh God make me pious and holy, not just yet though...."? I don't mean to pick, these are just examples.

[brraverishhh]

Well, I'm not a believer, and I don't believe the Rabbinical interpretations of the Tanah are correct, but here is a verse that I believe addresses a similar situation:

Devarim 14:21
You shall not eat any carcass. You may give it to the stranger who is in your cities, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner; for you are a holy people to the Lord, your God.

I believe this verse makes a very good case for selling the $1000 wigs, not burning them. Carcasses (i.e. an animal which was not killed in a halchically acceptable way) cannot be compared to idolatrous material. There is nothing wrong with owning non-kosher meat, but you are not allowed to own idols or their paraphernalia.