i feel like people fail to realize that judaism is unlike any other faith in the sense that regardless of how "religious" you are (i.e. torah knowledge and/or observance), you are still considered a jew all the same. a huge part of judaism is growth and self improvement, and such it hold space for everyone, regardless of where they are at in life and in terms of religious practice. the whole point is the recognition that being religious is HARD, and being imperfect is OKAY AND NORMAL. therefore, anon's argument holds no real substance because:

1) what does kashrut have to do with one's morals? why are they using what someone EATS (or rather does NOT eat) to determine whether someone is a zionist, or where their morals lie? what????

2) not keeping certain jewish laws does not make anyone less jewish. everyone is learning and growing at their own pace, so to accuse someone of being a "pagan" because of where they are at is beyond disgusting.

3) who is moses to denounce someone for being imperfect? moses himself is considered to be the most exalted person to have ever lived, and even he made such a grave mistake that he did not get to see israel.

4) the concept of zionism has been misconstrued by non-jewish westerners getting their grubby hands on the term. zionism is simply the belief that jews have a right to self determine in israel. nothing about genocide, ethnic cleansing, discrimination, or anything of the sort. that last part was added in by all the people who want an excuse to hate the jews who live in israel because the rest of the world does not want them.

5) the fact that someone called a jew a heathen over kashrut out of all the possible laws is fucking hilarious to me, and it reads as them either a) not even being jewish, or b) being jewish but lacking enough knowledge on the topic to actually contribute. stop talking about shit you don't understand lmao

Laws that get you kicked out Judaism if you break them:

That's it. You can be as much of a horrible person as you like, and still be Jewish.

Plus there are some evil, evil people who kept kosher. Meir Kahane kept kosher, but he was a bigoted piece of shit who deserves to rot in hell. I hate that dude and all his followers, but they're still Jewish. They don't magically stop being Jewish because most normal Jews hate them.

This is the most painfully, cluelessly cultural Christian thing I've seen in a minute, congrats anon

Reblogging this addition because I 100% agree.

@shofarsogood in some approaches denouncing HaShem makes you closer to a sinner than an apostate. Apostasy is only achieved by actively worshiping other gods. So anon calling OP a "pagan" is beyond absurd.

@nova-alien-jewposting to add to your point, the mistake Moses made was giving in to the demand of the Israelite people who, as the Golden Calf story showed, were still culturally attached to idolatry, instead of trusting in God. There's plenty of Toraic figures who are a better pick, among them Elijah who went on a mission to disprove Baal's godhood in order to prove the only God is HaShem.

i feel like people fail to realize that judaism is unlike any other faith in the sense that regardless of how "religious" you are (i.e. torah knowledge and/or observance), you are still considered a jew all the same. a huge part of judaism is growth and self improvement, and such it hold space for everyone, regardless of where they are at in life and in terms of religious practice. the whole point is the recognition that being religious is HARD, and being imperfect is OKAY AND NORMAL. therefore, anon's argument holds no real substance because:

1) what does kashrut have to do with one's morals? why are they using what someone EATS (or rather does NOT eat) to determine whether someone is a zionist, or where their morals lie? what????

2) not keeping certain jewish laws does not make anyone less jewish. everyone is learning and growing at their own pace, so to accuse someone of being a "pagan" because of where they are at is beyond disgusting.

3) who is moses to denounce someone for being imperfect? moses himself is considered to be the most exalted person to have ever lived, and even he made such a grave mistake that he did not get to see israel.

4) the concept of zionism has been misconstrued by non-jewish westerners getting their grubby hands on the term. zionism is simply the belief that jews have a right to self determine in israel. nothing about genocide, ethnic cleansing, discrimination, or anything of the sort. that last part was added in by all the people who want an excuse to hate the jews who live in israel because the rest of the world does not want them.

5) the fact that someone called a jew a heathen over kashrut out of all the possible laws is fucking hilarious to me, and it reads as them either a) not even being jewish, or b) being jewish but lacking enough knowledge on the topic to actually contribute. stop talking about shit you don't understand lmao

Laws that get you kicked out Judaism if you break them:

That's it. You can be as much of a horrible person as you like, and still be Jewish.

Plus there are some evil, evil people who kept kosher. Meir Kahane kept kosher, but he was a bigoted piece of shit who deserves to rot in hell. I hate that dude and all his followers, but they're still Jewish. They don't magically stop being Jewish because most normal Jews hate them.

This is the most painfully, cluelessly cultural Christian thing I've seen in a minute, congrats anon

My understanding of the short list of Jewish laws you're not allowed to break ever is:

In my opinion even the first one is pretty flexible - for me if you pretended to convert but in your heart didn't mean it, you're still Jewish.

“What do you mean why did I do this? I did it because I love you.” Your girlfriend said confusedly as if she wasn’t clutching the severed head of another human in her hand.

you look deeply into the eyes of your girlfriend wondering what on earth he possessed her to do such a thing, you try to speak but are interrupted by her incoming ramble.

“Listen, I know it seems… alarming that I have this guy’s decapitated head in my hands. But I promise it will make sense soon” she said almost deadpan. You have no idea what to say but you comply to her wishes and wait for her to explain.

she does not

you end up having to run after her as she seemingly remembers something important and grabs the keys to the car you share, and you run after her. if she’s making a mad dash you’d rather her not take your only form of transportation.

You ride shotgun and she starts speeding off to someplace unknown, yeah maybe going along with your girlfriend who JUST decapitated a whole ass man was probably not a good idea and you think that “wait isn’t this being an in a car with a murder indict you to like crimes?”

you can’t think of much of anything while the car comes to a standstill in front of a random forest section you lived nearby. Your girlfriend still cradling the severed human head in her arms trots up to the forest and you follow.

maybe you shouldn’t follow your murderess girlfriend into the woods while she is holding a severed human head, okay this was getting ridiculous you should just call the cops.

but your curiosity gets the best of you, you had been dating almost 10 years after all. You trusted her, you loved her. If she said she had a good reason there probably was one.

she stops her trot in front of a circle of stones, the stones were a shiny grey color. She does not step inside the circle opting to place the head right in the middle from outside the circle.

all of a sudden the circle starts lighting up like a spot light, and the head morphs and changes to the chagrin of your girlfriend.

after the spotlight stops doing its uh.. thing. All that’s left is the head of a large insect of some kind.

you look at your girlfriend with more horror and shock that you probably should have had the first time when you saw the head in all honesty.

“Well. You know how bees are”

Neuroscience is real and important (while still beset by the same implicit and explicit bias problems as all human science and medicine), but pop culture understanding of neuroscience has absolutely made society worse, and I hate it. Every popular invocation of "dopamine," "serotonin" "trauma," "the prefrontal cortex," and "epigenetics" is used to justify some logically and/or ethically terrible conclusion. Recently I saw someone say that she lift weights to boost dopamine "Because my body doesn't make its own." My sibling in neurochemistry, that is your body making its own! A chemical your body produces when you exercise is still being produced by your body! Furthermore, why are we repeatedly told that exercise is good because it boosts dopamine, but video games and social media are bad, because they boost dopamine? Are dopamine-boosting recreational activities good or bad? The obvious answer, of course, is that it's just moralistic judgment -- exercise is Virtuous, games are not -- dressed up in neurochemical justifications. People even talk about being "addicted to dopamine" as if being "addicted" to a substance produced by one's own body can even be a meaningful or coherent concept. I'm not saying there aren't evidence-based things people can do to protect their neurological health (one that I strongly recommend is wearing a helmet). I'm saying that pop neuroscience is not a sound basis for logic, philosophy, ethics, morality, law, or public policy. If you're going to make an ethical or public policy argument using "the brain" or "brain chemistry" as a justification, consider, instead, not doing that. Instead, consider that other people know what's best for their own brains without your expounding on "dopamine" and "trauma."

Apparently this ridiculous obsession with dopamine has people doing bonkers baseless woo activities to "lower their dopamine." People. Stop. Do what you ENJOY. You do not need to either justify it or avoid it because of "dopamine."

I was going to make some intentionally ridiculous analogy to framing "doing things you enjoy because they make you happy" as "dopamine-seeking behavior" -- that's like framing "eating because you're hungry" as "full-stomach-seeking behavior", or framing "sleeping because you're tired" as "well-rested-seeking behavior" -- but I realize we're about one news cycle away from those, too.

Same goes for the absolutely bonkers "your brain matures at 25" thing. No it doesn't and, no, the prefrontal cortex doesn't either. It does seem to "mature" during your early to mid 20s, but it's not 25 on the dot and you don't go from immature to mature over night. It's a slow process over years that begins long before 25.

It's like saying "you don't stop growing until you're 17." Lots of people reach their adult height before then or even a little after and, if you told a 16-year-old with two inches left to grow, "well, you're not at your final height yet, you have some growing to do," as if those two inches were super important and none of the previous growth mattered, then everyone would look at you like you were nuts. That is how you sound when you quote the bs 25 factoid.

Also guess who got 10 more followers because of these asks? Me!

I you are only bringing me more fame anon!

Shirt that says REJECTING ONE INCORRECTLY BLACK AND WHITE VIEW OF HISTORY FOR ANOTHER IS NOT PROGRESS

booty shorts that say THE PROBLEM IS YOUR WHOLE PARADIGM, NOT THE ANGLE FROM WHICH YOU VIEW IT