re: #4 kreyagg

It amazes me that religious moderates scratch their heads and wonder how the extremists can do these things, then completely ignore the fact the all the extremists are doing is following the instructions in the book that they all share.

Let me see if I can explain it to you. “The book we all share”, in the Jewish context, is not a translated Bible that tradition says anyone can interpret ‘literally’ and then act on. It is an extended, highly sophisticated, complex legalistic system, learned only through years of intensive work, and interpreted by custom, tradition, and experts in the field.

It also has a remarkably good track record in creating traditional communities in which the law was interpreted without fear or favor, and women were not stoned on the streets.

So, thanks for your “hyuck, hyuck, it says to stone women who are putting up flyers in the Bible” routine, but first, it doesn’t, and secondly, if it did, that still wouldn’t free these guys up to do it randomly and of their own volition.

So the religious ‘moderates’ are shocked because the extremists are breaking laws that have governed our faith for a few thousand years. Sorry. Clearly, we should have expected it, and gotten rid of the book.