I think that what seems to me to be the real crux of
the questions we've ben asking in the intermarriage
diuscussion hasn't actually been asked, and that
question is really, what's the point?
It seems to me that one of the great lacks of our
movement currently is that we've lost the sense that
Judaism has a mission which can be fulfilled by no one
else.
If we can inculcate that sense of mission, then people
will become Jewish, will marry Jewish, will convert
and be halachic Jews,; if we can't there's not much
point in staying jewish.

SO my question is now, to follow this, do we really
believe that we have such a mission?. I do
personally, but as a rabbi in a pulpit, it seems to me
that the idea that Judaism has apurpose, and that Jews
have a special relationship with God, and that living
a Jewish life brings us into that relationship and
fosters our mission, is looked at as naive at best,
and actively offensive to some.
I personally would like to see a way of reviving that
sense of purpose, the belief in God, and in mission,
and I think that until we are able to do that, a lot
of these other discussions are gong to be simpley
repeated over and over again: l'fi aniyut da'ati,
we're focusing very hard on not just the trees, but
the leaves n the trees, and missing the forest.
And I don't mean that they aren't important maters,
but I do think that when we succeed in believeing
deeply that the way we live matters, that the way we
live, halachically, promotes our purpose, and that our
purpose is important - even essential to the world,
then people will start to live halachically, and be
more considering of whom they date, before it gets to
the point of marriage.
.02

Alana



> Do you want your children to marry Jews and raise
> Jewish children?



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