I think, Chaim, that you are struggling with the wrong issue -- putting a label on your Judaism when none is needed. You clearly pass the "serious" test as put forward by Rabbi David Hartman (I believe I'm attributing this correctly) who said the only distinction that matters is between those who take their Judaism seriously and those who don't.

Certainly affiliation with an Orthodox (or Conservative) congregation is no guarantee that the member is Orthodox (or Conservative) in ideology or in lifestyle -- all we really know is liturgical preference. Time was, as has been said often on this blog, that identifying as Reform suggested a whole lot of things one didn't do -- but nowadays, many of us DO do things we didn't used to.

So keep up the good struggle to follow those mitzvot you can -- it's more important to be classy than classified!

Chaim -
In your question, you stated:

"I think if we take a severe liberal point of view, we could fall in danger of succumbing to the thought - why be Jewish at all? What does Judaism offer that is different from other spiritual paths if it completely originated in humans? I can be ethical without identifying with Judaism. I might as well meditate in an ashram somewhere."

...I agree with you - and the statistics on intermarriage and assimilation sadly confirm this as powerful threat to the future of our nation. We have to be a nation that actually explifies righteous, a people "through whom the families of the Earth will be blessed"; instead, thousands of Jews are themselves turning to the paths of the Indians, Chinese, or... American Secularists... and trying to assimilate ourselves to fit _their_ example.

You went on to say: "However, neither can I accept the Torah word for word in the fundamentalist sense because by default I will need to enter into the world of 'black-hat' Orthdoxy. Does this make sense?"

Achi (my brother), I would encourage you to examine the Torah from a _non-rabbinic_ perspective, as is found in Karaite Judaism. I am an African American convert from Christianity, and being able to live a Judaism which is not at the whim of a council of clergymen (whether Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox), is profoundly different that limiting oneself to either diminishing from the Written Torah's authority on the left-wing of Rabbinic Judaism or adding thousands of enactments upon it (in the right-wing of Rabbinic Judaism).

Additionally, I would respectfully disagree with the speed with which you dismiss divine revelation as a option - when we understand that much of the religious perspectives of modern Western Christians and Jews has been inflicted with Weak Theology (the characterization of God as a cosmic security blanket, that does not create, judge, or reveal Himself), I see this as a concession to secularism by stuffing the reality of God into a convenient sandbox.

As the 1,100 clarion call of the Karaite Movement says:

"Hapisu beOraytha Shapir - weAl tisha`en `al devarai". (`Anan ben Dawid)

"Search well in the Torah, and do not rely upon my own words".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaite
http://www.karaites.com
http://www.karaim.net (Hebrew forum)

Since you asked for people's input, I'll leave my email: yaaqov1@gmail.com

Shalom `alaikha Chaim and Shavu`a Tov.

You stated: I believe the Torah to be sort of a 'mystical code' of sorts written in simple language to convey deeper metaphysical ideas and concepts.

I vehemently disagree here.
The Torah is a literary piece like most others written in antiquity, in the sense that it was meant for people profficient in Biblical Hebrew to comprehend in its plain meaning.

Please distance yourself from Qabbala sort of claims regarding the Torah (Khumash). Or do you actually believe some Qabbala works were authored by Adam or Avraham? Because the logical conclusion of that Qabbala-fond mindset does lead to such absurd convictions.

Example of non-Rabbinic Jewish liturgy:

http://www.orahsaddiqim.org/Liturgy/Tefillat_Erev_Hol_HaMoed_Shel_Hagh_HaMassot.mp3

mikol melamdei hiskalti -- I learn from all I study with. I had no idea that there were karaite congregations in the USA -- from the Wikipedia reference one in Daly City CA and from the liturgy link one in Albany NY.

One lesson for the readers of this blog is that you can reject the Talmud and still pray in Hebrew!

But given that this blog is devoted to Reform Judaism, which is clearly a development from the Rabbinic tradition, it's a misuse of our forum to proselytize for a divergent form of Judaism, as Mr. Walker appears to be doing.

I don't think that Chaim will find much support in the Reform movement for his literary critique of the Torah as "the worst writing ever." These books continue to be studied as worthy literature without regard to their religious content -- so while he is, as he correctly states, entitled to his opinion, we do not have to accept his opinion as having any validity except for him.

I did not say the Torah was THE worst writing ever. In the context of what I was saying, i meant that it is some of the worst literary writing ever *IF* it that is all that it was meant to be when it was written. I did NOT say it doesn't have meaning or substance to it, but quite the opposite - that buried beneath its 'simplicity' must lie something deeper and more profound that just a literary work of antiquity. I LOVE the Torah. I'm not sure how my comments have been miscontrued to say that I don't love the Torah or am throwing it out?? The Torah is studied as worthy literature because it has been the glue to hold a scattered people together for thousands of years. It DOES have something to teach us of course!! I think the fact that the Torah still elicits so much study proves my point that there is something 'more' there, even if many are not aware of it.

But there have been MANY prominent Rabbinic thinkers who think along the same lines as I do - that if the Torah is just a literary piece, surely we could have written better stories! Actually, I think even the Zohar (a canonical text of Judaism) also states this. So I am not alone in this view, not even in the sligthest.

~ Chaim

Dear Larry,

First off, the name is Zvi. The extra Z was a typo.

Please calm down; I wasn't exuding hostility toward you.

I do understand that Judaism has always been an evolving religious culture, designed to meet the changing needs of the Jewish people across time and space, and this is true to some extent also of Qaraite Judaism too.

I failed, though, to clarify that Orthodoxy is closer to the original form of Judaism chronologically. It emerged as a splinter group directly off from the mainstream circa 200 BCE or a bit later during the 2 cen. BCE whereas Reform split off of Orthodoxy many centuries thereafter. Even in religious practice, I believe it's still fair to establish that Orthodox Rabbinic Judaism is closer to the mainstream its Pharisaic antecedents splitt off of than Reform. I surely won't deny there's no more qorbanot and obligatory pilgrimages to Yerushalayim during the Hagim. Yet Orthodoxy and its Pharisaic predecessors have retained some portions that Reform gave up on, and even the more Orthodox-inclined Reform haven't yet embraced all of those parts their Reform predecessors cast away. (I'm leaving out judgements on whether or not this is positive. This is for them to sort out amongst themselves.)

I think it's fair, though you probably differ, to regard the Rabbinic form of Judaism -- the Jewish mainstream since after the sacking of the Second Temple -- as Orthodox Judaism, though I recognize all the aspects in which it differed from the movement it later morphed or evolved into in response to the genesis of the Reform movement.

Sorry Larry, I haven't seen a reason to avoid "generalizing" regarding most my aforementioned Reform Jews' main principled attitude toward the Talmud's Rabbinic authority, though I'm willing to hear stats that refute my view. By all means, if you have them, please bring it on.
Secondly, I do not accept the Rabbinic maxim "elu w'elu divrei Elohim Hayyim" being that I'm a practicing non-Rabbinic myself.
Thirdly, I do sort of "castigate" the opinion of somebody who publicly belittles so blatantly the foundational document of our common Jewish faith. Call it narrowminded, fundamentalist or benighted, I don't care. I bear no personal animosity toward Chaim, but I'm not willing to tolerate that sort of phenomenon where the Torah is bludgeoned by a Jew who had left an impression that he was more or less serious in his observence of miswot and looked favorably on the possibility of living accordingly.