Comments on Jewish Fundamentalism

I read an article in Forward about the growing Jewish fundamentalism in Israel. As always, the reader comments became a battle between those Jews who hate everything modern and normal Jews not filled with hate. The first group tend to dismiss every non-Orthodox Jew as not being a real Jew who observes the Torah. In one such alteration, I found this comment that I really like:

So when was the last time you sacrificed an animal at the Temple? Stone any adulterers lately? Understandings of Torah evolve.

That is why we have thousands of years of Rabbinic interpretation. As if Torah itself is not enough. But you (or, more likely some old rabbi that you have imbued with divine infallibility) have decided that somewhere in the distant past, a final interpretation of all matters Torah has been issued and must be followed to the letter. No modern sages can exist because in your world view Jewish law was fixed at a magical point in the distant past.

And what exactly are you going to do about the doctrine of patrilineal descent, practiced universally for most of Jewish history until the “great sages” decreed that our forefathers got it all wrong for thousands of years, and the rule is really matrilineal?

You are a heretic if you elevate the opinion of men, or one man, above the Torah itself. That is what you are doing. You are worshipping dead rabbis—also a heresy.