Why Is Judaism Obsessed With Details?
Posted by evedyahu on February 4, 2009
Here is a good point by Rabbi Aron Moss on the importance of details in Judaism:
Why is Judaism Obsessed With Details?
by Rabbi Aron Moss
Question:
Why does the Jewish religion seem to obsess over insignificant details? How much matzah do we have to
eat; which spoon did I use for milk and which for meat; what is the right way to tie my shoelaces…. It
seems to me that this misses the bigger picture by focusing on minutiae. Is this nitpicking what Jews call
spirituality? No wonder most Jews are turned off from our weird religion.
(I actually sent you this question a long time ago and didn’t receive a reply. Could it be that you have
finally been asked a question that you can’t answer, or are you simply one of those smug rabbis who
couldn’t care less about other people’s questions and feelings?)
Answer:
I never claimed to have all the answers. There are many questions that are beyond me. But it happens to
be that I did answer your question, and you did get the answer. I sent a reply to your question
immediately. The fact that you didn’t receive it, is itself the answer to your question.
You see, I sent you a reply, but I wrote your email address leaving out the “dot” before the “com.” I
figured that you should still receive the email, because after all, it is only one little dot missing. I mean
come on, it’s not as if I wrote the wrong name or something drastic like that! Would anyone be so nitpicky
as to differentiate between “yahoocom” and “yahoo.com”? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous that you didn’t get my
email just because of a little dot?
No, it’s not ridiculous. Because the dot is not just a dot. It represents something. That dot has meaning
far beyond the pixels on the screen that form it. To me, it may seem insignificant, but that is simply due
to my ignorance of the ways of the web. All I know is that with the dot, the message gets to the right
destination; without it, the message is lost to oblivion.
Jewish practices have infinite depth. Each nuance and detail contains a world of symbolism. And every dot
counts. When they are performed with precision, a spiritual vibration is emailed throughout the universe,
all the way to G-d’s inbox.
If you want to understand the symbolism of the dot, study I.T.
If you want to understand the symbolism of Judaism, study it.
MP said
You are losing many prospective converts and jewish ties, by this unsuspecting DOT you mentioned above. Many beautiful people , including our own, Jewry . You cannot tell me that one is less of a jew is she does not light the shabbat candles ” exaxtly ” 18 minutes before sunset. Or that it is invalid, not to mention sacrilige. Which it is considered. There are marriages that are now being null and void due to religion and law being mixed up like a bad soup. But we like numbers, so lets start keeping track of all the jewish men and woman who happen NOT to have O.C.D and manifest these habits which determine their jewry. Yeah, lets null and void all the converts who were not properly converted due to the rabbi’s not meeting the standards of the high rabbinical courts in israel and call their innocent children goyim/ shiksa. Lets not then, COMPLAIN about all the 50 percent interfaith marriages who are sick and tired of being scrutinized for not doting their eyes, or crossing their tee’s and how we have LOST them to their non jewish mother born spouses who only want to EXPAND judaism. Yeah, lets do that and watch as our temple get’s crumbled NOT by the people who truly respect the jews, ( like most christians do) but by our own detailed oriented species. Who choose to put value of man made importance on our supposed G-d written oral torah. No, its not possible to relax on the seventh day like god knew how to, after creating a beautiful world. We have to keep strict laws, like broken telephone and claim it is 100 % the way we have to go about things. It is also stated in the torah that we shall not call ourselves sooth sayers and predict the outcome of the future, for that would be considered of the devil. Yet, that is exactly what you , Rabbi are claiming . You chose not to respond to someone who is seeking answer’s, to try and prove a point you are not 100 percent sure of. So you waited for this person to write yet again, out of frusteration to claim such an insignficant claim that because you DID NOT put a dot in an email address to respond to that message, that this exemplifies your greater meaning??? The answer was not received, as to why Judaism is so detail oriented , but the greater message indeed was. ( and ill be clear here, lets change the puzzle pieces as we go along, in order to make the same picture? )
evedyahu said
MP = I am not trying to convert or to keep anybody within Judaism. I just study Rabbinic Judaism out of love and I post once in a while texts that I consider interesting and/or useful.
As far as I am concerned – if I were a rabbi – I would not care very much if I lose prospective converts if I am convinced that I am following the laws of God. God will take care of the rest, I would not like to be in a “popularity contest”.
Blessings and SHALOM!