Guest Author - Paula E. Kirman

I could probably sum up this article in one sentence: it's in the Torah.

Jewish law goes far beyond a list of dietary requirements and what you can and can't do on Shabbat (the Sabbath). It is also a guide for how we are to live our lives. There are rules about being honest in business, and how to treat those who work for us (OK, back then they were slaves, but let's look at the modern-day interpretations of these things, shall we?).

Christians often ignore much of what is written in the Tanach (Old Testament), saying that these laws were done away with, through the sacrifice of Jesus. However, these same Christians belong to churches where tithing is practised -- as outlined in Numbers 18:25-29. And don't forget the Ten Commandments -- that is an Old Testament passage also.

But I don't criticize Christianity based upon its tendency to pick and choose what it wants out of its Jewish foundations. We Jews do exactly the same thing. Except for the extremely Orthodox, we are selective about what we do when it comes to Torah. Avoid pork and shellfish, but eat cheeseburgers. Don't work on Shabbat, but go shopping. You get the drift.

We tend to be selective about a lot of other things as well. A lot of the moral beliefs and behaviors that we tend to associate with fundamentalist Christianity, are actually Jewish values. Sex before marriage. Cohabitating couples. The idea of covenant is very important in Jewish theology, and a marriage is covenant between two people. So, acting in a way married folks do outside that covenant is considered serious indeed. It is just something that is not talked about as much because it is not explicitly discussed, much like intermarriage -- although the latter gets far more airtime.

What we choose to follow comes down to our lifestyles and personal choices. I'm the last person on earth to try to convince my fellow Jews that we should all become Orthodox. But we should at least have an awareness of what our religion and culture dictates as moral norms. Then, I suppose it becomes a philosophical argument if it is then even worse if we continue to ignore them.

Don't worry; I won't get into that here.