The article was fueled not by the desire for an intellectual critique of orthodoxy-but rather by the urge to intellectualize an emotional rant.A legal and social critique of Orthodoxy, even a scathing one, should not fall for such simplistic, facile reasoning coming from a sophisticated legal mind.

Clearly, there's an emotional wound in Feldman and an unresolved ambivalence about his own choice of non Jewish spouse. The tone and the intellectual flaccidness of his analysis reeks of personal vendetta and his lack of integrity and sloppiness in discussing Orthodoxy has indeed caused a lot of harm. Ygal Amir and Goldstein? That's it? That's who he is going to talk about as representative of Orthodoxy to an audience who, by and large, is absolutely ignorant on the topic. Any effort to mention the halakhic creativity of certain groups, as he did in the Q&A here was entirely missing. Again, Feldman was pissed, felt dissed and he was going to settle his score.

He and Jeannie Suk got cut out from the picture? So were other Jewish peers. His kid does not get mentioned in the Orthodox school birth announcements.What do you expect? Just move on. Furthermore, Feldman writes that his Maimonides school peers have been nothing but courteous and, moreover, he seems to have a warm friendship with a couple of them. They, clearly, have accepted him and his life choice. However, Feldman can't expect them to, as they clearly don't, to endorse him as a life model for his children, just as Noah Feldman does not endorse theirs to his own children.

I'm not one to ignore the otherwise problematic aspects of orthodoxy-women's issues, homophobia, or about the social pathos within Orthodox societies. But I do know about the beauty of halakhic praxis and its compatibility with a liberal, civic minded outlook is perfectly attainable.Noah Feldman did the wider public, Jews, Orthodoxy, his family and own scholarly abilities a disservice.

SD