According to Torah?  Dear, dear Anonymous, according to Torah all a person needs to do is accept the people and the beliefs.  Where is it written Ruth went through classes with an Orthodox rabbi?  Oh, that's right, it's not.

And I'm not saying I'm halachically Jewish.  In fact, I explicitly stated that I'm not.  Not to mention I never called anyone racist, I said the remark in itself was.  

 And I don't recall telling you I was Reform or Conservative or even what flavor of Judaism I ascribe to. 

Ever wonder what the true definition of a nation is?  A nation has a language, a religion, is a cohesive unit...We are NOT a nation.  We are a country.  We are a people.  But we aren't really a nation.

I wish people would realize this.  America is not a "Christian" anything.  It is a country who's founders decided to do everything they could to uphold their moral values without impeding upon the rights of others to live by their own set of morals.  Murder is illegal, but attending a Mosque isn't.  There's a reason for that, and I wish more Americans would realize that.

Not doing so is simply, well, un-American. 

Okay, so what if it's from person to person?  Tamar's right that a single 23 year old living on her own was not quite anticipated.  Go through tractate 7 when it talks about inheritance and you'll find that a woman, at whatever age, was to be supported by her family and/or her community.  If she is single, her brothers are to care for her upon the death of their father.  That says to me that people like Tamar don't quite slip into the set of laws we have been given.

 At the same time, I disagree with the idea of a past relationship not messing with a future relationship.  That was my logic.  Then I met this great woman I could have had a wonderful life with, but everything that happened in the past (and most of it really wasn't that bad) got in the way.  It was like training for the 100meter competition for years only to discover your going to be competing in a marathon.

Everything I learned came out against me, so I'm turning inward to try and clean that slate.  Can it be done?  I don't know.  But I'm trying.

 I can say part of me wishes I could take back those steamy nights and late, cozy mornings.  The times spent driving to the middle of nowhere or sneaking into the backyard.  But the other part of me realizes that all of those things, the parts of me that were bad, are what made me who I am right now.

And right now I think no one should judge Tamar, or anyone else like her, or any men out there in similar situations, because we are now in a new age.  It's just sad Rabbinic Judaism can't keep up with the rest of us. 

You left out the part about them wanting to celebrate a second Sukkot because the one they had celebrated in that year was in the mountains, so they celebrated it at the Temple after it was rededicated.  Eight days of Sukkot... Eight days of Hanukkah...

 But I do think you're right in that the true miracle of Hanukkah is people willing to fight and die for a cause, especially when the odds are against them.  How many times have we actually been the likely winner when we fight?  Yet compare that to how often we've been victorious.

If these megachurches are making money from shopping malls, movie theatres, and sporting events, and not having to pay taxes, then the separation of church and state has gone too far.  How much of that money is actually being used for something other than cushioning the pockets of Elders, Deacons, and Reverends?

 And, no, I wouldn't shop at a place I knew was owned by a Christian religious organization.  I also wouldn't patronize anyplace I knew had anything along the lines of sweatshops involved in the making of their products.

Big business is big business, not big jesus.  If I'm not running around my restaurant with my Tanakh under my arm proclaiming jesus as a heretic and a fake, they shouldn't be running around the movie theatre shouting about jesus as the true creator.  It's ridiculous.  

Do you really believe the US Government is not a religious organization?  Despite all the talk about "seperation between Church and State" every platform is filled with religion.  In fact, I daresay there is even a new religion, where Big Business is worshipped.

But I've only met one Atheist in my life that I know of, and his life seems almost empty and devoid of joy.  He seemed to fill that space with a woman, and when she left, it wasn't really the same.  Agnostics I've met many of, and all of them are really cool.  

But when people talk about Atheists I often wonder if they're talking about the "anti-God" people instead.  There's a difference between not believing in any God and believing that the God of the Christians, Jews, and Muslims is evil.  I dated a girl who called herself pagan who refused to ever read the bible.  "God is evil" was her motto.  She believed in something that created us, but it wasn't this evil being all these other people believe in and talk about.  She almost burned my bible.  That's always been what I think about when I think "Atheist", unlike the one I've met who would rather have a religious conversation and understand what I believe and appear open minded about things. 

It's backwards in my community, in a way. At work, at home, even my ex-girlfriend, all these people are always pushing me to go out and date. I almost had a possible this evening, but chose to spend it with a friend I rarely get to see anymore, or spend any quality time with, and she got angry. Half the evening of what I wanted to be quality time was spent listening to her scold me for not going out with this person I hardly know in the hopes of possible having a romantic connection. Versus when I go to shul we're always too busy discussing the weeks parshah to discuss who's single and why.

I've only been asked once that I could recall, and when I said I'm busy trying to deal with studying and working up in my career path, it was perfectly acceptable. This is also at a shul that views Conservative Judaism as being WAY too far to the right, though we are extremely small (to the point of taking the Torah to different events even when we aren't reading from it so we can have a minyan).

Well, that surely sucks.  It's like Nestle is trying to take over the world, one helpless infant at a time.  Does this mean Materna/Osem will be aggressively advertising their baby formula just as much?

 See, now I'm all worked up...

Who's to decide what is and is not seriously ill?  Whenever anyone is sick, shouldn't we want them to be better?  And if I truly care about you, part of me <u>needs</u> you to be better.  There is no difference in my mind between my aunt who will likely not live long enough to meet me because of her lung cancer and my mom who will likely be getting the flu soon like she does every year, when it comes to my want, my <b>need</b> for their recovery.

At my shul we pray for anyone who's sick.  They prayed for me when I had food poisoning and for another congregant who had a broken foot.

 I tell people I will pray for them when I have no other words to express how I feel.  It's a rare occasion, and I think I might have done it twice, once to a friend who was having trouble with the death of a relative, and I said I would pray for her family, and the other was when my mom told me I have five family members who likely won't live long enough to hear how things went at the beit din, and I said I would pray for them, which I do everyday.  In no way do I want to show off how connected to The Creator I am.  Quite the opposite is true, and I think the same can be said about many people who say such things.

I have a friend who says she'll pray for me, a Catholic aunt who says the same, and neither of them feel overly close to G-d, either.  I feel very distant from G-d, sadly, but I have faith in Her judgements and His love, but know there is power in communication with The Almighty.  Otherwise, wouldn't we have died off long ago? 

But what about all the vegetarians/vegans in the world?  Are they not considered righteous enough to eat in these sukkot?  Does being a vegetarian make you unable to be considered tzedek by default?