Rules which must be followed by orthodox Jews.

[SchlemielSchlimazel]

I am slightly mystified by various aspects of orthodox Judaism, particularly rules that people are obliged to follow at different times.

Please can anyone who has relevant knowledge explain to me the purpose of having myriad arcane rules and then finding workarounds to circumvent them?

For example being forbidden to carry items in public on the Sabbath and then stringing a wire around the area in order to make it no longer public.

No tearing toilet paper, but you can do it in advance.

Not being allowed to turn lights on and off, so having a special cover which essentially allows you to turn the lights on and off (I think this is called a kosher lamp or kosher switch).

Do Jewish people unquestioningly accept these rules as being deeply respectful and meaningful, or do they privately think they are a bit crazy?

Incidentally, I know I'm "picking on" orthodox Judaism as there as so many rituals and customs, but you could obviously say similar things about many - perhaps all - other religions.

You are covering your hair, and that's between you and G_d. What you choose to do it with really doesn't matter, and you can look as you choose (it's not about other people and what they think). Also, wigs enable you to cover your hair but also to blend into non-Jewish society: centuries of experience, and still today, teach Jewish people that being identifiably Jewish can be difficult, or even dangerous.

Finally, who wouldn't want Kate Middleton's hair without the upkeep? 😉

i follow miriam malnik-ezaqui on fb and she's really good at explaining those aspects of her faith.
it's not easy following religious doctrine and indeed some rules are steeped in ancient history and don't "make sense" in this century BUT it still has it's purpose in providing a sense of community and group fellowship.
personally i really enjoy knowing the historical background for the concepts.

It's deffo not as I've never seen P&R! I googled to check the spelling of schlemiel and it came up with schlimazel as well so I added that as schlemiel on its own was taken.

It was absolutely fascinating, So interesting. I read it for days .Am sure someone can find it on advanced search.

Christianity had similar.

There were rules that bishops couldn't spill blood so when they fought in medieval battles they used maces and hammers not swords as swords spilt blood and maces just squashed people.

You weren't supposed to eat flesh on Fridays so people ate fish instead

Watch parks and rec - there’s a scene where Ron is talking about schlemiel’s
he must have had the same issue with spelling 😝

I was literally thinking this yesterday so weird! Specifically the hair wig thing - you cant show your hair so you wear a wig…but I guess you aren’t showing your hair so it’s technically fine. But some people here have said that the fridge lights etc is that you’re not allowed to work/create - that means the rule isn’t about the light, it’s about the work. So guess that makes sense.

I am speculating somewhat here, but an educated guess if you like - Judaism IIRC recognizes different kinds of rules. Rules that are fundamentally moral commands, like don't commit adultery. And then rules that are rules for Jews which aren't required for others, like not mixing dairy and meat.

There may well be several different reasons for some of the second kind of rules, but it may be that they are not so important in themselves, but instead are about things like mindfulness, and separateness. So - when you have special rules for certain times, it requires mindfulness of the special status of the day. And more generally, the kinds of rules Orthodox Jews follow mean they really can't integrate fully into another society, at least not without compromise. They can't for example eat out at a regular restaurant, or at non-Jewish home in many cases. So it maintains them as a separate, distinct community.

OP said she's never seen Parks and Rec, so I don't know why she would be quoting it?

There's a mosque in my area that hosts a monthly session for people in the community that are interested in learning more about the faith to come and visit and ask questions and they give you a tour. It's not about conversion it's just about learning. Maybe there is a temple or synagogue in your area that does something similar.

You patently do not blend in to non-Jewish society if you are dressed in the way an orthodox Jew dresses. You stand out a mile. Men more than women, perhaps, but you don't see women on their own anyway.

I can see that, yes. Couldn't do it myself (I have little enough patience with my elderly dad's ritual of getting out the breakfast cereal before going to bed) but I can see how there is a very strong community.

I’m Jewish so will try to explain
the wire thing is called an eruv and it means that Orthodox Jews can carry on the sabbath or push a buggy to synagogue - it doesn’t have to be a wire - it can be a natural boundary like a main road as well. Before it was made ‘legal’ by the Jewish law courts it was a right pain as keys etc had to be left under pots or tied to wrists w a hanky! My mum did this, I was brought up
orthodox but I’m not now.
The loo roll/lights etc - all this is considered work so is forbidden on the sabbath, hence the paper is torn up beforehand or you use a timeswitch. Same with the carrying outside your ‘boundary’ - work.
Obviously there has to be a way to see in your house after dark and wipe your backside without breaking the laws if you are orthodox.
No, I don’t particularly believe, but others do so it’s great there are workarounds.

Most of these newer customs exist because of how different life is from when the religion started.

For example, we don't all have a synagogue at the end of our street anymore so we need to travel further to get to one. Without an Eruv, parents with young children would never be able to attend a Shabbat service as babies and toddlers can't walk particularly far.

People also didn't use to have fridges with lights in it, when they were invented religious Jews needed a way to keep food refrigerated without breaking any religious laws or customs.

It's just a way to enable the religion to continue.

And no, we don't just all accept it unquestioningly. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean that to come across as rudely as it did. Judaism is all about questioning. Jewish people all over the world have different customs.

This is very true, but medieval times were quite a while ago and people were much more inclined to follow unscientific superstition at that point in history.

That said, I can see how the difficult history of Judaism through the centuries has caused people to want to retain their historic customs and rituals.

It's not about finding loopholes 🙄
You're trying to distill something complicated into something simplistic. But, to try to simply things a little, for the majority of Jews, particularly orthodox ones (of which there are many sects), we live our lives not only as directed by the Torah but by following the traditions of our ancestors. The two go hand in hand. However, life, not to mention technology, is not static. Much like the Amish, we try to find ways to make our traditions compatible with modern day life. Btw, an eruv is a bit more than a bit of string 😂

I found Miriam on TikTok and love her videos. Another person I follow is SophiaTheJew, although her videos are more day in the life style, whereas Miriam answers specific questions.

I’m an atheist but find the customs of ‘other’ religions (ie not Christianity because I went to catholic school so know more about it through osmosis) fascinating.

You very much do see women out without men.

Maybe I was too quick to offer benefit of the doubt earlier

I am Jewish but not orthodox by any stretch yet there are still general things I do as a reform Jew which I guess is just because it’s what you do.

I do think asking this on AIBU about Orthodox Jews atm especially is unreasonable though as many threads are taking a nasty turn on here at the moment when the J word is involved - not all threads but many. I hope it is in good faith.

How rude OP. I'm sure you could have worded things differently.

Agreed. On both counts.

I suspect it's a bit of a game to make rules work in the modern world.

Do Muslims have workarounds?

I'm more familiar with Sabbatarian Protestantism in Scotland but that's almost masochistic!!

I'm not Jewish myself but also feel this thread might not be in good faith...

Thank you very much for taking the time to elucidate some of these things.

If you don't particularly believe then why don't you just ignore the less fundamental rules such as tearing toilet paper? Is it because you're worried about disapproval from others? Or would you feel you'd been unfaithful?