Some Thoughts On The Rabbinical Dialogue

It looks like we’re off to a great start and I thank you all for your comments to the posting.

I do want to throw in my two cents about Rabbi Klein.  I am not an Orthodox Jew (as if that needed to be said) but it seems to me that someone with Rabbi Klein’s background should qualify to be considered a “kosher” Orthodox rabbi.  However, he is absolutely correct in his assertion that the Orthodox community is not monolithic.  In fact, this was the source of most of my initial questions to him.

One commenter gave me a list of Orthodox rabbis whom he felt would more authentically represent Orthodox Judaism.  I have tried to engage a few other Orthodox rabbis, but they have shown no interest and Rabbi Klein, because of his commitment to klal Yisrael (and innate menschlikheit) is the one who did.  Even before we began, during our first discussions, he made it clear to me that he does not intend to be the “voice of Orthodoxy” and I assured him that I would respect that.  I believe that we all have the right to our own self-definitions.  It would be silly to ask him to defend beliefs that he does not hold.

I am extremely appreciative of this and I won’t ask him to explain any point of view other than his own.  That would be unfair and it is not my goal.