One issue that seems to me to be highly relevant to me is that of idolatry. This is related in an inverse way to that of trust in God. The problem with idolatry seems to be that it has changed form from worship of statues. So even if people are not worshiping Jupiter, they still might be worshiping other created beings.
This in an ironic way seems to be a problem when people become religious. Being religious you would imagine would mean more trust in God. But instead it seem to get diverted.
I can see that the Gra would have signed the letter of excommunication for this very reason. Sad that he seems to be ignored. This is clearly a major issue in Torah. [Rav Nahman I think was not in the category of the excommunication as I have gone into before. If you want to take the time look at the books that bring the actual language.]
In terms of this issue, it looks to me based on my experience that Reform and Conservative Judaism are a lot closer to true Torah-- since there is no idolatry involved in their approach. Whatever worship they do is always directed towards God alone.
Now even if people are doing idolatry which is one of the things in the Torah that there is a death penalty for, that does not mean you can kill them. There is a for any death penalty the need of a court of law of 23 judges or the 71 judges of the great court in Jerusalem. Still from the fact that idolatry is serious enough to warrant a death penalty, you can see that it is nothing to play around with or to ignore. So the fact that the signature of the Gra on that letter of excommunication is ignored seems to me to be not a good reason for you to ignore it.
[However you can wonder about Eliyahu the prophet on Mount Carmel that after that test of the prophets of the Baal told the people to take the false prophets down to the river and slaughter them.
Where was a court of law to try the case?]
And besides this I admit that fighting against idolatry can be a hard thing to know how to do it. Take Yoshiyahu the King that destroyed all idolatry in Israel. Well things did not exactly go so well for him afterwards. Apparently some kind of caution is needed. (There were great kings before him but none of them ever uprooted idols from all Israel. King Hizkiah only ruled over Judah and Benjamin.)
This in an ironic way seems to be a problem when people become religious. Being religious you would imagine would mean more trust in God. But instead it seem to get diverted.
I can see that the Gra would have signed the letter of excommunication for this very reason. Sad that he seems to be ignored. This is clearly a major issue in Torah. [Rav Nahman I think was not in the category of the excommunication as I have gone into before. If you want to take the time look at the books that bring the actual language.]
In terms of this issue, it looks to me based on my experience that Reform and Conservative Judaism are a lot closer to true Torah-- since there is no idolatry involved in their approach. Whatever worship they do is always directed towards God alone.
Now even if people are doing idolatry which is one of the things in the Torah that there is a death penalty for, that does not mean you can kill them. There is a for any death penalty the need of a court of law of 23 judges or the 71 judges of the great court in Jerusalem. Still from the fact that idolatry is serious enough to warrant a death penalty, you can see that it is nothing to play around with or to ignore. So the fact that the signature of the Gra on that letter of excommunication is ignored seems to me to be not a good reason for you to ignore it.
[However you can wonder about Eliyahu the prophet on Mount Carmel that after that test of the prophets of the Baal told the people to take the false prophets down to the river and slaughter them.
Where was a court of law to try the case?]
And besides this I admit that fighting against idolatry can be a hard thing to know how to do it. Take Yoshiyahu the King that destroyed all idolatry in Israel. Well things did not exactly go so well for him afterwards. Apparently some kind of caution is needed. (There were great kings before him but none of them ever uprooted idols from all Israel. King Hizkiah only ruled over Judah and Benjamin.)
