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MO: Medieval Orthodox

Let's face it: Modern Orthodoxy is a failure from a Hashkafic perspective (lifestyle wise I guess it's mostly OK). It's neither Modern nor particularly Orthodox. It has completely failed to address the hashkafic challenges of modernity, including science, ANE history and of course Biblical scholarship. Science and Torah reconciliation efforts are mostly a joke, the only people who buy that stuff are brainwashed, ignorant or both. The insistence on rationalism drains the mystery and spirituality from the theology. A 12th Century Philosopher who held that the planets were spiritual beings is held up as a beacon of common sense. Modern Orthodoxy? More like Medieval Orthodoxy. There's no new thought, and our leading intellectuals are mired in stupid debates about a single freaking brachah. Pathetic. I'm embarrassed to have a blog called Modern Orthopraxy, lest someone identify me with Modern Orthodoxy. Maybe in the 1960's it was hip and cool and groovy but that was 50 years ago.I feel more affinity theology wise to the Reconstructionists AND the Chareidim (in different ways of course). It smacks of intellectual dishonesty (We must integrate modern scholarship except of course where it contradicts the sayings of a 12th century medieval philosopher).  I don't see much chance of anything changing anytime soon, so for intellectual gratification I'm going to have to look elsewhere. On the bright side, I have read some fun and interesting books lately, including 'Imagine: John Lennon and the Jews' which had some good lines, and 'Jewish Philosophy as a guide to Life' which is mostly impenetrable to anyone without a background in Jewish Philosophy but it did have some good quotes from Rosenzweig and Levinas. Luckily for me I happen to have some friends who do have a background in Jewish Philosophy, and also other friends who can read Tenach in Akadian (what, you never heard of the Artscroll Akadian Tenach?) so I do have access to some interesting thoughts. So in the spirit of that enterprise I'm shutting this old blog down. And starting a new one. This will be the last post on this blog.