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We Orthodox do not 'seek to deny any- one his or her free choice of a belief system, nor do we want to coerce anyone into ob- servance of Jewish law. We simply want to preserve • the meaning of the word Judaism, as established by the millenia, and to relegate other systems to the large and illustrious file of philosophies and social movements which, wonderful though they may be, are not identical to Judaism. Any Jew may choose to reject any or all of the premises we Orthodox operate on, but, given our assumptions — that the past is the key to the future, that what our an- cestors gave their very lives for commands our careful respect, that Jewish law is not an arbitrary convenience, a toy for beard- ed children — given all that, it should shock no one and hurt no one that we reach the conclusions that we do. Disagreement with Torah-Judaism is one thing. But disparagement of Torah- Judaism because its conscience refuses to allow it baptism in the font of the Zeit- geist, is quite another. Such disparagement, so common today, is truly close-minded, intolerant, and hopelessly provincial. All the things we Torah-Jews are incessantly and wrongly accused of. Some critics point to the long history of pluralism within Judaism, citing the numerous disputes between the students of Hiliel and Shammai and the radical reforms made by Maimonides as exam- ples. But the clear difference is that the framework of halacha embraced Hiliel and Shammai as well as Maimonides, who to- day would clearly be considered a "right wingeF. So the claim for precedent in times long gone for movements like the modern ones, is a farce. Is there, then, no pluralism in Judaism today? • Of course there is. It not only is, but it is every bit as far- ranging as ever it was. Within Judaism, as defined by the Orthodox—that is to say among Jews who accept uncompromisingly the tenets and laws of the Judaism of the Ages —are Jews who wholeheartedly sup- port the secular State of Israel, and those who do so only with serious reservations, Jews who suppOrt the ideal of higher secular education and those who do not, Jews who could put efillin on other Jews they have just met and Jews who shudder at the thought. There are Jews who sup- port more separation of Church and State and Jews who want less, Jews who sup- port disinvestment in South Africa .. . When non-Halacha-espousing groups in- voke their own systems of law, Orthodox Jews cannot at the same time be faithful to their own tradition and accept the rul- ings which these groups decide on. One who has little regard for, or know- ledge of, money, of course, would not make a very good financial consultant. Which is why a convert to the Reform or Conservative movements — conversion being a clearly legalistic, halachic realm— is not accepted as a Jew, by Orthodoxy. Avi Shafran Missing, at very least, is the clear halachic requirements of "acceptance of Mitzvot, " i.e. the acceptance of divinity of the Torah and the authority of halacha. If the of- ficiating rabbi himself (or herself) does not feel such conviction (though his or her Jewishness by birth is, of course, unaf- fected thereby), how could he or she be ex- pected to communicate such conviction to the would-be convert? Orthodoxy has absorbed particularly harsh condemnation for "rejecting these sincere converts," though it is not the con- verts at all or their sincerity which we re- ject, but the conversion. It might be helpful, in order to under- stand the dilemma Orthodox Jews face in this area, to postulate a hypothetical situation: A particular Jew, say a Reform Jew, decides of his own free will to keep one area of kashrut. He, for instance, will refrain from eating pork products, as indeed many otherwise non-observant Jews do. A group of well-meaning Jews, meanwhile, have developed what they feel is a better form of Judaism, say one which has social ac-