We don't bend any "rules" at all, I don't know where you get that deluded notion from. We have a set of 613 commandments that we must observe, along with Rabbinic fences around the commandments. They don't change. I write "G-d" instead of God because it is a custom I've chosen to adopt, not because it or anything else was imposed upon me. I spent most of my life living outside a religious community, raised secularly. Now I'm much happier and more fulfilled in trying to live a Torah lifestyle, rather than the aimless, purposeless, meaningless secular life I had been living previously.

That's even more fucked up, and it's sincerely almost impossible for me to fathom why you would do that. You have the sidelocks and everything then.

I do that because it's a much better life for me and I see some of the revealed blessings personally. I'm also a much happier person.

I don't have sidelocks, that's a certain chassidic custom that I don't follow. I do, however, wear a kippa and tzitzit, with the strings out.

So you must suffer from baldness then.

I do not.

Isn't it one of the commandments to not cut the hair off the side of your head? You're gonna spend eternity in Jew hell, brother.

The commandment is not to shave with a razor up to a certain point on the head, which I don't. Sidelocks are not obligatory.

Indeed, the more orthodox interpretation is "do not cut off" or "do not round" the sides of the head, which leads to having those stupid-looking locks hanging on the sides of your head. At some point someone probably deemed it impractical to have sidelocks and reinterpreted the text. In the same way there's a commandment that tells you not to speak God's name in vain. The orthodox interpretation is that you shouldn't mention God lightly or in a casual context, but you say G-d all the time. You refer to him all the time, very lightly, you just leave one letter out. That's like not using racial slurs by writing n----r every now and then. You follow a set of arbitrary rules, and some of them you bend.

Do you actually, really, honestly believe in a god?

quote:

Originally posted by AlphaStarred Another thing I wanted to say is that what we may consider as bad may actually be Divine good/mercy. We don't know G-d's ways.

Just think. Every one of those 613 commandments could be pissing off God more and more. No wonder you've got Covid.

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quote:

Originally posted by JEO Indeed, the more orthodox interpretation is "do not cut off" or "do not round" the sides of the head, which leads to having those stupid-looking locks hanging on the sides of your head. At some point someone probably deemed it impractical to have sidelocks and reinterpreted the text.

Once again, sidelocks are not obligatory. One can shave up to a certain point on the head with electrical razors, around the bone area adjacent to around the middle of the ear. If you need further proof or information, go consult a competent rabbi.

quote:

The orthodox interpretation is that you shouldn't mention God lightly or in a casual context, but you say G-d all the time.

Using G-d's name is vain generally means swearing in His name in vain. Not at all the way I've been using it, which is very much allowed.

quote:

Do you actually, really, honestly believe in a god?

I don't simply believe, I know He exists.

There's no shame in admitting that your rabbis or what ever have, over time, chosen the most convenient, loosest interpretations of the commandments. Religions change. It's all still very arbitrary though, and to someone looking at it from the outside with a more objective view, developing milder interpretations over time looks like gamification of observance. It's a system trying to remain relevant by adapting itself to modern times. You literally referred to it as a lifestyle, which makes you sound like a teenager still looking for their identity.

quote:

Originally posted by AlphaStarred the aimless, purposeless, meaningless secular life

You not having had aim in your life is your own fault, and your life is still meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps even more meaningless than it was before. You imply you now have a purpose. What is that purpose exactly? Even this, that you used a religion to bring "purpose" to your life, speaks for the fact that it's a tool for you to make your life feel less meaningless, nothing more. Religion has utility for tyrants that rule using it, and, of course, dingbats like you, who choose it over the seemingly unbearable uncertainty of non-religious life, where not many things are certain.