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Comment by foxwolf | Hacker News Reader

I'm pretty sure that if there is a god, then the act of deliberately subverting what you believe to be his laws by exploiting what you perceive to be a technicality for your own convenience isn't going to work out in your favor in the end.

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Not at all. The Jewish perspective is essentially that Jewish law stems from the creation of an all-knowing God, and therefore any seeming ‘loopholes’ must not only be known to Him but explicitly intended to exist. On this basis, it must be perfectly valid to use them!

That's just a loophole to justify exploiting loopholes.

Now you know why there are so many Jewish lawyers. Also Catholic.

Only if you believe the loopholes to be actually loopholes. I'm not religious, but taking the word of God and declaring that it means something else than what it actually says would be a textbook example of the sin of hubris, no?

That would remove all interpretability as a side effect, wouldn't it? I'm not religious either, but I imagine that would make all sorts of literal claims problematic as measured against modern ethics, and make it impossible for contradictory claims to be resolved.

Personally I do think interpreting rather than following the word of your chosen supreme being is the height of hubris. Intentionally interpreting it such that you can ignore the ostensibly obvious meaning even more so.

Then again if a text allows for ways to skirt the spirit of a prescription then maybe the 'supreme' being that is supposed to have dictated it isn't all that.

"Loophole" is a bad term. "Deliberate misunderstanding" is more accurate.

The eiruv only works as a loophole for the added stringencies by the Rabbis. Anything that's considered totally public in actual Torah Law (which is a big debate what exactly that is) is not subject to the permissibility of creating an eiruv.

Religious Jews consider your contention to be blasphemous, as it suggests there’s a way to outsmart god, which would directly contradict his apparent higher being status.

Not outsmart god, but outsmart yourself straight into hell.

Judaism in most variants doesn't have hell.

Don't try to parse this religion as "Christianity with different rules", it'll only mislead you.

I know, someone should really point out that following the rules of a religion blindly can go too far! Might start a movement of some sort.

This is on the level of "if the bar doesn't have windows, Allah can't see me drink" of tomfoolery.

And I'm all for it. =)

People of faith are finding their way to practice in the context of modern society. As humans we generally try to make sense of the world, and faith is a big part of this community’s world.

Personally, I think that commitment and the thoughtfulness behind it is something to be respected.

The first subversion that occurred was the administrative change that said you can subvert the rules within your home. Then the rabbis proceeded to enlarge the home boundaries.

Have you seen the polymarket odds for Jesus Christ's return in 2025? Can't imagine taking the yes on that whether you believe or not.

What do you mean by "god". I don't think you know what you mean when you say god. What do you mean by "is" ...

It's not a party until JP walks in.

Wait until you hear about Kapparot.

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