[Avodah] (no subject)

[Joseph Kaplan]

"Again (although I think RJK submitted this before seeing my recent  
post),
I think you're conflating the real with the ideal."

Not conflation; I don't believe it's the ideal.  If it were really  
the ideal, then you'd see it in practice somewhere; you'd see RY turn  
down sidur kidushin or reading the ketuvah or getting shlishi or  
maftir to teach us that that's the ideal.  You'd see some rabbi  
saying it's not important for him to introduce a speaker or make  
remarks at a dinner to teach us that that's the ideal.  You'd see  
SOMETHING to indicate that it's truly the ideal.  I see NOTHING  
except some words used not to tell MEN how to behave and teach us  
what's the ideal but to tell women not to do what halacha says they  
may technically do. You teach by example, not by mouthing pieties.   
When all you have is the latter then the pieties are not the ideal.   
I'll seriously consider it when I see our leadership actually  
practicing it. Until then, the real = the ideal for me.

Joseph Kaplan