A Stiff-Necked People
Several times - including in this week's portion (Deuteronomy 9:6) - the Torah calls Israel am k'shei-oref, a "stiff-necked people". In today's idiom "stiff-necked" means intransigent, unbending, rigid, can't be budged, impossible to move.

There was once a notice put up by a stiff-necked person on his office wall, "Don't confuse me with logic. My mind's made up!" It seems that being stiff-necked is not highly regarded.

However, the opposite is no great bargain either - being weak, vacillating, bending with the wind, constantly
The convert gains from Judaism and Judaism gains from the convert.
compromising with principles. Some politicians have their own take on this characteristic when they say "I never promised to keep my promises!"

The best way is probably to have the instinct to know when to be insistent and when to be pragmatic. Being insistent means having the steady nerves to maintain one's standards regardless of the changing fashions; being pragmatic means being aware that new circumstances sometimes call for a new approach.

Loving the Convert
Recent conversion controversies in Israel have caused great distress amongst large numbers of people whose acceptance of and into Judaism has been blithely brushed aside - without apology or courtesy - apparently because certain rabbis have decided that certain other rabbis don't know what they are talking about.

I can't help but contrast the furore with a moment at an Australian rabbinic conference when a certain rabbi asked why we didn't keep in regular touch with converts and make sure they were maintaining their religious observance. A veteran halachist, whose rulings were widely respected, objected strongly to the suggestion.

"When a person becomes Jewish," he said, they are part of the community and we have no right to spy on them (though his exact words were: "We don't bodek anyone's tzitzis," - we don't check anyone's ritual fringes).

The rule in the Torah is v'ahavtem et hager, "You shall love the ger." (Deuteronom 10:19) The original meaning of ger is "stranger" and, in that sense, it is basic to Jewish ethics that we love the alien, the foreigner, the outsider.

In rabbinic Hebrew, ger means a convert, and many of our greatest assets have been people who came into Judaism through conversion. Having had some contact in Israel with classes that prepare people for conversion, there is no doubt in my mind but that in most cases the convert gains from Judaism and Judaism gains from the convert.

We are told to respect and love the convert because they have - often with considerable spiritual and moral courage - chosen to throw in their lot with the Jewish people (Numbers Rabbah 8:2). It seems to me that rabbinical decisors are duty bound to find the words to apologise to thousands of converts, and assure them that they have indeed come under the wings of the Shechinah and are welcome in Judaism.

Don't Bring It Home
It sounds frightening. "You shall not bring an abomination into your house." (Deuteronomy 7:26) The question is, what sort of abomination? The Torah uses the word quite often and applies it to quite a number of practices.

The context provides an answer: "The graven images of their (the Canaanites') gods shall you burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them nor take it for yourself, lest you be ensnared thereby: for it is an abomination to the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 7:25)

The post-emancipation age has faced this problem every day for 200 years or more. How much of contemporary
How much of contemporary culture can I bring into my life without compromising my Jewish identity?
culture can I bring into my life without compromising my Jewish identity? The term we use is "assimilation". The question is: Is there a line beyond which assimilation places Judaism at risk?

The answer is not easy. It depends on who you are, where you are, and when. But the Torah criterion is invaluable: if your home, and indeed your lifestyle, becomes taken over, swamped and overwhelmed by cultural mores that reduce your Jewish identity, then you have brought an abomination into your home.

This kind of assimilation is not merely the simple, obvious practices such as Christmas trees and maybe even Easter eggs. It covers intellectual attitudes and, especially, moral principles. When Jewish modesty and personal dignity give way to brazen flaunting of the body, when Jewish honesty and integrity are sacrificed to deviousness and dishonesty, and when Jewish respect for all human beings is abandoned for racism and denigration, then our house must definitely be put in order.