Posted on 12/01/2006 1:19:24 PM PST by Risha
It wont be a golden calf this time. The idol will be of two nude dudes playing leap frog and the one in the rear failing to clear the other's rear as he leaps.
"Where is the Torah does it say that that you can't sacrifice without the Temple?"
http://mesora.org/_private/mesora.html - Note that this is a general site. Do a search for the article entitled "The Temple and the Altar: Two Structures – One Goal" for the detailed explanation. However, here's the summary:
Once the Temple had been built, the only place where sacrifice could/can occur is on the alter in the Temple. Between the 1st and 2nd Temples, there was no sacrifice, as there was no place to do it. Now that the 2nd Temple no longer exists, there is no sacrifice. We'll have to await the building of the 3rd Temple to have sacrifices again.
"If the Torah is to be followed, when was the last time a woman was stoned to death for adultery and when was the last time someone was killed for violating the Sabbath as the man was who was caught gathering wood?"
The short answer is that there is not now any Jewish Court with the authority to make or carry out such a sentence. Here's the detailed explanation, found at
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_Breaking:
According to Halakha (Jewish law) to break the Sabbath is a capital offense (Exodus 31:15):
Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
Since the decline of classical Semicha (rabbinic ordination) in the fourth century CE, the traditional view is that Jewish courts have lost the power to rule on criminal cases. As such, it would be practically impossible for Orthodox courts to enforce the death penalty in modern times, even if they had the political standing to do so.
Further, the legal protections for defendants in murder cases delineated in the Talmud made execution a very unlikely sentence, if not a practical impossibility, even by a competent court. The most prominent of such safeguards are the necessity of two competent witnesses to the Sabbath violation and the necessity of an official court warning prior to the violation. These stringent safeguards have been read by many modern commentators as de facto abolition of capital punishment. This has contributed to the major rabbinical bodies of the Reform and Conservative movements condemning capital punishment generally.
Hey!
Don't piss off the Unitarians, or they might come in the middle of the night and burn a question mark into your lawn!
What?
A Catholic problem?
Ummmm, no.
There is no debate in the Vatican about whether or not to embrace gay sex, bless gay marriage. The answer is no. It's not even on the table being discussed.
Sure, there are sinful Catholics, everyone's a sinner.
But no, there is no Catholic sodomy "issue". It's not an open question. Not even a teeny-tiny-crack-of-light (or doome) mopen question.
There have been a bunch of pedophile priests, and they're being prosecuted, but there is nothing to discuss doctrinally. Sin is sin. It's not open to change.
Very interesting.
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