Updated: JCC Now Open For Shabbat
I wonder if the 97 people who voted favorably for the JCC to remain open on the Sabbath ever read Genesis in the Old Testament. If they had read the first part of Genesis they would have read where is states that GOD created heaven and earth and everything and everybody on it during the 1st 6 days and on the 7th day he rested. Where does it say that on the 7th day he went to the gym and there swam 20 laps in the pool, ran 10 miles on the treadmill, lifted 100 pounds of barbells, ran 5 miles around the track or did whatever else you do while at the gym. The Bible says GOD rested on that is what you do on the Sabbath, rest, pray and contemplate your doing of good deeds during your lifetime. So my friends who read this those 97 have it all wrong. Let them go back and read Genesis again and come back to make a right decision and reverse the wrong one for GOD’s almighty sake.
Posted by Calvin Polansky on 05/28/09 at 03:03 PMG-d took the Jewish people out of Egypt in a roundabout way and they traveled for 49 days before receiving the Torah. There’s a lot to learn from this that is apropos to the Owings Mills JCC issue.
Regardless of how the message is dressed, most Jews who have little or no insight into the depth and the beauty of the Torah only see the rally as the so called “Orthodox” trying to force their ways on them. They feel judged and they resent it. Like it or not the religious community needs to admit that.
Had rabbinic leadership spent the last 12 years engaging, educating and inspiring the wonderful Jews of Owings Mills, instead of simply staging a public rally, the division and resentment that has now increased would not have transpired and many of our brothers and sisters would likely have become reunited with the beauty of Shabbos and all of the mitzvos.
Now, there are fresh wounds that need attending to.
Baltimore’s Torah leaders, and all of us for that matter, now have an even greater obligation to reach out with ahavas Yisroel and ahavas ha’Torah to our people in Owings Mills.
On the other hand, the Jews of Owings Mills perhaps need to ask themselves these questions: Why do the observant care so much about the Owings Mills JCC? Is it really about coersion? Or is there really something so special about Shabbos that can engender such passion?
Posted by mby on 05/27/09 at 10:22 PMA SHONDA! I am not Orthodox…Not Conservative..But I am a loving alive Jewish woman who knows that any facility that calls itself the “JEWISH BLAH BLAH” and is open FOR BUSINESS on Shabbas is FULL OF BS! You can justify till you’re blue in the face..They should rename it simply the Community Center—cause JEWISH, IT AINT!
Posted by onegr8singer on 05/27/09 at 07:56 PMI believe that greed won out in the decision to open the JCC on the Sabbath. In my opinion the underlying factor was that instead of Jews going to the JCC to workout on the treadmill they will be paying money to a private gym and therefore the Associated will lose much loved money in the process. What a shame that greed once again wins out when money becomes more important than religion. The Associated and the members who voted favorably for the opening on the Sabbath can now take their place next to Bernie Madoff when it comes down to greed and money vs. religious attributes. It is a sad, sad day for Baltimore Jewry!!!! May GOD forgive those who have sinned once again in this decision!!
Posted by Calvin Polansky on 05/27/09 at 04:38 PM