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[Adventurer]

Last Updated: Friday, 2 March 2007, 13:55 GMT

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Young Jews walk out on religious life
By Martin Patience
BBC News, Kiryat Tivon


As a member of the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community, David wore a long black coat and a black hat covering his Jewish skullcap.

He spent 10 hours a day studying the Torah, the Jewish holy book, and the Talmud, rabbinical discussions on Jewish law, ethics and customs.

David says that he used to want to be a rabbi - but that was then.



Ultra-orthodox Jews represent some 8% of Israel's population

Now, David, 24, wears blue jeans and loose-fitting T-shirts. He no longer believes in religion, saying that he is completely secular.

He is currently at university and hopes to become an engineer.

But during leave, he had nowhere to go. An organisation which supports young people leaving religious communities provided David with a surrogate family.

It was difficult. "I left the community without any tools to start my new life," he says.

But David appears happy with his new life and says he has no regrets.

"I see the ultra-Orthodox as fundamentalists," he says. "And now I'm leading an enlightened life."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6409257.stm

[jinju]

Good. He woke up. 10 hours a day reading the Torah and Talmud? What a waste of a life.

You know, if I was God and I created the human race I would be pretty damn pissed they were wasting their life on reading books about me instead of living the life I gave them.

[ED209]

[jinju]

[Adventurer]

He cursed the Talmud. RTFM, Jinju, stands for I never read the f'in Talmud. That's my guess. I am sure, anyway, he learned something from the Talmud, the fellow how read it, and I am sure he learned discipline which helped him in the army and engineering school, but expecting Jewry to spend so many hours contemplating the Talmud is not the way to use the population in a productive way.

[On the other hand]

[igotthisguitar]

We're ALL "religious". Even the ones who on the surface deny it.

Such is life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubu