Brown's tax cuts: you what?

I don't know a thing about economics- and I'm severely under the impression that people talked themselves into an economic crisis- so I shall keep this short. As I understand, Brown wants to cut certain taxes without any means of paying for them and increase government borrowing. In other words, more spending and less income. This - supposedly- is meant to 'boost the economy'.

Wait a minute..... wasn't part of the reason we are in this crisis because people borrowed more than they could afford? Wasn't it the lack of common sense forgetting that you shouldn't spend more than you have? If this is right, I'm not sure the thinking behind the idea. Doesn't the same 'common sense' apply to countries as much as to people? Why get the country into debt?

And for what? £120 a year! This may be very middle-class of me but £120 isn't going to change the world for the individual but a lot of £120 is a massive amount for the country.

But this is presumably my ignorance

Do you sense that Orthodox Jewish life is...

Do you sense that Orthodox Jewish life is:

• narrowing its intellectual horizons?
• adopting ever more extreme halakhic positions?
• encouraging undue conformity in dress, behavior and thought?
• fostering an authoritarian system that restricts creative and independent thinking?
• growing more insulated from non-Orthodox Jews and from society in general?

Do you think that Orthodox Jewish life should be:

• intellectually alive, creative, inclusive?
• open to responsible discussion and diverse opinions?
• active in the general Jewish community, and in society as a whole?
• engaged in serious and sophisticated Jewish education for children and adults?
• committed to addressing the halakhic and philosophic problems of our times, drawing on the wisdom and experience of diverse Jewish communities throughout history?

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The latter is the aim of http://www.jewishideas.org/- a website and journal set up by Rabbi Marc D. Angel. Rabbi Angel is an ex-president of Rabbinical Council America; the largest group of Orthodox rabbis in the States. Thanks to Zak for pointing this out to me as this website is full of interesting articles.

I wouldn't agree with many of the people who write articles for this website. Most of them are part of the 'YCT' crowd. YCT (Yeshivat Chovevei Torah) is a very crusading Modern Orthodox yeshiva, which is to the 'left' of Yeshiva University (YU- the flagship Modern Orthodox institution). The perception is that over the years YU has undergone a 'slide to the right' and becoming ever-more chareidi. Halakha has got far more stringent with historically unfounded and unwarranted stringencies becoming the norm. Intellectual thought has been stifled with the 'Artscroll revolution' taking hold there and censoring a whole part of our mesorah. In other words, Modern Orthodoxy is dying and they are there to reinstate it. Whilst I agree in principle, many of their halachic innovations are very radical and avant-garde!

However, a lot of what they say makes sense- especially stuff on conversion. Where conversions (e.g. done by religious zionist, R' Haim Druckman) are being retroactively annuled causing many more violations of halacha than they solve; where in England you have to live in London or Manchester otherwise you are not allowed to convert even if you are going to be fully observant elsewhere; where in America, new Rabbinical Council of America unnecessarily strict guidelines have come out which tie you to a particular routine (nothing to do with halacha itself) for years with the fear that if you don't, your conversion won't count..... a sea-change needs to happen.

Modern Orthodox Jews are being pulled into the model of the 'saved' and the 'damned' with halacha being paskened in such a way that it only applies to a small sect--- with you only being able to convert if you join this sect. And all this on a false view about the halachot of conversion and what it is for a convert to 'accept upon himself the mitzvot'.

But I'll let you read all about that!