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I am not religious (dati). I am not religious.
I'm a Jew. Religion is law. Judaism is much more than law.
True, when the Temple was destroyed and we went into exile, we had to squeeze our Torah
into dimensions of religion. Like Christianity. The idea of religion, incidentally, is taken from Christianity.
The idea of separating religion from the other elements of national culture is taken from Christianity.
There's the Christian religion. There's the Jewish religion. But then we get confused, wait, is religion the same thing as nationality?
Is Judaism a nationality, or is Judaism a religion? In a way, I'm even anti-religious.
And we should all be anti-religious because Judaism means freedom.
The message of freedom of the Exodus from Egypt is the message of Judaism.
They come to us with "Rule of law!" "What, are you against the supreme court?!" Rule of law -- that's religion. That's religion.
Let's say that we're Jews. That we're a free people. We're a nation. We're not "religious" and "secular".
-- Do you identify as "mitzvah observant"? There, you said it. Mitzvah observant.
I hope I live up to that definition. I hope. And I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew, and you're a Jew.
I try to keep the mitzvot. Maybe you try a little less to keep the mitzvot.
I'm a Jew. And the minute that we put aside these artificial distinctions, religious and secular,
We said, first of all, anyone who self-identifies as a Jew, I'm with him.
First of all, before anything else, I'm with him, and he's with me. And not "I'm here and he's there".
I'm with him and he's with me and we're in the same definition and the same party!