What Torah Requires for an Observant Life
What does it mean to be an observant Jew?
Written Torah answers that it alone provides all that must be observed. Rabbinic tradition answers that written Torah must be understood through rabbinic tradition and authority.
A direct reading of written Torah results in a significantly smaller corpus of required observance.
This site is dedicated to showing that direct written Torah is an acceptable basis for being observant as a Jew.
My goal is to explore what Torah requires of me
The site host is Shmuel ben Joseph. I am a Jewish attorney raised within reform Judaism.
I became Torah observant in 1990 in response to an encounter with antisemitism that prompted me to re-examine the beliefs grounding my Judaism.
I then read the complete Torah at age 25 and have since approached its teachings directly through close, text-centered reading.
Roy Kornblum’s song, 0.2%, encapsulates my journey with its lyric:
3:18 So if they want me to die because I’m Jewish, shouldn’t I at least learn what it means to live as a Jew?