One People, Two Worlds

I started reading One People, Two Worlds : A Reform Rabbi and an Orthodox Rabbi Explore the Issues That Divide Them this weekend. It is the back and forth e-mail exchange between two rabbis - one Reform and one Orthodox. When it first came out, a lot of the Orthodox rabbis claimed that the book should not be read, that it legitimized Reform Judaism. I am not sure what they were so concerned about. I don't think any Orthodox Jew would read this book, lose his faith and decide to become Reform. The Reform rabbi actually states something similar in one of his posts. I think the book is a great dialogue between two people who have tons in common but tons of differences also. In reading, I feel like the dialogue is familiar, I feel like I have similar ones regularly, though my discussions are usually with non-Jews. In reading the book, I am upset by a lot of the things that the Reform rabbi says, but I am also upset about quite a bit of what the Orthodox rabbi says. I feel like in a lot of ways, he is narrow-minded and really does not have much understanding of any world outside the right-wing Orthodox world. And I think that is sad. I have to give credit to Shomrei Emunah for choosing this book for their book club. It is definitely an interesting read. I will write more once I finish reading it.