Many disaffected Jews looking for an intelligent inquiry into spirituality have turned elsewhere, or nowhere. Meanwhile, faced with the chaos of modern life, returnees run back to Judaism with a blind and desperate faith and are quickly absorbed by outreach organizations that--in return for money--offer that those who adhere to this righteous path will never have to ask themselves another difficult question again. Ironically, Judaism was designed to avoid just such a scenario. Jewish tradition stresses transparency, open-ended inquiry, assimilation of the foreign, and a commitment to conscious living. Judaism invites inquiry and change. It is an "open source" tradition--born out of revolution, committed to evolution, and willing to undergo renaissance at a moment's notice. But some of the very institutions created to protect the religion and its people are now suffocating them.
